Readers write: Arts skills are essential, gun violence
Letters to the editor for the Oct. 24, 2016 weekly magazine.
Students Brenda Francisco as Flounder (l.), Adriana Garcia as Ariel, and Nicholas Daniels as Prince Eric perform in the musical 'The Little Mermaid' at Roosevelt preK-8 school in Bridgeport, Connecticut.
Melanie Stetson Freeman/Staff
Arts skills are essential
Regarding the Aug. 29 cover story, 鈥�Saved by art鈥�: Expanding the arts in education beyond the traditional values of entertainment, cultural enrichment, and creative outlet is a very positive development.聽
As a scientist by training with a PhD in physics and as an aerospace engineer by profession, I can say with conviction that the arts are a basic skill for business, technology, and science.聽
Text and speech are linear-string narrow-band modes of communication. The arts combine communication and thinking into two and three dimensions with time as a dynamic variable, bringing clarity to otherwise obscure concepts.聽
Making things with the hands 鈥� paintings, ceramics, sculptures, stage sets 鈥� and activities such as shop classes of all sorts and home hobbies that build things from scratch develop tactile awareness and thinking and exercise critical thinking as problems involving cause and effect are confronted.聽
These skills are essential for personal success and society鈥檚 progress.
William H. Cutler
Union City, Calif.
Gun violence
Regarding the Sept. 5 cover story, 鈥�Targeting gun suicides鈥�: Thank you for publicizing the little-known fact that almost two-thirds of gun deaths are the result of suicide.聽
It is appalling that, as you report, 鈥渆very week [in the United States], 400 people use a gun to take their own lives.鈥澛�
Would this tragedy be tolerated if it were caused by anything else?聽
For decades, data have revealed that those who die in firearm-related incidents are more likely to have been killed by their own hand, or by friends or family, than by strangers.聽 聽
This counters the contention that we need to be armed to protect ourselves from thieves, gang members, and terrorists. Your article is an evenhanded effort to address this national problem.
Charles Lindahl
Fullerton, Calif.