LETTERS

— Essay inflammatory

I was disappointed to see the Democrat-Gazette publish the editorial piece by Tony Norman of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. You usually hold yourself above such inflammatory rhetoric regardless of which side in a debate hurls it.

Norman equates current events to the novel/film “To Kill a Mockingbird.” With no subtlety at all he suggests that conservatives, Southerners and members of the tea-party movement are all dangerous racists who lack enlightenment and likens them to the evil Bob Ewell character. He ends by lamenting; “Where’s Boo Radley when you need him?”

Boo Radley kills Bob Ewell in the story. I guess Norman wants everyone he has identified as racist killed. Now there’s an enlightened approach.

FRANK LATIMER Little Rock

Positions backward

Because of our proximity to the Missouri border, we receive many of our television signals out of Springfield, which is in the heart of the Bible Belt and leans towards the right wing of the Republican Party.

It also has a very small black population because of some happenings many years ago that have taken a long time to heal.

We are already being inundated with commercials from individuals who are running for a political office in the November elections. These folks want to tell us their respective points of view, which basically are very similar. They are anti-Barack Obama, anti-same-sex marriage, and can hardly wait to tell us that they are pro-lifers and want to return to a more conservative way of life.

It seems to me that many of their issues have to do with their religious beliefs and that they would like to insert these beliefs into law. I have always been a strong supporter of separation of church and state; as history has shown, combining the two is a lethal combination.

I, therefore, find it amazing that these obviously fine folks, mostly men, can’t seem to understand that what they are promoting would set this country on a backward track and certainly cannot be labeled progressive.

DAVID H. KEPPEN Mountain Home

Shrine in the works?

Throughout the Islamic countries there are grand mosques; several of them were built to honor a battle or event that advanced Islam. They are erected as a shrine to the martyrs who died there.

On the anniversary of the event there is usually a pilgrimage to the shrine to celebrate and honor the martyrs. These pilgrimages we often see on TV.

There is a proposal to build a large mosque near Ground Zero, former site of the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in New York City.

ALLAN O. VAUGHN Sherwood

Watch costs increase

What a great idea: Increase state park fees! This should cause a great rush from adjoining states as well asin state campers to our parks.

Don’t all businesses increase prices when customers decrease? Maybe the state parks commissioners could advise the motel industry on ways to increase its occupancy rates.

Who knows what other industries could benefit from their business acumen?

DON P. MILLER Horseshoe Bend

Let’s get history right

Recently I read with interest a guest column from one of this state’s most eminent historians, Elliott West, who criticizes a very dubious interpretation of this country’s civil rights history as penned by a GOP consultant and amateur historian, David Barton.

Mike Masterson, never one to meet a fringe belief he wouldn’t promote if the politics were right, had touted Barton’s thesis in an earlier column.

Masterson described Barton as “America’s historian.” If that’s so, so much the worse for America, judging from West’s neat and succinct dispatch of the Barton/Masterson thesis, which, he argues, is based on mangled facts and errors of omission.

Assuming the accuracy of Masterson’s portrayal of Barton’s views, a reader might well conclude that Barton is yet another crank or charlatan such as Masterson shows such a talent for discovering and promoting.

One would have expected either a rebuttal to West from Masterson or-and I know this is a reach-an apology for disseminating false information. After all, the editors of this newspaper who provide him a forum often stress the importance of getting history right. Mr. Masterson, get with the program.

CLEVE MAY Little Rock

Keet was out of line

Jim Keet has called for the governor’s airplane to be sold. Considering that Arkansas has two major business jet completion centers, Dassault Falcon Jet and Hawker Beechcraft, this is shortsighted and potentially damaging to the Arkansas economy.

These facilities have already been negatively affected by the thoughtless comments of members of Congress as well as the president, and his call simply adds to the negative furor. More than a thousand jobs have been lost in Little Rock due to just that kind of uninformed message.

These manufacturing facilities supply good-paying, high-skilled manufacturing and engineering jobs. We can’t afford to lose any more of these jobs, yet Keet’s call to sell the statepolice airplane furthers the negative image of this industry.

I recommend that he educate himself on this industry, the benefits to this state, and the benefits to business and government by owning and using private aircraft before issuing any more statements along this line. As someone who wants to lead the state, he should strive to support the industries that are here, not in effect denigrate them.

LEIGH ABERNATHY Tumbling Shoals

Car, aliens troubling

I wonder why the president of Arkansas Northeastern College gets a Lincoln Mark V. Seems extreme to me.

More are being deported under Barack Obama, but then he brought suit against Arizona for passing a law about illegals. This does not make much sense to me. You would think he would thank the governor of Arizona for her help.

IRENE GRAY Searcy

Editorial, Pages 17 on 07/30/2010

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