Answer to question
This is a reply to Ken Needs of Bella Vista asking "the scholars out there": "Does our president, Donald Trump, share any commonalities with the description of the Anti-Christ in the Book of Revelation?"
I'm not a scholar either, but I do like to know what I'm talking about. So I've read the Bible cover to cover 11 times (yearly cycles) and more commentaries than I can count. Let me try to help.
First, we all "share commonalities" with the Anti-Christ because we all fall short and choose self over God sometimes. Donald Trump falls short a lot, but I don't think Revelation is referring to him. Scholars can't agree on which individual those passages are referring to, and many scholars contend that there's no individual in the question. They think those passages are part of the symbolism that is at the heart of every piece of apocalyptic writing. Apocalyptic writing is supposed to be treated more like a painting than a narrative. All agree on the nature of Revelation because it's called Apokalypsis in the original Greek.
Hope this helps.
CARI KING
Pocahontas
Another delivery boy
Special greetings to Benny Roark and Carl S. Norman. We are of the same generation.
I was born in May 1930, and I delivered newspapers by bicycle. My family lived in Crossett during the mid-1940s, where I delivered the Arkansas Gazette (early morning) and the Arkansas Democrat (late afternoon). They were different routes.
My family moved to Prescott in 1946. I delivered the Arkansas Gazette there until I graduated from high school. My wife and I have been subscribing to the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette for many years and are about to go digital.
JIM ERSKINE
Bentonville
Emboldened Trump
Donald Trump has now been acquitted in the Republican-controlled Senate impeachment trial, the first and only impeachment trial in American history to hear from no pertinent "fact witnesses" and no pertinent "documentary evidence," all of this nondisclosure coming at the behest of Donald Trump's primary waterboy, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.
As Mr. Rogers might say, "Can you spell partisan whitewash, boys and girls?"
Trump will now undoubtedly embark on his 10-month-long "Total Exoneration and Impeachment Lite" tour, all the while lambasting the radical left-wing democratic treasonists.
On a more dire note, the Republican Senate's acquittal will only embolden Donald Trump. He will believe more than ever that he can say, tweet, or do anything he wants and get away with it. Sadly, that's probably true.
So to all you good folks out there who are weary from three years of Trump's scandals, lies, insults and abuses of our Constitution, you ain't seen nothing yet. Buckle in, kids, and hang onto your hats. It's going to be a wild ride!
DOUG NEWLIN
Fayetteville
Swamp grows deeper
President Richard Nixon in 1970 proposed establishing the Environmental Protection Agency to provide us with clean water, clean air and to deal with solid and hazardous waste of all kinds. Those of us who remember 1970 think back to the pollution of the Great Lakes, the San Francisco Bay and water throughout the United States. We also the remember choking smog hanging over U.S. cities. Nixon was a Republican, but he was light years away from becoming a Trumplican.
In 2017, Trump appointed Scott Pruitt, the Oklahoma attorney general and a climate-change denier, as EPA director. Pruitt was elected to AG primarily by major campaign contributions by the fossil fuels industry. As AG, Pruitt was known, most notably, for the 14 lawsuits he filed against EPA, including attempts to block EPA's Clean Power Plan and Waters of the United States rule.
As director of EPA, he became known for flying first class or on a private jet to such places as Italy and Morocco. He built an expensive security booth in his office. He more than doubled his security staff at a cost of $4.6 million. He provided major salary increases to staff members who previously worked for Rep. Jim Inhofe, R-Okla. He issued a no-bid contract of $120,000 to a Republican opposition research firm. He appointed an Oklahoma banker as director of the Superfund, a position he was completely unqualified for. The list of scandals is extremely long and extensive.
Donald Trump decided to appoint Pruitt's deputy, Andrew Wheeler, as director. Wheeler previously was a coal lobbyist. Now, Trump wants to cut the EPA budget by 26 percent. Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, said Pruitt "is about as swampy as you get here in Washington, D.C., and if the president wants to drain the swamp, he needs to take a look at his own Cabinet." Indeed he does.
BILL LONON
Springdale
Twenty years earlier
Recently I came across the Feb. 15, 2000, issue of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. The paper was a lot larger 20 years ago and contained more features. What really got my attention, though, was the first item in the "In the News" section on the first page: "Donald Trump, the New York tycoon, after months of speculation about a possible presidential candidacy in the Reform Party, officially announced Monday that he won't run for president because the party is 'self-destructing' and can't provide the support a candidate needs to win."
Guess he was waiting for a better offer.
EDWARD TABLER
Fayetteville
Editorial on 02/15/2020