LETTERS

LITTLE ROCK — Vital questions remaining

The headline on the recent editorial about Susan Rice’s withdrawal damned with faint praise, did it not? The difference between it and what was in the body of the editorial was much clearer than who may have been behind the attack in Benghazi.

I do not know if Rice would have been a good secretary of state. I had my doubts. However, I am amazed at how fast some politicians and members of the press were ready to make an issue of the terminology used to comment on the attack and skip over policy issues that made the attack possible, especially when I remember so many of those same people swallowing George W. Bush’s reasons for launching the Iraq War.

If you want to question attacks on embassies, why did we minimize the al-Qaida attacks on African embassies before 9/11? Ronald Reagan pulled peacekeeping Marines out of Lebanon after an attack on them, and Clinton quickly withdrew troops from Somalia.

Should we even have an ambassador in a country before the government itself is safely established? Then there is the cutting frenzy that part of Congress is in, and the report that funding for defense of foreign embassies may have been cut. Why not discuss that if it is true? There is more to it than whether the killers were terrorists or demonstrators gone wild.

By the way, Adlai Stevenson was known as an egghead by some in the area where I grew up. I read that he found his job at the UN boring. He would have been happier as president.

GARY SCHMEDEMANN Russellville A lifetime investment

Republicans are loudly clamoring for curtailments to Social Security benefits as a part of any fiscal-cliff compromise. Social Security payments are funded out of payroll taxes. Currently, these funds are sufficient through 2033. At that time, the government would be required to start repayingenough of the Social Security Trust Fund-held bonds to supplement payroll-tax receipts equal to that year’s disbursement.

Not a nickel of this money came from federal income taxes.

As of April of 2012, the value of the government bonds in the Social Security Trust Fund totals $4.8 trillion, included as a part of the total federal debt of $15.7 trillion.

If the Republicans succeed in their efforts to curb 25 percent of Social Security costs, they will have succeeded in reneging on a $4.8 trillion moral obligation to the working men and women of this country.

How do you think we will collectively react to having such a huge amount of our lifetime investment literally stolen from us and our children?

ROBERT G. HALL Jacksonville Treaty vote shameful

Even Russia and China, who are not known for their generosity on civil rights, have signed the United Nations disability-rights treaty to bring civil rights to the disabled around the world.

Sen. John Boozman and the other 37 GOP senators who opposed this treaty should feel disgraceful for their cowardly vote kowtowing to the fringe, right-wing, conspiracy-touting, radical Tea Party known today as the Republican Party, a party that believes the UN is the stage for who they believe is the socialist Muslim Anti-Christ wanting to take over the world, aka President Barack Obama.

All this treaty does is signal to the world that the U.S. and more than 100 other countries believe the disabled around the world should have equal rights and access to public facilities, a treaty which complements our own Americans with Disabilities Act.

Tell Sen. Boozman and the Tea Party GOP to go home and hide their heads in shame.

PATRICK GRAY Cabot More to being parent

Maybe most folks dismissed it as ignorance, but I thought surely there would be a barrage of responses to Karen Schweizer’s zipper letter by now. Rough stuff. Her brush is broad.

So, I feel compelled to stand up for all the honorable men and women who do love and support their children.

I wish that the term “fathering a child” at least by Schweizer’s context, could be stricken from the record. There is so much more to being a father or mother than merely producing offspring. Love, time, patience, understanding, nurture, sacrificeand heart are involved, whereas siring takes only genitals and a lack of restraint.

Maybe she slept through physiology class. It still takes more than just a man to tango, even with all of our modern technology.

I do think it’s shameful that some men and women won’t support their children. I do support stronger, moreenforceable child-support laws. I, too, am a taxpayer who is tired of helping pay for intentional promiscuous behavior by those who want to make their mailboxes heavier.

KEN HUGHES NashvilleDon’t make rich pay

Re our “leader,” Barack Obama, wanting to raise taxes for higherincome individuals and families. This is how I see what he is proposing.

Let’s say Bob is a hardworking American. He builds his business, sacrificing time with his family to tend to his business to make a better life and future for his family. Bob pays almost $1,000 per month for his family’s health-care plan out of his own pocket. Bob has a budget for groceries that he pays for out of his own pocket. He purchases steaks maybe twice per month, and buys generic items whenever possible.

Then there is Jim. He has been through several different jobs in this lifetime and finally settled on living off the government, i.e., other American taxpayers are supporting him.Jim also has two young children supported by the same means. He and his children all have government-paid health insurance. Jim is also on food stamps. Once a week he visits a local chain grocery store and spends about $150 on food, including steaks, organic vegetables and fruits, name-brand cereals and snacks.

Basically, Jim is meeting Bob regularly in a back alley, holding a gun on him and demanding money so Jim and his family can live.

I am a member of the middle class. I am not on any government programs; I work a full-time job and a part-time job. If I can see that raising taxes on wealthy Americans is wrong, why can’t other Americans? Just because you make more money does not mean you should be forced to pay for those Americans who simply do not want to work.

RHONDA S. JONES FayettevilleToo much traveling

I recently heard about Hillary Clinton fainting in her home. I would have fainted, too, if I had just wastedhard-earned taxpayer dollars flying 950,000 miles to more than 100 foreign countries, and for what?

That did not even include the United States ofAmerica, which should be the most important country of all.

If she is doing it for peace, it is not working. I think they should ground all flights that are paid for by taxpayer dollars and they should stay in Washington and work for our country. It is the one that is suffering.

MARSHA R. GRANT BentonA miscommunication

My thanks to reader Michael Klossner for pointing out my failure to properly communicate a point I made in my published letter. My intention was to communicate that I did not think gays, lesbians and transsexuals were second-class citizens. Those I know tell me they would never voluntarily choose that lifestyle because of the hatred from the Christians.

They tell me they were born that way and I cannot, therefore, pass judgment on them. I did not choose to be bald or overweight, but those who love me accept me the way I am. However, since the Bible warns of the consequences of the homosexual lifestyle, I personally must follow the Bible. By the way, the Bible also says that baldness is a sign of God’s curse. And in the same chapter where Paul condemned homosexuals, he condemned gossip, disobedience to parents, arrogance and boastfulness.

My appreciation to Michael also because, unlike the Freedom from Religion Foundation, he was willing to use his name when submitting anobjection. Each time one of my letters is published, someone from the group with very poor handwriting sends me a brochure from their cowardly group telling me what an idiot I am for being a Christian.

I am a believer, and no amount of verbal, mental or physical persecution will ever change that. Save your stamp, because I’m still praying for you. And my apologies to my friends who might have thought I no longer loved them.

DANNY DRAPER Little RockTreatment’s shameful

Re Barry Crowley’s letter concerning the entitlement programs. He is right. He will continue to pay for the people who are on these programs. If and when he is old enough to receive these entitlements, someone else will pay for him out of their pocket. It’s a trickle-down deal. I paid someone’s when I was working, and now someone is paying mine.

I’m sure the veterans who got kicked out of their retirement home are not happy that the city couldn’t affordit or didn’t want to fix it but could find the money to build a red, white and blue bridge. The people who fought for their country and made it home would much rather be together with others they have something in common with instead of a regular nursing home. Why can’t the city build them a home instead of a bridge that some of them may have to live under if they have no place to go?

I had four sons in the military and my daughter’s husband was retired from the military. Shame on people for the way vets are treated.

MILDRED SHORES StuttgartC’mon, feel the noise

Re Nate Allen’s recent column on Bud Walton Arena: Right on!

If I want to listen to commercials and canned music/noise I could just as well stay home. I have had tickets in Walton since it opened in 1993. The environment has become worse every year since 2008.

DALE GOSSIEN Little RockFeedback It’s just a free-for-all

I wonder what all these people would have done had they lived back in the time of Jesus. Would they have called him a Communist because he made the lame walk, the deaf hear and the blind see, at no cost? Jesus gave free medical care, no co-pay, no premiums. Would all these conservatives have crucified him?

Dr. Jonas Salk gave away his polio vaccine to all the world for free. He could have been a billionaire and hidden all his money in the Cayman Islands. But he chose not to. He’s a true American.

You can bet Paul Ryan and all the rest of the congressmen and senators stood in line for their free polio vaccine.

BOB MASSERY Little Rock That’s their worry?

So lawmakers who oppose expanding Medicaid coverage think they’ll be blamed if nursing care for senior citizens is cut.

It is a sad day for Arkansas when our elected representatives worry more about their being blamed than the very sad fact that 15,000 nursing-home residents could be put out on the street.

WARREN SMITH Little Rock