Intellectual integrity
In response to David Ferguson, who has informed us of his displeasure of being subjected to my letters each month: David, surely you jest. Contrary to your wishes, the Constitution of the United States guarantees every citizen the right to free speech. However, you can take solace in the fact that there are many like you who, for whatever reason, fail to grasp the concept of free speech, but wholeheartedly embrace any number of absurd notions immortalized by religious propaganda.
It would seem that individuals who have a religious conviction that their faith cannot be shaken by contrary evidence are the first to insist that contrary evidence be suppressed. When censorship is imposed upon society, instead of creating an enlightened citizenry, it produces a herd of fanatical bigots. Those who oppose free speech and rational dialogue are standing much in the way of civilization.
In all honesty, I have grave doubts about the future of the human race, as the masses of the world continue to take their guidance from a plentiful assortment of gods who are merely the renderings of their generous imagination, and they simply accept the fantasy that has the most satisfying conclusion.
In my opinion, the virtue of intellectual integrity (deciding questions in accordance with the evidence) is of far greater social value than all the dogma of organized religion put together.
I would like to thank Gail Cnudde for her kind words. Semper fi.
AL CASE
Onia
It's no joking matter
I do not understand why Donald Trump was elected president. Is it just me, or does anybody else have a conscience? How in the world would a president of the United States encourage police officers to brutalize people that they arrest? And Donald Trump thinks it is a joke. It's not a joke. Crime is out of control! Arkansas is on the verge of becoming like the south side of Chicago, Ill. I am involved in my community because I listen. Do you know that some people are calling their communities "Little Iraq," Ark.?
This should be a wake-up call that people should get involved in their communities. Our leaders need to do their jobs and get our educational system out of a mess and create more jobs for the young people. There are more young people hanging out on the street because nobody will give them a job. I'm not going to sugarcoat it. I believe this is how the system is set up: Once a young person of color graduates from high school, the hidden agenda is to keep them down and out on the street by not giving them a chance of getting a job.
Arkansas should be ashamed.
MARQUITTA J. CORBIN
Conway
Oh, that egg's cracked
Trumpty-Dumpty sits on his great "wall." Sooner or later Trumpty-Dumpty will fall ... into the toxic "swamp" of lies and deceit of his own creation due to mindless conceit. And all the Republicans and most of his kin won't be able to put our nation back together again. For so much damage has already been done by Trumpty-Dumpty and his smarmy son that only impeachment and nothing less could possibly undo this terrible mess.
The White House is full of hiders-and-seekers ... millionaires, billionaires, bullies, and leakers. Many who have their own agendas and some who might even leap from the windows ...
Any bets on how long it will take for Trumpty-Dumpty a 20-foot statue to make? To be placed on the lawn in front of "the dump," with a sign that says, "All must bow down to the Trump!"
JANELLE ROLLER
West Fork
Economy, not politics
In the immortal words of Ronald Reagan, "There you go again!"
In a letter to the editor, state Sen. Ronald Caldwell attempted to defend and promote the coal industry. Most recently, Senator Caldwell's letters to the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette and the Wynne Progress attempt to redefine "infrastructure" so as to promote the interests of the American Petroleum Institute. Moving beyond the generally accepted definition of infrastructure which includes roads, bridges and highways, which, along with other examples, are paid for from taxes, tolls, or metered user fees, Senator Caldwell attempts to cast the net wider to include privately held means of production, existing to generate profits for shareholders, and which is not a part of any definition of infrastructure.
How fortuitous that on the front page of the Business and Farm section last Friday there is an informative article about the status of the Keystone pipeline. In it, the deteriorating economic environment surrounding the extraction and processing of Canadian crude, not politics, is recognized as so problematic as to cast in doubt the completion of the pipeline. In fact, the industry is protesting Trump's forcing them to purchase pipelines using American-made steel. Their argument is that private enterprise, the backbone of democratic capitalism, should be free to purchase materials on its own, using its own best judgment. I believe Trump's attempts at governmental intervention in private business are un-American and economic heresy.
Further, the economics of fossil-fuel production is such that increasingly higher investment per unit of output and the advances of technology are putting this entire industry in decline. How ironic that the CEO of Shell Oil says that his next car will be electric.
PATRICIA DUKE
Wynne
A shred of credibility
This is my answer to John Brummett's Tuesday column on President Trump.
Your hit piece on Donald Trump is all about his low approval rating, which I believe is a manufactured farce. People don't arrive by the thousands seven hours before he is scheduled to speak to see an unpopular president.
Fake news, fake polls, and a never-ending barrage of lies and distorted stories by liberal news outlets have admittedly brought down Trump's numbers, but I believe normal people who are not swayed by false and biased left-wing propaganda know that Trump is doing an excellent job and has this country back on track and heading in the right direction.
I know it's apparently your job to portray Trump as some kind of imbecile, but you tend to expose your own lack of intelligence in doing so. Why not save some shred of credibility and admit to your readers that Donald Trump was a much better choice than "horrible Hillary"?
GARY LEMON
Cabot
Editorial on 08/10/2017