Cease hate, violence
There was a mass killing of 49 human beings at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Fla., on June 12.
Regardless of how your church tells you to feel about gay people, you can't hide behind your church. Every individual is responsible for their own personal decision to promote hate and violence or to stop hate and violence. If you have any humanity in you, let others know you are sick in your soul that this horror happened.
That was somebody's baby. Somewhere a mother and father are grieving the loss of their child.
Forty-nine more angels in heaven.
SHIRL STANDRIDGE
Little Rock
Horrible events here
The Bible says "You shall be hearing battles, and tidings of battles. See that you are not alarmed, for it must be occurring, but not as yet is the consummation. For roused shall be a nation against a nation and a kingdom against a kingdom, and thus shall be famines and quakes in places. Yet all these are the beginning of sorrows."
All one has to do is watch the news and see the increase in the horrible events taking place.
HERBERT PAGE
Conway
Possum Poot update
As mayor, chief of police and dogcatcher of Possum Poot, I've taken a 16-month sabbatical, but now I'm back. I began my "State of the Village" speech on the spacious front step of our double-wide town hall only to be hauled into the county party (Republican, of course) meeting and being reprimanded for my lack of undercover reports on our favorite evil librul. After appropriate remarks and apologies I was allowed to meet with Professor Phineas P. Phogbottom at a local watering hole of his choice. Previously I had learned that a number of liberals had voted in our righteous primary for The Donald hoping to influence the eventual election.
I joined Phineas at a table where he introduced me to a young friend who wanted to settle in Possum Poot. Young lad looked respectable enough so I inquired as to his occupation. Initial response was to hire himself out to tear off the tags that say "Do not remove" from pillows, upholstery, and hair dryers. I questioned him as to further ideas and he stated he wanted to teach cats to stroll up and down a runway at a fashion show. Naturally I was drawn to this as I was a cat herder.
The evening was going well and I felt I was gaining great insight into the alleged mind of a librul when into the gathering stepped "Sassy Sue." She arrived here in the Poot looking to our Godly/Republican ways and has grown so much in approval and popularity that she is now No. 2 in the ranks of the church basement ladies. She insisted I leave and help repair the damage done by some yellow librul dog who had relieved himself on our only stop sign.
More news from the Poot will follow. We have reached out to some Third World countries to gather more supplies for a mimeograph for the Omnibus Herald Chronicle Reporter Advocate Picayune.
STEVE GIBSON
Little Rock
Would pose a threat
Re Helen Ubinas' recent column: I'm not a big gun person; in fact, I'm really afraid on guns. I don't think I've ever shot a gun but maybe once at a can. But after the shootings at Paris and Orlando and some of the other shootings that have occurred over the past few years, I can understand why more people are carrying guns.
Ms. Ubinas wants to advocate more gun control but in reality I think if more people had been carrying a gun that night in the Orlando club, more people would be alive today. This proposes a threat to would-be shooters.
There will always be people getting their hands on guns who are not mentally able to control themselves. But denying people who are capable of handling those situations such as some of the members at the club in Paris or Orlando is not the solution. These are conclusions I have come to based on some of the recent events in our world.
CATHERINE P. WILLEMS
Searcy
Customers-first rules
Recently the U.S. Department of Labor released new guidelines that will require paid financial advisers to do what is right for their customers, even if it means lower fees for the adviser. These rules could have a significant effect for people who are saving for retirement or are now retired.
Both of our two U.S. senators, Tom Cotton and John Boozman, have voted in the Senate to void and nullify this regulation. This guideline seems to be a very consumer-friendly directive to protect us against unscrupulous financial advisers who work for their own benefit and not their client's best interests.
Perhaps Senators Cotton and Boozman might like to explain why they voted against this consumer-protection directive.
SEARCY McBURNETT
Little Rock
Develop some courage
To our representatives in Congress: I realize that this bill isn't perfect. Many have pointed out the lack of a procedure to challenge one's placement on the no-fly list. Well, fix that. You are elected to fix problems such as this.
Instead, you devote 10 seconds of silence to the Orlando issue, then go on to vote on more subsidies for big oil, or some similarly vile bill. You care nothing about the safety of Americans except those that give to your campaign coffer. You pander to the lowest common denominator of uneducated, bigoted Americans in all you say and do.
You have done nothing during your term to bring pride to the state of Arkansas. Instead, you put forth an incredible amount of effort to embarrass our state. Voting against this bill the first time it came to the floor is just one example. I'd like to see you speak out against the ministers that are celebrating the Orlando tragedy. I'd like to see you stand up for common-sense gun laws that keep dangerous people from buying guns.
I'm not going to hold my breath, though, as I don't believe you possess the courage to do either of these things.
I look forward to the day that you are out of office, because it can't come soon enough for me.
JUD HANSON
Fayetteville
Academics are reason
I have a novel idea for the folks at the University of Arkansas. How about taking some pay or bonuses from the overpaid sports coaches and director of athletics, putting fewer seats in the expanded stadium, making the next super dorm a bit smaller (or all of these) and paying to repair the crumbling UA Senior Walk intended to honor graduates of the school?
Shame on the leadership of the university which seems to have lost sight of the whole reason students are supposed to go to college and the reason the institution exists--not to play sports, but to get an education and graduate.
Fix those sidewalks to honor those who attended and succeeded!
JOYCE WILLIAMS
North Little Rock
Misplaced priorities
I find it extremely disappointing to read that fundraising efforts need to be implemented before any work begins to repair or replace the oldest section of Senior Walk on the U of A campus. This is followed by news that the Board of Trustees was to vote Thursday to spend $160 million to build additional luxury seats in the football stadium.
We need more voices of reason like David Pryor to protect the future of the university--and its priorities.
A. LOUISE MORRISON
Fayetteville
Editorial on 06/17/2016