LETTERS

— The sky hasn’t fallen yet

How come we don’t hear anything anymore about doing away with “don’t ask, don’t tell?” Wasn’t that supposed to signal the end of democracy? Weren’t our soldiers supposed to quit in droves to the point where we could no longer defend our country? Weren’t there insurmountable reasons for this discrimination to go on forever?

Wasn’t ending “don’t ask, don’t tell” the biggest non-event you’ve likely never heard about since its repeal?

Where are all of the homophobes and fearmongers who whined about it? Where is the bombast? Where are the “I told you sos?” Did anybody hear just one of them have the integrity to admit they were wrong?

Gee, what a surprise.

And when homosexual people can marry and nothing changes, just like nothing has changed elsewhere when these same people have been allowed to marry, it will be met with the same slinking-away silence. Just as there has been no change in Argentina, Belgium, Canada, Iceland, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, South Africa and Sweden. Just as there has been no change in Connecticut, Iowa, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York, Vermont, and the District of Columbia.

Traditional marriage hasn’t crumbled. The family unit hasn’t deteriorated. There has been no divine punishment. The sky did not fall. And again, there will be no apologies. No remorse for misery in the wake of legally enforced bigotry.

And certainly no admissions that they were wrong the entire time.

JOHN EBERHARD

Mountain Home

Compromise? Never

According to the mainstream news media, the Tea Party has lost its clout.

Its demise has been greatly exaggerated: Just ask Indiana’s U.S. Sen. Dick Lugar. Tea Party members have been called bigots, obstructionists, radical and extremists. The ones that were elected in the last election did what they promised and, in my opinion, have been castigated by the media and some establishment Republicans.

They have obstructed more debt and bigger government. They stated their positions and for the most part stuck to them in spite of continued criticism. Now we need to add to their numbers and the added clout that will bring.

If there is going to be a fiscal catastrophe, which looks inevitable, let it be now instead of further down the road when it will be much worse. Maybe they will force the Republican leadership to be less willing to compromise.

I believe Democrats are not known as compromisers, but they have the press on their side.

BOBBY THOMPSON

Greers Ferry

Haven’t gone native

When writing editorials, it helps if you know something about your subject.

A recent Arkansas Democrat-Gazette editorial suggests that the trout in Arkansas were doing just fine in “those formerly flowing streams” before the Corps of Engineers went and screwed it all up by building dams. It further states that someone “should be responsible for whatever damage the dams do the ecosystem.”

The problem with this naive view is that rainbow trout are not native to the Ozarks, and could not survive without the cold water released from those dams.

The whole thing is an artificial environment created by the dams.

I think it’s the native smallmouth bass that are the more endangered species in those streams, because they cannot tolerate the colder water that the trout love.

However, most of us will agree with the sentiment to save trout fishing. Even if it’s not natural to the Natural State.

MILTON JONES

West Fork

Freedom from tyrants

Why are senior citizens, the socalled greatest generation, waiting in line for procedures needed to save their lives? Some have died.

Why is mental illness increasing, especially among patriotic soldiers sent overseas to keep order in the brave new world? Did you see the Dr. Phil show on the problem of post traumatic stress disorder, which changes the brain?

Why do government officials treat American citizens like suspected terrorists before they can board an airliner? Why should an American man, a former soldier and military intelligence officer with an artificial leg, have to, with much difficulty, remove his shoes? Why should older women and children have to strip for public viewing?

Americans do not want socialized medicine. We do not want our patriotic young people to have to fight other people’s wars. We do not want to be treated like terrorists ourselves, nor do we want to go on borrowing from China to boost our economy. We want the killing of the unborn to stop. We want the depression of our soldiers to stop.

We want peace, not perpetual war, and our borders protected.

We want what our founders fought for, freedom from tyranny.

GWEN CARPENTER Magnolia

Questions fuel debate

Recently, a reader posed three questions about biofuels, and while they all are valid, they are fairly shortsighted, too.

Petroleum is a lot like land. They aren’t making it anymore and when it’s all gone, we better have something else ready to fuel our economy.

Biofuels aren’t all grown as crops. Many can be made from waste, crop residue or byproducts, and we live in a very wasteful society. Technology exists today to turn the waste we produce into fuels that can be used to power our vehicles, feed our families and heat our homes. Mountains of garbage could all be converted to fuel and electricity.

No, it won’t be cheap to get started, but it can take the waste we are running out of places to bury and convert it to usable energy.

Waste from animal processing, called offal, can be converted to a material virtually identical to crude oil. Animal waste can be converted to methane and fertilizer, and used vegetable and animal oils from many sources can be converted into cleanburning biodiesel.

Ethanol has been a political football for years, and while maybe it isn’t the ideal fuel, it will power our existing vehicles with very few modifications. Producing alcohol from corn may be the easiest route, but it can also be produced from algae and crop waste (or biomass) and need not take land out of food production.

MARK S. FRASER

Desha

Guidance is called for

I read Randy McCain’s guest column, and seemingly he is trying to make homosexuality something holy and pleasing to God.

Randy also tells us that he is a pastor. I am assuming that he is saying he preaches the word of God.

I have read the Bible for 63 years and I have never found God’s blessings on that lifestyle. What I have found is condemnation.

I’m thinking, how did anyone feel the presence of God at the wedding of Randy and Gary?

I am very disappointed in our president and I am praying that the people of our nation will read what God said and not believe something that is so displeasing to God just because our president approves. He is only a man, a man who should be asking God every day to help him lead this great nation but seemingly he doesn’t believe in God.

Let’s pray for him. Lots of lives have been lost and are being lost for our freedom. It is priceless.

MACEL EDWARDS

Fayetteville

Old arguments again

Chiming in here in an effort to make the Voices page look at least nominally different from the Religion page. Gay marriage, such a stir it causes; such a noncomplicated issue in the eyes of this millennial.

Once again, the ever-tolerant “Christians” and never-tolerant bigots are thumbing their noses at an idea they are not comfortable with. It all boils down to sex, my friends. In my opinion, people uncomfortable with the idea of homosexuals having sex use their religion as the excuse to justify their hate and intolerance. Hallelujah, praise Jesus!

Let’s use their logic, though, to ask some questions of our own. Say, tell me, if God is indeed against gay marriage, why would he give us this information only so recently relative to the time span of civilization? How did he feel about it before God even existed on paper? Should we take advice from, as I see it, a self-authoritative work of fiction compiled over a history of 4,000 years?

Do these mores and folkways that existed for ancient cultures have any relevance to us today, especially when these texts are being used to deny rights to a group of people? Do the old-timers reading this paper not remember using the same tired arguments merely 50-60 years ago to justify keeping blacks separate (but equal, what a joke) from society?

Let us not forget, my friends, that marriage is as much a legal binding as it is a spiritual one. A person should not be denied a legal status simply for who they sleep with. Thank you for listening.

DEVIN GREGORY

Conway

Petition tactics offend

Although I strongly support the rights of individuals to sign petitions, I am troubled by the tactics some advocates for liquor sales in Benton County used on Election Day.

When my family voted at our polling place, located in a church, there were pro-liquor people just outside the building sitting at a card table. We parked away from them and went in to vote. On returning to our car, a man came up to us and asked us to sign the petition for liquor.

First, I question the judgment of using a church parking lot to advocate liquor sales that may increase the economy at the cost of spreading the disease of alcoholism that affects so many families. My second objection is confronting people leaving a polling place and asking them to sign a petition.

The right to vote unhindered by advocates for or against causes should be recognized by everyone. Those who want people to sign their petitions should please do so away from polling places or churches.

RALPH HUGH BARGER

Rogers

Hang up on robocalls

Re Flo Travis’ letter about unwanted phone calls: I had the same problem a few years back. Somehow, I stumbled on this phone number that did the trick: 1-888-5OPTOUT (1-888-567-8688).

On rare occasions I still get a call. When I do, I simply pick it up, put it down and push delete.

That bunch, including the little lady answering the phone in broken American English, can go jump in the creek!

ROWAN KEATHLEY

North Little Rock

Feedback

Those steps matter

In a recent piece on the Editorial page, Leonard Pitts took West Virginia businessman and Senate candidate John Raese to task for expressing his opinion about having to put a sign up on his buildings.

Perhaps Pitts has forgotten that the Holocaust did not come about in one bold sweep. It came about in small steps, some of which alarmed some of the people of Jewish faith who chose to leave while they were able to. Others stayed behind, feeling it was home and were sure such a little step didn’t matter.

Isn’t it about time we start taking an interest in the little steps we are being asked to take?

DOROTHY N. BUCHANAN Marion

It earned no votes

President Barack Obama’s fiscal 2013 budget was rejected 0 to 99 in the Senate.

There are 49 Democrats in the Senate, plus two independents who vote with them. Not one voted for his budget!

What does that tell you?

ERWIN HOEFT Hot Springs Village

Editorial, Pages 19 on 05/25/2012

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