Letters

I see that the University of Arkansas is proposing a totally online degree program. As an academic adviser for the past 15 years at SAU Magnolia, I appreciate the benefits of the flexibility of online classes. Online courses are especially valuable for older, more mature undergraduate and graduate students who have jobs and families and cannot afford to relocate close to campus or incur expensive commuting expenses. I fully support online programs for mature students under these circumstances.

However, I am concerned that the pendulum of totally online degree programs will swing too far. At home alone with a computer does not meet the needs of all students, especially young, immature teenagers straight out of high school. These students are still learning life skills that cannot be replicated by a computer course.

Even in a small university such as SAU, we have students from many states and 59 foreign countries. Universities offer many support services and programs for the benefit of their students. Academic advising centers, tutoring and personal counseling services, health clinics, and other support services are all available on the university campus. The university campus environment is an excellent place for an impressionable teenager to develop and mature. Another advantage is the proliferation of intellectual, social, and cultural organizations and events found on the university campus.

The on-campus educational experience provides a much greater opportunity for a much greater array of learning opportunities in a supportive environment, especially for younger, less mature students. The total college experience is still the best option for high school graduates.

LARRY McNEAL

Waldo

Typical sorority girl?

People call me a dumb sorority girl, and say that I am paying for friends. I know that they are only judging me based on a movie stereotype, like Legally Blonde. I believe the real sorority girls live way past their stereotype by the things they have to do. Everyone should respect the Greek system because it shapes and forms great individuals.

I have to maintain a certain GPA to be in the sorority and be declared as a full-time student. Some sororities even have mandatory study hours. I know I will always be on top of my grades because of my sorority's commitment to academic success.

I pay a little amount for what I get out of my sorority. I get to do amazing things with my great sisters. I have fun at every community-service event, and I know that I actually help people. I don't pay for friends, but I do pay to have a good experience and I'm the happiest I've ever been. When I came to college I was on anti-depressants. After one week of being in my sorority, I was off them.

I don't understand people who hate on the Greek system because it is the reason why I'm doing great in college. It makes me who I am today and opens new doors for me daily. I really do encourage everyone to go Greek in hopes of it making them well-rounded like it did me.

LINDSEY ROLAND

Little Rock

Came down from past

Prejudice from white people against black people might be a disease passed down from their ancestors beginning with slavery, just like black people being angry might be passed down from how bad black people's African ancestors were treated as slaves.

HENRY GOODLOE

Pine Bluff

Can't help ourselves

Lindsey Bever of the Washington Post recently wrote an article about "text neck," and how smartphone users are causing serious injury to their necks and spines. It gave good advice on how to hold your phone in a proper way, but what about Americans like me who have probably stretched their neck to a complete "text neck" angle? Many people in America cause harm to themselves every day without even trying.

As a college student, I spend hours a day on my phone and laptop, and with a laptop it is very hard to position the screen to eye level so you aren't looking down at your lap. Maybe the odds of stopping people from causing harm to their body is like winning the lottery. Many people like Bever care about where Americans are ending up in the future, but there are more that don't pay attention.

Many doctors have said that phones can give you cancer, arthritis, and bad eyesight. In the century of technology, it changes every day and health issues rise. In 2009, ABC News stated that there were seven different health issues caused by cell phones; imagine how many there are in today's world.

Americans using electronics the proper way is like Americans eating in a proper way; we all know that fast food is bad for our health, but many of us consume it more and more each day. We will consume electronics until we can't stand straight.

SELENA McNEALY

Bentonville

Paper-boy memories

This is from a paper boy who had a route in McGehee, in 1938-39, when the Democrat was an evening paper. We met the train from Little Rock after school, got on our bikes and got those papers to the customers. Some wanted them behind the screen door, and that's where they got them. A subscription was, I think, 35 cents a week and we had to collect each week; a good customer, we would collect from once a month. A few customers we had to go back to two or three times to collect. Those were hard times.

I subbed for the Commercial Appeal paper boy occasionally and met that 4:30 a.m. train out of Memphis. McGehee was a service stop for the trains to get ready for the next run.

A station beanery stayed busy. If I sold five papers around the station, I could buy a nickel hamburger for breakfast. If I didn't sell five, I could still get a "greasy" for two cents. The cook took a bun and swirled it around on the greasy grill and it got me home and to breakfast after I threw the route.

WILLIAM PAGE HILL

Springdale

Spectrum of opinion

Since no one to date has done so, I would like to remark on a pair of recent letters regarding color. The first writer defined black as the combination of all colors and white as the absence. The second writer objected to this, defining white as the totality of all visible colors.

Both writers are, of course, correct. The first was referring to pigment and the second to light, in which case black is simply the absence of light. Both spectra are involved in all our acts of seeing. I will not enter in to what I believe to be this paper's often prejudicial use (or lack thereof) of the words with respect to people.

On the subject of another frequent theme on this page, I offer my considered opinion that it is not possible to be, properly speaking, intelligent and at the same time, properly speaking, atheist. I would gladly expound this thesis but cannot in fewer than 250 words. Suffice to say, I believe most confusion arises from woolly thinking and improper usage.

Finally, if anyone is inclined to imagine that today's political environment is in any sense recent, I heartily recommend a reading of Washington Irving's History of New York.

Happy Christmas to all.

STANLEY G. JOHNSON

Little Rock

Seems eerily similar

After reading your editorial about Issue No. 3 or Amendment 94, I had to wonder if Sen. Jon Woods and Rep. Warwick Sabin might have consulted Professor Jonathan Gruber, an architect of Obamacare, when writing this proposal. They sure seem to share the same opinion of the voters.

JIM HENNEBERGER

Austin

Remember that day

Dec. 7, 2014, was the 73rd anniversary of Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor. I was disappointed when you did not have a news story in the paper concerning the lives that were lost and the ships and planes that were destroyed.

I enlisted in the U.S. Navy in September of 1940. After finishing boot camp and machinist school, I was stationed on a repair ship, the USS Vulcan, in the North Atlantic. The USS Vulcan also served as a supply ship for the Atlantic fleet by furnishing them with fuel, food and other supplies.

Even though the U.S. had not declared war, she was assisting Great Britain by protecting the convoys of merchant ships that were hauling supplies. In October 1941, one U.S. destroyer was sunk and another one damaged by German submarines.

In 1943, I was transferred to an aircraft carrier, the USS Manila Bay CVE-61, in the South Pacific. This ship carried a squadron of 16 fighter planes and 12 torpedo planes. Her planes supported the Army and Marines during the invasions on the Marshall Islands, Bismark Archipelago, Western New Guinea, Leyte, Luzon and Okinawa.

As a World War II veteran, I have a good memory of that war and how it affected this great nation of ours. Our younger generation needs to be taught and we all need to remember Pearl Harbor.

MARVIN HENDERSON

Humphrey

Deputy Editor Frank Fellone says: We published a local story, wire story and a local photograph of Pearl Harbor commemorations on Dec. 8, the day after they occurred.

For the common good

In 30 days or so, I will gain my 87th year. The wisdom that should come with that much experience at staying alive has seemed to elude me.

I truly wish my anti-government Republican friends would explain to me how they can expect the public to be protected without the myriad regulations which have been set up to correct abuses--abuses that cried out for the regulations that the anti-government people now complain about.

We now have 300 million souls in this great land and that number will someday reach 400 million. Can anyone think that we can have social order without big government? Can anyone really believe that huge multinational corporations can be prevented from exploitative practices without strong government watchdogs? Does anyone believe that unregulated banking will do anything but bring on another great recession?

I did not spend my Army time so that this great nation can be used to further the ends of those who only care to enrich themselves, with no thought of the common good.

TED ZABEL

Cherokee Village

Feedback

Didn't think of it

Apparently it has not occurred to the atheist group putting up the billboard ads critical of Christmas that anyone who says that they are "too old for fairly tales" would not be writing to Santa. And, I have to wonder if these same folks would refuse to be treated in a faith-based hospital or clinic if they had critical health needs.

I would bet that given a severe heart attack, any hospital full of crosses or any other religious symbols would be just fine and dandy. It probably wouldn't be considered "Christian" to tell them to go to their nearest atheist facility.

JOHN EATON

Benton

He chutes, misses

You're kidding me, right? Saturday, top left, first paragraph, first line: "First jump out of the shoot ..."

Fer Pete's sake--this is the editorial page--last place I expected that kind of blunder. LOL!

SKIP HARRIS

Benton

Editorial on 12/19/2014

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