Hate caused shooting
Re the mass shooting in Las Vegas: The event was tragic. We may never know the true motives behind the attack that left at least 59 dead and more than 500 injured. What I do know I shared on social media and got thousands of people thinking. I wanted to share it with you.
"The worst mass shooting our country has ever seen happened just a few hours ago in Nevada.
"Already in the comment sections of CNN, Fox, etc., there are thousands of people lashing out at each other and throwing blame around. It needs to stop right now.
"I'll make it simple. We have a hate problem in this country. We throw around hate from dusk to dawn. We hate people in comment sections because they have a different opinion. We hate people because we don't like their profile picture. We hate people because of where they come from. We are a country that loves to hate.
"That hate will continue to drive mentally unstable people, like the shooter tonight, to take hundreds of lives.
"If we want a safer world for our children ... for our future ... take a good look at yourself, and ask 'Am I fanning the flames of hate?'"
SARAH LANGLEY
Little Rock
Must aid Puerto Rico
I lived in St. Thomas in the U.S. Virgin Islands for over 20 years. When the island was devastated with a direct hit Marilyn in 1995, my eyes were opened. After the terror-filled hours were over and we came upstairs from our "safe" place, we saw our yard filled with trees, our doors blown out, many of our belongings soaked, our security fence gone, our rental cottage without a roof and two of its walls, but we realized even then we were the lucky ones.
Eighty percent of the buildings were without roofs, roads were impassable, and there was no power, no communication save one local radio station. We did not get a generator for about a month. We didn't get electricity back for three months. We didn't get TV for over a year. In the first couple of weeks most roads were cleared to at least one lane, the post office reopened, power was restored to the downtown area and the local newspaper was back up.
President Trump has tweeted that Puerto Rican officials are "not able to get their workers to help" and "want everything to be done for them when it should be a community effort," implying an absence of work ethic. St. Thomas is tiny compared to Puerto Rico. We didn't have isolated mountainous communities, bridges and roads washed out, or large urban centers more dependent on public services. The sheer difference in population magnifies the need in Puerto Rico. When you have lost your home, you have no food or water, elderly parents and infants are suffering in the heat and lack of medication, your car might have been damaged, you can't find gasoline, roads are impassable ... tell me, Mr. Trump, how are you supposed to go to work on the dock or the power plant when nothing there is functioning either?
St. Thomas lost its hospital in Irma, along with all the other problems, but I believe Puerto Rico is in worse shape and the last thing it needs is to be blamed. It needs help that only the military can provide at this point.
SUSAN WESTON
Clinton
Deadly daredevil jump
If Evel Knievel were alive today, do you think he could successfully jump either the Trump or Kim Jong Un egos individually, much less combined?
BARRY TATE
Houston
Survival skills needed
The crisis in Puerto Rico requires thinking at a most basic level. Water, food and communication are some of the most important ingredients of a solid survival plan.
While a lot of the emphasis has been placed on roads, hospital generators, ATMs or airport conditions, a much more basic need is largely not being filled.
People need water now. I believe the best way to give water in small quantities for human survival would be to educate people on the way to build "solar stills." All that is required is plastic sheeting, a few stones, a cup, a shovel, leaves, dirty water, and a hole in the ground. Water evaporates and is deposited on the plastic sheet and directed into the cup. About 250 milliliters of pure drinking water can be made per still in one night.
Since there is no power and a shortage of batteries, I believe the need for communications, at least on the AM radio dial, can be satisfied by building primitive crystal radio sets. These go back to the earliest days of radio and require only a few simple parts to build. All that is required is a diode, a coil, a headset and a long piece of wire for an antenna. No batteries or electrical power is needed. The RF energy is furnished by one's surroundings and is minimally sufficient to detect a radio station for news and information.
While it may seem trivial or basic, training in these very simple techniques can save human life. Let's begin the process today.
NORM NORTH JR.
Springdale
Hiding behind a mask
It seems Russ Roberts, a fellow at Stanford University's Hoover Institution, author, podcast host, and owner of his own Internet site medium.com, chose feigned hyperbole in the Sunday Perspective front-page article last week. Behind the mask of feigned hyperbole is righteous indignation. Behind the righteous indignation is the reaction of Socrates, Democritus and the other ancient Greek philosophers to the everyday ancient Greek society. All of this is hiding behind a mask of feigned hyperbole.
I could plagiarize the article very simply. I could hide behind the mask of feigned bemused detachment. Dick Gregory used humor.
Righteous indignation--the appropriate motive--triggers the mental defense mechanisms of the targeted reading audience. Perhaps it is better for the fools to laugh at themselves unknowingly.
JOHN ROACH
Yellville
Editorial on 10/04/2017