Letters

Evil exists in world

Re college students: So your concept of evil is somebody calling you a name. It seems you hate this country because you have been taught to do so. You probably would scoff at the idea of sacrificing to protect this evil country.

I believe evil is real. You most likely have not yet seen its face. The road you want this country to go down, I assure you, you will see it soon. You will write songs about the good old days that you hated.

I know that all old geezers gripe about the youth, yet you make the ground so fertile. Ask the French people today about evil. Their parents and grandparents have seen it before.

Your actions remind me of Hitler. Perhaps you should study history instead of the Kardashians.

ROBERT KITTELSON

Powhatan

Must love ourselves

A movement could change the way young adults and teens see themselves, and change our society for the better. This movement is called #loveyourself. In today's society, teenage boys and girls are expected to look a certain way, weigh a certain weight, and wear a certain type of clothing. Many have became bulimic, depressed, and suicidal. Doctors think a way to treat this is to shove many pills down our throats and expect us to be okay.

How can someone be okay whenever they are constantly being ridiculed for not fitting into this society? Models in magazines, things that we look at on a daily basis on social media, are airbrushed and give off an unrealistic look that no one will be able to achieve. Teens see a woman praised for being beautiful, but is she real? Many teenagers wake up and look at themselves completely disgusted because no one is able to tell them the truth, that they are beautiful.

Thirteen-year-old girls have resorted to sending nudes to boys that couldn't care less about them just to get a compliment. Society has placed unrealistic images in young teens' minds of how they should be. These teenagers spend so much time, energy and money on becoming something that they aren't.

It is so much easier to become yourself and find peace in yourself. You find a certain type of confidence that you never knew you had. I want this movement to change minds. It is tiring seeing many teenagers fall into a pit of darkness because they are not getting accepted for what they truly are. Beautiful.

HAIDEN BURCH

Springdale

Is there reason for it?

I watch the Channel 11 news all the time. The one thing that bugs the hell out of me is the people on the news desk going outside with the weatherman.

JAY SHAFFER

Malvern

Morals once cherished

I believe it is our sovereign God who puts men and women in power and removes them from power. Our American culture has been decaying for more than a half-century. We are in chaos because we have sunk to the level of moral bankruptcy.

Our system has run amok.

The Bible says, "Woe to them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter." It seems the morals once cherished--the institution of marriage, personal holiness, hard work, integrity in the home and workplace--are now regarded as the exception rather than the rule. Faith and the Bible are ridiculed.

Moral rules are scorned.

We are a nation of insanity. Yet this Thanksgiving day we can be thankful that God above is sovereign indeed.

HARRY HOHENSTEIN

Searcy

Kindness of strangers

On Sunday morning around 10:30, at the IHOP restaurant on Chenal and Heritage, some unknown patron paid for my breakfast.

The Lord will bless them. I can only say thank you. Thank you so very much.

C.E. RABON

Little Rock

Foxy fallaciousness

Megyn Kelly and her blond-haired, big-eyed, cleavaged sisters of the fairy-tale news network have turned countless near-back-of-the-bell-curve students of current events into Phi Beta Kappas. Homely Greta Van Susteren, bless her heart, is as painful to watch as Rachel Maddow and should not proselytize alone. Ninety percent of my friends are firmly ensconced toward the back-of-the-bell and don't know Benghazi from Ben Gay, but they glory now in their newfound enlightenment. The only noticeable damage I see are HD pixel burns on their retinas. It's an ingenious concept, news via beautiful women. Beautiful women don't lie because they don't have to. Truly, what fools we hormonal mortals be.

Give me instead this Democrat-Gazette with its objective reports on world, national and state events, its business updates, hints from Heloise and New York Times' tiny, numbered crossword puzzles. Give me "my girl," a nonbiased, intelligent, witty, fact-obsessed, cookie-baking word nerd who is owned by a cat. She rides herd on our poison tongues and unbridled rants, making us appear smarter.

My advice to Tea Partiers is avoid John Brummett, or read him to your cat. It may dislodge a hairball. I believe Mr. Brummett redeems himself through insightful and often humorous reporting of the machinations of state politics. Liberals should pass over Charles Krauthammer entirely, but I feel Bradley Gitz's musings should be carefully compiled and stored in the cloud, the Oort cloud, say, a light year past Pluto or, better yet, wadded and inserted in his oxford bottom.

Semper Fi.

BLANE WILHITE

Piggott

True roots forgotten

Stephen Hopkins was one of 102 people who crossed a stormy ocean on a small boat to escape persecution. The boat was the Mayflower.

Stephen's descendants helped build our nation. They fought in Washington's army. Another of his descendants is me. That means I belong to an historic American family.

It also means I belong to a refugee family.

People I do not know enabled my ancestors to flee oppression and start a new life in a new land. People I do not know built the schools and provided the scholarships I have enjoyed. Most of us are like that. People we do not know fought for our ancestors' freedom and opened doors for us. In one way or another, most of us are refugees.

Now I find, with shame, that my state wants to close its doors to refugees--close its doors to people like my ancestor Stephen Hopkins. We have forgotten our roots. We have turned timid and protective, more like the people our parents fled than the people they embraced. We have let fear stunt our generosity. We fear needy children, women and men, forgetting that our own people were once like them.

Some day we may hear an invitation from the one who gives all of us life and refuge: "Come, ye blessed, inherit the kingdom, for I was a stranger and you welcomed me." Will we be among those who merit this invitation?

BILL RICE

Bella Vista

Editorial on 11/26/2015

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