Dangerous as Hitler
Just like Adolf Hitler, Vladimir Putin has invented one or more ruses to use as an excuse to invade a neighboring country and acquire territory. U.S. intelligence has evidence that he has developed several scenarios which include bombings in the restive east Ukraine and blame it on the Ukraine government.
He also wants to incorporate areas of Ukraine that have many Russian-speaking citizens. His plan is to use aggression to acquire territory just like Hitler did in Austria and Czechoslovakia. Hitler invaded Czechoslovakia using the excuse that the German-speaking minorities were being mistreated. Putin is doing the same with eastern Ukraine. What Putin is saying is that Russia will not allow Ukraine to restore order to the resistance movements in those eastern areas. Of course, Russia would move swiftly to restore order in any area controlled by Russians, even in neighboring countries.
Putin is just as dangerous as Hitler. Maybe even more so, since he possesses tons of nuclear weapons.
PAUL HARPER
Sherwood
'Nice' is out of stock
An aphorism I saw recently seemed worth pondering: "The belligerent 20 percent who complain the loudest that we can't have nice things is 80 percent of the reason that we can't have nice things."
Think political activists posing as truckers at the U.S.-Canadian border who keep the real truckers from easing the supply-chain issues everyone loves to hate, and causing prices of nice things to rise because of their obstruction.
Think anti-vaxxers across the U.S. whose inaction is at least partly responsible for thousands of preventable deaths from covid-19. Think of lingering societal needs continuing to be inconvenienced because the belligerent few kept elected officials from protecting their constituents early with science-based public-health protocols. Deaths and severe illness including serious life-altering long-covid symptoms could have been drastically reduced if we weren't reaping the poisonous fruits of their belligerent unwillingness to protect themselves and others--in the name of some warped unfettered claim of freedom that omits the important accompanying aspect of obligation to the common good.
Think belligerent people who want to ban books that mention sex, race, slavery, wealth, or anything uncomfortable, when a revered holy book whose scriptures they claim to follow has many examples of all of these. Shall we ban that book too?
This last one roils when you understand that they are fine with the bullying of non-white and LGBTQ student populations--many of whom often feel so uncomfortable that they commit suicide. Apparently, only the feelings of white heterosexual kids and their even more fragile white heterosexual parents matter. And those fragile parents? Many fit the "belligerent" definition to a T! Their narrative needs to be countered in the name of compassion. Sadly, many think compassion is a weakness. Me? I think it's essential to humanity.
MARY REMMEL WOHLLEB
Little Rock
The Russia scenario
A fly in the chips at the table of Senators Cotton and Boozman and our other distinguished national legislators with their biggest donors' bag-boys at their favorite watering hole would likely hear something like the following.
"Donnie's man-crush will take Ukraine and put a puppet in charge." [Might have already happened by the time this is printed.] "Then what?"
"Well, Biden and a few others will impose sanctions."
"That's gonna hit us pretty hard. Why should we have to pay for Biden letting Putin take over that little mud-hole country? Donnie would have sweet-talked him out of it, and he sure wouldn't hit us a lick like that."
"Well, fellows, we'll have to go along for a while. But by Labor Day at the latest, maybe fourth of July, we'll have enough people convinced it was just another Biden cluster-bumble and there's no reason Americans have to suffer for it. They won't tolerate high gas prices."
"Okay, Tommy. We'll suck it up till Labor Day. But if it goes any longer, we have Trump-certified guys waiting in the wings to give all y'all a bad case of primary heartburn."
"By the way. The Ruskies are daring us to bomb all those troops, ships, airplanes and tanks to smithereens. Why don't we just do it?"
"Dubya dubya three is why."
"You don't think we can whip 'em? Besides, it would be good for the economy."
"Well, that's a good point, if you don't consider nuclear annihilation."
HOWELL MEDDERS
Fayetteville
Inference is offensive
I am appalled by the antisemitic inference in John Brummett's Tuesday column, "The right's judicial activism."
Brummett writes, "He [Judge Lee Rudofsky] came to Arkansas from New York to work as solicitor general for Attorney General Leslie Rutledge." That sentence lacks even the benefit of being accurate. Judge Rudofsky moved to Arkansas from Washington, D.C., to work for Walmart, and only went to work for Attorney General Rutledge thereafter (and then returned to Walmart). Moreover, Judge Rudofsky, a New York native, spent part of his early career in Alaska, clerking for a judge on the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.
Brummett seems to paint Judge Rudofsky as some kind of Jewish carpetbagger. The inference is offensive. Arkansas will only grow and thrive if we treat/embrace (relative) newcomers as Arkansans, regardless of religion, region of origin, and other factors.
One need not agree with Judge Rudofsky's ruling to be offended by the way that Mr. Brummett describes his provenance.
For the purpose of full disclosure, I am Judge Rudofsky's rabbi.
BARRY BLOCK
Little Rock
Rabbi Barry Block leads Congregation B'nai Israel, and is vice president of the Central Conference of American Rabbis.