Saying Goodbye to America's Violence

The article ``Ethnic Groups, Police Confront Each Other in the Hub,'' Dec. 5, left me stupefied. Observing my home country from Japan has served to spotlight the violent state into which the United States has lapsed. To what depths has the nation fallen, that a man who shot at and wounded police could receive even the least bit of sympathy, let alone evoke a community reaction against the police? This constitutes a breakdown of civilization. How many accidental and intentional shootings does it take before the US relieves its citizens of such a lethal object? Will the US rejoin the rest of the industrialized world?

It's only a matter of time before some of us decide that freedom from the threat of guns is worth the uprooting which accompanies leaving the US permanently. Americans may wake up one day soon and find the brain drain problem on our own doorstep.

Scott Voorhees, Saginuma, Japan

Weapons transfer troubles begin at home Regarding the opinion-page article ``Stopping Saddam's Bomb,'' Dec. 28: I find it amazing that a member of the US Congress could write an article faulting foreign countries and corporations for transferring chemical and nuclear weapons technology, yet fail to mention a driving force for this trade - the ongoing development of these weapons in the United States.

Marcia Bourne, Brattleboro, Vt.

Toward profitable farming The article ``Should World Farming Be in the US Image?,'' Dec. 27, discusses a very important side of the issue we seldom hear about.

It is ridiculous for US farmers to deplete the soil and pollute our water to produce excess amounts of grain which will be exported at prices far below the true cost of production.

Many farmers are breathing a sigh of relief now that the main instigator of low grain prices, former US Agriculture Secretary Clayton Yeutter, is gone. Now, let's hope, the same US leaders who don't hesitate to spend billions to defend militarily the other grain-producing nations will have sufficient judgment to lead a cooperative plan for the major grain exporters to control production to fit world markets.

Doug Wildin, Hutchinson, Kan.

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