Letters

All-consuming greed

Please stop printing, over and over again, how cheap gas prices are. Gas is not cheap; I believe it should be well below $2 a gallon when compared to past prices of crude oil. We are awash in crude oil and refined products that are in storage, higher storage numbers than we have seen in many years.

I believe the truth about gas is we are getting robbed blind by everyone that touches this product. At one point they allowed prices to drop for about three weeks and steadily raised them nearly every week.

If crude was to go back up to $140 a barrel, we probably would be paying about $6.50 a gallon proportionate to today's prices.

I would also like someone to explain how diesel in Oklahoma is cheaper than gas, and we are still paying 20 cents a gallon more here. Don't tell me it is transportation costs. Refinery profits are near or at record levels, yet we are told how cheap it is.

Please stop telling us how good we have it when every consumer knows the oil companies are squeezing every penny they can get out of us.

It is not just the oil companies, it is every single corporate entity out there. Fair prices, ethics, and consideration for the customer have died because of all-consuming greed.

KENNETH COPE

Vilonia

Generals appreciated

Union troops had great admiration for Stonewall Jackson, and they also admired Robert E. Lee. My great-grandpa, Cpl. John Foll, Company G-23, Ohio, then 16 years old, fought in 142 battles in the Civil War. He fought in every battle in the Shenandoah Valley campaign against Jackson. Though they were defeated in nearly every battle, they left the once-prosperous valley a desert of starving people.

Then after Jackson's death, the 23rd led the union troops in five bayonet charges to win the Battle of South Mountain. Two weeks later, the 23rd fought in the Cornfield in Antietam. With more than 22,000 casualties, it was the bloodiest day in American history.

The 23rd was the most distinguished regiment in the Union Army. When William McKinley had his old company as honor guard during his inauguration, he introduced my great-grandfather as having saved his life more than once.

My great-grandfather had no ill will against any man, North or South, even though his only brother died in Andersonville prison. He had immense admiration for Stonewall Jackson and nothing but praise for Robert E. Lee. He was against slavery but he held no ill will toward the Southern people.

FRANK FOLL

Mountain View

Will not give up on us

Just an "amen" to the letter, "Take off our blinders," by Willa Romine of Bryant: God will never give up on America or his people!

WANDA CROW

Little Rock

Just don't recruit 'em

If the University of Arkansas would stop recruiting apparent criminals to be Razorbacks, maybe they would stop being embarrassed when they are arrested.

SUZIE RIDGLEY

Little Rock

The Era of Excellence

A most sincere thank you to Rex Nelson for writing "The change agent" in this past Wednesday's Democrat-Gazette, and to the editor responsible for printing the tribute to Gov. Winthrop Rockefeller, the first Republican governor of the state since reconstruction.

The Era of Excellence was a transitional administration, the first administration in Arkansas to acknowledge the members of the black community as equals. There was not a smidgen of racism in Governor Rockefeller or the Rockefeller family. Governor Rockefeller accomplished the impossible in Arkansas, the first in the "solid South" dominated by, I believe, the racist Democratic Party.

And following Winthrop Rockefeller as governor were the Honorable Dale Bumpers, the Honorable David Pryor, the Honorable Jim Guy Tucker, the Honorable Bill Clinton and the Honorable Mike Beebe, all Democrats who accepted that transition which took us out of the racist solid South. It may appear that Arkansas may be heading back to that racist solid South, but I am hopeful, and I am confident, that we shall never return to the days of Orval Faubus and Jim Johnson.

Again, thank you, Rex, and thank you, editor, for recognizing the Era of Excellence and specifically, the Honorable Winthrop Rockefeller, governor of Arkansas, 1967-1971. I was lucky enough to be alive during that transition, as well as the decades preceding, to understand and appreciate what was happening to this great state in the late 1960s.

BOB SCOTT

Rogers

Dangers of neutrality

The "indifferent" reaction by Paul Greenberg several weeks ago took me by surprise.

I was going to let the comments pass regarding the column by Paul Greenberg about the Charleston shootings but I cannot help but recall a Desmond Tutu quote: "If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor. If an elephant has its foot on the tail of a mouse, and you say that you are neutral, the mouse will not appreciate your neutrality."

KAREN DiPIPPA

Little Rock

What Bill would do

Had Bill Clinton been president and someone mentioned Hurricane Katrina to him, I think he'd most likely have said, "Oh wow! Is she back in town? Get me her hotel and room number, will ya?"

RICHARD WITHERSPOON

Rockport

Editorial on 07/29/2015

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