Letters

Set high bar for U.S.

Congratulations to the Brit people. The Brexit vote was a testament to your courage and convictions for a more people-controlled government.

Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and the naysayers have predicted the ruin and doom of Britain, and I believe your vote verified the lack of influence and confidence in their predictions. The naysayers will rejoice in the short term, but remember pain is temporary and pride lasts forever.

I hope the American voters that support Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump can find the same courage in November.

America needs a change from super-delegates and super-money-appointed candidates. In this process Bernie never had a chance. The election and the hard work of Bernie supporters was over before the election started.

Congratulations to the Brit voters, you swatted this one out of the park. You set a high bar for the American voters in November.

MORRIS POLSTON

Hot Springs Village

Questions, no answers

Sometimes in this crazy, hectic world we live in, there seem to be purposeful interruptions to slow us down.

Recently while having coffee, I became aware of a rare bluebird, a female I'm sure, staring at me through one of two large windows overlooking a small lake at my backyard.

She began flying into the glass of one window. After several attempts, she lit on a nearby line, rested, came back to try and try again against the other window. She flew away only to return after 30 minutes. This time I counted 27 attempts to crash through the glass. Would you believe 15 more, then seven and after almost an hour she left, not to return?

By this time I am totally engrossed in the moment, filled with several questions, but no answers. Was there an obvious message? What so motivated this tiny bird? Do all God's creatures share a commonality in living with insatiable needs of every kind? Is there a strong instinct to explore our environment: to search for a nest, a home, a place to give life to our offspring?

I'm sure you have an answer to this unusual interruption. Could it be a short relief from the relentless presidential election media blitz?

JACK MURPHY

Little Rock

Still looking for one

My hope is that I will live long enough to vote for a presidential candidate again rather than against one. It has been a while, and at 82 it appears unlikely.

DAVE WOODMAN

Little Rock

Words worth a repeat

The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette's June 19 issue contained an excellent Philip Martin column titled "The historical inevitability of Donald Trump."

Most folks do not have time to peruse newspapers in depth, but the following quote from his column deserves repetition: "It's easier to embrace some demagogue who promises magical solutions than it is to realize that the only way to begin to make the world better is to make yourself better."

GYPSY NEL HICKS

Little Rock

Insensitive and cruel

The name, Special Ed's Brewery, as well as the related themes and slogans--including "ride the short bus to special beer," "back of the bus brown ale" and "'tard tested, 'tard approved"--are flagrant mockeries of people with intellectual and developmental disabilities.

What the owners, Ed and Cheryl Mason, have done is not harmless, tongue-in-cheek, or misguided. It is cruel and calculated to generate sales at the expense of others. They say that they never intended to make fun of people with special needs and believe the social media backlash is "ridiculous." Let me tell you what is ridiculous--the content and tone of their so-called apology.

Are they parents? If so, clearly they've never known the pain of lying awake at night worrying about your special-needs child. It is safe to say that neither experienced the agony of knowing your own flesh and blood is in pain and cannot tell you what hurts. I'm confident they do not live with the knowledge that one day they will die and leave their disabled child behind, vulnerable, in a world where people such as them are downright mean. I would be willing to bet everything I own that they've never loved someone with a disability. If they had, they would have never, ever considered the name, slogans or themes associated with their business.

If statistics prove true, there is a 33 percent chance of having a child, grandchild, niece, nephew or other family member with a significant disability. If that happens in their future, the choices they made to try to make some money and gain a little fame will haunt them. They have failed miserably on all accounts. Their advertising scheme has left no one laughing, and the business will fail. I am positive their products are every bit as tasteless as them.

LESLYE MORSE

Bentonville

Criminals don't care

For the umpteenth time it seems we are going to solve our problems with another gun-control law. I wonder if anyone ever considered that people that are criminals are that way because they have no respect for the law. So the answer seems to be to take away the guns of law-abiding citizens because some nutcase shoots these same law-abiding citizens that don't have a gun.

Why not pass a law that would automatically add 20 years to any sentence of a felon who committed a crime while a gun was in his possession? It might make him think twice before he takes his gun with him, because I can assure you that he is not going to comply with any gun-control laws!

LAWRENCE H. ALLEN

Highland

Editorial on 06/29/2016

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