Letters

History was censored

In a generally inspiring piece on public school students interviewing Holocaust survivors, I was dismayed that a student believed that "Hitler said he was doing all this torture and killing for God."

Hitler did occasionally profess belief in God, but most historians see such statements as political. Like Hitler's closest associates, they believe the Fuhrer had contempt for religion, which he saw as superstition holding back scientific progress and the natural survival of the fittest. Hitler saw Christianity, which is after all of Jewish origin, as having enfeebled the German people. Hitler's unified design of "one people, one empire, one leader" leaves no room for humility before God, or any God at all.

This profound lack of humility and empathy helps explain how Hitler's regime murdered 12 million noncombatants. Similarly, as Harvard University Press' Black Book of Communism documents, the proudly atheistic Marxist regimes of the 20th Century murdered over 90 million, producing far more corpses than all the religious tyrannies of history combined. Perhaps humans tend to act with less cruelty when they think a supreme being is watching.

If we want informed citizens, schools must not censor this history. We also must teach that our own civil-rights movement was influenced by religion. My kids were surprised when I told them that Martin Luther King had a very important job, working on Sunday, a job which shaped his beliefs to act on behalf of others.

ROBERT MARANTO

Fayetteville

Dinosaurs and man

Guest writer Arthur Paul Bowen says that I can't keep my diploma if I believe dinosaurs and mankind ever existed together.

I direct his learned mind to the Bible, where Behemoth and Leviathan are described in great detail. I believe that clearly God is describing dinosaurs. Since the term "dinosaur" was not coined until 1841 by the paleontologist who later was curator of the British Museum, it is not included in the King James Version, completed in 1611.

I really don't expect a retired lawyer to know scripture, so I forgive him in advance for his unnecessary, anti-biblical remark to 2015 graduates.

BOB L. WARNER

Hot Springs Village

Climate change real

I believe climate change, global warming, whatever you want to call it, is for real. It's not a hoax, and it is man-made. The cause is the accumulation of greenhouse gasses CO2 and methane in the upper atmosphere which prevents some of the heat caused by solar energy during the day to dissipate into space during the night because that layer acts like a blanket, reflecting heat rays back to earth.

If you don't think it is a man-made problem, just know that CO2 comes from burning carbon-based fuel, oil and coal, etc. Then think about how many cars there were 10,000 years ago, when the latest ice age just ended, or even just 500 years ago.

The warming, the result of inadequate cooling of the earth, causes the melting of the ice caps at the north and south poles. Melting ice equals water, causing the sea levels to rise, submerging low-level areas of land, coasts and many islands, thereby shrinking the land mass available for living. At the same time, the population is increasing by leaps and bounds. All these people have to live somewhere. Clearly those two factors are on a collision course. The warming causes big weather events, drought and floods, threatening agriculture and our food supplies.

We absolutely must switch from carbon-based energy to renewable forms like solar and wind, and stop paying homage to the energy companies who deny climate change because they want to keep selling their carbon-based products. Plus, we must find a way to stop and reverse population growth. Anybody think that is possible?

VIVIAN MICHAELS

Bella Vista

Tree deserves to live

On the north side of Interstate 630, between exits 3 and 4, there stands a large tree. I've been told it's an oak. Every day for years, it has watched thousands of cars go uptown, downtown, in town and out of town. Since it has strategically grown outside Ray Winder Field's right centerfield fence, in its adult life it has watched all the Travelers' games and promotions. When Ray Winder Field became expendable, I worried about the future of the tree. Then I noticed it was on the Ricks Armory side of the fence and would be safe. Go Guard!

Now that Ricks Armory is expendable, I worry once again about the tree. I don't know how it fits into the Med Center's master plan. Soon there will be demolition and construction on site to begin transforming the property.

I'm no Joyce Kilmer. I only ask UAMS: If you can find a way to save a scoreboard, please find a way to save that tree.

ROYCE THOMAS

Little Rock

Work and happiness

The four college professors responsible for the recent "guest writer" column on Right-to-Work (RTW) laws wrote that, based on surveys taken, people in non-RTW states are happier than those in RTW states, contending that "the more workers belonging to unions, the happier people are."

I believe their contention defies a more logical belief that people free to choose whether or not they will join employee unions (as allowed in RTW states) would tend to be happier than those compelled in non-RTW states to either join unions or pay fees in lieu of bargaining costs.

Further, one often hears the contention that conservatives (who lean toward right-to-work beliefs) are generally happier than liberals (who lean away from right-to-work beliefs).

If conservatives, then, tend to be happier than liberals, one might reasonably expect that the states with the happiest people would be politically "red" (i.e., conservative), and the "blue" (i.e., liberal) states would be populated by generally less-happy folks.

A comparison of maps of RTW and non-RTW states with maps of politically "red" and "blue" states illustrates my point; the RTW group of states are mostly politically "red," whereas the non-RTW states are mostly "blue" politically.

Back to the professors: Despite their contempt for "pernicious" right-to-work laws, all four teach in RTW states, presumably by choice. I wonder why, and whether or not they've tried to unionize their university faculties. Perhaps teacher tenure provides greater job security than would a union, and it's dues-free.

KEN MILLER

Little Rock

A few questions here

Can anyone explain how reading to your own child "unfairly disadvantages" other people's children? Does feeding your own child also "unfairly disadvantage" other people's children? Does drafting tall players for the NBA "unfairly disadvantage" other people who are short but want a career in the NBA?

How is it that children of Oriental background and poor socioeconomic stature seem to consistently outperform black children of similar socioeconomic stature on educational matrices? Are they "unfairly disadvantaged" because so many Oriental families will not abide willful ignorance by their children?

If someone shoots a black person, is the victim any more disadvantaged in death if a law officer shoots him rather than a citizen who is also black? If not, why such different reactions?

Why does there seem to be so much pride in black ghetto language? Much of it appears to originate from black slaves having learned the ghetto language of the poor white debtors who were indentured out of London and worked for years side by side with the slaves in American cotton fields.

Why do so many of us choose emotional arguments over logical ones? Is survival of the fittest no longer allowed as a theory to explain change and progress?

JERRY COOKUS

Maumelle

Strike up the polka

Re the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette on Tuesday, page 1D, under "Hot pursuits": "Accordion to the calendar, next month ..."

Really?? Didn't know Ron Wolfe was so musical. But then again, it had been a three-day weekend!

BILL WATERS

Little Rock

Editorial on 05/30/2015

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