LETTERS

When grasshoppers laugh

The Hudson Super Six self-driving car will be available by 2015. It will be outsourced to the United States from Rwanda. The reason will be the minimum wage of $10 per hour in the United States compared with $14.50 in Rwanda.

You will be able to program your car to drive to the grocery store and park in the disabled-driver parking section. You can ride your motorcycle to the store, load your car with groceries and send it back home.

Sinclair Solar Energy will have solar-energy filling stations strategically located across the country available when the autonomous solar-powered cars arrive. The energy-efficient cars will get 100 miles to the gallon of solar energy. The drought areas of the U.S. will be the location of solar-energy liquefaction fission plants.

When safety is no longer a concern, passenger cars will go on the market for those that believe the digital mind-invading sock-it-to-you advertising.

This is all nonsense coming from an enervated standup comic.

The real and true issue of concern is the reality of global warming. The grasshopper laughs as the honeybee informs him that global-warming disaster is only 15 years away.

The rise in temperature is evaporating water from the earth’s land and ocean surfaces at an accelerated rate. The jet stream moves moisture away from drought areas and flooding into other areas. Warm- and cold-weather events are made more severe due to the added moisture.

You know he is a redneck when the grasshopper laughs.

RICHARD BULLARD

Stuttgart

Protecting our rights

I find it astonishing that someone would actually compare the travails of actors and actresses with the service of our brave men and women in uniform. Really?

If I were in charge, I would require this person to personally meet with a vet who is missing a leg or an arm or part of a face or all of the above. This is the real world of our brave soldiers, not the make-believe world of acting. And by the way, these soldiers have sacrificed so that folks have the freedom to express thoughtless comments in public forums or anywhere else they so choose.

I salute our military, one and all, and I will continue to afford them the respect they deserve and have earned. To all potential boneheads out there, please think about what you’re saying and thank your lucky stars there are brave men and women in uniform who are willing to go the extra mile to protect your right to be a bonehead.

BRENDA LEE JOHNSON

Hot Springs Village

Allow testing in case

Coverage of Belynda Goff’s case has brought attention to the 20 nightmarish years she and her family have endured. Finding her husband killed was only the beginning.

Having read files on the case, there’s much that doesn’t add up. Belynda failed a lie-detector test done hours after she found her husband dead. She had been closed up, left alone, and was understandably frantic. As a mother and widow, I understand anguish over the death of a husband and worry for your children. Today, scientific research doesn’t support the accuracy of such tests. They’re rarely accepted as admissible evidence in U.S. courts.

No murder weapon was identified, and possible weapons tested negative for tissue or blood. I’m no authority, but we’ve heard, “No weapon means no conviction.” That wasn’t the case here. Isn’t that strange?

Someone beaten to death in the home, blood found only under the body plus “a few diluted drops” in the bathtub drain? Is this possible? The victim lived there; wouldn’t his cells, and similar cells from his sons, naturally be in the drain?

The Innocence Project focuses on DNA testing. The prosecuting attorney says he is reluctant to open a closed case. Why?

The prosecuting attorney is fighting the request for DNA testing. Why?

Why is the Innocence Project even interested in this? They’ve researched this for nine years. They believe there’s more.

It’s time for the whole story. Belynda has always upheld her innocence. Thankfully this case is again being noticed.

CATHY JONES

Ozark

Reminder of struggle

Thank God for Turner Classic Movies. Without them, how would we remember how truly awful it once was to be a woman in America?

Take, for example, the recent showing of 1959 film The Best of Everything. Joan Crawford, hanging on grimly in the twilight of her career, plays the tough, emotionally deformed lady editor who has let her chance for love and marriage pass her by. Suzy Parker goes dependably mad when dumped by the playboy director who has seduced her, catches her high heel in the grate of his fire escape, and plunges to her death. Diane Baker is the naïve bumpkin who permits herself to be impregnated by her rich boyfriend, but fortunately is flung out of his sports car as he attempts to drag her to the neighborhood abortionist, after which she miscarries but is saved by the love of the sweet young doctor who has swathed her head in bandages. Only Hope Lange appears to achieve salvation through the promise of-what else?-marriage.

I remember being newly divorced in the early ’70s and trying to find a job to support my son and me with no family, no money, hardly any work experience, and no college degree (I finally got the degree magna cum laude in 2003).

Believe me, gentlemen, you may have thought the ’50s were a really great time in this country, but for a lot of women, until Betty Friedan and Roe v. Wade came along, nobody was having much fun but married women with adoring husbands.

ANN LINK

Little Rock

Where to put needles

Re the letter about discarding used needles: Walgreens carries needle boxes. When they are full, you can send them off in the mail and you will receive a new one.

ANNA WOOD

Cherokee Village

Fall of great nation?

I would like to respond to the man who was “pretty tired of those who judge Mark Pryor’s Christianity.” I believe the Bible specifically teaches we are to judge those “within” the church and not those who are “without.”

Yes, there are many interpretations of the Bible, but I believe this is not God’s will. The Bible teaches Jesus is the only way to the father. On Oct. 4, 1982, Public Law 97-280, Congress declared that the Bible is the word of God.

If the description “Taliban-like Christians” means that Christians should stand strong for what they believe, this man is right.

Most people have choices. We are all sinners and we all have a sin that so easily entangles us. I believe those who practice a sin will not inherit the kingdom of God, period. It is the God of the Bible that pronounced what should happen to those who have been found to be a homosexual or murderer. It is man who changes things around to suit himself, not God.

It appears this man thinks I am a Republican. I am not. I am a strong conservative who looks at, first, the party platform, which I believe tells me how a person will vote on certain issues. On the issues of homosexuality and abortion, I stand on the side of God.

As I recall history, it seems many nations that were great fell when homosexuality was rampant and God was ignored. I believe our country has reached this point.

BOB McATEE

Little Rock

Humility, acceptance

As a Christian and a human, I’m appalled by Mike Jenkins’ presumptuous, politicizing and exclusivist letter in which he engages in unmitigated Christian boosterism. His pharisaic hubris is stunning when he extols the virtues of himself and his church. I believe he further reveals that he lives in an alternate universe when he states that he has never “seen an atheist or Christian-basher serving others.”

Mr. Jenkins seems to think that only Christians live lives of service, apparently unaware that lives of compassion and caring are lived every day by those who serve out of a sense of simple humanity and common decency. Mr. Jenkins is also apparently unaware of the account in Luke of John’s reporting to Jesus: “Master, we saw one casting out devils in thy name: and we forbade him, because he followed not us.” The casting out of evil spirits was one of the foremost signs of apostleship; and what surprised John was that a nonfollower should have been able to work this miracle which, it will be remembered, the disciples had recently failed. It thus appears that our Lord’s teaching had been so influential, that some not reckoned among his disciples had shown proof of a strong and overpowering faith. Jesus instructed the apostles not to hinder the works of that man.

As a girl, I spent many a happy hour with my grandmother. We read the Bible every day and, at night, would close our bedtime prayers with, “God, have mercy on me, a sinner.” In humility, acceptance and gratitude for God’s grace, without condemnation and harsh judgment of others, do we approach God. I believe a god who condones otherwise is not worthy of being worshipped.

PATRICIA DUKE

Wynne

Lack of understanding

I read in this space, seemingly almost daily, the accusation by too many that anyone who quotes or refers to the Bible is judging someone. I believe this idea is obviously initiated by emotional, not rational, thought.

I suppose the only example all might relate to is the concept of man’s laws. Laws are made, in this case, by bodies of representatives elected by majority vote of the people. These laws are rules created in hopes of governing behavior to protect and benefit society. Such laws have consequences when broken. When broken, the offender is allowed an advocate, usually a licensed attorney, to represent him before a judge, whose role it is to fairly weigh the evidence presented and render judgment as to guilt or innocence. The penalty for being judged guilty is clearly communicated.

The Bible also states the laws and penalties resulting from guilt. I believe God also has provided an advocate for the offender, but our advocate when we are guilty of breaking God’s laws uniquely takes our punishment for us when we have faith in his advocacy for us.

Now back to the world. We are judged by the one who has that power and right. But when his/her judgment is repeated, we don’t malign the one repeating the judge’s determination as a warning to others. But somehow doing this in the case of biblical law makes us the judge to some. I think this reaction shows a complete lack of understanding what the Bible teaches.

MICHAEL SANDERS

Little Rock

Feedback

A workout, at least

I agree with the letter to the editor about improving the paper stock. The one good thing about the “roll-up paper” is that our arms get a morning workout fighting the roll-ups.

I realize it is probably a cost-saving measure, same as Kleenex and toilet paper getting smaller and thinner-we won’t go there.

We do appreciate a fine newspaper and really appreciate your delivery people for the fine job they have been doing during this tough weather. We haven’t been brave enough to drive on our streets for about a week now, but our paper deliverer has only missed one day-they are the best.

DOUG WARINGS

Eureka Springs

Carrier perserveres

No trash pickup and no snow plow, but even in this brutal winter weather our daily paper has been in the walkway every morning.

Thank you to our carrier for her excellent service.

GEORGE and DOTTIE RAHNE

Rogers