LETTERS
Posted on Monday, May 7, 2007
URL: http://www.nwanews.com/adg/Editorial/189525/
Real patriots defend country
Real leaders lead in the right direction. Recently, some Americans celebrated Patriots Day, honoring patriots like Nathan Hale, who said, “I only regret that I have but one life to lose for my country,” and Patrick Henry, who said, “I know not what course others may take, but as for me, give me liberty or give me death.”
Another great American “patriot,” Harry Reid, says: “This war is lost.”
Consider if Reid, the current Democrat Senate leader, had been in a position of leadership at different moments in American history requiring leadership and patriotism.
Gen. Harry Reid-Washington, Valley Forge: “I’m freezing. These soldiers are hungry. Forget it ! This war is lost !”
President Harry Reid-Lincoln, 1863: “I need to win re-election next year at all costs. I can’t find a winning general, and those Johnny Rebs just keep fighting. We’re losing tens of thousands of men a year. My fellow Americans, this war is lost !” Gen. Harry Reid-MacArthur, Philippines, 1942: “Those fierce Japanese fighters don’t fight fair. I shall never return here. Gentlemen, this war is lost !” President Harry Reid-Truman, 1945: “Those Japanese will never give up. Let’s hold back on using the A-bomb and redeploy our troops to Hawaii and California. They will be happier there. And anyway, this war is lost.” If Reid’s plan for surrender and withdrawal succeeds, we can have this little war wrapped up real soon. What a patriot.
JOHN GALLAGHER / Hot Springs Village
Care of mentally ill poor
Enough about the Virginia Tech tragedy, particularly when the media show a paranoid patient brandishing weapons behind pundits decrying too much attention on a killer. From working on a psychiatric unit, I know that insurance pays for less days or even billable hours in the treatment of mental illness, often only [for ] evaluation, medication and the hope that an unstable individual will continue his medical treatment. There are seldom records or follow-up or judicial oversight to protect innocent individuals. It takes the opinion of three doctors and a judgment of hospitalization before one who is mentally ill can be forcibly detained. Even then, the stay is limited and, upon discharge, the patient is in charge of his medication with minimum supervision. Not all psychotics are as ill as the Virginia maniac, but our cities are full of the mentally impaired homeless. Follow-up of some sort must be instituted, not only to protect innocent citizens, but to save the patient from his own demons.
BETTY S. ADAMS / Little Rock
Enforce state littler laws
I read with interest and empathy the letter by David Vanselow. He expressed his frustration with the chronic litter problem that we have in the “Natural State.” I do not understand why the litter laws in Arkansas are not rigorously enforced. I appreciate the efforts of the many volunteers who clean up after the irresponsible individuals who carelessly toss their garbage onto our roadways. Cleaning up after these people is not the answer. Individuals who throw their garbage for others to pick up need to be prosecuted. I would like to commend the Hot Springs Beautification Commission in its efforts to combat the terrible litter problem in Garland County. I also want to encourage our law enforcement and court officials to penalize those responsible for creating the problem. Imposing heavy fines and assigning many hours of community service will go a long way in discouraging littering in our beautiful state.
JOSEPH E. SCHMIDT / Hot Springs Village
Many agreed on action
Re Bill Austin’s screed regarding George W. Bush’s actions in Iraq: First, Bush, Congress and foreign intelligence all agreed that action should be taken against Saddam Hussein. The United States took the lead because it is the strongest, both economically and politically. It is in a position to influence actions that will create and safeguard economies worldwide to the advantage of all.
Austin doesn’t look beyond what is happening in Iraq. Doesn’t he understand that Iran and Syria have been working to destabilize Iraq ? Does he believe that we should allow those countries to take over Iraq, and then perhaps all of the Middle East as a first step into Europe ? Doesn’t he care that the majority of Iraqis would prefer to live in a peaceful democracy without the ethnic strife ?
We should do well to fear people of limited knowledge who do not understand the importance of connections with other countries. Only ignorance would prompt concern that our country has “lost respect worldwide.” I, for one, do not respect people who ignore mass murder and calculated genocide, while voicing great concern for the quality of our air and water when it is most important that we strengthen and maintain our global economy. To curtail transportation, manufacturing and utilities services would weaken our economy, on which much of the world depends. We should not weaken our economy such that we end up with our strength decimated and of no help to countries run by, in Austin’s words, thugs in suits who care nothing about life.
MARIANNE MONTE /North Little Rock
Ban bad owners instead
Re pit bulls: It is really clear to me the problem is not the breed but the owners. Why don’t you put a ban on them ?
JUNE SAYRE / Lowell
Hawks should fight war
Attention, Republicans and hawks: Your “bring it on” Connecticut-cowboy leader needs you. Strap on your Lone Ranger ivory pistols and get over there to Iraq and Afghanistan and win for the good ole U. S. A. The rest of us will cheer you off and support you to the max. Just make sure you take Big Business, Wall Street, Karl Rove, Condoleezza Rice, Donald Rumsfeld, Alberto Gonzales and Dick Cheney, and most of all, don’t forget your commander-in-chief. Let him lead the way. We need the fervent to win this thing. Oh, and send our poor kids home when you get there.
JANIS HURST / Perryville
Protection unnecessary
A hate-crime bill by state Sen. Hank Wilkins was recently defeated in Arkansas. Liberal lawmakers are now pushing the U. S. hate-crime bill by John Conyers, House Resolution 1592, because of intense political pressure from the homosexual lobby. Citizens should keep in mind that the number of hate crimes committed in the U. S., according to the FBI, is very insignificant in comparison to other crimes. In 1997, 2, 087 children were killed. In 2005, there were six murders [reported as ] hate crimes out of a total of 16, 692 murders. “In about half of hate crimes, the victim was threatened verbally or assaulted without either a weapon or an injury being involved,” according to an FBI report. In other words, speech was the violent hate crime. As pointed out in a recent letter to Voices, a three-judge panel of the 9 th U. S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco recently ruled the terms “natural family” and “family values” hate speech and could be censored [by employers ]. These extreme views of hate crimes are not limited to California. Arkansan homosexual sympathizers wrote letters to this paper defending the court’s decision and railing against Mike Masterson with a string of detestable terms for his column in which he disagreed with the court’s ruling. Shouldn’t we be putting our emphasis and money (the hate-crime bill requires federal assistance and grants ) on protecting our innocent children, where there is truly an epidemic of crime, rather than on a particular class of adults like homosexuals ?
PAMELA MANARD / Paragould
Retreat will demoralize
Arkansas Sens. Blanche Lincoln and Mark Pryor, along with Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi and the Democrat-controlled Congress, have passed a bill that surrenders and forces our troops to retreat from Iraq in October 2007. As a Korean War combat veteran, I know from experience how demoralizing this is to our combat troops. All citizens who support [these Democrats ] should examine their consciences. They must try to put themselves in a combat soldier’s boots for a moment. If this betrayal stands, there will be havoc and genocide in Iraq and all the Middle East. The destruction will then follow to our shores, and all of America will feel the real pain of war. I would recommend that all who support this madness review pictures of wartime London, Dresden, Berlin, Seoul and Japan. This is what New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Houston, Washington, D. C., and other major cities will resemble when a new, stronger, Iraqi-based, oil-financed al-Qa’ida attacks. May God help us.
JOHN W. BREWER / Bentonville
AD runs the university
It’s all about the money. A few years ago, I warned a candidate for the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville chancellor’s position, “Don’t think that you will run the university. The AD does.” Read athletic director Frank Broyles. Some time later, when he tried to upstage Broyles, he learned the hard way that it was true. Years ago there was a mandatory retirement age for the University of Arkansas employees, but it didn’t apply to Broyles. Coach Houston Nutt receives in excess of $ 1 million, including $ 700, 000 from the Razorback Foundation, plus lots of other benefits. It has been rumored that whenever the football coach receives an increase in pay, the same thing applies to the AD. It is appropriate that moneys and benefits paid to Broyles should be made public, including salary, Razorback Foundation funds, housing and car allowances, dues paid to country clubs (Fayetteville and Augusta National ) and Social Security income. The total of this income should explain why Broyles doesn’t want to retire. And isn’t it strange that the university did not announce his retirement ? No, it isn’t, ’cause that prerogative also belongs to Broyles. Perhaps these benefits won’t bring in the most talented AD, but it will make someone very wealthy—at least until the [people at the university ] decide to operate the school themselves and put scholarship above athletics.
JOHN P. HOUSTON / Batesvillle
Some drivers are danger
Everyone’s talking about the use of cell phones while driving. Well, here’s one for the books. Recently one Friday morning at about 7: 15, I was driving down Military Road in Benton and encountered a white or offwhite van coming toward me. I had moved into the turning lane and was waiting for the oncoming traffic to clear to make my left turn. The lady in the van was first in a line of about eight or so vehicles. She hits her brakes and stops dead, a brilliant move on her part; the first vehicle behind her was lucky, veered out and missed her by a few inches with the rest slamming to a complete stop. An idiotic act on her part, with no common sense and complete lack of thought, she sat there and started digging for something with only the top of her head showing and came up with, yes, of course, her cell phone. She opened it. Then and only then did she proceed. I suspect she got her license out of a Cracker Jack box and just doesn’t realize that the thing expired. Talk about stupidity. She took the award for the No. 1 ignoramus that morning. She should take up walking, but even then she would most likely step out in front of a vehicle and cause a pileup. No wonder our insurance premiums are always going up.
LIZ McGRIFF / Benton
State deserves response
State deserves response After reading the column by Mike Masterson titled “Lawsuit isn’t frivolous,” it seems to me that the University of Arkansas Board of Trustees should appoint a special prosecutor to investigate the entire situation surrounding the handling of the e-mails in the saga that is the center of the lawsuit brought by John David Terry. As Masterson points out at the end of his column, our state deserves truthful responses to all valid questions surrounding this situation involving the University of Arkansas football coach, the chancellor and the UA system’s president. The only way to solve this problem is to appoint a special prosecutor to find out all the facts and present them to the court and the people of Arkansas.
PAUL C. TATE Hot Springs Village
Feedback: Give personality test
About the tragedy at Virginia Tech: It occurs to this writer that a psychiatrist could write a list of questions to be answered by all students as a requirement for initial matriculation only. Such a test would require no more than 10 or 15 minutes to complete and would certainly call attention to a troubled student such as this one. It could be administered orally or in writing, and admission would depend on results of the test as determined by an unidentified board of three or more psychiatrists. The United States service academies thoroughly test all students in academics and personality before matriculation.
SCOTT DABNEY / Lake Village
Logic is rather twisted
Columnist Dan Thomasson’s recent column extolled the virtues of stricter laws governing sales of guns. In it, he trashed the idea that if everyone could be armed, people would be less likely to be a gun victim. He went on to insult the Virginia Tech student body by stating that if they were armed, half the students would kill the other half. I say his logic is twisted, not the people against gun restriction laws.
WILLIAM RAY OLDS / Hot Springs Village