LETTERS

LITTLE ROCK — With freedom comes duty

After the passing of Sen. Edward Kennedy last year, I reflected on the eulogies by his political allies and foes alike. All were very gracious and civil, unlike much public discourse these days.

I recalled that when I was a boy, soaring oratory in the U.S. Senate was the rule, not an anachronism subject to ridicule. I listened with great pleasure to the mellifluous voice and florid language of Sen. Everett Dirksen. I disagreed with everything he said, but listening to him speak still made the hair on my neck stand up. Later, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. spoke words that yet bring tears to my eyes and a wondrous mix of sadness and joy to my heart.

Whether the practiced civility of those long-gone days or the lionizing eulogies of Kennedy by opponents were genuine isn’t important. What is important is publicly according other people, especially those with whom we disagree, civility and respect. It costs nothing, makes social intercourse more pleasant and facilitates the political process.

The alternative is incitement of troubled individuals to act out tragically, believing the extreme rhetoric they hear somehow validates their abhorrent behavior. Along with freedom of speech comes the duty to exercise it responsibly. This is a lesson that today’s hyper-partisan politicians and news personalities would do well to remember lest they earn some measure of culpability for horrific acts of violence.

DENNIS BRADDY Little Rock

Best to save a breath

Ah, yes, civility. While our last president was making his case against the most evil of dictators, there was not a sign of bad manners. For Barack Obama’s first address, we heard “You lie!” from a representative.

Last year was the Justice Samuel Alito whisper, “Not true,” for the scolding about the ruling allowing corporations to contribute to political campaigns. Perhaps the president was using his bully pulpit to state his case and it was not the best place or time to do so.

Note in the ruling to which he was referring that the individuals working for the organizations could always contribute their own money to political campaigns, just not their employers’ or stockholders’ money. A lot of people see the latter as a departure from “one man, one vote,” and even as a means of allowing foreign influences to enter the election process.

A good object lesson would be Meredith Oakley and her dog’s experience with the snowman. Rather than try to explain to the barking dog that the snowman was not real and could not vote but the people who made it were and did, she petted it. Why try to explain to the dog when it just could not comprehend?

As for why the other six justices showed up this year, it’s elementary, my dear Watson. Precedent is a guiding principle of the Supreme Court, even guiding them to the State of the Union address.

GARY SCHMEDEMANN Morrilton

Inquiries appreciated

I want to thank people who take time to ask if they can help me when I’m in an electric cart at a store. I go shopping with my daughter, so I can get out sometimes. Even when the store is very crowded, people still ask if I need help.

It’s probably annoying to many people to dodge around the electric carts, but if it weren’t for them, I’d have to depend on being pushed in a wheel chair. We can’t buy a week’s supply of groceries in one of them.

BERTHA DAVIS Sulphur Springs

Some need two guns

Here we go again. Bob Sloan’s letter tries to use liquor prohibition and having a driver’s license as examples of how well the government solves problems. No alcoholics and no one ever gets caught driving without a license: Really?

The most important thing people conveniently leave out of their argument is that criminals don’t care about the law. You can pass 10 million more gun laws and it will not take one gun away from a criminal. The only thing more gun laws will do is take away my right as a law-abiding citizen to defend my family and myself.

Right now you can’t buy a gun from a licensed dealer without an FBI background check. If you are buying one somewhere else, you probably don’t care about the law.

Stopping the manufacture or sale of guns will do absolutely nothing to stop gun crime. Again, criminals don’t care about the law. Only when criminals know that if they break into a house or attack someone on the streets there’s a good chance that person will shoot them will crime rates go down.

Bob is right on one thing. Not everyone needs one handgun. They need two or three. Also, if all he has time for is two shots, he needs to learn to pull the trigger faster.

It’s best to keep your mouth shut and let people think you’re a fool than to open it and prove it. Well thought out? Really?

GARY MUTH Benton

Such a nasty practice

I drive a trolley. A little old lady grabs the handrails and hoists herself up. She inquires of the price and opens her wallet for a bill. Then taking a big swipe across her tongue with her thumb, she sticks the bill and hands it to me.

She asked about a map. I pointed. Another big swipe across her tongue and she grabbed a map. Now if she had spat on the bill or map, would it have made any difference?

If you watch, everywhere you see spit. My change at Lowe’s: lick, grab the bill. “Can I see your trolley tickets?” Lick, separate tickets. Turn the page, lick. Counting the money at the convenience store, lick, lick, lick.

People need to be more aware of why they are getting sick: Stop People Ingesting Toxins.

ERIC W. PEDERSON Eureka Springs

Bring on the women

Network television apparently knows no limits when it comes to depravity and filth. On a recent Sunday night, I found myself witness to a televised event that featured nothing but big, beefy men in skin-tight Capri pants running around a field and often jumping atop each other in writhing heaps of flesh.

This Super Bowl, as the spectacle was called, is just the latest example of the media’s total capitulation to the homosexual lobby. As I understand it, players apparently attempt to penetrate each other’s end zones, and if they succeed, then they score. After this multi-hour orgy is completed, they then head off to the showers. Fortunately, some remaining shred of decency keeps the networks from showing this part. And they broadcast this filth on the Lord’s day, too.

No matter what proponents might claim, people are not born liking football. Its overwhelming popularity just demonstrates yet again how entrenched is the gay agenda in our media and sports culture, for if the networks truly sought to appeal to the majority of us heterosexual men, then they would broadcast nothing but women’s lacrosse. Two dozen women in skimpy uniforms chasing each other with large sticks: That should be the most popular sports event in America, not this limp-wristed Super Bowl.

GUY LANCASTER Little Rock

Perspective missing

As the parent of a child born with very severe disabilities, I am concerned about the lack of presentation of a different perspective, a parent’s perspective, in a recent news story about moving children out of the Conway Human Development Center.

Our son could not sit, walk, talk or eat on his own. He needed our helpfor everything for all of his nine years, but he was our son and we no more considered sending him to Conway (or anywhere else) for strangers to care for him than we would have our other children. We loved him and we knew he belonged to and with us.

Our son was 7 when Arkansas finally applied for and received a waiver from Medicaid to provide services in the community for families like ours. Though our son did not live to receive these services, my work has brought me into contact with literally hundreds of families whose children are able to live at home. These families can receive some help and support to keep their children with them, and the state can fund this option at a much lower cost than in institutional settings.

What parent among us would not want that life for his own child, would choose to have his child confined in an institution where different people working different shifts come in and out of the child’s life daily rather than people who actually love him and want the best for him?

This is the perspective missing from the story.

LYNN DONALD CARVER Springdale

Group unprotected

I am so ashamed of continuously reading and hearing [criticism] toward our state senators for their defense of our future society, the unborn, that I chose to write.

We have laws protecting animal cruelty, about polluting our environment, and destroying our state and country’s symbols. What happen to protecting the unborn?

Humans are God’s unique creations. Yet, here in Little Rock, their deaths are induced by chemicals and they are not even given a burial. These mothers are in a crisis situation and need our help, compassion, a support system plus our prayers.

Those with an unwanted pregnancy can give it up for adoption. Does letter writer Polly Munkberg know about post-abortion syndrome? Has she seen these women after their procedure? Is she a post-abortion woman who might need help?

Pray to end abortion.

MARIA MALDONADO Little Rock

Senator earns salute

As a Christian, you are often faced with tough decisions. One of those is how to deal with rape and incest when the result is a pregancy.

All my life I have been taught that two wrongs do not make a right. Rape and incest are terribly wrong. Taking the life of an unborn baby is terribly wrong.

I salute state Sen. Cecile Bledsoe for having the courage and conviction to stand up for what she believes is right.

ELDON KING Bella VistaFeed

back Admiral was right

Many years ago, I attended the International Kiwanis convention is St. Louis with my husband, who was a delegate. On the last night of the conference, one of the speakers was a dynamic young man who was president of the Screen Actors Guild. His theme was patriotism and community responsibility. His name was Ronald Reagan.

The other speaker was a retired admiral whose name I don’t recall, but I certainly remember his talk. He said that the greatest threat to our nation was coming from the Middle East and the Far East. He remarked that this was because some of these people do not place the same value on human life that we do. This, he said, is because of overpopulation, economic conditions and political, social and religious traditions.

I recalled the admiral’s words on 9/11 and since we have been involved in that part of the world. We have lost to date almost 6,000 of our precious Americans. I do not know how many Middle Eastern men, women and children have been slaughtered by Middle Eastern car bombers, suicide bombers and other means. I just keep remembering what the admiral said.

JEANNE LaGROSSA North Little Rock