Don’t believe the ads

So fellow Arkansans, how big of suckers and saps are we that we insipidly lap up the propaganda of the Mark Zuckerberg-funded amnesty ads? You know the ones, from a mob calling itself Americans for a Conservative Direction, that breathlessly gush about the broken immigration system that must be fixed. Yeah, right, apparently by declaring amnesty and forgetting the border.

Hey, look, just because Chuckie Schumer apparently has Marco Rubio in his back pocket, and just because the GOP establishment seems to believe that Democrats are magnanimously helping us get the Hispanic vote if we’ll just support that atrocity of a Gang of Ocho/Senate bill, does that mean we Arkies are eaten up with terminal stupidity?

Folks, I may be dumb but I ain’t stupid, and Zuckerberg can take his liberal lies and put them in a nice, shady place. I think Barack Obama and the rest of his left-wing zealots are barking up the wrong tree by trying to buy Arkansas’ support.

No sale.

QUINCY JACKSON Rogers

How to transcend race

Thanks for your editorial about Barack Obama’s recent comments on race.

It’s nice to know that you transcend race so well, not needing the president’sreminders about the experience of being black in America, and can help us better understand George Zimmerman’s position and Southern whites (thanks for your endless litanies about theCivil War which ended 150 years ago, and Gen. Robert E. Lee).

You don’t even have to mention the 1927 lynching of John Carter from a telephone pole where he was shot, then dragged by cars and finally burned in the streets of Little Rock.

You’ve apparently already processed and buried that, and Deon Williams.

GARY WHEELER Little Rock

Please move past case

I have read President Barack Obama’s remarks regarding the verdict of the Trayvon Martin/George Zimmerman case over several days. I applaud his consistent communication with Americans urging them to move forward regarding the results of the case.

He also indicated that, “It is important to recognize that the AfricanAmerican community is looking at this issue through a set of experiences and a history that doesn’t go away.”

My Norwegian great-grandfather left a land of religious persecution, servitude, starvation, and all other atrocities of peasant life in Norway during the 1840s.

He escaped on a ship to North America, but had to work many years as an indentured servant to pay for his transport to the new land. During his servitude, his thoughts did not linger on the tumultuous life he had endured, but instead on plans to encourage his children to seek and maintain a life of freedom.

Because he believed in America’s judicial system, he had to compromise many times during his life.

To cling to a set of negative experiences and past history in life can only serve to instigate agitation and impede progress. The world will always be a place of change. Please move forward.

JANIE JUVE-NORTON Little Rock

That double standard

Jean Kress of Rogers questioned the IQ of the jurors in the George Zimmerman trial and is convinced of their low intelligence because of the verdict they rendered. The evidence obviously means nothing to Kress.

Just guessing, but I’m betting that Kress would classify the jurors in the O.J. Simpson trial as brilliant because of the verdict they returned.

The old double standard is alive and well! Deus existo nobis.

HOWARD D. HUGHES Maumelle

Thinking randomly

Re Barack Obama’s “me 35 years ago” comment regarding Trayvon Martin: Possibly true, very true. President Obama could have been where he didn’t have any business being, as apparently was Martin a year and a half ago. How about O.J. Simpson?

Gun violence gets a bad rap every day. Compare gun deaths in the U.S. to deaths caused by tobacco, automobiles and abortion. Guns are much safer.

The Humane Society reportedly kills more dogs and cats than they save.

Our government gives billions of dollars to people who hate us. Why? If you think you can buy friendship or good will, think again.

Forget party loyalty. Politicians may start out with noble ideas and motives, but the system will soon ruin all that. Most of them only tell you what they think most people want to hear. So just vote for who you think is the best person and hope for the best result, but please vote.

CONRAD WALL Rose Bud

Lack of responsibility

I hope all Arkansas Democrat-Gazette recipients read Mr. Bradley Gitz’s column from last Monday. Not only did he point out how Barack Obama violated the Constitution of the United States in failing to uphold a law ruled constitutional by the Supreme Court, but he addressed the lack of action which should have been taken by either the Senate or House or both.

For those who didn’t read that column, it states that in Article Two, Section Three of the Constitution, presidents must “take care that the laws be faithfully executed.” Although Obama’s actions were in conflict with a Supreme Court ruling in National Federation of Independent Business v. Sebelius, no action has been taken by either the Senate or House.

It seems our elected officials are more interested in getting re-elected than rocking the boat and going against the big guy.

If anything gives you the idea of what type of people we’ve put in the White House, I believe this lack of responsibility should erase all doubts.They are all looking out for number one instead of us.

It apparently hasn’t bothered them that Social Security has lost cost-ofliving increases. They don’t seem to care that prayer was removed from our public schools. I could go on ad infinitum, but you get the message.

If nothing is done to rectify this, and soon, I hope you will remember this come election time. I know I will! DICK STEMPLE SherwoodSelf-defeating actions

The removal of racial barriers created opportunity for educated and trained minorities. For those who don’t get an education or training, time passes and they get further behind.

A recent TV interview I saw showed young black men in a Chicago neighborhood who illustrated that they had no education and no jobs. One man said that they needed jobs; the catch-22 is that one has to have an education or training to get a job.

Dropping out of school is self-defeating. Low-wage jobs are unavailable because those jobs are done by illegal immigrants-remember, “the jobs that Americans won’t do.” Even joining the armed forces is not an option. Dropouts, drug users, and criminal activity are unacceptable.

President Barack Obama had some insightful words in his recent Trayvon Martin address. I read the paper and watch the TV news. I see there is evidently an inordinate amount of poverty among black citizens. There is a high incidence of black, unmarried teenage mothers. Two working parents set a much better example for their sons and daughters and can better adequately provide for their families. Two educated, married, working parents can feed and clothe their children so they won’t have to depend on handouts from the state, then those kids will not have to go out and peddle drugs or hold up convenience stores.

This violent, haphazard lifestyle is self-defeating. The attitudes and behaviors we perceive in others are what we base our own responses on. I lock my car door.

W.B. HARRIS Little Rock

Editorial, Pages 13 on 07/29/2013