Appreciates American Apparel ads
Editor,
As a 21-year-old female, I am the target audience for the American Apparel ads. To me, they work.
I look for the ads each week to see what new styles are out, and I appreciate how they are promoted by real women, not professional models.
Anyone who is complaining should remember this: Connect Savannah is a free paper because of the businesses that buy advertisement space. If y’all want it to remain free, which I’m sure you do, you have to accept that there may be ads you do not approve of.
These ads are what keeps the paper available to us, and we should appreciate that.
Kathryn Bell
Gun control won’t stop shootings
Editor,
Regarding Gordon Livingston’s “Lessons unlearned,” I couldn’t disagree more with Mr. Livingston on certain points.
Hindsight is 20/20 – of course people are going to believe that we could’ve absolutely, positively, prevented the Virginia Tech incident from happening (because everything is so clear, after the fact) – even despite the fact that the Virginia Tech incident was absolutely random.
If guns were outright banned here in the United States, Cho Seung-hui would’ve figured out a way to do the same exact thing (hell, you can find whatever weapon you want on the street.) Of course, there could’ve been preventative measures taken to help this psychologically disturbed person – but people generally don’t care about anyone but themselves until the shit (pardon my French) hits the fan.
I don’t agree that we should enforce tighter gun laws; I do, however, believe the background check for purchasing a firearm should be a lot more rigorous. Cho Seung-hui’s recent mental health issues should have been raising huge red flags all over the background check. I guess it just wasn’t put into his record. Convenient, eh?
It seems that Mr. Livingston looked over the fact that violent crime with firearms have increased in certain countries who have recently adopted absolute firearms bans (Britain, Canada, etc.) His point with Australia’s effectiveness of their recent tightening of gun laws could be easily debated with statistical information – when will the crime rate in Australia start to rise again?
And seriously – what AVERAGE (Cho is most certainly not the average criminal) criminal goes and buys a gun legally to commit murder? Not many, the statistics suggest.
Let’s forget about the banning of firearms – it just wouldn’t be effective, and that’s just the clear-cut truth. In order for a weapon ban to be successful, you have to remove every single weapon in the United States, and that’s just not feasibly possible.
Mr. Livingston does make a good point about law enforcement officers, however. They are only responders (and not even that great at responding to incidents), and not necessarily deterrents to crime. Criminal psychopaths, like Cho Seung-hui, would’ve carried out his plan, even if law enforcement officers were dotted all over the campus. The outcome would be 50/50.
Maybe a law enforcement officer would have put Cho down for the count – or maybe the exact opposite would occur. If students were allowed to carry on campus (given they had their carry-concealed permit), Cho might not have killed as many innocent people.
It is a very unfortunate incident that something like this happened at an institute of learning. Questions do need to be asked and answered, as Mr. Livingston puts it, but his answer to the “Do we need more gun control?” question is the wrong one.
Gun control only restricts the law-abiding citizen from protecting himself, while it assists the criminal in committing their crimes. The criminal will always find a way to get their hands on a gun.
Lets start again by looking at the right questions.
David Dukes
Spare some change, Savannah
Editor,
As a living, breathing, working class citizen of Savannah, I’ve noticed a lot of about this tiny city in a very short period of time. After befriending some of the local “homeless” people, I’ve also have been able to see this beautiful city in a completely different light.
Savannah is a very tight-kept community. Not much has changed since its birth practically. There is a pretty large number of homeless people in Savannah. If you have lived, or even visited for more than a couple of days, chances are you’ve probably seen the homeless problem first hand.
A relatively popular bar in downtown Savannah recently turned away a dear friend of mine. He is homeless. He does not smell, and he doesn’t cause any problems for anyone, yet he was turned away from this bar after stopping in for a beer.
This is unbelievable. As much as I understand the issue from a business point of view, it’s equally as disturbing. These people are human beings. Probably better off than any of us, who are struggling, just keep up in our society. The homeless live off what you throw away, what you are willing to give. If we all did that, the world would probably be a better place.
I personally see these people, and I just think to myself “I could so easily be in their situation.” I think a lot of people could relate as well if they bothered to take the time to. There are plenty of organizations that are trying to improve the problem, but sadly, none of them have a legal leg to stand on.
Some of us are lucky enough to be born into wealth. Some of us are lucky enough to have people around us who care. Others however are not. People are people. They are from all walks of life.
Sadly, I do not have a full understanding of these laws (since they are all a bit contrived). I do not know how to make homelessness “legal.” All I know is that something should be done.
As much as I respect the “work programs” that the local police carry with the sentencing of a homeless person, it’s a temporary fix, a false security and false form of consideration.
So Savannah, the next time you sneer, turn your nose up, turn away, or even unjustly arrest a homeless person, just think of how easily you could be on the other end of the spectrum.
You are just lucky enough to have rights to protect you simply because you have a roof over your head.
Mandi Carvatt
