Letters

It's at least unseemly

Friday's Arkansas Democrat-Gazette introduced an opponent to Rep. French Hill in this year's U.S. congressional election. State Sen. Joyce Elliott was pictured starting her campaign in the state Capitol.

I'm not well-versed on the law, but I thought it would at least be unseemly to campaign in the state Capitol. This is a building for all the people of Arkansas, not a prop for aspiring politicians to campaign. Please advise if I'm missing something here.

DAVID LANDRY

Maumelle

Gave license to kill

"[I]t doesn't really matter" whether the Soleimani assassination was in response to an imminent threat, President Trump said in a tweet as he criticized the Democrats for not having done so years ago. Yes, President Trump, it does matter.

Americans are no longer safer when traveling abroad because of your action. This only gives other countries license to kill more Americans. This action is not making America great again, and neither is the stock market. Yes, the economy does matter, but it needs to touch more people and do more good for more people. All the money in the world is not going to help us when we are choking to death, our homes destroyed through hurricanes or tornadoes, drowning because of tsunamis, etc. How is a war or weapons going to help lower the world's temperatures?

If world leaders don't start negotiating about issues that truly affect us all, there will be nothing for the next generations to inherit.

ANNCHA BRIGGS

Little Rock

The situation differed

In Mr. Edward Tabler's letter, he compares the killing of Gen. Qassem Soleimani by the U.S. with the killing of Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto of Japan in April of 1943. In 1943 we were at war with Japan, a war ratified by Congress and declared by President Franklin Roosevelt. The killing of Admiral Yamamoto was a lawful action against an enemy of the nation. There is a difference between the two actions, and it is a serious difference.

What was accomplished by Soleimani's death except to set the precedent of the U.S. president deciding to execute a foreign general without being in a state of war? Don't we have rules of law that should be followed? Do we want leaders of other nations shooting missiles at our generals? Congressional lawmakers need to speak up and clarify this issue.

GRACE WATT

Springdale

Address real problem

So, Mr. Don Eckard, how many more newborns do you want stuffed into a suitcase or buried in the woods or tossed into a dumpster? How many more children must suffer abuse because the parents didn't want them? How many children are already in foster homes? I would like to remind you and the unknown "we" you represent that Roe v. Wade did not create abortions. Abortions will continue regardless of whatever laws are passed to prohibit them. The real immoral act is men leaving women in the position of even considering an abortion. Had they been around, supportive, and looking forward to being a father, maybe an abortion would not have had to occur.

Women don't get abortions as a means of birth control. It's due to the circumstances. Do you ever stop to think about it before you just parrot your religion? Thankfully, it's still America and no one is bound to your religion unless they want to be.

Mr. Eckard, you and your "we" cannot eliminate abortions until you address the actual problem: men having unprotected sex with women with whom they do not want to have children.

But fear not, I have the perfect solution. It does not create a "breeder" class of women nor does it subsume anyone's rights to a fetus. Ready? I propose all men at age 16 be required to store a few vials of sperm and then have a vasectomy. They can go out and have all the sex they want or can get. When an agreement is made regarding support of the child (full support, not just monetary), the sperm will be available. Since legal marriages are contractual, then procreating can be too. No one would be deprived of having a child when both parties are in agreement.

Just think of the positive outcomes. All children will actually be cherished instead of the lip service they get now. Education funded and teachers paid better than prison guards. Little need for jails or prisons, actually.

The scourge of abortion will be eliminated in just a few short years.

KAREN WOODS

Flippin

Best years of my life

Arkansas has sure been good to me. A combination of bad luck, good luck, and fate brought me here.

In 1979 I had just finished a seven-state tour, performing a musical program for school assemblies throughout the Midwest. It was three programs a day, 15 each week, for seven weeks in the fall and eight weeks in the winter and spring. Me, my 12-string guitar, violin, and Chevy wagon put on some miles.

After the tour I had to move in with the folks because the Chevy bit the dust. I had no job, no money, and no car. Dad told me I couldn't stay. I was miserable, broke, miserable, embarrassed and, in addition, really miserable.

A friend of mine, Margaret Myers, mentioned a job opening in El Dorado, a six-hour drive from Parsons, Kan., but she offered to lend me her second car and arranged for me to stay with friends of hers in El Dorado, so I put my pack and guitar in the back seat of her VW and left.

When I got to Little Rock the engine light came on, but I was so desperate to get that job I just wasn't thinking straight, so I kept going. The engine seized close to Dixon Road. I picked up my things, stuck my thumb out, and began hitchhiking. When I got to Fordyce, the highway patrol told me I couldn't do that so I got a room in the 4-Dice Motel, curled up in bed and went to sleep watching The Exorcist.

I got up the next day, thumbed the rest of the way to El Dorado, interviewed, and got the job. Margaret's friends took me to a production of Paint Your Wagon at the South Arkansas Arts Center that night. Great show. Next day I hitchhiked back to Kansas, got my dad to co-sign a car loan for me, drove to El Dorado, got an apartment, a wife straight out of heaven, four expensive kids, and spent some of the best years of my life there.

Arkansas has sure been good to me. It still is.

JOHN C. JARBOE

North Little Rock

Editorial on 01/19/2020

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