I expect I’m not alone in being exasperated when I read Sept. 19 that Ronald Harding received a six-year sentence as a result of his son’s “inflicted injuries,” while Paul DeForest received a 32-year sentence for killing his girlfriend.

While Harding received a six-year sentence, Shawna Gatto was given 50 years in 2019 for killing a young girl.

Last year, letter writer James Michaud of Wells included a quote from British journalist Malcolm Muggeridge that expressed the problem thusly: “We have educated ourselves into imbecility.”

William Vaughan Jr.
Chebeague Island

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