Eloquent expression
Re "No Exit From History": What a brilliant and profound column Mr. Paul Greenberg has written. I have always been envious of someone who can take the same thoughts that I have banging around in my head, but organize them and commit them to paper so that they make perfect sense.
The concept that peace is short-termed and has to be constantly re-won has been rattling around in my mind too, but Mr. Greenberg put pen to paper, and so eloquently expressed that thought. Bravo!
FRED SAVAGE
Maumelle
Ounce of prevention
I read a theory about human relationships. It stated that the woman must surrender. A man can love a woman with his whole heart for the rest of his life, but will never surrender. If there's any truth to it, I think you can understand where the seeds of abuse are sown.
I took a course in Rational Emotive Therapy, and its premise is that unacceptable behavior begins with irrational thought and beliefs. In our industrialized nation, does it really matter who is in charge, a man or a woman? It seems irrational to take an irrevocable preference either way.
My wife and I went to a U.S. Air Force Couples Communications Course and were given the most powerful tool, a three-inch square, yellow, plastic magnet that can stick on the fridge. It says two words: "The floor."
Whoever has the floor will speak and the other person will shut up and listen. When the floor is handed over, that person will paraphrase what the other person just said. Priceless!
These types of courses that helped me and my wife should be mandatory at all high schools. Why wait until young people become of legal age, go to jail, and then get told by a judge that they need to go to a course? An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.
My dad taught me many good things, but they were outweighed by the firsthand knowledge (no pun intended) he gave us kids and Mom.
ANDREW C. RAGAN
Jacksonville
They deserve options
Ms. Brenda Robinson's guest column about the Arkansas Education Association is, I believe, classic double-speak and doesn't accurately portray a dwindling organization focused on partisan political activity. While there are school employees who view it as a viable option, thousands of other educators, myself included, have found a home with the Arkansas State Teachers Association (ASTA).
As a veteran educator and founding member of the Bentonville chapter of ASTA, I am one of the thousands of school employees served by this truly professional association that is member-driven, reasonably priced, and provides me with the peace of mind to give 100 percent in the classroom. Just in the last few years, ASTA has made a tremendous impact during the educator health-insurance debacle and has emerged as the fastest-growing education organization in the state.
The AEA, however, has seen membership plummet as educators grow increasingly frustrated by high dues and the partisan political activity of the union and its parent organization, the National Education Association. it seems the NEA and its affiliates are mostly concerned with their ability to forcibly collect dues and preserve a system that protects adults, often at the expense of student learning. This system hurts our students and degrades a noble profession.
My fellow educators: If you feel served by the AEA union, that's fine. However, it's critical that teachers make informed choices about association membership. I urge my colleagues to do the research; ask questions about where dues go and how these organizations take policy positions. This is America, and teachers deserve options that reflect a changing profession.
JAMES OSBORN
Lowell
Just add maturity . . .
Let me add my name to those disgusted by the recent "salute" editorial. I've wondered for some time now if it's really possible that the tone the editorial page most wants to achieve is Junior High Snarky.
You're a mature man in years, Mr. Greenberg; maybe you could be in personality as well?
KATHRYN WALLACE
Cabot
Was an odd choice
Philip Martin prefaced a recent Sunday Perspective column with a quote from Ralph Waldo Emerson.
I enjoy Mr. Martin's writing and I believe his talent is considerable. Yet why does he seem to subscribe to Emerson's strange beliefs? Where, this side of Buddha, does he get that "Unity, that Over-soul?" Whatever this is, it is said to be "... the only prophet of that which must be ..."
Granted, Emerson was a poet and perhaps this is something akin to "poetic license."
I must say that, as a religion, transcendentalism leaves me baffled.
FRED SAWYER
Little Rock
Political correctness
I find it difficult to be sympathetic toward Frank Schaefer, the Methodist minister who was defrocked for marrying a gay couple.
When he was ordained as a Methodist minister, he agreed to abide by the rules of the church. When he decided to break those rules, he knew the consequences. What he did was no different from you or I doing something that breaks the rules where we are employed and then expecting nothing to happen.
I believe the real weakness in the Methodist Church is the fact that there are too many (particularly on the East and West coasts) who feel that political correctness trumps the rules of the church.
JOE WHALEN
North Little Rock
No seat at the table
Is there something wrong with local television stations inviting only the major-party candidates to debates and not all candidates that are legally on the ballot?
Does the media have an obligation to inform the public? Does part of obtaining a license for bandwidth on the public airways require an obligation to perform the service of informing the public? Are professional journalists supposed to take sides or report the news?
If the media only includes those politicians who purchase advertising from their outlets in the debates they broadcast, shouldn't the so-called debate be deemed more advertising and the candidates involved billed for the advertising time?
If a media outlet only covers/favors two parties to the exclusion of others, are they just half as bad as Pravda (the media outlet for the Communist Party in the Soviet Union)?
My point: Let every candidate on the ballot into the debates. Otherwise, an aggrieved minority may eventually become motivated to take up arms to protect their rights, as in 1776. We are America. We should settle disagreements by debate.
Let it happen.
BILL BARGER
Little Rock
Hold them to pledges
I just listened to Rep. Tom Cotton's political ad for his Senate seat run. To my amazement, I heard him claim to be in support of preserving Social Security and Medicare!
When last I heard, he wanted to increase the eligible age for both to 70. (That's like trying to apply a fake cure to somebody who isn't sick.)
If Mr. Cotton is sincere in this statement, he needs to switch his party affiliation to Democratic. Do the Koch brothers consent to such hypocrisy as a necessary expediency?
Incidentally, I have noted a similar party switch in Mr. Asa Hutchinson's campaign ads for governor. He promises a middle-class tax reduction. The last I heard, Republicans only stood for tax reductions for the upper 1 percent or 10 percent of the richest among us.
Let's resolve, here and now, to hold these candidates to their promises if, by some odd twist of fate, they win election.
ROBERT G. HALL
Jacksonville
To determine votes
I am a conservative. I believe John Brummett is a liberal. He will not change my thinking and I will not change his.
I think if you are against murdering unborn babies, and if you are against government dictating every aspect of your life, you should vote for a conservative Republican candidate.
The time for voting is almost here. If you are unsure of which candidate to vote for, you should read the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette; the candidate that John Brummett ridicules is the candidate you should vote for and the candidate he praises is almost always the one you should vote against.
I believe John is 100 percent always for liberal Democrats and Democrats are nearly always liberal. I am a Republican and I think Brummett is a liberal Democrat.
DONALD FOSTER
Searcy
Editorial on 09/18/2014