Foreign policy follies
This folklore exists in Arkansas that Republicans are so much wiser in foreign policy than Democrats. There is room for rebuttal.
On Sunday, former Secretary of Defense Colin Powell was on TV defending the Iran deal that is opposed almost unanimously by Republicans, including former Vice President Dick Cheney, who shares responsibility with George W. Bush for thrusting us into likely the longest, costliest, most useless war in history.
But the knot of Arkansas Republicans holding fast together against the nuclear deal include Tom Cotton, John Boozman, and Rick Crawford. In fact, freshman Senator Cotton has attempted to write his own foreign policy.
I believe more rational students of foreign policy and nuclear physics know that the deal is verifiable, supported by many allies who have every intention of holding Iran's feet to the fire, and is a better first option than war. It would be ironic if our Arkansas Republicans find themselves not only on the losing side on this deal, but also dead wrong.
BILL RHODES
Mountain Home
Rules haven't changed
Thanks to Chloye Pogue of Little Rock for pointing out the horrendous breaches of good grammar that she has observed in both the print and TV media regarding the incorrect use of the past tense of the verb "go."
How anyone with even an elementary school education can come up with "had went" or "has went" is beyond me.
In the Fort Smith area, we have someone in sports talk radio who regularly makes this mistake, apparently with no intervention or coaching from anyone telling him that it is horrible English. People who write and talk publicly for a living should know much better, as should those whose job it is to look over their shoulder.
Please assure Ms. Pogue that the grammatical rules have not changed.
BILL STAED
Fort Smith
On the nekkid truths
Re Chloye Pogue's disappointment with the use of the dangling past participle of "had went," I checked with my friend Ray Toler, author of three books, English scholar, and proofreader for the Senior Center menu for each month, regarding this issue. Ray told me that we must adjust to the millennials who are now the next generation with their "New English."
An example is the word "naked," which now has two meanings. Naked is when you have no clothes on; nekkid is when you don't have clothes on and you are up to something.
WILLIAM PAGE HILL
Springdale
Whatever they believe
Freedom from religion? That's not possible. Obviously, Satan has blocked some people's minds so that they cannot think straight.
Everyone has a religion. Whatever a person believes, that is their religion. Whatever has first place in one's life is their god. Wake up and face reality!
In God we trust? I hope so. Just be sure it's the right one.
MARTHA O. BURCHFIELD
Smackover
For grandkids' future
This time last year, I ordered T-shirts reading "For Our Grandchildren." My husband and I wore these shirts in the People's Climate March in New York City on Sept. 21, 2014. We joined 400,000 people deeply concerned about climate change.
The last year has brought reasons for hope: increased media attention, EPA's Clean Power Plan, and Pope Francis' Encyclical On Care of Our Common Home.
Recently I attended another presentation on climate change. Much was familiar: carbon dioxide levels, temperature rises, Arctic ice shrinking, impact of thawing permafrost on methane levels, droughts, flooding. One prediction stood out: By the year 2070, Salina, Kansas, the breadbasket of U.S. wheat production, will have summers that are Las Vegas hot. The impact to the food supply will be monumental.
I again felt panic for the future of my grandchildren. As a psychotherapist, I know the impact to children who feel they don't matter.
On the bus to the Climate March, a young man focusing his life work on climate change said, "I am tired of being afraid of my future." I asked him to name the one most important thing I could do. He said "Join the Citizens' Climate Lobby." The Citizens' Climate Lobby (CCL) is a nonpartisan organization lobbying for a market-based approach to climate change: a revenue-neutral carbon fee and dividend that would distribute the cost of carbon pollution throughout the economy.
CCL has plenty of room for people concerned about the future of our grandchildren.
NANCY BROWN
Bella Vista
Is not leader we need
Persons who appreciate Donald Trump might be honest enough to admit that they, themselves, are impolite, crude and arrogant. It's pitiful that they are too ignorant to understand that these are not good traits for someone who might lead our nation, especially in foreign policy.
Bullying Mexico is easy, one guesses, but bullying Russia or China is another matter.
Tact isn't everything, but our nation needs leadership that possesses a high degree of political shrewdness instead of bumptious conceit. Trump shares this heavy conceit with old Adolf, you know.
Please, conservatives, just say no to your inner beasts. Say no to megalomania, that infantile feeling of personal grandeur that so infects your golden boy.
I think John Kerry should vie for the presidency. He's a veteran, which would satisfy many in that bloc. He's a cyclist, which probably means that his brain veins aren't clogged with lard. He has recent diplomatic experience dealing with dingbats, and he isn't Netanyahu's errand boy like Mike Huckabee or Tom Cotton. He is neither a Clinton nor a Bush. He's as tall and ugly as Abe Lincoln with hair Donald's comb-over could die for.
This alone would someday save our nation the embarrassing tittering of foreigners on meeting the goofy-looking Trump.
GARY BRODNAX
Fayetteville
Editorial on 09/11/2015