Friendly fire, mail voting, National Guard in cities, Ukraine, PBS funding

Beware of friendly fire in our schools

While reading “NYPD detective from LI wounded” [News, Aug. 23], about friendly fire during an attempted carjacking, I was reminded of those who think teachers ought to be equipped with guns in classrooms.

Quite simply, if highly trained police officers, with many hours of training at the firing range can accidentally shoot one of their own, what might the likely fallout be from teachers, with far less training, firing weapons in classrooms?

As a former teacher and someone experienced with handguns, the last place I would ever want to carry a weapon is in a classroom or anyplace else in a school.

— Ted D. Gluckman, Rockville Centre

Mail voting a must, especially in military

President Donald Trump wants to challenge via executive order our right to vote via absentee ballot [“Mail-vote phobia a waste of time,” Editorial, Aug. 19]. He claims the system is corrupt based on his recent discussion with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

If Trump had served in the military, he would know this is how our men and women in our armed forces exercise their constitutional right to vote.

We ask our military to man the ships at sea, to station themselves in lands far away from home in hostile territories with the promise that their rights under the Constitution will be protected. Yet our president wants to take this away.

As a young Marine of 18, the first time I ever voted was by absentee ballot during the Vietnam War. I was proud to vote. To take this away from service members is a slap in their faces and probably unconstitutional.

Hopefully, common sense will prevail in the courts as well as in Congress, and they will resist the urge to go along to get along. Enough is enough.

— Cordell Price, Eastport

Consider red states for National Guard?

President Donald Trump has sent the National Guard to Washington, D.C., to combat violent crime. He threatens to do the same in Baltimore, Chicago, and New York City [“Trump eyes Baltimore next,” Nation & World, Aug. 25].

Yet he makes no mention of Memphis, Tennessee; Cleveland, Ohio; New Orleans, Louisiana; Birmingham, Alabama; and Kansas City, Missouri, among others, all of which have some of the highest homicide and violent crime rates in the country.

I must assume that he believes homicides in red states are not as fatal as those in blue states.

— Michael Cooney, Massapequa Park

A ceasefire doesn’t come all that easily

Six letters regarding President Donald Trump’s meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin were published on Wednesday [“Trump meeting Putin: A waste” Letters, Aug. 20]. Each was critical of Trump for not getting a ceasefire in Ukraine.

Did it occur to any of these readers that more than one meeting would be necessary to achieve that goal? If a ceasefire is obtained, will we see an apology from any of these readers? I think not.

— John O’Sullivan, Kings Park

Don’t add school supplies to our taxes

Retired school district superintendent Philip Cicero implores districts to “do the right thing” by adding school supplies to annual school budgets [“Give parents a break on buying school supplies,” Opinion, Aug. 24]. That’s just what we need — to add to our already overstuffed school budgets that make up almost 70% of our property taxes.

Cicero notes that “costs can easily become a burden for many Long Islanders.” No kidding!

And he wants to add to those costs by including more costs in the annual budgets? I can only imagine what the inclusions would entail and how they would only go up and up and up as the years go by.

— Charles Gardner, Kings Park

Everyone shouldn’t have to support PBS

I enthusiastically support the cutting of taxpayer dollars for public broadcasting. The idea of slicing these funds to quiet people is ludicrous [“Slashing WLIW funds a way to shush us?,” Letters, Aug. 19].

Yes, PBS shows are informative and entertaining. However, not everyone watches PBS, yet everyone must pay to support it when tax dollars are used.

If donations to individual stations cannot sustain them, then they should utilize advertisements. There is plenty of money to be made with advertising, and I would rather see ads than listen to them pleading every time individual stations run special programs to ask for money and frequently interrupt the programs.

It is unfair to burden every taxpayer when not everyone benefits.

— Geraldine Quinn, Smithtown