LETTERS

Chance or message?

There are many stories in the Bible about kingdoms which were destroyed when God’s laws were not followed.

Stories after the Midwest tornadoes noted that in the worst-hit town, families were in church when the storm hit. The mayor of Washington, Ill., is quoted as saying, “I don’t think we had one church damaged.” Was that coincidence or a message?

FREDDIE LOU QUIST

Heber Springs

Help the elephants Captivity of any kind is a prison sentence for elephants. Elephants are migratory animals; their minds and bodies were made for walking. Locomotion studies have shown that wild elephants can walk 20-30 miles a day or more. Big animals need big spaces. Captivity-induced illnesses such as foot abscesses and severe osteoarthritis, not seen in wild populations, are the No. 1 cause of death in zoo elephants, whose lives are much shorter than wild elephants. Standing on concrete and hard-packed surfaces 24/7, these poor old girls at the Little Rock Zoo will continue to suffer immense pain and deteriorate. The addition of Sophie now exposes the handlers, groundskeepers and others to double the threat of contracting tuberculosis, as both Sophie and Zina have tested positive. Managed with sharp bull hooks and negative reinforcement, there is no escape from misery.

I believe the solution is to truly “retire” these ladies to an accredited elephant sanctuary where their prison sentence will be made more comfortable with hundreds of acres to roam and forage, soft grass to walk and lie on, and freedom unimaginable in zoos for these highly intelligent and sensitive animals.

They deserve no less.

RUTH SCROGGIN

Jonesboro Greasing the wheels Reg Manning’s The Wonderful Wizards of Washington, depicting the hands of the bureaucrat entangled in red tape, comes immediately to mind with the advent of the un-Affordable Care Act; Manning, the late, great political cartoonist of the Arizona Republic.

We have yet to hear how much money the insurance companies likely paid into the coffers of Congress and higher-ups to pass this compulsory health-care law, and yes, even the Supreme Court who rubber-stamped it, blowing in the political wind as always.

CATHERINE WILSON

Center Ridge

No respect for them We have much concern for the soldiers who come home. We’re glad they didn’t die.

However, some seem to have no concern for the raped, pregnant women who wish they could die because they must have a baby that will tear up their bodies or kill them if they can’t get an abortion.

For an unknown soldier, we have an emblem and respect. There is no emblem or respect for the unknown pregnant woman who had to die in childbirth having a baby she didn’t want.

ALICE LONG

Russellville

Cannot turn our backs

The rollout of the Affordable Care Act has had an abysmal start. This is absolutely no reason to scrap the law once and for all, as John Boehner stated. If the Republicans would just work with the Democrats and the president to refine the law, then those cut from their plans, as well as those many more millions who haven’t had health insurance, will all benefit.

When Mitt Romney’s health-care law was enacted in 2006 in Massachusetts, it too got off to a rocky start.

Incoming Gov. Deval Patrick, a Democrat, did not use this as an excuse to just toss the law. Instead, through bipartisan work and compromise, adjustments were made and now 98 percent of its residents have health insurance. Our nation needs universal health care. Without it we are saying we just don’t give a damn about the suffering of people.

Recently in the New England Journal of Medicine, Michael Stillman and Monalisa Tailor told the sad story of Tommy Davis (not his real name) who has been chronically uninsured despite the fact that both he and his wife worked full-time jobs. He saw a physician with symptoms of colon cancer and the physician told him he would need health insurance to be adequately evaluated; though poor, Tommy was ineligible for Medicaid.

After a year of unbearable pain and weight loss, he found out that he had a fully obstructed colon with metastatic disease. Tommy had no choice except to simply go home to await death.

I cannot in good conscience turn my back on the Tommy Davises in the U.S. I don’t understand how anyone can.

PATRICIA PHILLIPS

Little Rock

Leave venom behind In my recent reading I came across a quotation which is strikingly relevant to many letters published on the Voices page. It comes from a sermon by Hugh Blair, who was a highly regarded minister at St. Giles Cathedral in Edinburgh, Scotland, in the mid-1700s. Blair also taught writing and public speaking at the University of Edinburgh. The quotation comes from one of his favorite sermons, “On Devotion.” “If your supposed devotions … infuse harshness into your sentiments, and acrimony into your speech, you may conclude that, under a serious appearance, carnal passions lurk. And if ever it shall so far lift you up with self-conceit as to make you establish your own opinions as an infallible standard for the whole Christian world, and lead you to consign to perdition all who differ from you, either in some doctrinal tenets, or in the mode of expressing them, you may rest assured that to much pride you have joined much ignorance, both of the nature of devotion, and of the Gospel of Christ.” Perhaps meditation upon Blair’s eloquent words will move some of us beyond the long and tedious tradition of venomous religious controversy still too common on the Voices page.

THOMAS ATWATER

Bentonville