Mailbag

I can see the slippery slope now. Every time students want to protest something, we will close our schools down. Let me see, if the school lunches are not what we get at home, we will march in protest. If teachers try to teach class while we are text messaging, we will march in protest. An illegal alien was sent back to his home country, we will march in protest. Shall I go on, or does my message get across?

The school system should not get involved in local, national or world politics; and local politics should not get involved with school, national or world politics. As a wise person once told me, "solve your own problems before you take on the world's problems."

VINCE ROBORTELLO

La Crescenta

'In Theory' lacked mental health focus

I am a religious person, but I'm frankly embarrassed by the responses from clergy regarding the Virginia Tech tragedy ("Making sense of massacre," In Theory, Saturday).

They provided rote theological discussions on free will, with plenty of moralizing about our corrupt society, but not one of them touched on a topic that seems most relevant — mental illness. Does free will or moralizing mean anything when a killer is insane?

Cho Seung-Hui was raised in a Christian home, but a religious upbringing will not cure mental illness. It is tragic when a mentally ill person takes so many innocent lives, but usually there is only one victim — himself or herself. Seventeen thousand people a year kill themselves with guns in the U.S. That is more than all the U.S. deaths in Iraq. On any given day, suicides far out number the victims at Virginia Tech. How are our religious preachers incorporating these tormented souls into their clean theology? Do we Christians see the suffering face of Christ in the mentally ill, and, yes, even in Cho Seung-Hui?

STEVE MILLS

Glendale

Hillside ordinance needs some teeth