Letters

I've heard this before

Thank you so much to Brenda Looper for showing her expert knowledge on the objective and subjective uses of I and me.

However, she must have been absent the day her English teacher covered redundancies.

"Refer back," used twice in last week's column, is almost as grating to the educated ear as "plan ahead." Plan and refer stand alone in sentences. You cannot refer "forward" and you can't plan "back."

Given her penchant for grammar, I'm sure she'll want to help the great unwashed understand redundancy in her next column. Cheers!

BOB L. WARNER

Hot Springs Village

On correct grammar

Thank you, thank you, thank you!

Among my pet grammatical peeves, the first and foremost is "me versus I." It is becoming an epidemic, assaulting us from the television and the written and spoken word. I have been known to scream the correct pronoun at the television but have, so far, been able to restrain myself in public. It is probably the easiest grammatical error to fix, but no one does. I do think the "sounding more educated" theory is correct, but it still drives me nutty.

Again, thank you.

DIANE GRAHAM

Little Rock

Someone else gets it

Thank you Marlene J. Ward! I realize there are more subjects to be concerned about, but if people in this country do not have the wisdom to know when to use the words "me" or "I" correctly, we are not going downhill, we are there already.

I am just relieved to know there is someone else who is offended when someone does not know when to use the words referring to themselves correctly.

LAURIE GUYTON

Roland

Keep words in place

Many thanks to Ms. Marlene Ward and our esteemed editor Ms. Brenda Looper. We do need to keep our "I's" and "me's" in their place. I am convinced that Ms. Looper knows their place like few others.

If we could be grammatically correct and politically correct ... oh, what a world this would be.

FRED SAWYER

Little Rock

Gut unknotted, thanks

I so totally agree with Barb Weatherton's description of Sharon Randall's columns. Ms. Randall's writing, most of the time, unknots my gut after reading some of the other news brought by my morning paper. Thank you, Democrat-Gazette, for including her column every week.

BEVERLY BURCHFIELD

Monticello

Reasoning behind it

Perhaps the Republican Party withdrew support for pre-K education in Arkansas because it will need to save money to defend the unwise plan to plant the Ten Commandments on the Capitol grounds.

Let the lawsuits commence!

MARY N. WATERS

Little Rock

Updated perspective

Cruising down U.S. 67, Rex Nelson provided a drive-by history of the Arkansas Health Center (AHC) in a recent column. Old brick buildings on tree-lined boulevards lend themselves to outdated perspectives. Previous names do not do justice to 21st century care, nor reflect current thinking about psychiatry and neuroscience.

Inside the gates, one gets a fuller picture: on-site medical care, nursing training, medical therapies, counseling, games, socials, gardening, walks, and golf cart rides. No longer isolated, AHC hosted 4,000-plus Saline County neighbors to mingle with residents, staff, and families for Independence Day. They were seen picnicking by the fishing pond, listening to a local band, watching children on fair rides, eating from food trucks, and watching a fireworks display.

The residential building is a bi-level nursing home, circa 1982, boasting a 5-star rating from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. AHC is generously staffed and technologically equipped to provide care for individuals with complicated physical, cognitive and behavioral needs when those needs cannot be met elsewhere. Their best resource is the people who work with love and patience. We psychologists and other mental health professionals try hard to enlighten the public on modern conceptualizations of brain-behavior relationships to help communities and individuals become healthier, without fear of stigma. We invite Mr. Nelson and all who have not had a close look to take a step inside the gate and gain an updated perspective.

ELIZABETH SPECK-KERN

Little Rock

Respect clients' needs

Kudos to state legislators for taking time to examine and study the needs and future of our Arkansas Human Development Centers.

My sister has been a client at the Conway Human Development Center (CHDC) for 48 years. She has profound special needs. Sadly, she is not a candidate for a group residential home or mainstream. I am very involved in her life, but she has physical, emotional and medical requirements far beyond my expertise. I imagine most families would tell you the same.

CHDC is not perfect, no place is. However, at the end of any day, my sister asks to go back. It is her home; she has friends and loves the staff.

A heartfelt thank you to legislators who respect those living in our HDCs and look for positive ways to help the centers and those who call them home.

CISSY RUCKER

Little Rock

Editorial on 08/24/2016

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