PUBLIC VIEWPOINT With Liberty, Justice For All

Posted: November 29, 2009 at 3:44 a.m.

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The recent news about the young student’s refusal to recite the Pledge of Allegiance, because “in America there isn’t “liberty and justice for all ’particularly gays & lesbians,’” should raise some questions, including:

1. How many 10 year olds have a grasp of what “Liberty & Justice for All” means?;

2. What do children age 10 know about gays and lesbians? Perhaps we were “backward” when I was age 10, but I had never heard those terms. Are we better off in this socalled age of enlightenment?

3. Do most adults understand Liberty & Justice for all?

I do believe students should not be forced to recite the Pledge against their will and conscience ... after they have written a two page essay on the subject. Which leads me to think that the proper solution in this situation would have been to assign the whole class to write two essays;

(a) Can we have absolute personal liberty without anarchy, and

(b) How can a free society achieve equal justice for all?

The concept of “Liberty and Justice for All” is an ideal toward which we strive but never fully achieve. We will always have corrupt officials, prejudiced juries, overly zealous prosecutors, and a shortage of good police officers.

No society or government in history has ever been able to have perfect and equal justice. Parents and teachers should explain this to our children.

I continue to recite the Pledge, including the phrase “with Liberty and Justice for all,” knowing we will never perfectly achieve it. I continue to hold in my heart the scripture “Thou shalt love the LORD thy GOD with all thine heart, and thy neighbor as thyself” knowing that we don’t measure up to the Divine standard. But that’s no reason not to recite it.

MILTON JONES

West Fork

DINNER THANKS As an ole WWII and Korean Vet, I would like to say a “Big Thank You” to the folks at the Golden Corral at Pleasant Crossing in Rogers. The food was great. No. 1 Bride - of 61 yrs.

- and I are in our 80s and don’t get steak very often due to its cost, and our income today, and we are better off than some of the old timers. But steak was the choice of most there. I looked at what the folks were eating. We sat at a table with a bunch of people I had never seen. One guy ate two so I guess he didn’t get steak very often also.

The service was super. Nice bunch of young folks looking after us.

Again - Golden Corral a BigThank You. You did good. My what a crowd of people. Most olders. What a great place to live.

CARL KNOX

Rogers HOME TOWN VIEWS MISSING

It has now been a full week (at

the time of writing) since the merger of the two Northwest Arkansas newspapers. I hope this is a “work in progress” and that the product going forward will justify me reallocating the extra 10 minutes I have saved each day this past week when I went through the new paper. To be fair as I caution my bosses not to draw conclusions after a few days, I will adhere to my own advice and call the following ‘observations’ and not critiques.

I admit up front that my observations are not exhaustively researched, but they are from a personal daily accounting. As a dedicated reader to the Northwest Arkansas Times, I appreciate the scribes and reporters that have kept us updated on the happenings in our community. The stories focused on what was going right versus what wasn’t. I especially appreciated the Editorial page.

It focused on local Fayetteville issues and local individuals who took on the local, regional, and domestic issues. Also included were four to five letters to the editor. In addition, the Sports pages highlighted local teams and individuals that made a difference, regardless of the school level or size of the community.

After just a week of the newspaper merger, here are my observations. It appears that most of the reporters and editorial writers from the Northwest Arkansas Times were let go.

Why? A rough count for the first seven editions of the new Northwest Arkansas Times shows that of the 16 editorials, only one related to Fayetteville news. The editorial pages contained only seven letters to the editor with just one being from a Fayetteville resident. Respectfully to my friends in Bentonville and Belle Vista, I can read the Arkansas Democrat Gazette’s editorial pages for regional, state, and national issues. While I rarely agreed with editorial writers Lowell Grisham and Grady’s politics, I do miss the points of view of people living in Fayetteville. For example, Sunday’s editorial on the FHS millage vote was obviously written for a regional audience as the first full column of background and context was old news. Readers from Fayetteville probably skipped over the majority of this article.

With a leaner Sports staff, this section will have more regional sports news and filler from othereditions. For example, of the 34 sports articles, there were as many Springdale sports articles (9) as Fayetteville ones (9). This is supposed to be the Fayettevillebased Northwest Arkansas Times.

I hope that the new company will find resources to cover the local (that is Fayetteville) high schools and junior highs like those that we are used to.

I appreciate the efforts of the two companies to work out a deal to maintain the four individual editions. Here’s to hoping that the new company can find a way to profitably maintain the individual character that each of these editions bring to its local (and dedicated) readers. I have 10 precious minutes waiting to be reallocated each morning to enjoying my local newspaper.

MARK BREDEN

Fayetteville ABORTION, EQUALITY

In the United States during

the time the Consitution was adopted, abortions were both legal and commonplace. Today, most policies cover abortion, but with the Stupak plan abortions will be harder, and more expensive, to obtain. The issue of abortion rights as Ruth Bader Ginsburg observed “center on a woman’s autonomy to determine her life’s course, and thus to enjoy equal citizenship stature.” Every woman needs this in order to become her best self.

REBECCA NEWTH HARRISON

Fayetteville HEALTH OR MONEY?

Independent Sen. Joe Lieberman

said today (Nov. 23), “I don’t want to fix the problems in our health-care system in a way that creates more of an economic crisis.” I wonder what can be more deadly: lack of health care or an economic crisis. I guess it depends upon whether you value life more than money.

CAROLE WESTBY

Bella Vista

Opinion, Pages 10 on 11/29/2009

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