Violence 'imported from across the pond'

Reference Shadow Home Secretary meets with ‘Owen's World’ to discuss teen's death (SA, February 27): Knife crime emanated from the lawless Land of the not so Free across the pond.

The films from that place reflect their violent, lawless, and delinquent culture that affects the minds of our young people who see nothing at all wrong with it as they have grown up with the violent movies.

Recently there was repeats on the TV of the film Westside story which featured two gangs, The jets and the sharks fighting with knives.

There are many other US movies showing similar scenes of knife crime and extreme violence.

Nobody ever seems to mention this effect upon the young impressionability of our young people. America has a lot to answer for, along with causing wars all around the planet for profit.

Incidentally some of you will have no doubt heard that master movie maker Spielberg intends to do a remake of the movie, which we could certainly do without.

Graham Woodward

Nelson Street

Tragedy in Ukraine

On Friday evening I headed to Malmesbury to join around 200 people both British and Ukrainian who had come to first stand in solidarity around the market Cross with the Mayor Kim Power and the Deputy Mayor Gavin Grant, and many who were hosting Ukrainian families as well as those Ukrainian families themselves.

We then attended a service at the Abbey to mark the anniversary of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Rev Oliver Ross asked those present from Ukraine where they were from and the names of places made known to us all by the tragedy in the news were called out by those present as they came from these places: Kyiv, Kherson, Luhansk, Odesa, even Bucha, where so many civilians were murdered in the street by Putin’s killers.

Then came the service which was conducted in both Ukrainian and English.

The Ukrainian choir singing movingly of their country. The Old Testament verses of Psalm 35 and Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 were very appropriate.

Let us all hope it will be “a time to heal” before too long, but somehow we know that the suffering is going to continue, and those ancient words from the Bible tell us, if we needed reminding, that humanity has gone through this all before, it is just tragic that here in 2023 such suffering continues.

Slava Ukraini!

Dr Brian Mathew

Wiltshire Councillor

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