Unjust to the victims
The recent column praising the pope for clarifying his opposition to the death penalty misses the point.
For centuries the church, officially, including Thomas Aquinas, Augustine, all the popes up to the mid-20th century, taught that the state had the duty and right to inflict the death penalty for murder of the innocent.
Most Catholics, like me, support the death penalty. After all, if we had captured Hitler after World War II, would it have been justice for the 6 million Jews to save him from the gallows? Of course not. Why should I believe this pope when hundreds of previous popes, plus the early writers of the Bible, say it's unjust to the innocent victim to fail to inflict the most severe punishment?
DON CURDIE
Little Rock
On struggling schools
In response to your editorial "Achievement places" last Wednesday, I want to share my recent experience visiting the Little Rock School District school that you choose to deliberately denigrate in comparison to the ScholarMade Achievement Place charter school (which just opened in the renovated Mitchell School).
Stephens Elementary is a clean, modern school, built in 2000. I was there on Aug. 3 with other volunteers, delivering school supplies collected by the Junior League of Little Rock to make sure the students at Stephens have fresh new supplies to start their school year. The school was sparkling clean and the staff members we encountered were friendly and helpful. This school is connected to a neighborhood recreation center run by Little Rock Parks and Recreation. There is a community garden across the street that is well cared for, and it is five blocks south of the new 12th Street Police Station. The neighborhood north of the school has a number of new and/or nicely refurbished homes, mainly due to the efforts of Better Community Developers.
Yes, most of Stephens' students are low income and minority, and their achievement levels are lower than those of schools in more affluent areas. Personally, I have great respect for the teachers who accept the challenge of teaching those students; they should be encouraged rather than slammed in a statewide newspaper the week before the new school year starts. I suggest that citizens of Little Rock (including your editorial staff) who want to make a positive impact on struggling schools commit to volunteering one hour per week with a program like AR Kids Read, spending one-on-one time with students reading below grade level.
GINNY KURRUS
Little Rock
Down to regulations
Re RL Hutson's letter about political differences: I agree completely about party politics.
A poster I read somewhere sums it up. The Democrats wish to regulate business and deregulate individuals while Republicans wish to deregulate business and regulate the individual.
EDITH SEAMAN
Lakeview
Supporters of Trump
From reading the Democrat-Gazette one would surmise that there are no Trump supporters in Arkansas. That is certainly not so. Many anti-Trump letters write that they cannot wait to replace all Republicans with Democrats. Then one of your staff writers, Phillip Martin, revealed his bias when he panned Dinesh D'Souza's right-wing movie Death of a Nation. But Mr. Harold Chilton's recent letter set the record straight. Mr. Chilton said it was an excellent movie. It was an excellent movie.
I have coffee each week with more than 20 retired professionals. All of them are Trump supporters (maybe except one). We all have one thing in common about Trump and that is we hate his constant tweets, his bragging and blabbering. We would tell him to zip it. One question that comes up frequently at these coffees is why is the Democrat-Gazette so liberal.
I certainly hope that my Democrat friends are not successful in replacing Republicans. It is not a pleasant thought that Senators Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, Kamala Harris and Cory Booker would run our country. Open borders, free this and that for everybody. Scary!
RUSS BAILEY
Little Rock
Plan that won't work
Let me get this straight. The TSA (Thousands Standing Around), to save money, will cut air marshals and not do scanning at small airports, but will do checks after arrival at larger airports. So if you fly from Fort Walton Beach, Fla., to Little Rock with a connection in Atlanta, they won't check you in Florida, but upon arrival somehow put you in the Atlanta TSA screening and not the terminal, so you will miss your flight due to the long TSA lines.
That's a great plan that won't work.
The TSA's problem is low pay (about $39,000 base, for what they do put up with), low morale, very high turnover rate, and boasting a 95 percent failure to detect fake bombs. Don't blame the scanners. We pay a lot of money for security and this is the best the government can do?
Congress needs to fix this, not fight or point fingers. You need to talk to your representatives and tell them we are fed up with their inaction and self-bandage to kick the can down the road. We need supervision to move extra people to empty lines to move the lines, and pay these people what they're (we're) worth. You get what you pay for, right?
ANDREW L. NEDOROLIK
Lonoke
Editorial on 08/15/2018