President Bush’s Inaugural Address

Though I voted for Michael Dukakis in November, I must admit that I’m fairly impressed with George Bush so far. His appointments of Louis Sullivan to Health and Human Services, and William Reilly to the Environmental Protection Agency, were bold, original and unexpected.

I truly hope that President Bush can direct a bona-fide effort to, as he said in his inaugural address, “make kinder the face of the nation and gentler the face of the world.” Time is of the essence in moving on human relations and the dire condition of our environment.

Bush also said, “America today is a proud, free nation, decent and civil. . . . America is never wholly herself unless she is engaged in high moral purpose.” In reading between the lines, I interpret him to mean that it’s time we inject a larger dose of moral decency into the lifeblood of our proud and free nation. Though I am more than grateful that I was born in the United States, I think that we have a long way to go in living up to Bush’s well-intentioned, yet idealistic statements.

While homeless people die in our streets, while drug wars kill people looking for a way out of seemingly hopeless life styles, while pollution kills our wildlife and waters, there can be no rest, no consolation in smug rhetoric about total decency and civility.

When a young, misguided man, who does not represent the large number of law-abiding gun enthusiasts and hunters, can walk into a schoolyard with a semiautomatic weapon of warfare and indiscriminately kill and maim innocent children, then something is terribly wrong.

Total gun control is not the answer. Our Constitution guarantees responsible citizens the right to bear arms, and well it should for several important reasons. But sales of guns, like drugs, have gotten out of hand.

President Bush has appointed a drug czar. Why not a gun czar? The time has come to stand up to the powerful gun lobby, to work together for an equitable compromise to stop the killing in our streets and schoolyards.

DAVID W. SYNWOLT

Santa Monica