Editor:

The recent horrific shootings in the Parkland, Florida, high school require that we put aside divisive talk and concentrate on what we can all do to change the status quo in this nation where the vast majority of gun violence happens. 

Unfortunately, regular Herald columnist Jonathan Lange has just contributed more divisive talk while claiming to be seeking common ground and laying a common foundation. It’s startling to read an essay that manages to attack Darwin, PETA and John Lennon all at once. As Lange says, and here I agree with him, “If we were to spend even half as much time examining our own moral failings as we do examining the sins of others, we would all be better off.”   

While accusing others of making the murdered students into “mere props” for their own purposes, Lange does just that by using this horrible tragedy to promote his political agenda that defines marriage as solely between a man and a woman, weaving a tale about the “romantic love” between the shooters’ biological male and female parents who later “did not continue loving him.” 

I wonder why Lange has to make fun of perfectly reasonable thought processes in order to make his own arguments? He asks, “Does anybody really believe that a world with no guns would be a world in which nothing is wrong?”

No, no one believes that, but a lot of thoughtful people — including many of the students who were just exposed to one of the most terrifying experiences possible — think that banning assault weapons would be one good step toward making it possible that no other students would have to deal with the same nightmarish memory of a barrage of gunshots in their high school classrooms.

It is important for us all to participate in these discussions. Our children’s safety and very lives are at stake. As the Parkland students have said, we are the adults — it’s our job to put aside our individual agendas and do what needs to be done to protect them.       

Julie Woestehoff

Evanston