While I am disgusted and discouraged at the recent violence in Arizona (politically encouraged, in my opinion), I beg to differ with those who feel that violence is not our culture.

Those who lived on this land when Europeans came here felt that violence firsthand. Those who were brought to this land in slave ships endured that violence for centuries, and even after freedom (lynchings, mob violence, Ku Klux Klan, white citizen councils). Only those with their heads in the sand can ignore the history of white domination in this land.

The romance of the gun (bigger gun, automatic weapon) as power in this country is overwhelming. “Guns ‘r Us” seems to be the new national motto.

I have no quarrel with hunters; no quarrel with someone shooting the woodchucks in the garden; but I find the idea of us as a nonviolent culture to be laughable. The most popular movies, video games and TV shows are all lessons in violence.

‘Nuf said.

Vickie Rogers, Otisfield