Are children just little adults?

Are children just little adults?

Now that those in the jus- tice system with the power to determine if children should be tried as adults for committing horrible crimes have spoken, hopefully they will provide answers for some very serious questions.

Will children have the rights that adults have to vote, to buy and consume alcohol, drive motor vehicles, buy property, be elected to public office, marry, enlist in the armed forces, as well as all the other rights allowed to adults?

Anytime the life of someone is taken violently, regardless of the perpetrator’s age, punishment should be severe. But I also believe anyone with an ounce of common sense knows that while children know right from wrong, they still lack the mental ability to recognize the consequences of every choice they make.

I strongly believe in justice for victims and their loved ones, but justice must be measured fairly and intelligently.

Whether the justice system realizes it or not, they are being faced with a very serious problem when it comes to how children who commit horrible and serious crimes should be tried and punished.

They must determine whether society will be better served by giving up on its children or take drastic efforts to help correct that which is bad in a child and bring out the good, no matter how hard the task.

I sincerely hope and pray that adult wisdom will not be flawed by poor judgment. All life is precious, even that of a troubled child.

Mary Lou Jurina, Youngstown

What’s exceptional and what isn’t

Like other letter writers, I am ready to share a few personal opinions on the congressional Democrats’ passage of the health insurance reform bill.

It was about time for this wealthiest of all the industrial nations to strive to provide (nearly) universal health care for our citizens, whatever the current economic situation may be. We must be resourceful and be humane to our own people.

Europeans may not attend church in numbers equal to ours, nor take so much pride in their “righteousness,” but they certainly have taken more to heart the injunction to care for the sick and the infirm.

Americans obsess about their “exceptional” nature but are reluctant to admit to all the wrong turns we have taken along the way in our treacherous treatment of Native Americans, in our past dependence on slave labor to build our wealth, in our denying equal citizenship and opportunities to those people freed during a war that ironically was waged on behalf of their freedom.

When we put off doing the right thing too long, it becomes more and more difficult for some to accept the decision to do the right thing at all. We fear losing what we have. And fear becomes a rallying call.

The Obama Administration is trying to invest more in what will benefit the nation and all of us. Besides health insurance reform, we need a better education system, more scientific research, a good energy policy with emphasis on clean or green energy, and definitely regulation of Wall Street, investment banking and insurance companies.

Why are people questioning health care reform when they seem so willing to accept our responsibility to police the planet, carry on foreign wars and take on nation building, all for our national security?

Doing the right thing does not come naturally. If we deny jobs and opportunities to people, some may drop out of school and turn to crime and drugs. And if we emphasize consumerism through incessant advertising and offer credit cards and no-documented loans, should we be surprised that people get deeply in debt and end in bankruptcy?

If we decide that having a lovely home of our own, and a new car every couple of years and that having a lot of “things” is what American “freedom” means, we may not choose to maintain the infrastructure of our towns and cities or educate our students to compete in a global economy because we are loath to be taxed. Let’s learn to work together reasonably for the common good, which is just as legitimate a national security responsibility.

Judith A. Stanger, Boardman