Movie theater
Regarding the article “City hopes to recruit movie theater” (Feb. 4):
The idea of the city government recruiting a movie theater in Greenwood disturbs me. Why should the city use its limited resources to promote a business that has such little prospect for success?
First, ticket sales at theaters is in decline, especially in small towns. Nowadays someone can watch movies via dozens of venues. Cable and satellite offer movie package channels. Redbox locations are everywhere offering DVD rentals. Retail stores have bins full of movie DVDs. Netflix offers movies by mail. Netflix, Hulu, Roku and Apple TV stream movies over the Internet. Plus full versions of movies are even on YouTube. In short, opportunities to watch movies have multiplied exponentially since those “good old days” when we used to go to a theater. And the price to watch a movie is far less expensive now.
A movie theater in Greenwood is doomed because it can’t compete with all these options.
Incarceration
Regarding the editorial “Some good news on corrections” (Feb. 3):
Also incarceration can be counterproductive when some of these offenders were juveniles when they were locked up. Instead of taking them through youth court, the court put them behind bars for life without parole. These young men have no hope of being out of prison. The longer they are in prison, the more hardened they become.
In 2012, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled the Eighth Amendment, which prohibits the federal government from imposing cruel and unusual punishment, does not allow for minors to be automatically sentenced to life without the possibility of parole. Justice Elena Kagan said it would be wrong for states to ignore the chance that these now-adult inmates may someday be rehabilitated.
Rehabilitation is the key in helping these young men feel like they have accomplished something greater than just sitting and doing absolutely nothing.
sweets
