“Massachusetts Republicans need to learn from Tisei and follow his lead into the 21st century.” —Erin K. Calvo-Bacci 

“Only strong action will count, not a ton of commission meetings, speeches, and reports.” — Kristine Ward 

“I believe that many fail to appreciate the sense of urgency that SNAP members bring to the need to identify perpetrators and see them removed from ministry.” — Carolyn Disco 

“Preschool doesn’t train business skills, but it does lower the achievement gap and help children develop strong cognitive skills.” — Nathan Proctor 

“I think that employers need to go back to some of the techniques that worked well in educating their employees.” — James Poulin 

“If Massachusetts children are going to compete for high-paying jobs, they need a strong educational foundation.” — Paul Sagan 

“Massachusetts has managed to become the top-performing state in the country on a host of national and international comparison tests.” — Max Page 

“It is worth noting that the schoolhouse is also an employer.” — Emily Ostrower 

Carolyn A. Gritter writes: Requiring resellers to take mug shots of their consigners is offensive and undermines a trusting business relationship. 

Eminent art historian Charles Eliot Norton demonstrated the risk of wearing stylistic blinders when, in 1890, he expressed the hope for “the destruction of all the buildings erected in the last half-century” on Harvard’s campus. 

Brickbats to our politicians — Governor Deval Patrick, Representative Ed Markey, Mayor Tom Menino, and Cambridge City Manager Robert Healy — who pandered to the basest responses of a few nonthinking, rabid protesters. 

“While we feel compassion for Tsarnaev’s soul, we can not help but be repulsed at this point by his physical presence, alive or dead.” -- Olga E. Turcotte 

Len Bennett writes: The way I see it, there is only one reason to single out Israel, and it is the desire to deny the Jewish people a homeland. 

For too long we have heard calls for Palestinian nonviolence and yet countless Palestinian demonstrators are brutally repressed or arrested by Israel’s military occupation while the world is silent. 

“In Israel, from a young age, people are schooled to avoid any left objects in the street or other public places.” — Karen Andres 

“As a mother and grandmother, I am horrified to learn that real guns are now being manufactured for children.” — Judith Casey  

“What a shame it would be were anyone to use one suspect of a hideous act to score a political attack against the 70,000 students who attend our Commonwealth’s public university.” Max Page  

“Senate approval of increased funding for UMass would send a national message of support for public higher education.” — Henry M. Thomas III 

“Attorney Harvey Silverglate’s comments on the rejection of James ‘Whitey’ Bulger’s Department of Justice immunity defense ... comes across as extremely naive.” — David Mack 

“We are kidding ourselves if we downplay the fact that the main cause for the existence of these criminal structures is the insatiable demand for drugs in our country.” — Roberto A. Cruz-Gervis 

“Early childhood education has a powerfully positive impact on the achievement of all students.” — Thomas J. Gosnell, president of American Federation of Teachers Massachusetts 

“We must place a moratorium on charter school expansion.” — Tracy O’Connell Novick, a member of the Worcester School Committee 

“The Founders designed a system of separated branches sharing power.” — Alex Garlick 

“The BSO should take its cue from the orchestra players, who live here.” — David J. Tierney 

“How is an emphasis on community policing going to make us safer if the information flow is choked off at the federal level?” — Robert L. Cerra