Travel to Colombia
Re Bryan Hendricks' article on Colombia: My husband and I read Bryan every day and enjoy his informed and enthusiastic articles on sports and human stories vis-à-vis these articles. As I write this, we are in Cartagena for a four-day visit and imagine our surprise when his article on fishing in Colombia was in the March 21 paper.
We think Bryan must've been very tired because he seems to reflect the same things that people from America often say about foreign countries, especially Third World countries. His article was not positive. We were having such a great experience here in the same part of town using the same forms of transportation that we are compelled to say, "not so fast."
We did do our own research, planning and arrangements, which included figuring out out what we wanted to do and how we were going to do it and how to avoid people who were trying to sell us things or steer us in a direction we don't want to go. We travel often to countries with congestion and populations who are trying to survive on tourism.
Please, Bryan, be more fair and perseverant when you travel. By the way, the bay and the ocean are very calm today ... we just took a ride in a small motorized boat.
PAT TORVESTAD
Little Rock
Parents can choose
For secularists such as John W. "Doc" Crawford, children apparently belong to the state and it is only at sufferance of it that parents exert any influence at all over their own children.
Thus, we learn from Mr. Crawford that Gov. Sarah Sanders is creating a "theocracy" by supporting tuition vouchers. Mr. Crawford, tuition vouchers merely allow parents to direct their own tax dollars (where do you suppose that the funding for government schools originates?) to what they (parents) deem to be a superior vehicle for the education of their children.
It is curious that the strident advocates of "diversity" and "inclusion" suddenly become so rigid and intolerant.
Contrary to the popular assumption, government schools have not been around forever. The signers of the Declaration of Independence and the framers of the Constitution never heard of the concept.
Perhaps it is time to go "back to the future" and eliminate government schools altogether.
J. FRED HART JR.
Little Rock
Leave science to them
When will Sarah H.S. and so many others like her (mostly Republicans and ultra-conservative right-wingers and evangelicals) get a clue about scientific facts and real information, supported by open-minded and truly educated citizens? But like so many other hypocrites, they use false or incomplete information to support their biblical perspectives and interpretations about such things as reproduction, genetics, geology, even history to misinform and indoctrinate their "believers" in their "truths" about everything on Earth.
Please leave the medical field to doctors and research scientists, for they know much more than you know about almost everything of humans' existence. Let parents help decide what's in the best interest of their children. You are making unwanted and uninformed decisions about things you know little about. It's a disgrace to use your interpretations of biblical scripture to force people to accept your beliefs. As a teacher of science for over 30 years, I have been told by local citizens and parents that everything you need to know is in your Bible(?), and that they don't want their kids to think or question things; they are just to accept what they have been told(?).
The worst of all is when you foster distrust, even hatred in others, "non-believers." Many of our religious leaders and pastors promote many ideas, then they tell us it's all in "God's" plan. What ever happened to W.W.J.D. (What Would Jesus Do?) and the belief in Open Hearts, Open Doors, Open Minds. I don't think the Bible should be used to exclude any of these precepts.
L.D. BINTLIFF
Clinton