How to pay your taxes
As I prepared my taxes, I worried about how to pay.
I read what Jesus said to Peter: "When the tax collector comes, go down to the river, throw in a line, open the mouth of the first fish you catch and you'll find a coin to cover the taxes for both of us, take it, and pay them." My uncertainties vanished.
I've gone fishing.
WILLIAM C. KRAMER
North Little Rock
Getting in two cents
I just can't hold my tongue any longer. Here is my two cents' worth.
Cent one: Insubordinate (Webster's New World Dictionary, 1965)--not submitting to authority; disobedient.
In the U.S. military, that would have been grounds for a court-martial, i.e., refusal to do one's job or duty.
I do not care how they vote, but Congress, elected by the people to do their job in reference to the judicial nominee, has been insubordinate in their refusal to do their duty. They ought to be held accountable in some way.
Cent two: Re the political cartoon on the Voices page last Thursday, Islamic State, al-Qaida and the Taliban have destroyed historical culture. Are we not doing the same to Southern history by removing statues? Just wondering.
TED BAJOREK
North Little Rock
Easier to manipulate
A lot of people, even some at the Democrat-Gazette, keep saying they like Bernie Sanders, but his math just doesn't work out. These folks say things like universal health care and tuition-free college sound good, but are just too expensive.
Well, under the current corporate-welfare system, they are too expensive.
However, Bernie wants to change the system. You see, as long as billions of our tax dollars are being funneled to corporate America, the so-called job creators, then of course there will be no money for health care and education. However, if we stop giving handouts to billionaires, there will be more than enough money to build a healthy and educated society.
But the billionaires, along with their easily misled electorate, are fighting this tooth and nail. It's one thing to pay lip service to possibilities, but when it comes down to it, some Americans just can't bring themselves to support programs promoted by the likes of Bernie and his supporters.
I guess these people are afraid their "hard-earned" dollars might be spent on those who don't look and think the way they do. And don't forget, an ignorant and unhealthy populace is much easier to manipulate.
RICHARD HUTSON
Cabot
Found him arrogant
Re Philip Martin: How does he get his head through the door when he comes to work? He apparently thinks he knows everything about everybody. I find his tone arrogant and condescending.
Reading his comments about Christians was hilarious. He makes it clear to me he doesn't think much of Christians, then states that they are silly to believe people are prejudiced against them.
He also says that he knows many ACLU types who are deeply into their religion. What religion would that be? I think it's certainly not Christianity since it seems that organization routinely attacks Christians.
The only good thing I can say about Martin is that he isn't Paul Krugman.
FRANK LATIMER
Sherwood
The simplest solution
Ron Smith of Little Rock wants to know how to cast his vote to reject this year's candidates for president. While I disagree with what he wants to do, it is really quite simple: Do not vote for any of them. See, wasn't that easy?
My first vote for president was for Eisenhower. That was easy. Since that time I have always voted for a Republican although sometimes I had to hold my nose to do it. I am not a straight-ticket voter and this was just by chance. There was no way I was going to vote for the Democratic candidate.
It would have been easy to not vote, but by research I was able to vote for someone and I walked out of the voting booth with my head held high.
RICHARD CARPENTER
Fairfield Bay
The choice of words
Your editorial bashing Hillary Clinton on abortion correctly asserted that words are important.
The word you danced around, but wouldn't write, is murder.
When asked about the constitutional rights of an "unborn person," she repeated the phrase in answering correctly that an unborn person has no constitutional rights. She also said society is obliged to care for expectant mothers and their children before and after birth. She repeated her belief that abortion is properly regulated under Roe v. Wade, with room for reasonable exceptions.
You wrote about "the War on Children."
Many who want to totally control the reproductive decisions of women are not shy about using the word. Perhaps you are because you understand that if someone believes a child is going to be murdered they should do whatever it takes to prevent it. We are told respectable right-to-lifers don't even want women who kill, or murder, their unborn children to be punished. If that's true, their and your word choices are absurd.
I believe Roe v. Wade is a well-crafted bit of Solomonic jurisprudence that provides medically, morally and civilly sound legal limits on when women and their doctors can end pregnancies. It ended the barbaric practice of denying women their right to not have a baby. Of course it can be reasonably modified--by reasonable people.
Your sanctimonious political posturing, seeming to stop just short, hopefully, of inciting violence, is disgusting.
Your oh-so-clever phrase, "Choice is another euphemism for death," is pathetic.
HOWELL MEDDERS
Fayetteville
Haggard was deeper
In a recent edition, the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette editorially saluted the late Merle Haggard for his song, "Okie From Muskogee." The editorial lauded Haggard for the song's patriotism and even called him a "hero in the kulturkampf that was American politics decades ago."
An important omission from this editorial is that Mr. Haggard expressed regret for the song numerous times during his career. As early as 1981, he told Quarter Notes magazine that, "Okie made me appear to be a person who was a lot more narrow-minded, possibly, than I really am." Years later, Mr. Haggard told American Songwriter magazine, "It was the photograph that I took of the way things looked through the eyes of a fool. I was just as dumb as a rock at about that time, and most of America was under the same assumptions I was."
Merle Haggard, like all of us, wasn't a one-dimensional figure fixed in time. Unlike most of us, though, he enjoyed the blessing and suffered the curse of a timeless hit that preserved a once-narrow view on vinyl forever. Your short editorial, while appreciated by me, regrettably glossed over the complexities of an artist who was brave enough to admit he was wrong and courageous enough to evolve.
GLEN HOOKS
Little Rock
Editorial on 04/14/2016