Misunderstood idea
"All lives matter." While the statement is true--every life is important--many people say the simple phrase without knowing of the malice it holds. Any time the topic is brought up, the same question appears in the conversation: "Why should the #BlackLivesMatter movement exist and not #AllLivesMatter?"
The common misconception--that saying black lives matter is saying that black lives are more important than white lives--is causing a greater divide in the country between races. In reality, saying that black lives matter is saying that, as of right now, black lives are not as important in the judicial system as white lives.
Here's the thing. Most people saying that all lives matter are mostly white. They don't know the feeling of being judged by a color; the feeling of fear of being convicted for no real reason other than your race; the feeling of being a minority. I'm not saying all white people are racist; I'm white, and I am a strong believer in the movement. I'm saying the majority of the people who don't support the cause are just ignorant to the harsh reality that millions of people have to live with every day.
In a perfect world, the solution to this widely misunderstood phenomenon would be to simply get people to open their minds to things they don't understand, but if the world was perfect, this foolish problem wouldn't exist.
HANNAH GRACE JETTON
Bryant
Put in proper context
With due respect to Ed Brickell, "Thou shalt not kill" is better translated "Thou shalt do no murder." That is, do not unlawfully take another human life.
In context (always the best way to read and understand the Bible) the Ten Commandments were given at a time in history when the Jews were pretty much a wandering group of semi-nomadic sheep herders. The customs of the time included feuds escalating to the point of excess, i.e., you knocked my brother in the head, so I'm going to kill you; your brother would then kill two of my family in revenge ... and so on. The Ten Commandments were given to this group of people to, in effect, put limits on their "justice."
We can consider the context and the original language, and still apply the underlying principles to our modern selves.
LARRY ANDERSON
Sherwood
Give peace a chance
As I read about plans to build up our military might at the expense of cuts to social programs, I'm reminded of the words of President Dwight Eisenhower.
"Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. ... It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children. ...
"A nation's hope of lasting peace cannot be firmly based upon any race in armaments but rather upon just relations and honest understanding with all other nations."
If only we expended as much energy in waging peace as we have devoted to our seemingly endless warmongering.
BETTY HUNT
North Little Rock
Cost to society is dear
Since 1987, the National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence Inc. (NCADD) has sponsored Alcohol Awareness Month to increase public awareness on alcoholism and alcohol-related issues. They use this opportunity to address the nation's No. 1 public health problem through awareness programs.
I would like to encourage ministers to take advantage of this designation to preach a sermon on this monumental problem that is killing us physically and financially.
According to NCADD, in the United States 17.6 million people--one in every 12 adults--suffer from alcohol abuse or dependence, with 88,000 deaths attributed annually to excessive alcohol use. Alcohol results in an economic drain on the nation's resources of about $223.5 billion annually.
A study reported in 2010 out of London found that alcohol is more dangerous than illegal drugs like heroin and crack cocaine. British experts evaluated substances including alcohol, cocaine, heroin, ecstasy and marijuana, ranking them based on how destructive they are to the individual who takes them and to society as a whole. Alcohol is a drug and it is the No. 1 gateway drug to these harder drugs.
Heroin, crack cocaine and methamphetamine, or crystal meth, were the most lethal to individuals. But overall, alcohol outranked all other substances as being the most destructive to individuals and society.
Researchers calculated that in 2007, alcohol cost each person in the U.S. $733. How utterly foolish are we to tolerate something that causes such devastation to our families and society, or am I missing something here?
BOBBY HESTER
Jonesboro
Important to history
Sadly, most people do not know how important April 19, Patriots Day, is in our national history. At dawn on April 19, 1775, the "shot heard 'round the world" was fired in Lexington, Mass., starting the American Revolution that led to the founding of our great democracy. This year, remembering Patriots Day seems to me to be particularly critical following a dysfunctional election and Donald Trump in the White House (when he isn't at Mar-a-Lago playing golf).
I grew up in Lexington and Cambridge (across the Charles River from Boston). For six years I marched with the Lexington Junior and then Senior High School bands from the eastern edge of town to the Battle Green along the route British troops took on their way to seize the Patriots' arsenal in Concord.
Reports vary that from 38 to 77 poorly armed farmers and shopkeepers blocked several hundred of the finest and well-armed British troops and held them long enough for the arsenal to be hidden and thus saved from confiscation.
The founding of our nation is palpably real to me. I have a profound respect for it and the principles upon which it was founded. My alma mater, the University of Pennsylvania, was founded by Benjamin Franklin in Philadelphia where the founders drafted our Constitution that Trump vowed to "preserve, protect, and defend." So far he appears to me to be doing his best to break that vow.
NANCY MILLER SAUNDERS
Durham
Editorial on 04/14/2017