LETTERS

LITTLE ROCK — Vote for suitable stewards

A sad and strident refrain plays out daily on editorial pages, at tea-party rallies, and throughout the media. It insists that our government is incompetent and evil. It characterizes all those who work for it as lazy, corrupt, second-rate bureaucrats.

People, please be rational. Government employees aren’t aliens from another planet. The feckless and lazy are feckless and lazy no matter where they work; the conscientious and honest remain so whether they are in government or private industry.

I worked for the city of Long Beach, Calif., for 15 years in four different departments and demonstrated exactly the same integrity and discipline I exercised when I ran my own business. I came in early and left late, never stole so much as a paper clip and worked unpaid Saturdays when I needed to. My attitude was perhaps not commonplace, but neither was it extraordinary.

You have a government because 300 million people cannot live in chaos. In such a huge country, you cannot reasonably expect to have “small government.” This government is yours. It is your job to elect those you believe to be suitable stewards of this country and its values; to be informed about your true history; to vote in every election, no matter how minor; and to behave with some measure of civility and patience when your party is out of power. Do your job and those of us who to work for you will do ours.

ANN LINK Little Rock

Can’t mold morality

Your editorial staff deserves kudos for the many comments that have produced positive and much needed changes. You have sought to expose the weaknesses of politicians, legislators, executives of the federal, state and local governments. The staff has waged battle (and been successful) many times against threats to our individual liberties, and oftentimes the public had no idea those liberties were being threatened until the war was won.

Why do you now want to regulate morality? Why do you try to establish what’s right for Arkansans with regard to the lottery? You were opposed to the lottery long before it was authorized. By whom? Oh yeah, the people of our state. We exercised our freedom of choice and the government listened. You, sirs did not.

You use the lame excuse that the poor are going to suffer. Have you forgotten that the poor were poor before the lottery? Are you not so much upset with the involvement of the poor as you are with the success of the lottery and the salary of the individuals running it?

The poor-just a guess here-don’t read a great many editorials, so why not concentrate your efforts on reducing taxes? Please write about the billions of dollars our government is spending in Iraq and Afghanistan each month. Think of all the scholarships. Keep after the misuse of government vehicles. You can’t regulate morality.

JIM LANE Fayetteville

Re-election deserved

Congressman Mike Ross has consistently stayed in touch with the residents of the 4th Congressional District. He travels the district quite often and listens to the concerns of all.

What with his Washington schedule and all the time he spends traveling, I wonder sometimes if he ever eats or sleeps. He still spends many nights just up the road in his hometown of Prescott.

Being a municipal official, I am well aware of how important it is to have a representative in Washington who listens to the concerns of local officials. Ross has been that person for us. Like David Pryor, he still understands that public service is, indeed, a noble calling. He is not a flash in the pan, he is the real deal who takes his job seriously and more than deserves another term in office.

RICHARD MOORE Camden

U.S. on socialist path

Two things voters need to remember come November.

Democrats think the socialist policies of Barack Obama and the Democrats, where the government will control every aspect of your life from health care to what news you can get, is a good thing. Democrats think unions need to have more control over you.

Democrats think that taking from one person and giving it to another is OK. Senate Democrats would ratify the U.N. Arms Trade Treaty, which [could lead to] registration of all firearms by the United Nations. Do you hunters want to take that chance?

The second thing is that there are no moderate Democrats. This was proved with the health care vote. Blanche Lincoln likes to say she is a moderate, yetshe jumped on the Obama/Harry Reid bandwagon and cast the 60th vote. It did not matter what the people of Arkansas thought. In other words, she thought the people were too dumb to know what was good for them.

This election is all about whether the people want to live under socialism or under a free market and a limited government like the Founders set up.

I did not like George W. Bush that much, but I would rather liver under his worst days than Obama socialism. Europe is turning away from socialism because it is failing. Yet America is heading down the socialism path.

KEN SPARROW Conway

A man with a plan?

Prior to entering elective politics, Barack Obama was a community organizer. A community organizer is comparable to a union organizer except that his interests reach beyond unions to include societal and political issues. In 1971, Saul Alinsky, a Marxist activist, published “Rules for Radicals,” the definitive manual for community organization. Alinsky credited Lucifer as “the first radical who rebelled against the establishment and did it so effectively that he won his own kingdom.” Lucifer’s goal was worldwide in scope. Obama’s target is somewhat more limited: to fundamentally change America.

Alinsky’s rules provide guidelines and instructions for the deconstruction of status in quo and its replacement with a successor system. Interestingly, he posits that a good community organizer is more of a creator than a leader, stating, “For him hell would be doing the same thing over and over again” and “The leader goes on to build power to fulfill his desires. . . . He wants power himself. The organizer finds his goal in creation of power for others to use.”

Perhaps this explains Obama’s cavalier attitude toward traditional presidential functions and a perceived disdain for public opinion. Could all this mean that he is uninterested in a second term? Could it be that Hillary Clinton is waiting in the wings? Could it be that this has been the plan from the beginning?

DENNIS LEGGETT Batesville

Wisdom is called for

I was very gratified to read Bradley R. Gitz’s thinking and solutions to the problem of the Muslim population not speaking up about the terrorists who have hijacked their religion. I only wish our politicians and talking heads would address this problem with the wisdom exhibited in this writing.

NATALIE J. TOLMAN Heber Springs

Remembrance is key

Sept. 11 should be deemed a national day of remembrance aimed particularly at people like the president who seem to have already forgotten. A national day of service indeed. How about a national day of mourning?

MARY-O’DELL ZEMANN Little Rock

Incompatibility clear

The Florida pastor need not burn the Koran to demonstrate disgust with Islam. A better way is to distribute an English version of the Koran all across our nation to show how Islam is incompatible with Judaism and Christianity.

To understand incompatibility, get the Internet pictures of imams in Iraq holding down an 8-year-old boy while driving a car over his arm as punishment for stealing bread.

In 1453, Islam conquered Constantinople. After slaughtering thousands of Christians, they built a mosque over the Christian cathedral of Hagia Sophia to celebrate their victory.

To get the whole story of Islam, get the book “What Every American Needs to Know About the Qur’an: A History of Islam & the United States” by William Federer.

Here is how President Theodore Roosevelt felt about immigrants becoming Americans. Paraphrasing: We should insist that if the immigrant comes here in good faith and assimilates himself to us, he shall be treated on an exact equality with everyone else. There can be no divided allegiance. If he says he is an American but something else also, he isn’t an American at all. We have room for but one flag, the American flag. We have room for but one language here, and that is the English language. We have room for but one sole loyalty and that is a loyalty to the American people.

ARTHUR O. MILLER Little Rock

Expertise questioned

I read the letters in this space every day and have noticed a recent increase in letters from self-proclaimed experts on Islam.

I would wager that most of the writers have never had a personal conversation with a Muslim about his or her faith or held a copy of the Koran in their hands. Citing an isolated verse here and there from secondary sources, they attempt to prove their deep knowledge and familiarity with Muslim beliefs and practices. Isolated verses from their own Bible would portray their religion in an equally incomplete and inaccurate manner to those who had not grown up in the same traditions.

Then the writers attempt to paint all Muslims with the same broad brush stroke. The U.S. has a population of a little over 300 million people, and a religious affiliation survey in2008 showed that 76 percent identified themselves as Christians. These were spread among hundreds of denominations, including dozens going by the name of Baptist. Would anyone say all of these different groups are homogeneous? Would they want their own religious beliefs and practices to be defined by any one of these groups that claim the Christian name? Why, then, claim that 1.5 billion Muslims in over 200 countries are of one mind and spirit?

Behaving in this manner, we belie or ignore a great number of our own scripture passages, which instruct us to act in a far different way toward all of our neighbors.

T. GLYN FINLEY West Fork

One way to look at it

Check the recent front page of the Democrat-Gazette for a photo of Barack Obama’s demonstration of the correct way the Nazis salute should be executed. If you don’t have a paper, watch TV and see his next commercial announcement. He renders it every time he meets two or more believers.

GRANT GATLIFF DelightFeedback

Flag ruling faulted

Something has bothered me for years-desecration of our flag-but an item in the news recently is the last straw.

U.S. District Judge Richard Kopf overturned Nebraska’s ban on flag desecration, clearing the way for Kansas’ Westboro Baptist Church protesters to continue trampling on the U.S. flag when they protest at military funerals.

Freedom of speech my foot. Since when is a physical action considered speech? Besides that, those of us, since the Revolutionary War through our young soldiers today who have fought, shed blood, died or otherwise served in the U.S. military, did not give so much of our lives so that a bunch of numskulls and judges think that freedom of speech gives them the right to slap us in the face.

If these lamebrains can read, they should get a copy of the Constitution of the United States of America and read Amendment 1. Remember, freedom of speech is not free.

As for protesting at military funerals, how low can you get? They should be ashamed to even show their face in a house of God on Sunday morning.

Judges should make decisions based on the Constitution as it is written and not on how they or a bunch of crackpots interpret it for their own benefit.

NELSON GATEWOOD Highland