LETTERS

LITTLE ROCK — Back off of smokers

I hope they pass this no-smoking deal they are trying to get through in Fayetteville. It will save me a lot of money on gas to drive downtown, won’t have to tip anymore, and the beer is cheaper at my house.

Will miss my friends after 40 years of going down there, but if I can’t have a smoke with my beer, I’ll just stay at home and have one here. They haven’t banned that yet. Probably next.

Guess the churches are happy. They will be able to go into a bar and not smell smoke, if they can find any that will still be open. With the parking and this ban, Dickson Street will die. Is there anyone from the city listening to us taxpayers and voters? I’d say you need to start. Think of Bikes, Blues & BBQ. Lots of bikers like to smoke. They aren’t going to a place where they can’t. A lot less money coming in could bring the rally to an end, and some other events.

The government got us to smoking back in the ’40s and ’50s. Now it is trying make us stop. Just back off of us smokers. We will die off. Start with the kids. Keep them from starting. Kind of the way I see things.

JIM CANNADY Fayetteville

Response part of job

As a retired fire chief, I read with interest Kelly Brant’s story, “Next time firefighters call, they’ll get cookies,” concerning her encounter with the Little Rock firefighters. I want to relieve her concern about reporting a false alarm.

False alarms are malicious, but responding to a suspected odor of smoke and leaving her residence with the assurance that there was no fire is one of the many services firefighters are called upon to perform.

We would rather someone call as soon as he suspects a problem than waiting to confirm it and causing unnecessary damage. (Cookies are always welcome.)

JOE McCALL Sherwood

Exhibit frontier spirit

There are enough citizens in the U.S. regardless of whether they are naturalized or were born here. The economic times bear this out. If you don’t believe me, you balance the U.S. checkbook. Now if you want to open your arms to the world, I suggest you adopt someone, child or adult, from anywhere—Mexico, Egypt, England—and nurture him or her with your checkbook, love and frontier spirit. The U.S. citizenry and taxpayer are in the hole on these accounts.

STEVEN GRAY Marion

Opinion writers rated

Here are my ratings on writers in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. Paul Greenberg Frank Fellone Mike Masterson Editorial writers as a group Paul Krugman Jay Grelen Jennifer Christman Meredith Oakley Jennifer Hansen Phillip Martin Bradley Gitz Gene Lyons Pay Lynch Key: Terrible, should not print. Very poor. Not worth reading. Take it or leave it. Worth reading, some good thoughts and opinions. Excellent, need more of this.

BOB SWINDLER McGehee

Action par for course

It appears that state Rep. Jon Hubbard of Jonesboro caused a uproar with Gov. Mike Beebe and the Democrats when he has accused Beebe of strong-arming some Democratic freshmen into voting his way. Boy, that sounds about par for the course when it comes to the good ole Arkansas boys’ corrupted politics.

Here you have a state senator, Democrat Robert Thompson from Paragould, who is trying to radically change and have three state constitutional offices abolished. Two of those offices are held now by Republicans. This should be unconstitutional.

The Republicans want to cut taxes and the Democrats, led by Beebe, want to raise taxes. Columnist John Brummett of the Arkansas News Bureau always downs the Republicans and has high praise for especially Beebe and the Democrats, claiming that he and Beebe are from the old school of Democratic politics, which is milking Arkansas taxpayers out of all the money it can.

I think they have managed to bankrupt the Arkansas prison system, they are bankrupting the Arkansas education system and they have done a real good job of bankrupting the Arkansas economy. The Arkansas voter needs to ask himself one question: Is he better off than he was 20 years ago? How about 10 years ago? Or how about four years ago? Well, I know that I am not. How about you?

PAUL CULBREATH Jonesboro

Current motto is fine

Yeehaw. The frivolous bill [to change the state nickname back to “the Land of Opportunity”] failed.

Why did we need this piece of vital legislation in the first place? I’ve tried to avoid the news since I got home from the war. The circus hitched to a tornado must have better things to legislate.

I used to live in the Land of Opportunity when I was a kid. Of course, things were more opportunistic back then, but I prefer the Natural State. It imbues a romantic image of earthly beauty and everyone running around nekkid playing hillbilly and Delta music.

Look at some of the problems this bill would have caused. The baseball team would’ve had to change its name to the Opportunities, and who knows what mascot that would breed? I prefer the wookie in cleats, Sasquatcheous fastballus named Strike myself.

The Ozark Blues Society of Northwest Arkansas, or OBS, would have to change the name of its annual Blues in the Natural State, or BNS, concert series to Blues in the Land of Opportunity, or BLoOp. Although that may generate some interesting merchandising ideas for them, I kind of like things the way they have it as well.

Why must we always try to change everything? Save government money. Leave things be in the nekkid, I mean Natural State. It’s only natural.

GREG MAYFIELD Sprindale