LETTERS

Bloomberg, the confused

Mayor Michael Bloomberg asked 1,000 of his political donor friends not to contribute to Sen. Mark Pryor’s campaign on the basis of his vote on gun issues. Probably should be none of Bloomberg’s business. His forte is making money, not changing the world, as evidenced by his recent attempt to combat the obesity epidemic by banning large soda drinks. Even the least educated among us know that three smaller drinks equal one large one. Only the charisma of good health brought about by lifestyle changes promoted by society can combat that epidemic. It should start with physical education in the schools.

I heard Bloomberg casually say on TV, “Well, you can have your gun and your Second Amendment.” Generous of him. Less notably, when Israel was under rocket attack by Hamas, Bloomberg was in Israel to show support. I sometimes wonder if the Jewish people of Europe had had the Second Amendment and the ability to defend themselves if the Holocaust could have been mitigated. People who were easy to kill were easily killed. That said, the highly motivated and organized evil of the Nazis was hard to oppose.

The wisdom of our founding fathers of a nation born in battle was that, from time to time, arms and a culture that was familiar with them would be required to maintain that nation. It would seem that a multi-billionaire who has donated millions of dollars to public-health issues could get together with gun owners and figure out a way to keep guns out of the hands of criminals and the crazies without the overriding use of money directly in politics.

CHARLES VERMONT Prescott

Newspaper is winner

I related to the newspaper’s deputy editor when he spoke at our North Little Rock Rotary Club that I was about to make my semi-annual soiree to Tennessee for a week of caring for grandchildren.

I’ve now returned and, having read The Tennessean, my worst fears were confirmed. Once again, in my opinion, the

Arkansas Democrat-Gazette is the winner in all categories.

Nashville deserves better. Unfortunately, it doesn’t appear any change will be forthcoming in the foreseeable future (unless Walter E. Hussman Jr. buys the paper from Gannett). A few specific examples: Financials are totally inferior, columnists here are more varied, and worldwide news coverage is not nearly as complete as the Democrat-Gazette.

Arkansas was our choice for a retirement location after 31 years in the U.S. Air Force, and the Democrat-Gazette is one of the reasons we made that selection.

THOMAS O. WILLIAMS North Little Rock

Life in the Dark Ages

What a country we have become. If you are a practicing Christian or are Jewish, you are reviled as living in the Dark Ages.

If you don’t believe in murdering your child while still being carried under your heart, you are obviously not caring for the unfortunate.

Parents, do you know where your daughter is, what she’s doing and with whom she is spending her leisure time?

The “morning after” pill is now available over the counter without prescription or parental consent, no age requirement. Check HIV statistics next year.

Some schools no longer give homework. Most students were not doing it anyway.

My daughter has been a teacher for 25 years. She taught at a missionary school in Saipan for three years. Her students were eager to learn, and parents made sure they did.

My son taught school in Japan for 22 years. It brought great shame to a family if a student was not well-disciplined and a credit to him/herself and the school.

My firstborn child died at the age of 15, after 4 ½ years of suffering from Hodgkin’s Disease. There is no pain worse than losing a child by death unless it is losing a child through a destroyed life by parents who did not tell and show children they were loved by guiding them to a productive life with dignity and wisdom of faith in God.

Wake up, America, before it’s too late. Our children are the future of the world.

ELIZABETH BARRY Hot Springs Village

Sentence not enough

I saw that Ronnie Lee Canada only got 40 years in prison for his conviction in the abuse of Tristan Bray. What a shame!

In my opinion, he should have gotten life without parole.

As for the boy’s mother, Tiffany Bray, she said didn’t stop it because she “wanted to feel loved.” Did she really feel that sweet, innocent, little boy felt loved while he was being abused?

My heart bleeds for that little boy. HAZEL REYNOLDS Sherwood

On moral superiority

I see that one of the most feared insults in the English language-“sheeple”-was used in the letters column recently, this time in reference to those who “passively” stood by and watched a young British soldier be murdered on the street.

I am making an ad hoc assumption that, even without a weapon, the letter-writer would have shown those Brits how to take down a couple of assassins.

Sheeple, much like the terms lemming and slave, when used in a political or social context, always refers to those who don’t think or act as we do. It gives us a little sense of moral superiority while we chomp down our breakfast cereal, and then rush over to our keyboards and began pounding out the words that show our contempt for folks we have never met, and about situations we fantasize about being in.

RICHARD S. DRAKE Fayetteville

It’s all behind us now

Who among us has not used a racial slur in our lifetime at least once, and especially being from the South? Too much is being made of Paula Deen’s admission.

When did she say it and where was she when she said it?

What does it matter when black people can call one another the n-word?

This is especially hard for people our age because we grew up in a time when black people were continually being put down because of the color of their skin. Get over it. She said what she did, probably in what was a closed setting. Give the woman a break!

Get over the whole racial thing already. That’s all behind us now.

VIVIAN HIGGS Sherwood

An impressive choice

I believe that our nation’s defense and foreign policy is about to become the very best in this world. This move by Barack Obama to make Susan Rice his National Security Adviser is the key to my assertion.

She stands amid great strategists-the secretary of state, the secretary of defense and the representative to the United Nations. She is a tough, no-nonsense, get-the-job-done kind of person. Her entry on the scene is most timely.

Republicans of my ilk are extremely impressed with this outstanding leader.

JAMES MITCHELL Little Rock

Civil liberties in peril

Interrogation and profiling have been effective methods of acquiring intelligence and predicting future events since the beginning of time. As enemies become aware of our electronic data-mining, they will adjust, maybe even to U.S. mail (if the government isn’t mining that also).

How much can we trample our civil liberties and continue to ignore the permanent usefulness of interrogation and profiling? Would combining interrogation and profiling only have limited effect on only a few of our citizens? While drones can be an effective way to kill someone or take pictures, does collateral damage eliminate their value as the primary anti-terrorist tool?

Should we trust a huge bureaucracy to monitor almost everything we say and write? The dangers possible from this could drastically change our country and the lives of all citizens from now on. Priorities regarding our security and liberty could not be more important.

Does our country need a political-perjury law which could bring some truth back into politics? If our politicians aren’t moral and truthful, we are risking future tyranny. Any politician proven to have made a false political statement with the intent to deceive would receive, for instance, no more than half of his/her future retirement regardless of any other punishment.

GROVER KNOLL Clarendon Just try to talk nicely

Karl Hansen’s recent letter shows how displeased he is by Baptists’ position on homosexuality. This apparent self-styled expert on Baptists, Catholics and scripture made some amazing statements.

First, he declared his disdain for Baptists in general and his own relatives in particular. There’s a little truth to his statements: As a Baptist myself, I could cut down my own brethren if my intent was to be hateful and harmful. But kindness and the fact that I’m just as bad a sinner as anyone else makes me shut up. Then he alluded to the idea that the sin of Sodom wasn’t sodomy, that somehow sodomy is okay with God.

Then Hansen made a statement that makes me wonder if he even knows any Baptists: “I don’t hear many Baptists telling their kids not to be Catholics or be around them.” Really? What a ridiculous statement. Baptists want their kids to be Baptists, too. I suppose most Baptist parents don’t forbid their children to play with Catholic kids. Of course the statement was, I believe, a transparent pretext to tie Baptists into the Catholic priestly pedophilia scandals. So by Hansen’s attempts at logic, the Baptists support pedophilia.

I think it’s a shame that Mr. Hansen talked so ugly about his father and brothers.

BRENT BAILEY Ward

Nation will be judged

Shame, shame, shame on the Supreme Court for its ruling on same sex marriage. They may well have nailed the last nail in the coffin of our nation. God will judge our nation for this evil decision.

America is destroying itself from within.

E.M. HOLMAN Little Rock

Feedback Just wastes money

Why does the FBI insist on wasting our money looking for Jimmy Hoffa? I can’t count the many times they’ve done this on a lead from someone looking for publicity.

And why is the IRS giving a $70 million employee bonus? Because this is what the government does best-waste money.

We are so used to it, we just think, “Oh well, that’s what our government does.” And our elected officials who are supposed to speak up for us just keep on collecting our checks and say nothing either.

“Of the people, by the people” is a thing of the past, I’m afraid.

VIC JOHNSON Mount Ida

Free up the space

I have a cunning plan for the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette layout.

Put an HTT (Holier Than Thou) section on the religion pages for Christians who feel the need to bash other Christians for being Christ-like.

It would free up a lot of space on the Voices page for secular stuff.

SALLYE MARTIN Fayetteville

Editorial, Pages 17 on 06/28/2013

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