Reader fears citizens won’t care enough to demand prosecution for Jan. 6 insurrection

Will we act?

Unless citizens listen, consider and act, democracy will not prevail. The Jan. 6 hearings taking place confirm election fraud claims were false and the insurrection was a direct result of those claims, claims the former president continues to make.

The Committee’s single purpose has been to investigate the origins and purpose of the insurrection, an event that had been planned to thwart the cornerstone of democracy, the peaceful transfer of power.

Although the Committee has no authority to prosecute the former president, the evidence collected creates an indisputable case for conviction of federal crimes.

Voters must care enough to voice concerns and contact elected officials to insist the nation’s attorney general prosecute the former president of federal crimes. In a democracy, an elected leader has no executive authority to assert false claims and seize governmental authority as a dictator would.

In 2016, in Sioux City, Iowa, the former president asserted, “I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody, and I wouldn’t lose any votes.”

As Dr. Seuss’s Lorax cautioned, “Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot/ Nothing is going to get better. It’s not.”

Sharon Leff, Charleston

Simplify primaries

The June primary season is another reminder that South Carolina must end its archaic runoff election practice.

South Carolina should employ instant runoff voting (IRV) (also called “ranked choice voting”) to eliminate dragging voters and volunteers back to the polls two weeks after the primary election.

Rather than cast a vote for one candidate, voters in IRV elections are able to submit a list of candidates ranked in order of preference. (South Carolina voters stationed overseas already do this for federal runoff elections. https://www.fairvote.org/where_is_ranked_choice_voting_used )

Once all ballots are cast, if there is no candidate with a majority of first place votes, the candidate with the fewest first place votes is eliminated. For any ballot that placed the eliminated candidate as the first choice, the ballot would then count toward that ballot’s second choice. This process is continued until one candidate has garnered a majority of the ballots. The result is one primary election day.

A handful of states (both “red” and “blue”) have employed IRV and the process has been well received. IRV would save taxpayer money and eliminate election volunteers having to work two separate election days.

Chris Elliott, Columbia

Why not stay home?

When my daughter was in kindergarten, the day after a tornado drill, she sobbed about not wanting to go to school. She said, “Yesterday we practiced a tornado and today the real one comes! Can’t I just skip school today?”

In middle school, she was in the library during an active shooter drill. Students were hustled into a book storage room where the door was locked, lights turned off, and they hid between shelves on their knees, tucked in little balls. I asked if they talked while hiding so it wasn’t so scary. She said, “No Mom! If you talk, you die!”

After years of this, she is afraid that every day is the day she has to face a kid who is hurt and angry and deranged and has a gun.

All the students at her high school have the daily reminder that today could be the day that they are shot to death as they enter the school, place their computer in a bin and walk through the metal detector.

Any day, anywhere: school, concert, or church, my daughter knows there could be an active shooter.

Why not stay home if today is the day of the “tornado”?

Ashley Brown, Charleston

Many have served

I take exception to a recent editorial titled, “Chief’s failure wasn’t the only one in Uvalde.”

Though the writer doesn’t excuse the lack of action by the school’s police chief, he does attempt to partially justify it by asking, “Have you ever been jarred from the routine of an ordinary day and suddenly been called upon to make a complex life-or-death decision that tests the very limits of your courage?”

The answer to that question for thousands of first responders and others in fire and rescue is a resounding, “Yes.”

We may be eating lunch or deep asleep when we’re jarred by the sound of an alert indicating we have a call. As a former assistant director of EMS on Hilton Head, I saw time and again the bravery and knowledge used to save countless lives.

First responders didn’t wait for instructions. They did what they were trained to do without hesitation.

Chief Arrendondo isn’t the only person who’s been jarred from an ordinary day. He just failed to fall back on his training, not to mention failing to carry his radio.

Glenn Brodie, Hardeeville