LETTERS

LITTLE ROCK — Blame Democrats for slide

It is standard practice to credit or blame the president for everything that happens. This is somewhat unfair relating to the economy because only Congress has the power to initiate revenue bills.

We now have 44 million people, or 14.3 percent, living below the poverty level, the highest since 1994. Those of you with good memories know that Bill Clinton was president and both houses were controlled by Democrats, just like they are now.

I looked farther back to see the previous time Democrats had controlled both houses and the presidency. I found the answer to be 1977-80. Both inflation and interest rates topped 18 percent. Those were the Jimmy Carter years. I am focusing on economics, but there were several other memorable events from the Carter years. A few that come to mind are long gas lines, giving away the Panama Canal as well as a lengthy Iranian hostage crisis and a disastrous rescue attempt.

For those who are listening to the liberals propagating the fallacy that everything is George W. Bush’s fault, think about this: In January 2007, the Dow Jones was around 12,500, the Gross Domestic Product was averaging about 3.5 percent, the unemployment rate was 4.6 percent and the economy had just set a record of 52 consecutive months of job creation. On Jan. 3 of that year, the Democrats took over Congress and we have been on a downhill slide every since.

PHIL PHILLIPS Fayetteville

Are liberties at risk?

Can unintended consequences occur if Arkansas and other states follow Arizona’s example and pass laws such as Arizona’s to control illegal immigration? Can that law do more harm than good?

According to Tom DeWeese and Mark Lerner in the August “DeWeese Report,” such a law would give the federal government more power to collect information on us and share it with worldwide law enforcement agencies and governments. It would be used by the federal government to get more personal information on U.S. citizens.

The Department of Homeland Security has told us that nearly all Americans are potentially domestic terrorists. If it can now restrict us on some things, why not also restrict us on buying weapons and ammunition or prescription drugs? If you support a third-party candidate, are an activist, an environmentalist, even an evangelical Christian, you are being watched by Homeland Security.

DeWeese and Lerner suggest that a hub system using birth certificates that is controlled by the states be put in place. The hub would not retain information but act only as a conduit. Nine years after 9/11 our borders are fully open, and Homeland Security reportedly stops only 29 percent of illegal people and goods while 71 percent get through. Could this Arizona-type law become a Trojan horse to create an international I.D. system that would threaten our liberties?

GWEN CARPENTER Magnolia

Lincoln best for state

As a mother, Sen. Blanche Lincoln has always let family values guide her path. She has fearlessly fought for the farmers of Arkansas even as Republicans have blocked help for them. Also, she has been steadfastly against the Republican plan to turn our Social Security over to Wall Street.

In addition, she has been a tireless advocate for our children. Caring for our boys fighting overseas, she has seen to it that they have been kept well supplied.

Under John Boozman, it’ll be the same old same old, wasteful policies of George W. Bush, who was responsible for two unpaid-for wars, an unpaidfor prescription policy that helped the drug companies and left us seniors with a big donut hole, and an unpaid for non-efficient school mandate.

Furthermore, Boozman wants to tack a 23 percent federal sales tax on almost every item you buy such as a house and a car and every service such as a permanent and haircut at the beauty parlor. Because of holding companies and other devices, the well-to-do will buy products overseaswithout paying any taxes.

Arkansas is one of the few states in our nation that’s doing well. Such prosperity is mainly due to our Democratic legislators and governor. Don’t listen to the false, billionaire-backed propaganda campaign against these fine Arkansas people. Vote for Lincoln.

LINDA WOODBURY Hot Springs

System is voracious

The president and the Democrats in Congress constantly blame George W. Bush for the current economic malaise. However, they need to be reminded that the Democrats took control of both houses of Congress in November 2006. This means that the recession started and grew worse while Democrats were running Washington.

No matter how bad Bush may have left things, Barack Obama has made the situation far worse. It’s obvious that he still doesn’t understand how angry voters are with the way he has done things or doesn’t care.

Those Democrats up for re-election will find out how people feel come Nov. 2. I am predicting that 100 Democrats will lose their seats in the House, and 12 in the Senate will be defeated.

I am not holding my breath that the Republicans will do much better. The power-broker system consumes all who enter it.

FRANK LATIMER Little Rock

Response was fitting

I don’t know all the Little Rock Board of Directors members on sight. I don’t care what they look like. If I had seen Ken Richardson wearing a shirt that said Little Rock Police Department, I would have assumed that he was an officer. It’s a good thing I didn’t need help.

Readers who ranted about Officer Eliot Young were too lazy to read the entire news storry. Lt. Terry Hastings clearly said that the department started selling the shirts primarily so detectives could be recognizable at events and crime scenes as officers.

They are either an official uniform item or they are not. If officers were told that they were official uniform items, then Young was perfectly right to question someone he does not know to be an officer. Richardson was rude, sarcastic and childish. Young’s response to his behavior was to be expected.

M.D. SELLS Alexander

Saddened by claims

I saw the letter by Frank Newman. He was so right about Vietnam veterans’ unproved claims about Agent Orange [being classified as a presumptive medical condition by Veterans Affairs]. That is terrible.

My son did die in November 2009 from cancer from Agent Orange. He was a Vietnam veteran. His death came after much suffering from cancer that attached to his tongue and neck and killed him after a long fight and much pain. He was my only son and, believe me, it was hard to see him suffering.

Veterans who blame Agent Orange for illness and that is not so should be ashamed.

JEAN G. BRINK Winslow

Rally wasn’t political

Re the Glenn Beck rally: After reading Jay Sims’ letter, I felt I had to write to express my feelings after being in attendance on the Mall for the event in question.

The overriding theme for me was the necessity for this nation to restore to all our families the spiritual values that inspired our Founding Fathers when they wrote the Declaration of Independence.

Our founding documents expressed the belief that the rights we take for granted were bestowed on us by our creator and not by the government. They are rights that the government cannot take away but that we can discard by our own actions if we fail to realize their origin.

The event I attended was anything but a political event by my definition. It was held in a national location; attendees were from all across this nation. These facts do not make it a political event.

The message was continually one of returning to our families a senseof the spiritual values that have been lost over time. It would much closer resemble a spiritual rally aimed at restoring these values, and along with them honor among our families and belief in our creator.

I had never seen so many people assembled in one location during my more than 80 years. I did not see a single sign of any kind and, other than the American flag, no banners or display of political content. I was proud to have been able to attend.

JOSEPH C. BECK Little Rock

True motive revealed

So Christine O’Donnell said she once dabbled in witchcraft. Now we see where this tea-party ideology originated.

The tea-party approach is totally opposite from the teachings of the Bible. First, the biggest form of idolatry is to place money before God. The fundamental teachings of the Bible are to love the Lord above all, then love thy neighbor. However, tea-party desires are to ignore biblical teachings including the basic needs of humankind, while propagandizing the Constitution.

The true motivation of the tea party is the fact that the president of this country is a man of African American descent. African Americans are aware of what truly drives the heart of this movement: money, racism and fear.

We also are aware that there are those who are afraid of losing the wealth that God has allowed. It is the racist hearts of those who, as Chris Rock stated, can’t stand the fact that a black man only has a nickel even if they have a dime.

The fears that permeate the mind of those who don’t believe that God controls their lives. They believe they have the right to capitalism by any means necessary. It is pathetic when the declared religious remain silent while this truly ungodly concept rises. The earthly church is evidently not the biblical church. The American motto has become “In us we trust” because it is not God.

DEBORAH SUTTLAR Little Rock

Help families as well

Sept. 25 was the fourth anniversary of the National Day of Remembrance for Murder Victims. On this occasion, I remember my fallen hero, my brother, who was shot and killed while playing pool with buddies after work in November 1968.

I never fail to think of him on his birthday and on the anniversary of his death. He was 13 years older than me and was a loving parental figure to me as a young child. As an adult, he was a close friend. He was also a husband and young father who never got to meet his children’s spouses or his grandchildren. In October, I will attend the wedding of one of his grandchildren and he will be with us in spirit.

Trauma survivors have a host of needs that are often ongoing and in many instances unmet. Often longterm counseling is needed where the state only provides for a limited number of sessions.

Financial needs range from funeral costs to the loss of family income and are not satisfied with the limited funds available in state victims’ compensation funds. There are limited resources available for cold case units. Many murder victims’ family members do not even know of the services that are available in the state due to the lack of publicity and outreach.

Let’s pledge to remember loved ones taken and turn our attention to the family members left behind and see that they receive the care and resources they need.

JUDITH ELANE Little Rock

Feedback Cartoon offended

It has seemed to me that we no longer have a state newspaper, but one geared mainly to the yuppies in Pulaski County.

I know of no one who cares about wine-tasting, culinary pursuits, theater, arts, the River Market, the Big Dam Bridge or the Clinton library. Most Arkansans grow all or at least a part of their vegetables and supplement those with fish, venison, squirrels, muscadines and various other items gleaned from nature’s bounty. We cook out and invite friends on Saturday, attend church on Sunday and help our neighbors when they need it without having to be asked.

Arkansas sportsmen showed up in droves to support the one eighth-of-a-cent sales tax that allows the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission to maintain our wildlife management areas properly, buy more public land for our expanding population, stock our lakes, teach hunter ed and archery so that our children will know the safe way to hunt, fish, operate ATVs and survive, and realize that there’s more to life than balls, boob tubes and video games.

The various functions of the G&FC requires many vehicles of different types, and some citified dunderhead’s backhanded attempt to denigrate them in his Voices page cartoon is not appreciated and only reveals his ignorance.

JACK STEPHENS Houston