LETTERS TO THE EDITOR: He is unfit for office; On endless scandals; Interrogating history

He is unfit for office

To Sen. Tom Cotton: You have an opportunity to be a leader and a patriot at this critical moment in our nation's history. If you will openly state what most of your colleagues must know, that the president should be impeached and removed from office, that he is unfit for the office, others will follow you. It is time to advance the well-being of our nation over loyalty to party.

As more and more evidence of Trump's corruption is revealed, he will be unsupportable. He has acknowledged that he asked a foreign government to investigate his political rival. This after he openly asked for Russia's assistance in the 2016 election. Undermining our election integrity is traitorous behavior. The wall has cracked and more witnesses to his self-dealing will come forward. John Bolton reportedly said he would not support the "drug deal" that Giuliani was making for the president. Others will come forward, and the truth will be known.

A man so impetuous and ill-informed is dangerous. Exhibit One: Erdogan phone call and the abandonment of our Kurdish allies.

I saw a news clip of you at the Trump rally in Minneapolis. I wondered what went through your head when the commander-in-chief imitated two FBI agents having sex.

I thought, "This man is unfit for office."

CYNTHIA HOWINGTON

Little Rock

On endless scandals

I can't seem to finish a letter to Voices before a fresh presidential scandal hits the fan, so keeping up with the "stable genius" in the White House for the last two weeks has been like playing Whack-A-Mole at the arcade. Here are a few opening lines.

On whistle-blowers: Yes, Virginia, Trump henchman Stephen Miller is right. There really is a "deep state." It is comprised of elected officials and civil servants who take seriously their oath "to support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies foreign and domestic."

On impeachment: It's long past time to remove the reckless troll in the White House from office before he further endangers America's strategic interests, constitutional order and social fabric. Congressmen/women, the country you save may be your own.

On corruption: Russia-linked associates of Rudy Giuliani have been arrested for violating federal campaign finance laws. Who could guess that funneling foreign cash to Trump's campaign and bribing someone to get our ambassador to Ukraine removed are crimes? And Trump wants Ukraine to investigate Biden for corruption?

On Syria, Turks and Kurds: Trump's propensity for throwing allies under the bus for personal gain now infects America's foreign policy. Latest example--abandoning the Kurds, who have been fighting ISIS in Syria alongside our troops, to the tender mercies of the Turks. Apart from the moral obligation (but don't hold your breath for any such sensibility from this administration) who will ever trust us again?

On Trump Derangement Syndrome: I think it's right that Trump should have a psychological disorder named after him, but the label best describes his own state of mind--not that of those who rightly fault him for his dangerously abnormal behavior.

We seem to be living in Gotham City, with the Joker in charge, and Batman nowhere in sight ...

ALEX MIRONOFF

Fayetteville

Interrogating history

Audacity, nerve, dauntless, important, borderline brilliant, visionary, ahead of his time, remarkable, gifted ... these are words the Columbus Day editorial used in discussing Christopher Columbus. Those things may all be true about Columbus. The problem I have is that the editorial asks us to put aside the "blaming" and "scolding" of those who object to celebrating events from which ensued colonization, enslavement, murder and disease, and simply acknowledge Christopher Columbus as an important person because "his voyages forever transformed the world, and bridged the hemispheres."

As a man of his time, the editorial argues, he was innocent, having had no way of knowing what would ensue from his "discoveries." The editorial speaks of his multiple voyages, with only the stars to guide him, surviving all kinds of hardship including storms, shipwrecks and cannibals. This way of talking about Columbus is familiar and has endured over decades. I recall it from elementary school. Except for the editorial's references to the Columbus Day controversy, it might have come directly from my 1950s grade-school textbook.

I don't remember questioning that telling as child, but I did eventually develop critical thinking skills and learned the importance of interrogating recorded history. I learned that the record amplifies some voices, events and facts, and muffles, glosses over, or omits others depending on who is doing the recording and for what purposes. Perhaps I would read Columbus differently today if over the decades of my education I had been exposed to multiple and divergent perspectives on European exploration of the Americas. At the point that I realized there was much missing from the history I learned in school, I became skeptical of the record, eager to dig for missing narratives, and mistrustfully curious about those who perpetuate the old, one-sided view from my elementary-school days.

ROANNE ELLIOTT

Fayetteville

Stand up, speak out

The Fayetteville Friends (Quaker) Meeting is compelled to speak out in opposition to the inhumanity of current U.S. immigration policies and practices.

At our southern border, the primary port of entry, the U.S. government separates children from their families and imprisons them in critically dangerous conditions. Enduring extrajudicial detention, children and adults alike are deprived of adequate food, water, shelter, sleep, cleanliness and medical attention. These practices violate prohibiting court orders with impunity. All the while, corporations reap billions of dollars from the abuse.

The United States is one of the nations most responsible for the economic, environmental and social issues that force immigration: American corporations exploit land and labor in Central America; our administration responds to climate change with profiteering, militarization, and denial of human rights, and continues to roll back the regulations that would mitigate the crisis that lays bare once-fertile, life-supporting farmlands; further, the U.S. supports totalitarian regimes responsible for life-threatening social and economic conditions.

Upholding the Quaker principles of equality and community, we decry the escalating violence and brutality that immigrants must endure upon setting foot on our shores. Our administration militarizes our borders against individuals seeking asylum from the very conditions it has engendered.

We expect our legislators to respond to the moral imperative to stand up and speak out now for human rights, and to undertake the development of well-considered policies that correct the issues that force our brothers and sisters to flee their homelands.

LaDEANA MULLINIX

Farmington

LaDeana Mullinix is clerk of the Fayetteville Friends Meeting.

Wasteful spending

I read in the paper that east Arkansas is getting a couple million dollars for infrastructure. The governor and our congressmen were patting backs and giving high-fives to all. At Clarendon we are currently spending over $11 million to remove a tiny section of roadway that isn't hurting anything. The only one I see that is benefiting from this is the out-of-state contractor.

You guys dropped the ball by not stopping this wasteful spending. The roads over here are in sad shape, and it seems the highway department spends most of its money on the Little Rock and great northwest parts of the state. Now they come over here and remove roads!

Mr. Brummett, next time you're over this way, please get Bubba to give us his thoughts on the matter. I'm betting he will recommend a change of guard, both locally and nationally.

Thanks for letting me vent. Oh, by the way, I love the digital version of your paper (this coming from a technically challenged old guy).

RAY CATES

Carlisle

Confused over Syria

I am 62 years old. All of my life Syria has been essentially a Russian satellite country.

Why all of a sudden when a peace-loving president wants to bring our boys home from some God-forsaken country the Democrats pitch a fit? Are they now the endless-war party?

ROBERT KITTELSON

Powhatan

Editorial on 10/17/2019

Upcoming Events