Don’t arm teachers

The article (March 17) about a gun fired by the teacher during a “public safety awareness” lecture at a high school in Seaside, California, illustrates one of the problems with arming people at schools. Here was an expert giving a class on safety, and the gun went off by accident. Since this can happen with an “expert”, how often will something like this happen if tens of thousands of nonexperts in schools are armed? How often does it happen now with millions of nonexpert gun owners?

Your article “Pro- and anti-gun data hard to come by” (March 12), describes how the NRA pressured Congress to ban federal funding of studies about gun injuries and deaths (which could be used to support gun control legislation), but supports studies about guns being used to stop crime. That’s wrong; we need accurate data from all points of view to help with decisions about solutions to gun problems. There will always be trade-offs: arming teachers might prevent a school shooting, but there will be many more incidents like the one in Seaside, some with far more serious consequences. Which approach will save more lives?

David Fahmer

Terrebonne

So-called moderates

We hear a lot today about “moderate” Republicans — those who stake out a position near the political center and distance themselves from the extreme right in their party. They apparently feel it is enough to simply say they disagree with President Donald Trump, the leader of the Republican Party.

Here in Deschutes County, moderate Republicans have essentially allowed pro-Trump forces to capture their party apparatus. Elected Republicans like Rep. Knute Buehler, Commissioner Tammy Baney and Bend-La Pine School Board Member Cheri Helt apparently feel that if they just stay away from some Deschutes County Republican Party meetings, that is sufficient. Unfortunately, that is not only an insufficient stance for moderate Republicans but also one that emboldens the Trump forces within their party.

It is up to Republicans who claim to disagree with the president to reign in the leader of their party — a man who bullies and castigates women and people of color, who wants to start a trade war detrimental to American workers, who itches to start a real war and who “governs” with hateful tweets that sound a lot like Fox News talking points.

If, as he claims, Knute Buehler opposes so many Trump policies, he has a responsibility — to his party and his country — to stand up and fight Trump policies that endanger our democratic values. Voicing mild disagreement while doing nothing gives Trump the consent to do whatever he wants. History shows us where that can lead.

Michael Funke

Bend

Horror motivates change

For March’s Women’s History Month, I honor the 123 women who died in the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire of 1911. Per David Von Drehle‘s book, “Triangle: The Fire That Changed America” — “The Triangle fire of March 25, 1911, was for 90 years the deadliest workplace disaster in New York history … The 146 deaths at the Triangle Shirtwaist Company were sensational, but they were not unusual. Death was an almost routine workplace hazard in those days.”

The 123 mostly young immigrant women and 23 men working on the ninth floor needlessly died. Twenty fell 100 feet when an inadequate fire escape collapsed, 62 jumped, 19 fell into an elevator shaft, and the rest were trapped inside. This disaster was a tipping point in workplace safety, women’s rights and unions. Triangle had managed to avoid a union contract. Triangle never installed sprinkler systems, never held fire drills. Fire ladders could not reach the ninth floor and nets couldn’t hold a jump from nine stories. Exit doors were routinely locked, and opened in, rather than out, trapping the women.

Kate Leone and Rosaria Maltese were only 14 years old; Bessie Vivianio was 15; Antonetta Pasqualicca, Jennie Stellino, Sarah Kupla, Annie L’Abbato, all were 16. These girls earned low wages and worked 52 hours a week to feed parents and siblings.

These deaths created a tipping point only because wealthy New Yorkers flocked to the site, saw the bodies on the street, and were horrified. Sadly, this is true today: The horror has to be witnessed to motivate change.

Nancy Buffinton-Kelm

Sisters