Things have changed
a lot since Eisenhower
President Trump's budget proposal that would increase military spending by 35 percent while making drastic cuts in services to the poor and disadvantaged causes me to recall another Republican president from a different time and to reflect on how far America has shifted politically to the right.
Dwight Eisenhower, Allied supreme commander during World War II and Republican president, said in a speech on April 16, 1953: "Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed."
The fact is Eisenhower was at the time considered middle-of-the-road politically, and he was essentially reflecting the view of the majority of Americans at the time, a view put into words by a Democratic president, Franklin Roosevelt, who said we were fighting World War II to achieve four freedoms, the fourth of which was Freedom from Want.
Another thing Ike, as we called him, said was that he would like to see every American covered in a health policy "like we had in the Army." I personalty can attest to what this entails because I got free dental and medical treatment while I served in the Army. So you can see how we have shifted from a more humane view of an earlier time to a view that is essentially Social Darwinism, or "survival of the fittest," and to hell with those who can't make it on their own.
Can you blame some of us old-timers for being nostalgic about the political milieu of our youth?
Duane Carr
Elkins
Editorial washes governor's hands of deaths
For the most part, I have been impressed by the Democrat-Gazette's coverage of Arkansas' upcoming executions. News articles have been informative, detailed, and often featured prominently on the front page. Opinion pieces have presented the views of both opponents and supporters of the death penalty.
I think specifically of the guest columns submitted by Catholic Bishop Anthony Taylor and Episcopal Bishop Larry Benfield in opposition and the columns of Dana D. Kelley in support.
I applaud the editorial of Friday, April 14, for acknowledging the gravity of the situation and for acknowledging that "every Arkansan will be represented in the death chamber." Indeed, the state is preparing to kill on our behalf, whether we like it or not.
However, something was missing from the editorial that day, a day known as "Good Friday" on the Christian calendar.
The penultimate paragraph acknowledges a need for debate about the death penalty and for scrutiny in how it is carried out. Unfortunately, the editorial errs in saying that it "is not Asa Hutchinson's decision to make."
Since the governor must decide to sign a death warrant or commute the sentence to life imprisonment, it is very much his decision.
Being printed on Good Friday, the editorial should have concluded, "Pontius Pilate washed his own hands (Matthew 27:24), but this paper happily washes Gov. Hutchinson's hands for him."
Rev. Jason M. Tyler
Fayetteville
Commentary on 04/16/2017