A reversal of values
Fans of old movies may recall the ending of the 1955 film "The Blackboard Jungle," where a student uses the American flag and flag pole to subdue a knife-wielding delinquent in an inner-city high school classroom. The scene comes to mind following the arrest in Conway of a man accused of beating a D.C. Metropolitan Police Department officer with an American flag during the Capitol riot on Jan. 6. The officer was guarding the entrance to the Capitol when a mob pulled him down the stairs and attacked him.
It's true that history repeats itself, and this incident is not the first time symbols of democracy have been turned into weapons of hate and violence. Those who seek destructive change often express their intentions with the very words and artifacts of the culture they intend to destroy, but rarely have we seen such a blatant reversal of values.
MARVIN SCHWARTZ
Little Rock
On taking potshots
Oh please! You are criticizing CNN for the "most unnecessary potshots." How could you in good conscience do that without mentioning the incessant potshots every day, all day on Fox News? I agree there was a lot of editorializing going on on CNN, but that is a drop in the bucket to Fox News' constant comment on everything Democratic that has gone on the last four years. Is it OK for them to do that and not others?
I saw a bunch of news people on CNN who had held themselves in for all these years and just had to say what they thought. I don't think any of it is good because the "news" is supposed to be just the facts, balanced and fair. That hasn't stopped Fox News from spewing all the many untruths it wanted to in order to aid and abet the president. I believe if any entity should be censored, it is Fox News for being able to say just what pushed the president's agenda without any regard for the truth. Heck, a lot of its newscasters got rewarded by being the spokesmen for the president. Or they got a big position on his staff. And they got just what they wanted: fear, unrest, bias, distrust, anger and mayhem.
I was so pleased that your editorials have seemed to be more balanced lately. I thought you were trying to give the facts about what's going on, but that one little blurb tells me you are still trying to skew the public opinion to the Republican point of view. I just want to say that if you are trying to be an eagle in the profession, you can't continue to only go with the turkeys.
If you want to help with educating people, reporting what is going on from all points of view, calming the hate language and the out-of-control anger, then you have to step up to the plate. So an editorial is your opinion, but when is it a "potshot" just like all the rest?
GAIL SHIELDS
Mount Ida
We're being silenced
Imagine a country where opposing ideas, views, and values are censored, canceled, or banned. No, I'm not referring to communist China or dictatorship North Korea. I'm referring to the USA. We've learned that unless you share the same liberal ideology as the mainstream and social media, it seems you are at risk of being silenced. So much for the First Amendment.
DEWEY BARR
Maumelle
Pardon problematic
The Steve Bannon pardon is still a criminal-justice problem for him.
First, his co-defendants are going to trial, so he will be called as a witness and be forced to testify that he was involved in a massive fraud to steal from Trump supporters. How venal can one get?
Second, this is no "perjury trap." That name is just a refuge for liars who couldn't help themselves because it means they lied when questioned. There is no perjury trap: Just tell the truth, if you know how. Otherwise, take the Fifth. If you don't, you "trapped" yourself. A pardon doesn't protect against future perjury or obstruction of justice.
Third, the jury at trial in Manhattan will hear that Bannon got a pardon but the others in the dock didn't. It will certainly make him and the former president look bad before the jury, not that the two of them care. If he put his request in writing, that will surface, too. It will likely become evidence at the trial in either direct or cross-examination.
Another scoundrel skates. If you don't respect criminal justice in America, you have somewhere else to look than "the system" itself.
JOHN WESLEY HALL JR.
Little Rock
On reasonable belief
The Arkansas Legislature is considering a "stand your ground" law: If you have a "reasonable belief" that you are in danger there will be no duty to retreat before using deadly force even if you can retreat safely.
On Jan. 6, the United States Capitol was stormed. From all the videos of the attack I have to assume that every Capitol Hill police officer had a "reasonable belief" that he or she was in danger (one officer was killed and many wounded). If those officers had acted pursuant to the authority granted in the Arkansas proposed law, the probability is that hundreds of citizens would have been killed.
RALPH HAMNER
Hot Springs Village
Only then can we heal
In the aftermath of the Trump-instigated assault on the Capitol, on Congress, on the Constitution and on democracy, I'm hearing a lot of calls for "healing." In medicine, healing begins after a gangrenous limb or cancerous growth has been removed. Our civic healing can only begin after the Republican Party delivers Trump's head to Congress on a platter (figuratively speaking, of course) and purges its ranks of Trump dead-enders.
So long as Republicans continue to insist that Trump is normal or that criminal behavior is acceptable, there can be no healing or uniting. There can only be Band-Aids applied to a festering wound. And a nation with that kind of sickness at its core is more likely to expire than to heal.
ALEX MIRONOFF
Fayetteville