LETTERS

— Desperately seeking spine

It would be nice if the effete Grover Norquist would jump off a cliff. Not a fiscal one, but a physical one, the higher the better. He is the guy who has provided tangible proof that there is no backbone, let alone leadership in the Republican majority of the House. Every last one of these poor saps has been stupid enough to cave to his threat to defeat them, NRA-style, by providing financial backing for a viable opponent in the next election if they vote to raise taxes. You’d expect a guy like that to have a pristine past, but Grover has some surprises. His financial benefits are unknown. He had a cozy relationship with hyperlobbyist Jack Abramoff, and a lengthy association with defrocked evangelist Ralph Reed.

The game being played out by the leaderless House is sickening to average folks and businessmen who are trying to plan ahead to make the 21st Century a smooth one. We seem to forget that midway through the 20th Century we had already fought two world wars and reduced the world’s population by about 100 million people.

Of greatest urgency: Every Republican member of the House, en masse, should hand Norquist his statement and tell him what to do with it and follow that up with the selection of a real leader. It can’t be talking tuba John Boehner, or Paul Ryan, or Eric Cantor, certainly none of Karl Rove’s boys from Arkansas, one possibility from Texas, another from Oklahoma.

One last thing: After they fulfill my wishes, I’d like for them to let Donald Trump say a few words. I know The Donald is a wild card, really stupid, but he is the Three Stooges all rolled into one fathead, and he provides us with some great laughs.

JOE E. HOLLAND

Little Rock

Overload under skin

A few weeks ago, I got a bill from a doctor that had no explanation of benefits. It did not list the doctor, only a date with the information that I owed $13.23. I tried to follow up, but had very little to go on. The insurance companies I use could find no information as to whom the bill was from or if it had been sent to my secondary insurance companies.

By looking back on my calendar, I was able to determine the physician I had seen on that day, and I went to that doctor’s office.

Like Steve Carter, who had this same experience, I discovered from the bookkeeper that I owed a facility fee. I asked if it was for the building where the doctor was housed, and the bookkeeper told me no, and that the fee goes to the hospital they had joined forces with. I had no dealings with the hospital whatsoever, but they get a fee. The doctors also have no choice in this matter. I was told the clinic joined forces with a large hospital due to the new health-care law, so we are doublecharged if we use these fine physicians. Welcome to Obamacare.

R.C. DEATON Little Rock

Big cost, little benefit

“Answer the Call” was neatly wrapped and forced down our throats last year, and look what it’s gotten us.

Our athletic director hired a flaky coach who had displayed poor judgment throughout his career, so he had to fire him and let him fall, with dramatic flair, on the sword. Now our football program is in shambles. We have a football operations center under construction that we can’t afford. We’re about to see ticket prices raised again (just a hunch) so we can now pay even more money to afford Bobby Petrino’s replacement.

While all this dysfunction was taking place, we were told that Jeff Long is getting a significant pay increase. I’d say the timing couldn’t be worse to reward the man I believe is mainly responsible for these problems. I’m shocked that the university feels that this is an appropriate action considering all that has happened recently.

Personally, I have been buying six tickets for the past 20 years, and I wasn’t happy to see an increase in the donation required to keep my seats last year, but I paid it anyway. After paying the excessive increase, I later discovered that the benefits had been cut. I still got my parking pass and media guide, but they cut the one thing that I enjoyed getting every year, a $5 wall calendar.

Jeff Long is a smart guy. I wonder what he will come up with to fund his next pay increase. Regardless, I won’t be making a contribution to that one.

DOUG PARCHMAN

Springdale

Accept responsibility

For 28 years, I worked for a nuclear plant and was subject to random drug testing. If you had a problem the first time, you received help; second time, more help; third time, no job.

We are paying for the medical care, food and shelter for people who are having a hard time, and in return, some are using illegal drugs and are not even trying to help themselves.

If you can’t afford to buy food and other necessities, why should we pay for them for you without you taking any responsibility? And they feel as if we are infringing on their rights.

I would like to take a trip to Alaska. Anyone out there want to pay for me? I can’t afford it, as I am paying for others’ recreational drugs.

JACQUE TALLEY

Dumas

Who sanctions history

I truly enjoyed the “Letters from the editor” by Paul Greenberg, writing on the First Amendment; also, the letter to the editor by Clifford Pearson of Beebe concerning that evil, rebellious Confederacy.

I believe Pearson and I both know he is writing to closed minds, but his letter is well-written. I would like to add, for those to whom truth matters: That uncivil war, I believe, was as much or more about declaring war on Robert E. Lee for being true to his homeland than loyalty to Abraham Lincoln’s abuses of power.

Unlike the majority of us, Lee was not programmed to be a victim. He went home to defend his family and friends from invading forces. He was a military warrior and knew the ravages of war.

Is it really so hard to understand that government-sanctioned history books are written by victors, not the conquered/victimized? If the U.S.A. were invaded and conquered by that invading force, who do you think would write government-sanctioned history?

I suggest stepping out of your comfort zones and reading Call of Duty: The Sterling Nobility of Robert E. Lee by J. Steven Wilkins, an evangelical pastor.

RON GOODWIN

Cave Springs

Ignorance abounded

Re Clifford Pearson’s recent letter about the Civil War: Don’t know what history books he got his information from. He needs to check out the real cause of the Civil War. Do a little research before you demonstrate what you really don’t know.

DEL LAMPHEAR Decatur

Crusade’s transparent

This fiscal cliff business has all the trappings of a Wall Street PR campaign: 1. A catch-phrase name on the tip of everyone’s tongue; 2. Saturation exposure: print, radio, television, etc.; and 3. A prediction of doom unless a certain path is followed immediately. The American public is certainly gullible, but I do hope it will see through this one.

ERNEST E. JACKS Fayetteville

Would’ve saved lives

We should all be saddened by the news that Kansas City Chiefs linebacker Jovan Belcher reportedly gunned down his girlfriend, and then committed suicide at the Kansas City Chiefs’ practice facility. However, the knee-jerk reaction during Sunday Night Football by commentator Bob Costas, implying that the tragedy was caused by Americans being allowed to own guns, and quoting Jason Whitlock, saying that if Jovan didn’t own a gun “he and Kasandra Perkins would both be alive today” was both irresponsible and irrational.

Bob Costas is a good football commentator, but he needs to stick to commenting in the area of his expertise. Murder does not happen because people own guns. It happens because people are devoid of love and respect for one another. Police in Casper, Wyo., say Christopher Krumm stabbed his father’s live-in girlfriend to death, and then shot his father, a professor at a community college, with a bow and arrow, then fatally stabbed himself and his father.

Guns don’t kill people; bows and arrows don’t kill people; knives don’t kill people. People kill people. I believe a more truthful, common-sense comment might have been, “If Jovan Belcher and his girlfriend had been attending church and Bible studies together, he and Kasandra would probably both be alive today.” The hate, impatience, disrespect and low self-esteem we see in our culture is caused more by society’s drift from our Judeo-Christian roots than its possession of guns or anything else. Solution: Get our families back in church.

RALPH C. PATTERSON

Bella Vista

Choice a real winner

I hate to write a letter about sports, for I have bigger windmills at which to tilt, but Sancho insisted that I watch the acceptance speech of Bret Bee-lema as the new Arkansas Razorback coach. I did so, not because I respect Sancho’s opinion as my servant and peon, but rather because he has control over the food and wine.

In any event, after watching for 30 minutes or so, I noticed an osmosis of thought which surprised me.

I was angry to hear on the same day that the Razorbacks had hired a non-SEC coach and ASU-Jonesboro lost Gus Malzahn to Auburn. My first thought was, why the heck didn’t the Razorbacks go for Gus? In hindsight, I realized that for Gus to move to Fayetteville, half the fan base in Arkansas would be mad, and this would be a political disaster for all concerned.

Even Don Quixote wouldn’t tilt at that windmill.

And then I listened to and watched Mr. Bret, and I was impressed. He first set the stage by putting on the Razorback hat and then proclaimed “that he wasn’t a hat man” and took it off. Instead of being offended, I thought this took courage and set the stage for a no-nonsense agenda (much like his defense).

And then he spoke in simple but eloquent terms about his passion not just for winning, but for the people he has in his charge.

In my opinion, I witnessed both “humble” and “confident.” Got a real winner here!

PHILLIP A. RAMBIN

Bigelow

Feedback

Why not exploit it?

Let’s use the AIDS crisis to promote the homosexual agenda. Let’s use the banking crisis to promote socialism. As a Washington liberal said, “Never let a crisis go to waste.”

So, let’s take an NFL player’s apparent murder/suicide, declare a crisis and use it to promote the liberal agenda of gun control, and any attack that this tragedy is being exploited can be dismissed because it’s bringing attention to a crisis and starting a needed dialogue.

Besides, exploitation is always good for a buck and a headline, isn’t it, Bob Costas and MSNBC? Oh, wait, Sunday Night Football was on NBC. It’s hard to tell the difference anymore.

ROBERT PRICE

Little Rock

Focus was all wrong

During the Arkansas coaching search, the media and talk shows spent too much time hating on LSU and Les Miles. They needed to focus on getting the right coach for the position, not degrading Miles for being quirky and unconventional.

Remember, Arkansas’ last real coach traded his job for a motorcycle and a blow-up doll.

If Arkansas doesn’t want to be regarded as a tier-two program, it should stop acting like one.

P.J. McGUIRE

Hot Springs

Editorial, Pages 17 on 12/07/2012

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