LETTERS

— Socialism has always failed

Americanism refers to our national legacy of recognizing and protecting the basic elements of individual freedom by chiseling them into a social contract embraced and ratified by the people.

The Constitution of the United States is the first charter to enshrine human freedom. The Bill of Rights guarantees freedom of thought and speech, freedom to publish and peaceably assemble. By protecting such freedoms, the American spirit of free enterprise was unleashed on an unsuspecting world.

The spirit of Americanism has spread like a purifying contagion. It first rooted out our own ugly warts by ending slavery and gradually extending freedom and equal rights to everyone. It continues to spread worldwide and will one day create a peaceful world where there are no kings, no tyrants, no oligarchs and no dictators to oppress humanity.

Under Americanism, the people are supreme and the government is their eternal servant. Socialism is the opposite. Under all forms of socialism, the government is supreme and the people are the servants of the state. Socialism has failed in every try. The collapse of the Soviet Union is the greatest example of such failure. Socialism appeals only to the shallowest of instincts. It promises economic security to all who would give up their individual freedom to serve the will of Big Brother. Socialism is the infant phase of communism.

DUGAN KING

Little Rock

Stop raiding SS fund

The Obama administration is telling the older generation to be patriotic, and accept Social Security cuts and cost-of-living freezes for the good of America. Many news commentators are suggesting a non-patriotic attitude from older Americans if they do not comply with a smile.

What rubbish. If Barack Obama had not spent the country into a neardepression, this would be a moot subject.

The real issue here is a crystalclear image reflecting the corruption in Washington. If politicians from both parties would have kept their dirty little hands out of the Social Security funds, there would be enough money to fund cost-of-living increases. Politicians view Social Security as a reserve fund that can be dipped into for their personal pork-barrel projects. This fund is continually raided.

Recently, $545 million was dipped from the fund to finance other projects the administration deemed important This is not the politicians’ money. If anyone in private industry took money from an employee retirement program, he would go to jail, so why are politicians who have been raiding the Social Security fund not in jail? All Americans should demand a change in the raiding of the fund.

Ever wonder why all politicians howl about privatization of Social Security? Simple answer: They can’t get to the money.

DENNIS MILAM

North Little Rock

Give argument a rest

Well, Thanksgiving is over and we are now in the thick of the Christmas season. And this year, like every other year, I expect at least one letter to the editor published each day concerning the unending Merry Christmas/ Season’s Greetings/Happy Holidays spat.

This year, I implore all readers to give it a rest.

Readers, if you must write a letter, please do not write an essay convincing those on the other side that they are wrong and you are right. Don’t cite Thomas Jefferson or James Madison. Don’t mention the Gospels. Don’t extol the hijacked Roman holiday, Sol Invictus. Don’t be a wet blanket to a season that is joyous for many people for many different reasons.

Instead, if you feel compelled to contribute a letter in the Christmas (oops, holiday) spirit, tell your fellow readers about donating toys, coats and food. Don’t add fuel to the fire that is “Christmas vs. non-Christmas: Vol. CCXXXIV.”

Fellow readers, I look forward to your positive responses. And with that I say Merry Christmas, season’s greetings and happy holidays.

JOSEPH GORDON

Fayetteville

Look out for thieves

This is a letter to the Christmas thief: I don’t know who you are or why you did it, but the envelope you stole from my mailbox containing a Christmas gift was going to my grandson in Afghanistan.

He is over there fighting for you and you stole from him. How proud does that make you? Residents, watch your mailboxes.

EVELYN SAVOLD Bella Vista

There they go again

Here we go again. The Northwest Arkansas intercity squabble unfolding about the Walton Arts Center expansion is like the Highfill airport vs. Drake Field, Part Deux.

Perhaps Fayetteville city attorney Kit Williams has a technical point about the current center being supported by a tax on Fayetteville residents. But the current hall exists primarily because a major donation was anted up by Sam and Helen Walton. Second, I am sure that City Hall has been repaid many-fold from tax revenue from the arts center-spawned Dickson Street entertainment district, once an uninspiring row of college kids’ bars and patchouli oil shops.

Let us recall the outcome of the “new airport” spat some years ago. Generally, Fayetteville did not want to lose the status of hosting the area’s scheduled-passenger traffic airport. Yet now, all local chambers of commerce tout the regional airport’s impressive, non-stop jet service to Los Angeles and New York.

The same can hold true on a multicounty arts center expansion. All Northwest Arkansas communities may enjoy performances in multi-venues. Let’s hope this can be accomplished without the need to dial up John Stossel’s network news crew for another “exposé” on presumed unnecessary facility expansions, as was the case of the then-new airport. And heavens forbid that a school of blind cave fish is discovered beneath whatever acreage is put forth for the new auditorium.

TED TALLEY

Bentonville

Reduce welfare, too

I read a letter sent in by Thomas Taylor and agree with him completely. Stop all foreign aid to every country that is not a solid ally and cut all government spending by 10 percent.

That includes all government employees as well as all officials, up to and including the president.

The only thing Taylor left out is welfare, which should also be cut. I have heard and seen too many welfare cases where the woman keeps popping babies out for the $1,500 per month. Since they are being given this money, there should be some rules.

If the welfare recipient is physically able to work, she should have to do some kind of labor or the payments stop. Women are to be allowed two children paid for and supported by the government and any past that are on the woman’s dime. The taxpayers should not have to pay for a woman’s failure to keep her knees together.

I recently heard of a welfare mother who had eight kids and one coming whose family collects $144,000 per year from the government to support these kids, not counting all the rest of the free stuff these lazy clowns get that the rest of us pay for. This is totally unacceptable to those of us who work for a living and live in most of the country where the bleeding-heart liberals don’t live.

KIPP WOODBURY

Mountain Home

Cease overspending

There are those who have been critical of Sen. Mark Pryor’s votes. It is true that he has voted with those who have given us Obamacare and the stimulus; that has added trillions to our national debt, which has now reached $14 trillion. That’s an insignificant amount for a prosperous country like ours.

For example, place $4 trillion 100-dollar bills on top of each other and it will reach a height of 949 miles. (The space station is 250 miles above the Earth.) Continue voting as you have, senator, and you may depend on my vote when you come up for re-election. You may depend on my vote, that is, to help make it possible for you to go fishing every day with Sen. Blanche Lincoln.

The president and the Congress simply do not get it. Year after year, you do not spend trillions of dollars more than you take in. Is it a deliberate attempt to destroy our republic or do they need to hire “The Beverly Hillbillies’ ” Jethro Bodine to cipher for them?

TOM CHIPMAN

Little Rock

Bush policies at fault

Anybody making less than $250,000 with a portfolio less than seven figures who voted for Republicans in the last election voted against his own economic best interests. Fearful, confused people were scammed by the right-wing media outlets shrieking about the dangers of socialism.

These same Republicans are pushing for continuation of the Bush tax reduction for the top 2 percent while cutting benefits for people who have lost their jobs. Warren Buffett says we should be paying a lot more taxes because we have it better than we’ve ever had it.

These same Republicans are pushing for deficit reduction and tax cuts, which simply can’t happen at the same time. We suffer under the current deficit because George W. Bush got us into two preemptive wars while giving these tax breaks to the rich. Bush’s deregulation policies led to the rampant greed that led to the current financial crisis.

Conservatives are playing the fear card with older taxpayers, putting Social Security and Medicare under attack. In their relentless push to enhance the wealth of the rich, many Republican politicians, including Sen.-elect John Boozman, are pushing for a 23 percent flat tax, which means that the working poor get taxed at the same rate as millionaires. Where is their compassion?

The Republicans are the party of the rich who exploit the working poor and middle class. Support them at your peril.

RICK BURNS

Bella Vista

Missing piece found?

Could the recent attempt by the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission to exclude itself from the state Freedom of Information Act be the missing piece to the puzzle of why the G&FC helped keep the ivory-billed woodpecker hoax alive for so long?

Millions of taxpayer dollars have been appropriated to fund the search, and commercial companies as well as the general public have been denied the use of thousands of acres of public land. All that was under the pretense of searching for Arkansas’ version of Sasquatch, and yet the fact remains that the last sighting by creditable observers was in 1944.

Is it time we ask for a detailed accounting of the funds appropriated to the search? If such an accounting was called for, it may be of interest to find out who in the department benefited (a state-owned automobile?) or what other project was actually funded under the guise of the hunt for the nonexistent bird.

KEN BLOOM

Bella Vista

Feedback

Point appreciated

Congratulations on your editorial, “Our two senators split.” Your key point, that partisanship, power and privilege have replaced principle and statesmanship in Congress, is exactly what a majority of American voters noted and acted upon this past November.

I hold no brief for either major party; both have their own evidence of corruption and deception. Fortunately, the American people are becoming more aware of the congressional and presidential failures and impotence to adhere to the Constitution and rational performance of their respective duties.

Let’s work toward limiting the number of calendar days that Congress can be in session each year and limiting federal budgets to the average of the previous three fiscal years’ revenues, their failure to conform to both limitations to be an impeachable offense against the American people.

Keep up the good work. It is a pleasure to see that one media outlet has not forgotten how and why this nation was founded.

ROBERT E. MOORE

Gravette

Opinion, Pages 4 on 12/08/2010

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