Suspect’s troubled past is to blame

I greatly appreciated Steve Miletich’s article about Christopher Monfort, “Self-doubts troubled polite loner,” [News, Nov. 10].

I encourage readers to use it to see through the recent violence to Monfort’s past. He was a troubled young man, uncertain about his identity, and lacking close ties with others. A young man who explored one path, and then took another. A young man who could have been reached out to, but was not grasped in time.

If this community is truly outraged by the violence, then I challenge each and every citizen to get out of their chair and actually do something.

There are hundred and hundreds of kids — many of them boys without men in their lives — who have asked for caring adult mentors, and are waiting, because not enough concerned people have stepped forward. These are good kids, optimistic kids, who want to succeed in life. These are kids who want to have fun, learn from a positive role model and follow the correct path to their fullest potential.

And they are waiting for someone to say they care.

— Erin Wenzel, Seattle

A wolf in sheep’s clothing?

In response to the Nov. 10 headline “Self-doubts troubled polite loner,” huh? I thought the article was about Charlie Brown.

What’s truly troubled is this headline and the reductionism it perpetuates.

While I respect American justice in that everyone deserves their day in court, and likewise respectfully consider Christopher Monfort has a mother and family in turmoil, I nonetheless shake my head at the headline’s subtle disrespect for the family of slain Seattle Officer Timothy Brenton.

We tire of the media reports of surprised neighbors and co-workers in the face of heinous crimes. Is society so shallow that they forgot all wolves wear sheep’s clothing?

— Shelly Ossinger, Shoreline