Violence

Who can look at the picture of Sylvia Cuesta kneeling before the coffin of her husband, so senselessly murdered by yet another L.A. gang member (Aug. 15), and not share her feelings of anguish, pain and despair? But hey, get over it, this is America! We have laws that say citizens are entitled to own and bear arms (regardless of whose hands they ultimately fall into); we have constitutionally protected rights that allow for expression of unbridled violence and mayhem in the movies, on TV and in the music our younger generation listens to; we have a court system that intimidates no hard-core criminals; and we have all too many teenagers with no moral compass to guide them having children of their own.

We have an insidious and pervasive sense of immorality here in the United States (starting with the White House) that has been spawned and protected in large part by so many of these liberal, well-intentioned but, ultimately, destructive laws of our great land. How much longer can this go on?

VERONICA J. HOGUE

Downey