PUBLIC VIEWPOINT: Candidate Appeals To Worst In Us

NORTHWEST ARKANSAS — I am writing today with an emotionally laden heart.

This feeling dominates my very being today because of what the Republican primary reveals about the changing (perhaps unchanged?) nature of our people. A man remains very much in the running for his party’s nomination solely because he has perfected a way to appeal to the divergent until now shattered “base” of his party - which for the same reasons means that he is very much in the “race” to defeat our current president next fall.

He, Mr. Santorum, without any trace of shame or embarrassment, has perfected the ability to appeal only to thevery worst traits in each of us and which for thousands of years, man has been fi ghting to educate itself and bring under the sentient control of our minds and the goodness of our hearts. Racial and cultural intolerance. Religious prejudice. Women’s rights.

Isolationism. Hatred and ignorance suff uses everything he does or says.

Take each of those subjects and the next time you see or read anything about this gentleman, think to yourself: Do I really want such a man to be in the most powerful political and military position on Earth?” His candidacy is not the danger. What we should all fear is what his potential election would say about each and every one of us.

That is what makes him a most terrible threat.

Just think. Are we such a poor and tainted people as to possibly elect a man because of his mindlessness and a heart filled with hatred?

DONALD K. SWITZER / Rogers

DONATION GREAT GESTURE

I am a school bus driver for Springdale. Recently an underage motorist accidentally hit a child on his

bicycle near the elementary school he attends. Thank God the child’s injuries were not life-threatening, will be OK and was back in school today (March 6).

While I was at the school this afternoon to pick up children, a gentleman from Lewis and Clark Sporting Goods came in with a brand new bike for the child and presented it to him.

That is the kind of community I am proud to serve - where a local business will donate back to the community when a need arises. It was a mere 24 hours since the accident, too. There were no TV or radio stations there, just a man brightening the life of a child that could very well have had a very diff erent outcome. Tip of the hat to the folks at Lewis and Clark. Job well done!

JAMES EVERETT / Fayetteville