LETTERS

LITTLE ROCK — To open children’s minds

So the Tennessee state Senate recently approved a bill aimed at encouraging public school teachers to “teach the controversy” regarding modern evolutionary theory. Liberals and scientists are already up in arms about it, but I think this “teach the controversy” method of instruction has its merits and, in fact, should be expanded to other disciplines.

For example, a perusal of the Internet reveals that many people do not believe human beings ever landed on the moon. Proponents of the fake moon-landing theory can present a dizzying array of scientific data to back up their point, and yet students aren’t required to read Bill Kaysing’s We Never Went to the Moon as they study the Apollo program. What’s wrong with teaching critical thinking?

Likewise with the Holocaust. Some believe the Holocaust happened, but some don’t. Is this not reason enough to expose children to alternate points of view? Perhaps students in history class, after viewing Schindler’s List or reading Anne Frank’s Diary, could listen to a lecture from a local skinhead on the “myth” of the Holocaust to gather support for imperial ambitions in Palestine. This would be a fair-and-balanced approach, just as one sees on television news.

Teach the controversy. Let creationism stand alongside fake-moon landing theories and Holocaust denial, opening the minds of our children to possibilities beyond those advanced by credentialed scientists and historians. It’s time to take a stand for the truths.

GUY LANCASTER Little Rock Find a decent answer

I take the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette because I like the Voices letters.

I guess you could say I am a shut in. I have had a couple of mini strokes and I am old so I have to rely on a caregiver. At least I’ve got one that I can depend on. She is an angel to me.

Some letters upset me and some tickle me. Often it’s the Christians against the non-Christians. When a Christian tries to push his beliefs on me, I always think of all the cults.

A particular cult leader had his people drink poison and 913 died, 276 of them children. This was not atheism. It was done in the name of Jesus Christ.

A 5-year-old child is smart enough to ask, “If God made everything, who made God?”

Why can’t Christians give him a decent answer instead of finding excuses like God has always been there, and he always will be. That is a dumb answer.

I don’t fear that there is a hell, but I do fear these people who do their best to make people think the Bible is the word of God and not the work of men.

BILL MORELAND Rogers Place them elsewhere

I agree with readers who think that the letters to the editor section should not be used to debate religious views (for or against).

An exception might be when itties into specific news issues, such as the current debate about separation of church and state.

For all of the other letters-from the atheists to those quotingscripture-I have a suggestion: Publish them in the religion section where that kind of age-old commentary and debate belongs.

To help with the distinction, simply think of the first four letters of the word “newspaper”-and publish letters to the editor with that in mind.

STEPHANIE CULP Bella VistaA painful conclusion

Patty Wingfield’s empathy for the animal found skinned in Conway is admirable. However, her claim that all abortions are similarly cruel and painful lacks credibility.

According to Stuart Derbyshire, a psychologist and fetal-pain expert at the University of Birmingham in the United Kingdom, most studies demonstrate that the nerve circuitry for pain isn’t completely developed until 26 weeks in the womb. That’s about when the third trimester begins. But even then, he said, a fetus can’t experience true pain without consciousness and context.

If the religious right would step up and provide a good home for all unwanted children born when an abortion is denied, then I’d believe their concern for the aborted. Why would they want to condemn a child to be born into a life of neglect, poverty, and worse?

LINDA JIRKA Mountain HomeThey’re in it for profit

Re Peggy Bennett’s letter about the Affordable Care Act and her insurance rate increasing: So far the act has provided for young adults being able to be retained on their parents’ insurance, senior citizens have received relief from the Medicare prescription drug doughnut hole, small businesses are provided tax credits for providing their employees health insurance and insurance companies cannot rescind coverage.

Most of the provisions of the act will not go into effect until 2014. I have had private health insurance since 2008 and the rate has gone up every year, sometimes twice. Bennett’s rate went up because insurance companies are for profit and they have to satisfy their shareholders, not because of the Affordable Care Act.

Until there is a government option, health-care costs and insurance will continue to skyrocket.

KATHY VAUGHAN JasperA dubious distinction

Yes, Rep. Darrin Williams will be the first black speaker of the Arkansas House of Representatives in the state’s history. The highest-ranking black member of the Arkansas Legislature was Dr. Jerry Jewell, who served in the Arkansas Senate between 1973 and 1995, was elected as president pro tempore of the senate in 1992, and in January 1993, for just under four days, was Arkansas’ only black acting governor.

Arkansas remains the only former confederate state to have never elected an African American to statewide or federal office.

JOHN A. KIRK Little Rock Is that bacon I smell?

Although I was never a fan of and never will be a fan of Bill Clinton’s, I thought naming the Little Rock airport for him was appropriate. When I saw the whole name was Bill and Hillary Clinton National Airport, I had tofight a wave of nausea. Including the name of a woman who obviously thought herself far above us poor oldArkies is just ludicrous.

Then the beauty of the name hit me. As that ghastly double-wide-inthe-sky museum has brought continuing wisecracks, so will the Hillbilly Airport! Won’t that just fry old Hill’s bacon, as we unrefined Arkies like to say?

MARTY HENRY Malvern‘Pot’ isn’t the problem

Richard M. Nixon decided that a small percentage of the citizens of the U.S. had a growing drug problem, so he approached the problem the same way most people would. Even though the worst of the drug problem, involved opium-based and chemically engineered drugs, he included marijuana. After 40 years, marijuana has since been proven nonaddictive and possesses medicinal benefits.

The war on drugs has been responsible for thousands of deaths on an international scale. It has cost not only this country, but the entire world dearly in human lives, suffering and billions of dollars that that could have been better spent in more humane ways of treating the truly dependent drug-addicted citizenship of this great country. Are we a truly humane, compassionate people, or are we something else entirely?

How many more deaths do the citizens of the world have to endure due to a failed, unrelenting policy of our federal government? If Washington would just admit failure and legalize medical marijuana nationwide,the war on drugs could be dramatically scaled back and untold lives and future tax dollars can be saved. The current path is inhumane, oppressive, unsustainable and just flat-out stupid.

I have always been the first to admit when I make a mistake. Washington should do the same. My personal view is that more people have been injured and killed because of the war on drugs than by the drugs they are trying to control. That’s sad.

CHARLES TURNER CarthageForget the rule of law

Counterfeit Christians who have worked so hard to abolish the death penalty for capital crimes should be extremely proud of themselves. They, along with the despicable former Mississippi governor Haley Barbour, have done our nation more damage than imaginable.

Barbour pardoned four convicted murderers and about 190 other criminals on his way out of the governor’s office. Worse yet is that six of the nine Mississippi Supreme Court judgesagreed that he was at liberty to do the unpardonable act.

Law no longer means anything. Who fears the penalty of crime? Mexico and most other Catholic countries have abolished justice, in my opinion. Any wonder more than 45,000 have been killed in the so-called drug wars in recent years? Since Mexico barred justice-capital punishment-the citizens have had to defend themselves. Recent news reports out of Texas are that gun sales have exploded.

Everyone opposed to executing a cold-blooded murderer can make no legitimate claim of being a Christian.

JIM GLOVER Heber SpringsFeedback Cynical viewpoint

“So what drove [Peyton] Manning to leave the comfort zone of Indianapolis, where he had a teary goodbye news conference, to start fresh in Denver? Probably ego.”

Really, Wally Hall? Really?

He plays football. That is his calling . . . just like Hall seems to believe that writing a column is his calling. It’s a shame he writes such a cynical column. I rarely even read it, but the title of that one caught my eye, as I thought he might have something interesting to say about one of the greatest football players alive being let go to satisfy a salary cap.

Hmmmmph . . . won’t be reading his column again, no matter how attractive the heading.

JUDI MONROE Lincoln Not usual blather

I applaud Gary Dorrien’s column, printed on a recent edition’s editorial page, about liberals needing to stand behind our president.

It is such a refreshing change from the usual conservative blather found in the Arkansas opinion pages.

Yes, President Barack Obama has accomplished many impressive feats, helping to reverse the disheartening trend of the George W. Bush administration.

God help this country if the Republicans return to power.

JEFFREY BARNES West Fork