To the editor:

Proverbs 14:12 There is a way that appears to be right, but in the end, it leads to death.

I am often drawn to these words, but they seem very appropriate in this day of division and conflict. We all try to mute the voices we oppose. Our opinion is of more value and of course is right when compared to the opinions of others.

I have lived 80 years without the need to carry a weapon unless you count the pocketknife in my pocket that served as my all-purpose tool. I worry for the many paranoid folks who feel they must express their support for the right to carry a gun with an open carry display. Possession and gun ownership were seen as important to the founders of our country as noted by its inclusion in our Bill of Rights.

My only fear is what we see in many metropolitan areas the expressions of road rage and anger or just paranoid ignorance and an accident destroying two lives: The shooter and the victim. The danger is visible in the number of police shootings or accidental shootings of strangers before you understand why they are where they are unexpectedly. Open carry has open responsibility.

Our society seems bent on destroying all the history and things that have made this the most envied and powerful and once respected as the country everyone wanted to be part of, from open or closed borders to the acceptance of refugees or the destitute just seeking to find work. If we stop and think, we soon realize that we all are just a few generations away from when our relations came through the immigration process. Few had little more than the clothes they were wearing. Maybe it is time to review our 100-year-old immigration laws. Don’t punish the poor and weak because they seek a better life.

Let’s return to teaching in our schools the skills necessary to survive in the computer age. There was a time when our universities were the gold standard of the world for what they taught and the quality of their graduates. Schools don’t need to teach social justice to let such concepts of love, morality and equality be taught and learned at home and in our churches.

As I noted at the beginning of this letter, there is a way that appears to be right, but in the end, it leads to death.

William Gerhard, Scipio