LETTERS

LITTLE ROCK — Dishonors their sacrifices

Recently, this paper devoted an entire editorial page to perpetuating the romantic myth of Robert E. Lee. Apparently, the heroic tale of a reluctant warrior and consummate Gentleman of the South still holds sway over this paper and some of its readership.

Lee the general (like Napoleon Bonaparte) was indeed a master of marshaling his infantry, cavalry and artillery on the field of battle. But as a West Point cadet, I was taught that Lee’s generalship was the swan song of the Napoleonic era. This paper also marvels at the fact that, at the end of this four-year slaughter wrought by Southern secession, the defeated Lee surrendered his command and peacefully returned to his genteel Virginia estate. I’m not sure what other choice Lee then had. As for Lee being a gentleman, as much is also said of Benedict Arnold.

What this paper apparently refuses to confront is that Lee betrayed his oath to the U.S. and its Constitution in taking up arms against the very nation he swore to protect. More importantly, the rebellion Lee joined, and whose largest army he led, fought above all else for the preservation of a savage and immoral practice antithetic to the values of the United States or of any civilized nation, and of any so-called gentlemen. That this paper, Arkansas, and much of the South continue to commemorate him (and in conjunction with Martin Luther King Jr., no less) dishonors the sacrifices of countless Americans who struggled to preserve the nation that Lee would have divided.

JUSTIN COUSSOULE

Fayetteville

Grief was cheapened

I was horrified by the editorial cartoon in your paper.

Comparing a woman’s exercise of her right to control her body by the termination of an early pregnancy involving a small piece of tissue, often to save the woman’s life physically or mentally, with the murder of real people entitled by law to their lives and “the pursuit of happiness” by those indifferent to those lives is completely specious. It cheapens both the anguish of the woman terminating an early pregnancy, and the devastation of the loss of actual promising and beloved people.

An early fetus has no existence outside its place in a woman’s uterus, no reality, no life. But real people-children, parents, grandparents-have been killed with guns, imposing pain and suffering on them as they died, and depriving those who love them of their presence and their promise. The termination of early pregnancies ends, at most, a possibility of a future life, but murder ends the lives of people who live and offer so much love and promise to those who love them.

Your cartoon cheapens the grief of all those who have lost loved ones to gun violence and those whose promising lives have been ended by gun violence.

The comparison of an exercise of choice with violent murder of real people is disgusting. How could it have been allowed?

ELLEN WIDEN KESSLER

Bentonville

Cartoon crossed line

Fully 97 percent of services provided by Planned Parenthood are preventive. That means the vast majority of services Planned Parenthood provides are cancer screenings, birth control, breast exams, regular health checkups and education.

To equate this health-care provider with tragic events that occur from gun violence is misguided, offensive and flat-out wrong. Lisa Benson’s recent cartoon was highly disrespectful and distasteful.

What were the staff members of the Arkansas Democrat Gazette thinking when they published this image? Did they intend to shame women for seeking legal health services? Did they intend to re-victimize families who have lost a loved one from firearms?

This cartoon and the Democrat-Gazette crossed the line. You should think about your poor choice and apologize to all of us.

DONNA ROUNTREE

Scott

Practice responsibility

The editorial “cartoon” about Planned Parenthood was the proverbial straw that broke the camel’s back. I have just canceled my subscription.

The vast majority of women who use Planned Parenthood are there because they need to prevent pregnancy rather than end one. Planned Parenthood actually saves lives by offering women a safe abortion choice.

You forget that these are desperate women who would have had an abortion with or without Planned Parenthood-however, many of them would have died without the choice of a medically safe alternative. To compare the organization that saves lives to those who willfully take lives is reprehensible.

Differing opinions can still be responsible and respectful. Stop being part of those frantically seeking to divide Americans, and start practicing responsible editorial judgment, please. Only then will I reconsider and re-subscribe.

KAREN MUSICK

Little Rock

Apology is called for

The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette has hit an all-time low in its choice to publish the Lisa Benson cartoon that equates gun violence with abortion.

Abortion has been a safe and legal medical procedure for 40 years, and it is important that it stays that way. To compare a woman’s highly complex and personal decision with the tragic deaths caused by firearms is insensitive to all of us.

Women and their families rely on Planned Parenthood because they put their trust into safe, compassionate and quality health care. Planned Parenthood provides cancer screenings, breast exams, pap tests, and general health care to millions of women across the country.

The Democrat-Gazette owes an apology to the victims of gun violence, their families, and the women of Arkansas for printing material of such an abusive nature.

EUGENE LEVY

Little Rock

Do we really mean it?

Thank you for publishing Denele Campbell’s and G.C. Watts’ letters on guns, rights and religion. If they are combined, they have a message.

It is good to pray, but do we mean what we pray? When we ask God to forgive our sins as we forgive others, does that mean forgive, then kill, hit and belittle or forgive and forget? Sometimes, time will solve your problem.

MARY KEOGH

Little Rock

Unlocking a mystery

While going through two boxes on a recent morning I happened upon a key. A small key that on one side had cast into it the word “master,” and on the other side the numbers “0779.”

Whose key is it?

What does the word (master) signify?

What do the numbers (0779) have to do with anything?

I have tied it around my neck using a small leather strip. My mission, should I choose to accept it, is to solve the mystery. Your mission: Read along as another adventure unfolds.

JOHN MURLE GREEN

North Little Rock

Determine real cause

All of this talk about gun control and gun rights seems to be hiding the definite cause of any crime, gun related or not. Miscommunication (under umbrellas of bad parenting/role models) and mental health screening procedures are to blame.Not holding each other accountable, checking to make sure we as humans are doing OK-these simple actions can flag someone immediately if you are observant.

We live in a world of social media, where we are numb to emotional cues. Instead of taking responsibility for not being there for someone, or caring enough, we shift blame to inanimate objects. There aren’t conclusive studies out there, but, sure, they can increase the likelihood, statistically, of someone being more violent, but a proper environment can erase those odds. The NRA is clever to try to shift the blame to video games, when both outlets-guns and games-can be introduced properly by responsible parents. I grew up on games, but I don’t feel “violent.” If anything, it’s people who can’t drive.

If gun control really did make it safer, then ask the people of downtown Detroit or Chicago. We have failed the education there in low-income areas. We all need to research, not just read Wikipedia articles, but truly research these topics and define the terms. If our founding fathers did not imagine our Second Amendment to include high-powered fully automatic military assault rifles, then they sure did not imagine the Internet as an outlet for the First Amendment.

ANTHONY DAO

Maumelle

It’s only the beginning

Between 30,000 and 40,000 deaths from motor vehicle accidents occur every year. Numbers of these are children. Large numbers of babies are intentionally killed in their mothers’ wombs, certainly thousands annually.

No one upholds the death of anyone, certainly not the young, yet nobody petitions Congress to pass laws to bar the ownership of vehicles. Courts have declared that mothers have a right to kill their children in the womb. These thousands of deaths are casually disposed of as being normal.

Our Second Amendment states that the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed. When some goofball goes nuts and lashes out against society by shooting a few of our children in a school, all hell breaks loose and a group of people scream from the hilltops their willingness to repeal the Second Amendment which singly enforces the rest for all of us.

First comes prohibiting certain types of arms. Next follows a law requiring registration of all weapons, which tells government where the arms are. Soon we hear sounds of hobnail boots tromping to our doorway followed by a ram bashing down our door to present us a piece of paper authorizing the confiscation of all our arms. Then government can do as it wishes with us because we now have no means to resist which abrogates all rights.

But criminals will continue to shoot people of all ages with illegal weapons as they always have.

JIMMIE TREWITT

Ward

Feedback

Hands off our soda

I saw on the news that in New York they are going to restrict the sweet drinks people can buy. The big 32-ounce sodas can’t be sold as they are too large; of course, one would never think of buying two 16-ounce drinks. Their reason? We are drinking too much sugar.

If the food and drug people didn’t allow all of the steroids, growth hormones and other stuff in the chickens, beef and dairy cattle feed, maybe we would be able to control our own weight one hell of a lot better.

One more thing: We can buy a gallon of milk, or a barrel of pickles-do we expect to eat them all at once? No.

So why does our government have the right to be in our homes or say what we buy in restaurants?

STEVE CROOK

Mayflower

Constitutional right

Do average citizens really need high-capacity ammunition clips?

The answer is no, they do not. The reason they do not is because they have the absolute right to own them.

It’s not a question of need, but a matter of constitutional right. No president, no body of government at any level has the power or authority to infringe upon that right.

Any attempt to do so constitutes tyranny.

R.A. WOJHOSKI

Austin