'You Control Your Own Destiny'

NORWALK: "I support this cause (repeal the CT death penalty law), but with the Cheshire Home Invasion case so fresh, I fear that popular sentiment will go against it. As long as 'life without parole' remains a true sentencing option for the worst offenders, it is sufficient. Irreversible judgments (death) in the face of potentially flawed trial systems makes no sense. Economical arguments against supporting a criminal in prison 'for life' are far outweighed by the ethical/moral issued raised here. If you claim 'the death penalty is ok, because CT doesn't actually put anyone to death anyway.' If economics is the issue, how about we don't have a death penalty, and then we save all the litigation fees currently spent on mandatory appeals?" wrote this in response to a proposal to repeal Connecticut's death penalty law.

WESTON-REDDING-EASTON: "People these days! I sometimes wonder if technology will do more harm than good. I mourn for the father mentioned in the first item. I hang my head in sorrow for the woman from the second item. Is this what we as a society have come to? Do we use the Internet to harass people because we've not gotten our way or we feel slighted? I say: You control your own destiny. Belittling others — being the proverbial fly in one's ear, or scorpion sting in one's heel — will not help you reach the land you seek to inhabit." wrote this in response to Thursday's

WESTPORT: "Tenure is not the reason why we have a few bad teachers. Tenure is the reason why we have so many great teachers. What this article does not take into account is the rigorous self-selection process that teachers go through before they get tenure. A tenured teacher needs to have first of all decided to become a teacher in the first place — a career which especially in the last 10 years has become the target of all society’s woes while simultaneously becoming more challenging due to the unreasonable mandates of NCLB. Then, prospective teachers need to go through student teaching. This process weeds out most of the teachers who would have gone on to become bad teachers. But even student teaching is not as difficult as a teacher’s first 2-3 years. I have worked with several teachers who left in that time span because of the challenges associated with teaching. Finally, the reason why the number of teachers who were actually dismissed with cause is so low in CT is because a teacher who is going through the process of termination is most often counseled out of the job to reduce the cost of going to a termination hearing. The Post needs to find the number of the prospective teachers who finish student teaching and then do not become teachers, the number of teachers who leave in the first five years, and the number of teachers who are counseled to leave their position due to ineffectiveness."

wrote this in response to an investigation by the Connecticut Post, which found that

 WILTON: "Yes we need an 'anti-noise' ordinance, but only if it applies to PTA meetings." wrote this in response to an article asking whether .