LETTERS

LITTLE ROCK — Drug crimes are not victimless

Re the letter from the inmate who believes his crime involving drugs is victimless: What does he call his family, who will have to visit him for the next decade or so in a correctional facility? What about the families of the people who used the drugs? What about the children of those people? What about the parents, friends?

His was not a victimless crime. There is always a victim. I would suggest that he start a list with his name at the top and then list every person his crime touched personally, and then list the wives, husbands, children, parents and siblings of all those people. There he'll find his victims.

How many children go hungry or without because Mommy and Daddy prefer their drugs over food, clothing and shelter? How many will never get help with homework because Mommy and Daddy are out making another buy or enjoying the one they have? How many will never get tucked in at night, read a story or told how much they are loved?

Never say this is a victimless crime.

DEBBIE MATHIS Judsonia

Confront Iranian denial

Iran's Mahmoud Ahmadinejad persists in his denial of the Holocaust in which millions of Jews and other Europeans were murdered by the Nazis in World War II, his latest negation of that hecatomb being that it is a "false idol."

Consider the following scenario at Columbia University in New York City, where he had been invited recently to speak and answer questions about his views. Such a scene would have put the dictator in his place and likely forced him to choke on words like "false idol."

In the auditorium, the lights go down and a curtain is drawn back from a screen. The motion picture comes on, showing two women in uniform holding a corpse of a naked woman, one holding her by a wrist, the other by the ankles. They are standing on a hill of dirt at the Belsen concentration camp and swing the woman out over the edge into the pit of skeletal remains, where her body, weighing about 40-45 pounds, bounces on the pile for a second before it lies still. Freeze frame.

The lights come up in the auditorium, but the picture remains and the questioner, the president of the university or someone in the audience, asks Ahmadinejad: "Are you saying, sir, that this didn't happen?" BILL TERRY BerryvilleSome fans lack loyalty

Shame on you Arkansas fans for booing Houston Nutt and the Razorbacks. Where is your loyalty?

The University of Arkansas has alwaysbeen known for its wonderful fan support. What kind of fans only support when you win or you win in a certain way? Shameon the students for wearing black shirts. The Arkansas coaches and players are trying very hard to do their best. Let's give them our support, win or lose. This is not only hurting them, but also our recruiting. What youngster would want to play in front of such fans?

Shame on you.

ROSEMARY GEE Blytheville

Radio host used plural

Unlike some commentators, I actually went to the trouble of locating Rush Limbaugh's Web site to find out what in fact he said.

On Sept. 26, in conversation with a caller, Limbaugh used the phrase "phony soldiers" outside of any context that could reasonably connect the remark to Jesse MacBeth. Notice the plural "soldiers," otherwise known as "more than one soldier."

On Sept. 28, while supposedly debunking accusations on the matter, Limbaugh claimed his remark was in reference to MacBeth, who is, incidentally, only one soldier. Singular, not plural.

In the course of his efforts, in referring to words that he was admitting he had said, Limbaugh repeated the phrase "phony soldiers," plural. In point of fact, while either quoting himself or actually playing back a recording of his earlier remarks, he repeated it four times. He arguably spent more time admitting that hesaid "phony soldiers" than he did denying that he said it, all while his unchanged recorded remarks confirmed that he did, in fact, say "phony soldiers," plural. OK, I'll bite. MacBeth and who else?

It'd be nice if, as a conclusion to this little tempest, Limbaugh interviewed a few service members who disagree with him about remaining in Iraq. Maybe they could explain that the downside of continuing the war, which has apparently eluded Limbaugh to date, is many more needless deaths. Maybe they can get through where everyone else has failed. Maybe. It'd be nice.

RONALD BYRD JR. North Little Rock

People did not consent

Why all the hoopla concerning the Little Rock Nine? Thomas Jefferson so rightfully stated in our Declaration of Independence that "governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed." The key word here is consent.

That is, of course, unless you're Dwight Eisenhower and you dictate an unconstitutional court order upon the people by unconstitutional military force. But since when did the Constitution ever stand in the way of a post-1861 president?

What the average pseudo-educated person cannot comprehend is that no judge can force any citizen of this country to do anything that is not codified in law. Nowhere in the Constitution does it delegate legislative powers to federal judges. Nowhere in the Constitution does it allow for a state to be militarily invaded that is breaking no federal law.

In 1793, when the Supreme Court attempted to bring the once-sovereign state of Georgia into federal court, its House of Representatives passed a bill declaring that anyone who attempted to enforce the federal court order should be hanged by the neck without the benefit of clergy. This is truly symbolic of Jeffersonian republicanism.

This misnamed desegregation crisis was never about education, but rather the post-American, despotic federal government coercing its will by using the military to execute the whims of a tyrannical judiciary, something the editorial writers of this newspaper take great satisfaction in, and antagonistic to what Jefferson declared in 1776.

LOY MAUCH Bismarck

Feedback

Easy money is a myth

The recent story by Ron Stodgill and Ron Nixon of The New York Times, "Lottery payoffs fall short for expected school funding," should be read by every voter in Arkansas and made mandatory reading for every politician as well.

A lottery has been promoted by most states as a cure for whatever woes they may experience regarding financing for education and other projects. I have followed the subject of education funding for years and have noticed that those states that depend on money from lotteries are still strapped for money to support their educational needs.

There has got to be a better way to fund education than the lottery. Citizens of Arkansas, do not let the proponents of gambling, whether casinos or lotteries, talk you into the wasteland of easy money. There is no such thing.

ROBERT EUBANKS Arkadelphia

Reading skills needed

Re the Springdale schools and their English proficiency requirements, I would also like them, as well as all area schools, to institute a reading requirement.

I know the No Child Left Behind legislation comes into play, but it is terrible in this day and age that fifth- and sixth-graders cannot read on a second-grade level.

This is not just a Hispanic problem, either. Our schools need to get back to the basics and be sure a child can read before passing him on to the next grade.

JOHNNY HINDS Lowell