LETTERS

LITTLE ROCK — Project will destroy wetlands

Harvey Joe Sanner's recent guest column was another attempt to channelize the lower White River from Newport south to its entrance into the Mississippi River. He shows little concern for the devastation this will cause to one of the major wetlands of our natural state.

Sanner supports his position by referencing the success of the McClellan-Kerr project. The truth is that the dams along the McClellan-Kerr project tend to keep the water level constant on the Arkansas River. On the other hand, Sanner's proposal would be nothing but a channelized ditch that would tend to drain the wetlands along the lower White River. This would include the 165,000 acres of the White River National Wildlife Refuge.

Sanner fails to mention that the U.S.Fish and Wildlife Service, the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission, Ducks Unlimited, the Environmental Protection Agency and the manager of the White River National Wildlife Refuge have taken a strong position against this project. He tells us not to worry, since the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers will look after the sportsmen's interest. What a joke. The Corps has never seen a dam, a channelization or a drainage project that it didn't love and support.

Sanner identifies himself as a farmer, but I would call him a hired gun who will come down on the side of the highest bidder with little regard for its adverse effect on the lower White River.

Please don't let him and his cronies turn the lower White River, my second home, into another muddy ditch.

LOUIS BURGESS Little Rock

Privacy put in jeopardy

Does anyone realize how far our privacy and rights are being eroded?

Our government "of the people, for the people" is a myth in this day and time. Local, state and federal government has slipped slowly into a mindset that allowsbusiness to rule, and the individual is expected to sit back and take it.

If the Recording Industry Association of America's bringing suit against children and deceasedindividuals [over alleged file-sharing] and then using that to force Internet service providers to give up individuals isn't enough to scare you, how about this? Privacy rights of individuals are being given away daily by our elected representatives.

Recently, I read about the Department of Justice still trying to get around privacy concerns and forcing ISPs and other content providers to maintain records of your Internet activity so they can later connect A to Z easier in case of copyright infringement or other illegal activities. And it is all couched in terms of patriotism and protection of the American people.

This isn't necessary to keep people safe. It's a step towards the Orwellian world of "1984" with Big Brother repeating, "War is peace, freedom is slavery, ignorance is strength."

Get used to it. We no longer have a say in our governmental process. There isn't one whit of difference between elected officials once they get a whiff of the money that business pours in to help them get re-elected.

BRETT STUART Sherwood

Judgments not helping

This entire thought process is ridiculous. I hate how people hide their own narrowmindedness behind phrases like "the children" and "their best interest." The best interest for children is to be in a home with people who love them and want a better life for them.

Being straight does not automatically make you a better person or give you an automatic "values" bonus point. It's time for people to take off their blinders of Christianity and values and start evaluating people on who they truly are and their heart, not their sexual preference.

It's sad that the people who are chosen to represent our state and our nation have no problem standing beside the majority because it fits a certain idealism regardless of how many alcoholics, drug abusers and child molesters might be in the group, but will blindly dismiss another group based on something that in no ways speaks of the members' character and actions as human beings simply because of an ancient moralistic belief thathomosexuals are bad people.

Just like it is time to stop judging people based on their skin color, it is time to stop judging them on who they fall in love with. And isn't love the very foundation upon which the life of any child should be built?

JOHN SILVA Farmington

Criminals just get worse

Well, the jails are overcrowded and we taxpayers will have to let go of more money. Why do we put up with the way the justice system is letting the criminals get away with everything? You get arrested and then let go. You get arrested again, you get let go-over and over again.

What is this teaching these people?They get to see all their friends in there, and they use drug money to bond themselves out. When they go to jail, what do they do? Sit and watch TV or plan what they are gonna do to someone when they get out, and get to call whoever they want. It's like staying in a hotel.

Why do a lot of these people not have a job? This is something I love about our system. Someone is caught on videotape shooting someone and it is plain as day, [but] he is innocent until proved guilty. What a laugh. He could have his name on his shirt and hold up his ID to the camera and it would all be the same.

There is nothing to be scared of in going to jail. [There is] no hard work-God forbid they might break a sweat-and then their rights are violated and it's all over the news.

You have gangs in prison doing the same thing they do on the streets, looking for control. Why can't something be done about this? Everyone wants new prisons. Build them, but separate the gangs into different prisons. As it is, they are all thrown together, and that is asking for trouble.

SUSAN MURPHY Little Rock

Victory remains elusive

A recent editorial cartoon asked the questions so many of us would appreciate some answers to: How will we recognize victory? Who will decide when peace has arrived? How many people can fill in [the] blank flag [in the cartoon]?

MARTHA WHITELY RAMSEY Hot Springs Village

Blinders must come off

Re the letter from Marianne Beasley from Fayetteville: Just what does she think motivates these animals we call terrorists? Is it our freedoms? Maybe it'sthe fact that we are not Muslims like them.

Anyone who thinks that bombing the crap out of them caused them to hate us is obviously not familiar with the World Trade Center attacks. How about the USS Cole? Ever heard ofthe Beirut embassy? Our embassy? These are but a few of the numerous times we have been attacked by these radical scum for nothing more than refusing to accept Islam as our national religion.

If Beasley thinks for even a moment that we are creating these monsters, she must be the one with the blinders on her head. I thank God that we have someone like President Bush in office to deal with radicals such as these. A thank-you to him for his actions against these Muslim radicals.

I know that not all Muslims are evil. Nor do they all wish harm on anyone. It's these small groups that make everyone think Muslims in general are just trying to kill everyone. A small percentage of radicals is giving the entire religious world a bad name. As far as an admission of guilt, for what? What have we done that we need to offer an apology? What "horrible mistake" did Bush, Dick Cheney and Condoleezza Rice make?

I think Beasley and others like her need to take their own blinders off and see these animals for what they really are.

GARY A. BECKMAN Conway

Hypocrisy everywhere

Two recent news stories-"No letup seen in U.S. emissions" by Andrew C. Revkin of The New York Times and "U.S. selects design for nuclear warhead" by H. Josef Herbert of The Associated Press-are typical of the hypocrisy of the Bush administration and why the U.S.A.'s diplomacy is so ineffective today.

Announcing that we are building a new, better and more stylish nuclear warhead while telling Iran and Korea that they cannot have nuclear weapons (and given the reality of increasing emissions by the U.S. after George W. Bush campaigned on mandatory limits on carbon dioxide emissions and [supported them] again in a speech in 2002) is the ultimate in Orwellian doublespeak and Machiavellian politics. No wonder the Bush administration cannot get cooperation from the rest of the world. "War is peace, freedom is slavery, ignorance is strength," and now "Criticism is unpatriotic."

TERRY J. DuBOSE Little Rock

Majority party indebted

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid are paying off their debts. You should be pleased that Democratic Sens. Mark Pryor and Blanche Lincoln and the three Democrat congressmen, Marion Berry, Vic Snyder and Mike Ross, have voted in unison with the newly liberated Pelosi/Reid party.

Outstanding accomplishments to date include voting to support the troops while disapproving a strategy for winning, thus assuring a terrorist victory; setting specific withdrawal deadlines, which encourages the enemy to stay the course; andoutlawing the almost sacred secret ballot (union organizers no longer face secret ballots, but can coerce unwilling workers to join unions); also bowing to labor unions by voting that airport screenersare free to unionize; and loading the military budget bill with billions of dollars of unrelated items. Was it just last November the Democrat candidates promised to reduce spending? You figure.

Wait until the Dems seriously whittle awaythe Patriot Act, Second Amendment rights and border security. Wait until we experience socialized medicine à la Hillarycare or Obamacare. Ted Kennedy's upcoming immigration bill will increase by millions the number of immigrants entitled to come to the U.S., thus increasing our education, health, social services and police budgets by billions of dollars. Yes, you Democrats and independents (who voted Democrat) have made a difference with your 2006 vote. Congratulations.

JOHN WOLFE Rogers

Concepts not exclusive

I am constantly amazed by the immaturity and lack of critical thought exhibited in letters I have read in Voices, frequently addressing the Christianity vs. atheism vs. whatever and/or evolution vs. creation. Does this have to be exclusionary?

When in high school, I brought these subjects up in a poli-sci class and was promptly requested to leave unless I would agree with the teacher's opinion.I left. Fortunately, the principal and biology teacher both agreed with me.

These people who insist on black and white sell their belief in God short to imagine that God would be unable to create the universe, then set Earth on a natural process in evolution. Why is it so necessary to believe that each of the seven days consisted of 24 hours as we know them? More probably they were millions of years.

This is not a black-and-white world. There are many shades of gray in between. I am wondering why so many seem to feel that there is only one way, and that one way is the way they espouse. Wouldn't it be great if we could compromise more, tolerate one another more, cherish the cultures that are different from ours? What serendipity it would be.

MARY LAMBIE Bentonville

Wrong species named

Re the recent editorial, "Mankind gets closer": In case it is possible to inform editorial writers, Homo habilis is generally considered to be the first species in the Homo genus. They lived something over 1.5 million years ago.

Homo habilis is sometime called Handy Man because he was an early tool user. Modern man, which probably includes editorial writers, is Homo sapiens, and we came along much later on the evolutionary tree.

Sapiens is from the Latin for wise or knowing. Most folks would agree that humans are wiser than the other primates, but clearly there is a broad range of wisdom evidenced by members of Homo sapiens.

JACK CARPENTIER Springdale

Feedback

Only needy get help

Because of three things, federal aid has been denied to the fine people of Dumas: The tornado disaster did not inflict a minimum dollar amount determined by FEMA, the Dumas residents display resiliency and independence, and Arkansas does not seem to need federal assistance because our state has a surplus in excess of $800 million.

Evidently, one must be very needy to share in the government dole. The state can appear more needy by using that surplus where evidently it might benefit most of its citizens. That surplus can and should be used to both expand old prisons and build new ones.

STEPHEN D. HOPKINS Sherwood

No-pork diet better

Since the Legislature is stuck with a no-pork constitution, Sen. Shawn Womack has come up with a super-hog amendment. This little piggy would not only let the Legislature make mischief every year, but would let them have all the local pork they can pass every year without a nasty court ruling.

Let us taxpayers nip this in the bud. Tell your local servant in the Legislature not to come home if he votes [to refer to voters] Senate Joint Resolution 12.

C.R. HICKLIN Holiday Island