Inappropriate speech
Representative French Hill, and Senators John Boozman and Tom Cotton, as my elected congressional representatives, I call you to speak out to denounce the embarrassing, inappropriate speech by President Trump to the Boy Scouts.
I am appalled by the tenor and content of the speech. He began with profanity. He moved on to derision of a former president, a political opponent, and the Congress. He bullied his own Cabinet member. He indulged in self-adulation. He told an anecdote about a wealthy man and the goings-on on his yacht that echoed the infamous Billy Bush tape.
I expect you to be moral standard-bearers, men of conscience, to speak out against the offensive and un-American behavior.
I'm a former troop secretary and proud mother of an Eagle Scout.
CYNTHIA HOWINGTON
Little Rock
Unselfish generosity
While driving home recently from a stewardship and finance committee meeting where we discussed how to encourage generosity among members of our downtown First United Methodist Church, as I passed by Terry Elementary School on Mara Lynn Drive, I saw an unusual sight: a woman and a teenage girl sitting in lawn chairs in front of the open hatchback of their car. A hand-lettered sign stated "Free sandwiches."
The image was riveting to me. Though hurrying home to prepare dinner, I decided to go around the block and come back to double-check what I had just observed. I stopped and visited for a few minutes, inquiring whether it was a PTA project or a mission program of their church.
I learned that it is solely a service project for the mother and her teenage daughter, whose idea it was to make sandwiches on a regular basis to give away because of concern about children being hungry, especially in the summer. So they drive often to this location because it is across the street from a row of duplexes and two blocks of apartment buildings which assumably house many children and families of modest income. They said that since their offers are not always accepted, before returning home they drive to a nearby intersection where homeless people often stand begging for food and donations from passing drivers. They said no peanut butter and jelly sandwiches are ever wasted.
I asked if I might take their picture but did not ask their names. Perhaps I will see them again, but in the meantime, I am thanking God that I could witness their unselfish acts of generosity in these troubling times.
PAT LILE
Little Rock
Why I'm Republican
I think all the negative letters in response to Ashton Miller's letter should give a pretty good clue as to what is wrong with our society today. The perceived outrageous attitude someone must have to suggest people actually pay for their own health insurance; next he'll be advocating they pay for their own food, and heaven forbid, even paying to raise their children themselves.
It seems Democrats have spent many years creating a large portion of our society totally dependent on the forced charity of taxpayers with the only goal in mind of creating a class willing to vote for Democrats to keep that charity care coming, the majority of that class never having paid into the system, generations being trained only to milk the system with no ambition to gain anything on their own.
Why would anyone wonder why we have so much crime and violence these days when it's pretty obvious that we have created such a large portion of our population that has never earned anything so has no respect for the hard work of others and their property? No respect for themselves or anyone else and hate those that have the things they want and feel that it is their right to take what they want by any means necessary. Of course they also hate the police for trying to stop them from exercising their "right" to steal or kill.
Recently an acquaintance of mine was chastising me for being a Republican, saying that Republicans just didn't care about people's needs the way the Democrats do because Democrats spend lots of government money taking care of the poor. I asked her where she thought the government got all that money. The lady looked at me aghast and replied, "why, the government prints the money, don't you know anything!"
For all those reasons, I'm proud to say that I am not a Democrat.
JOHN A. YATES
Conway
Time with millennials
I opened the newspaper recently to yet another letter griping about how spoiled and entitled today's young people are. I've become convinced that those who complain the most about members of the younger generation don't spend meaningful time around them.
Just last week in my community, I stood on holy ground as a group of grief-stricken young people gathered to remember an exceptional peer of theirs whose life had ended tragically. Most of these young people had just graduated from high school and have been busy planning dorm rooms, cleaning out their childhood bedrooms, and packing for college.
But that day, they stopped to remember a friend they will have to leave behind. For many of them, this was their first exceptional loss--one that was especially cruel.
The young man's friends pulled together this beautiful tribute to him in a short period of time--basically in a day.
I teach college freshmen and, every semester, I encounter 18-year-olds who are putting themselves through school, caring for other family members, or already raising a child. Some of them have experienced things in their short lives that I can't imagine even at 45. They inspire me every day.
Today's young people are bright and optimistic. They are wickedly funny and make me laugh like no one else can. They are sincere. They love genuinely and grieve deeply.
Please stop with the hand-wringing. If our future is in this generation's hands, we will be fine. And blessed beyond measure.
DEANA NALL
Bryant
Truckers' real concern
I think one of the greatest needed changes in law that is brushed under the carpet and reality hits many every day. The trucking laws are far-reaching past the occupant behind the driver seat. They affect passenger vehicles and the other big rigs doing the heavy lifting to bring everything you use but your birthday suit.
Like so many things, it seems common sense has been removed from public discussion to massage special interests. Unfortunately, average citizens are affected whether they know it or not, beginning with life-and-death safety to the price of what you pay for a product.
To drivers of trucks, it's being placed between that rock and a hard place.
I believe electronic logs don't solve any problems but are more like snake oil that causes problems; the real purpose is to do away with the small truckers. They don't make highways safer when I see drivers speed through truck stops, work zones, and having 100 parking spots with 150 trucks needing to park. Like in a lot of areas of life, I believe the government is the problem.
Hours of sleep needed by individual drivers should be the concern, not one size fits all. I know no truck driver who is drugged up and not wanting to sleep. Good sleep or quality sleep is what makes a driver safe.
FLOYD HOPSON
Hazen
Editorial on 07/28/2017