All you need to know
I am American. This is the phrase that I have continuously muttered to myself since our government's most recent threat of shutdown. The current culture of our nation seems to be adhered to this idea that in order to work with someone, you must first get them to think and act like you do. We no longer have a nation of Democrats and Republicans who are elected by the American people to work together. We have a group of legislators who are elected by their constituents to proselytize everyone around them until they believe the same way they do.
It is no wonder that there is so little room for compromise when the expectation is that an elected official's sole purpose is to force everyone across the aisle to wear the same pair of glasses. Such mulishness creates a world in which there is only one color, one way, and absolutely no room for progress.
As for me, my political views vary; sometimes I vote Democrat, other times Republican. I will gladly share the reasoning behind my voting choices if you ask. However, if I am working alongside you in order to create change, then all you need to know about me is I am American.
FEATHER LINN
Conway
Polly's talking points
In my 79 years, I have come to know that many people are willfully stupid when they are confronted with ideas they don't like. I say "willfully stupid" because they would rather believe and parrot someone else's garbage than think for themselves.
Many gun owners believe what they hear from the National Rifle Association without thinking, and the NRA willfully takes advantage of their reluctance to think.
According to the NRA, any attempt whatsoever to regulate gun ownership is the first step toward the government taking away their guns. Untrue!
No proposed or discussed regulation has any intention of taking away guns, and NRA leaders know this. It seems members of Congress are afraid to propose any gun legislation because they know that the NRA will denigrate them, accuse them of being against the Constitution, and pour money to have them defeated when they next run for office.
"Guns don't kill people; people kill people," a stupid NRA standby. Autopsy reports state, "The decedent died of gunshot wounds," not that the decedent was "peopled to death." Ask anyone who has lost a loved one to death by gunfire how their loved one died. They will tell you he or she was shot to death.
How many more massacres and murders have to occur before legislators, state and federal, come to their senses, grow backbones, and defy the NRA? When will the leaders of the NRA decide that their duty to responsible gun owners is to attack murder by gunfire as unacceptable instead of un-American?
ANTHONY BELMONT
Fayetteville
Not a great deterrent
Re Bishop Anthony Taylor's guest column: I would like to add to Bishop Taylor's column, although he implied it, he did not state that the rationale for the death sentence is that it is a deterrent. Subsequent to its imposition, decades often go by while two sets of lawyers go through a very predictable dance on the taxpayers' dime. Some deterrent!
JOHN L. DOLCE
Holiday Island
Strength to persevere
Reading an article in the Arkansas Baptist News magazine about Deer Baptist Church celebrating its 75th anniversary brought to mind my deceased husband's uncle, Ernest Cheatham. He was mentioned as a deacon and Sunday School teacher there in its early days. The church even met in his home before it secured an acre of land (for $25) to build the church.
As a boy, Ernest contracted polio and lost the use of his legs. Knowing he must have a way to earn a living, his mother carried him to school on her back so he could get an education. Later, a visitor came to the home and, following his visit, Ernest began to lose his vision and eventually became blind. There was no running water. A wash basin and towel on the back porch were used to clean up before meals and it was felt he may have come in contact with germs or something left there that caused the damage. There was no way to know.
Ernest went to college and became a teacher. His wife read his lessons to him at night and he taught school using Braille. My husband remembers how he played with him and his brother when their family visited. His upper body and arms were strong, so he would back up to a wall and wrestle them in this way. They loved it, of course.
Ernest Cheatham served one term in the state Legislature. He had a daughter, Ernestine, who was lost in a burning accident. Even though I never met him, he has stood out in my mind as a brave, competent man who was a great example of courage, will power and "can-do." The cryptoquote in a recent paper was attributed to Christopher Reeve: "A hero is an ordinary individual who finds the strength to persevere in spite of overwhelming obstacles." I thought how very much it applied to Uncle Ernest.
NONA ALMOND
Searcy
Time for a scolding?
When I was watching the news the other night, the "Fundamental Transformer in Chief" came on and scolded the American people for about 15 minutes straight about how awful we were because we oppose having our Second Amendment rights stripped from us, this despite his not having any idea at the time how the latest shooter got his guns or why he committed his heinous act.
This while the economy continues to stink, the nation groans under unimaginable debt, and the whole world is on fire with the disastrous consequences of his disastrous foreign policy. Pay no attention to my utter failures, just give up your rights and acquiesce in ever-larger and more intrusive government.
While any response merited by such incidents is properly state or local and not a federal responsibility, the feds' hands are not clean. If our society has coarsened and become more violent or hateful, I would put it down largely to the destruction of the traditional nuclear family, which has resulted from generations of federal policy.
Hypocrisy, thy name is Obama.
KARL T. KIMBALL
Little Rock
Editorial on 10/06/2015