To the editor:

As politicians, spokespeople and ministers grapple with the horrific events of this last week, both here in Lawrence and around our country, trying to make sense of it and come to a rational solution, they should look at the disconnect that many have with their fellow citizens. A top lawyer and vice president for a major television network commented that the victims in Las Vegas didn’t deserve any sympathy, as country music fans were likely Republican. Though affluent and highly educated, such callous indifference to human life hearkens back to the time when Gen. Sherman was tasked with dealing with the “Indian problem” out West. When asked about blankets given to the Indians infected with diseases and the shooting of women and children, he commented, “nits make lice.”

Has that become the norm for the moral compass of America? Those who disagree with us are no longer deserving of compassion or life itself? Have we become so disinterested in our fellow man that we blithely shrug off the killing of those who are not of our ilk that we treat it with the same dispassionate glance as did many during World War II?

One should seriously fear for the fate of this country and the principles that it was founded on. May my God, or yours, help us all.