Letter: Americans must help themselves out of ignorance rather than look for fixes

<p>History, science still big part of foundation</p>
<p>To the editor:</p>
<p>Ignorance of history and science and the escape into denial are driving this country deeper into chaos and a shambles from what was once a shining example of responsible freedoms and compassion for all people. America will not become great again until we stop fooling ourselves and stop our fantasy of finding a super hero to rescue us. We have ignored the lessons of Prohibition and wasted trillions on a futile war on drugs.</p>
<p>We have ignored the melting glaciers and the warming seas and are now suffering the violence of global warming. We have invested trillions in the fraud of trickle-down economics and are now in the largest wealth gap in history and a downward spiral of standard of living for ordinary people. We have ignored the lessons of our own history and of other civilized nations and are now the most gun violent nation on earth.</p>
<p>We are on the threshold of creating another billion dollar industry and wasting massive amounts of school funding fueling the futile attempts to turn our schools into fortresses. Some defense is prudent but history shows over and over that a determined aggressor will always overcome the defenses. The only good defense is a direct offense on the source of the aggression, no matter whether war between nations or combating criminal behavior. School shootings are an inevitable result of the open sewer we have of unrecorded, improperly stored, illegally owned, privately sold, ignorantly maintained guns.</p>
<p>Other countries have similar constitutional amendments but none have the problems we have created for ourselves by our ignorant, irresponsible interpretation. The National Rifle Association and the Second Amendment crowd are ignorant, irresponsible and in denial and those who kowtow to them are equally so.</p>
<p>Before the overwhelming impact of opinion polls, our legislators and justice system actually used educated oversight, scientific analysis and common sense to enact and interpret legislation. Now we twist in the wind of ignorant, irresponsible bursts of public opinion. God cannot help the United States of America until we start helping ourselves out of the swamp of ignorant, irresponsible public discourse and denial of history and science.</p>
<p>Donald A. Smith</p>
<p>Franklin</p>