LETTERS

LITTLE ROCK — That comedic gold mine

I have been reading about the now-former Game and Fish vice chairman. I find the quotes from the players funnier than anything in the funny pages.

“I believe that I did the right thing by volunteering my resignation,” says the comedy’s star, and to which I ask, sir, you haven’t made many right decisions here lately, so how come you didn’t ask around before making this one?

Some poor schmuck from Smackover who messes up one night is not going to get sober and dressed up and just say, “Did it and I am sorry,” and then turn and walk away like everything is now just hunky-dory. No sir, there could be jail time, fines, probation and each sentence could automatically double because he did his messing up on a school night.

Game and Fish Director Mike Knoedl confiscated a commission gun and badge, saying he was doing it as a precautionary measure. I think this is government speak for: “I just couldn’t stand there. One of my many jobs here is acting like I know what I am doing.”

Shouldn’t we know why he is acting so cautionary so we little folk can get kinda cautionary ourselves?

Was the ex-vice chairman liable to use his badge to randomly give out tickets for not having enough life vests? For having two over the limit of bream?

Will the precautions fail us? How will we know if we do not know why all of us are running around so cautiously?

The commission is the thing.

CARL E. BUCHANAN Benton Need to protect them

As our population increases, we have become the sad witnesses to unimaginable acts of horror. I am referring to the insane carnage at Sandy Hook Elementary which claimed the lives of our beautiful, innocent children and adults.

Now, after the fact, it appears our only recourse is to honor those who are no longer with us and make sincere efforts toward preventing this from happening again.

I, for one, praise our president and his staff for sincerely working toward finding a way to prevent these types of insane crimes from happening again.

Do we, the American people, need to have access to assault weapons and high-capacity ammunition clips more than we need to protect the lives of our innocent children and adults?

Our precious children deserve a chance to live out their lives in peace. Let us pray that God and the professionals find answers to solving the age-old problems of the mentally ill.

DOROTHY REIF Fayetteville Shouldn’t be an issue

I’m a 38-year-old Christian woman, published author, freelance journalist for biker magazines, and a fashion editor. I am dying of autoimmune diseases. This month marks nine years of the 10-year expiration date I was given. I cannot eat or keep down pills without marijuana. My liver has quit once due to a chemotherapy cyotoxin.

Fifteen months ago, I was unable to obtain marijuana. After a week, I developed a brain infection I couldn’t fight off. I was lying in the floor of the hospital, throwing up blood and antibiotics. Doctors were talking about calling in my pastor at 3 a.m. because I wasn’t going to live until morning. They had given up, had tried everything they knew to do. My baby sister finally persuaded them to let her take me to go smoke one last cigarette before I died, a joint a friend had provided. A couple of hours later, I was sitting up in bed eating a huge breakfast, braiding flowers in my hair. A few hours later, I was well enough to leave.

I am not a doctor and can’t explain this as a doctor would. I can, however, explain it as a Christian. The reason I lived through that night is not the man made stuff they were trying to put in my veins, it was the God-made stuff I put in my lungs. When I was so sick, I wasn’t praying to get high; I was praying to live to go to church the next day.And I did . . . 10 minutes late, wearing pajamas and with a face like Freddy Krueger, but I lived to walk through that door. I am sick and tired of choosing between being a living outlaw or a dead law-abiding citizen.

AMY IRENE WHITE Sheridan Logical inconsistency

I am completely flabbergasted over the conservative views regarding birth control and abortion. Many companies and organizations with religious ties don’t want to pay to provide birthcontrol to their female employees. And now Republicans in the state Legislature want to ban abortions almost as soon as pregnancy has begun.

Many of these same people deride entitlements such as welfare, Medicaid, etc. Do they not realize the public burden of raising unintended children? If women do not have the ability to access or afford the means to control how many children they produce, our society will end up subsidizing these extra children in one way or another.

Those who want to limit birth control and abortions need to realize that we all end up paying for these unintended pregnancies. If a woman’s right to choose becomes limited, then we are going to need more adoptive families, more foster care, more money for entitlements-in other words, more spending and more government.

You can’t have it both ways. Birth control and safe abortions were a public health and societal revolution. Limiting them threatens to return us to the pre-20th Century in more ways than one.

KATRINA KING North Little RockNo sense in spending

As Little Rock is still recovering from a snowstorm of such magnitude that we are asking for federal disaster relief, it seems Buddy the bridgebuilder has pull off another snow job on the quorum court. Ten justices of the peace decided that $20 million for a bridge was more important that using the money to repair and improve roads in our county.

Add this to the $4 million previously spent for a Big Dam Bridge extension to accommodate the spandex biker bunch, and we’re talking a significant amount of tax dollars wasted.

I guess we get the government we deserve thanks to apathy. And Buddy has another defining accomplishment to mirror Arch Campbell’s purple trucks.

Our only consolation is that, for now, the city of Little Rock hasn’t put any money on the table. At least someone has some sense when it comes to priority spending of our tax dollars.

DON SHELLABARGER Little RockPut some clothes on!

I’ve read with interest about female anchor attire. It seems to be that flesh is the criteria for a woman news reporter. Sleeveless dresses in January, with the winter climate in New York and other cities, look out of place. Skirts that show half the thigh are in bad taste. Self-respect should radiate from a woman’s appearance.

Men dress in business suits on the networks and handle themselves well. It’s nice to see them and listen to their reporting. A full-face beard would be a distraction. A self-assured man is distinguished in his clothes and manner.

We as a society and in business have tarnished the true meaning of integrity by glossy sensational action. What message do we give the younger generation? Promote at all costs for success and greed. No thanks!

Do these promoters choose for their wives and daughters to appear in the new look, bare at all costs?

ANITA C. GATZKE Little RockStop personal attacks

Last week, the state Senate voted in favor of SB134, which will ban abortion after the point when a heartbeat can be detected, around the sixth to eighth week of pregnancy. The bill recognizes exceptions for rape, incest, to save the life of the mother or lifethreatening emergencies.

Opponents on the far left dredged up video of a speech I delivered at a Tea Party rally in 2011, and edited my nearly 20-minute talk down to 11/2 minutes, taking statements about “minorities” out of context and labeling me a racist-a description with which I would have never ever conceived being tagged. Standing alone, the comments could very well appear to be racist. In the entire context of my speech, however, it is very evident that I was referring to the minority of political interests not aligned with the views of the majority of Arkansans.My comments had nothing to do with anyone’s ethnic background, and I believe the attacks on my character are not really about me at all. I believe this situation is about the rage of the liberal left because people are standing up for life in Arkansas.

The dissenters have every right to disagree, to express their disagreement and to fight the Heartbeat Bill. However, the problem arises when they lose all perspective of the actual issue and begin to hurl personal attacks. I will continue to proudly support pro-life legislation and be vocal in defense of the unborn. When there is a heartbeat, there is life.

JASON RAPERT Bigelow

State Sen. Jason Rapert represents District 35.

They don’t get choice

I wish I could have been there in Little Rock.

Paul Greenberg’s recent column brought into focus how millions of babies have been killed in the last 40 years. What an abomination in our country.

I love America and how we always come to the aid of those in crisis both here and abroad. But this killing of our babies has created a black mark on our country that cannot be erased. What are we thinking when we kill the innocent? Seems to me that we have to go abroad to adopt babies because wedon’t have babies here to adopt. There is something wrong with that picture. We mourn the lives of children and adults who died at Sandy Hook, but 50 million babies? Really?

I worked in an OB/GYN office andobserved many women who returned to obtain multiple abortions as “contraception”-not because of rape, incest or saving the life of themother, and some at 20 weeks or more gestation when the fetus actually feels pain.

We talk about the woman’s “choice.” Maybe they need to think about the choice that the innocent baby has. I cannot believe the choice of the woman is preferred over the life of the baby.

This is something you have to live with. The choice you make will live with you forever. Life begins at conception. Think about it and make the right choice.

Your baby deserves it.

JACQUELINE PHILLIPS Holiday IslandFeedback It’s not Lee’s fault

Justin Coussoule has written, I believe, a hate-filled letter about Robert E. Lee. He comments on Lee’s betrayal of the Constitution. Is Justin for the Constitution and against those who don’t follow it? Is he against those who separate the citizens now? Did the North participate in slavery? Where did the slave ships land? Did the Emancipation Proclamation apply to all slaves, North and South? What percentage of Southerners had slaves?

The Civil War is over. The participants are not alive today. America is for individuals; not races or economic groups. The laws should apply equally to all without regard to outcomes. Justin and his ilk are separating the nation, not celebrations of Robert E. Lee.

MIKE BROWN RedfieldOn the chain gang

We, as mortals, shall never know if there is a supreme being.

Any organization that espouses to know the definitive particulars in regards to such is pulling our chain.

PAUL CHRIST Harrison