Letters

Hold off a little while

I love Christmas more than the average Joe, but it seems like Christmas is getting earlier and earlier each year. More people and businesses are trying to sell out this wonderful season by putting out commercials and ads months ahead of time. The day after Halloween, people were already sharing pictures on social media of their Christmas trees and houses decked out in red and green. In June, Hobby Lobby was already preparing for the holiday shopping season with lights and trees and stockings.

I think Christmas should be saved for after Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving is a wonderful holiday in which we should count our blessings and be with family. It's a time to remember our nation's deep history, culture, and traditions. This year Black Friday sales at Wal-Mart start Thanksgiving day at 6 p.m. This holiday has become more about scarfing down some turkey, snapping a few pictures for Facebook, then making it to the stores by 5 to get a good spot in line for the sales.

This year Advent is on Nov. 27. Advent is celebrated in Catholic and Western churches and is about the preparation for Christmas and the anticipation of Christ's return. So sit back and relax with your family this holiday season and cherish the time spent with loved ones. Have that second slice of pie and make new memories. The decorations and tacky sweaters can wait a few more days.

KATHERINE PROTHERO

Fayetteville

Strengthened future

I wish every everyone who could would read Brenda Looper's outstanding column, "Reality check." It was very perceptive of recent and current nationwide events. It contained great suggestions to President-elect Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton, and all of us: Control yourself, rise above, keep calm, and maintain civility.

Ask yourself: Could we not see this unusual and unexpected presidential election as a turning point and chance to stop hatred and nationwide divisiveness, to accept our many differences and, above all, to reunite to provide a strengthened future for our wonderful country?

JACK MURPHY

Little Rock

If only it had occurred

I understood the black people's joy when President Barack Obama won. As a woman, that's how I would feel now if only our Hillary had won.

JANE THOMAS

Cove

A matter of principle

Those of you who voted for the Republican nominee for president in order to control the makeup of the Supreme Court may be in for a bit of a disappointment.

Last spring, the Republican Party made it a matter of principle to refuse to vote for a nominee for the Supreme Court solely for political reasons. Republicans were very clear about this. Unless someone can offer a reason as to why this principle does not also apply to Democrats, the same principle should apply to their party.

If the U.S. Senate does not vote through Mr. Obama's candidate for the Supreme Court, there is no reason to bring up the subject of Supreme Court nominations for the next four years. Democrats are within their rights to insist on this. It is a matter of Republican principle.

OTTO HENRY ZINKE

Fayetteville

What it wasn't about

Not only did the pollsters get it wrong, every analyst I've seen has got the postmortem of the election wrong. To imagine that the Democrats' problem is failure to address blue-collar concerns is to see the campaign as something it wasn't. The campaigns weren't about issues at all. They were about fear and hate, and the Democrats came up short.

All they had was the specter of a hateful bully who had never done anything for anybody but himself. The Republicans had the arsenal of innuendo and half-truths they've been stockpiling for the 30 years they have known that one day they would have to beat Hillary Clinton. That was all layered on a base of Republican regulars who still believe the current president is a Muslim and a Kenyan, supplemented by whoppers from Donald Trump himself and spiced up with the claptrap your crazy uncle has been sending since the days of the black helicopters.

Then it was all supercharged by social media, and that is the game-changer. It is entirely possible and increasingly common for voters to receive only information they agree with and that information was that Hillary was not merely icy but a liar, treasonous, and the founder of ISIS.

Pundits can pretend the campaign was about issues. It wasn't. It was about our basest emotions jacked up by social media. Love and policies don't trump hate. The monkey-brain trumps everything.

ALBERT J. LARSON

Eureka Springs

Electoral college fine

Much has been said lately about our electoral college being outdated. I thank God for the wisdom of our forefathers in establishing our Constitution, the electoral college and other documents as the foundation of our United States.

Our nation is made up of states. We vote by states. We are represented in Congress by states, and the president is elected by states. That is the way it was established and the way it should be. This method assures each state has input in the election of our president in a representative method based on the population of the state. It has worked for 200 years and should continue till Jesus returns.

JOHN R. STIPE

Forrest City

That's the qualifier?

In reply to John Ziegler: So are you saying we need to have a woman president just because she's a woman?

GAYLE CARRARO

Little Rock

Editorial on 11/23/2016

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