Who's being divisive
The mainstream media and pathetic Republicans like Gov. John Kasich made assertions after President Trump's speech in Arizona on Tuesday night that he failed to unite the country, that his speech was divisive. I believe it was divisive only because it didn't follow the left's agenda.
This country has been on a collision course (liberal versus conservative) for a couple of decades. I believe it was exacerbated by President Obama who crammed his progressive and anti-American ideas down the throats of patriotic Americans. His agenda was divisive to millions on the right, but since the mainstream media, Hollywood, Democrats and academia shared it, nobody heard about it. The rest of the country finally rose up and said, "enough," and elected Donald Trump.
Trump's agenda of America first is designed to benefit all Americans. He doesn't play identity politics like the Democrats. What these naysayers didn't understand when Trump was elected and what they don't understand still today is that vast groups of Americans do not agree nor want the progressive, left-wing ideas of the Democratic Party. And I believe they enthusiastically agree with most of Trump's agenda.
TIM IRBY
Little Rock
Make ban permanent
An Arkansas farmer from Marion asked Sunday that the ban on dicamba be rescinded.
He states that dicamba is needed because the weeds have become resistant to other herbicides. How long will it be before they are resistant to dicamba?
He said he needed an option to control weeds. What did farmers do about weeds before all of these sprays became available? They used cultivators to destroy weeds. I'm assuming the use of sprays is less expensive than using a cultivator, but a cultivator does not encroach on neighboring crops.
What about a neighbor that is certified for organic produce? The drift of dicamba will negate that certification for at least three years. He said that farming is his livelihood. So is organic farming their livelihood.
Do we know for certain that these sprays will not cause a health problem in the years to come? DDT was widely used and believed to be necessary until the health risks were proven.
Use a cultivator and you won't have to buy special seeds and you won't risk causing unintended damage to other crops.
I urge you to consider contacting your local state representatives to ensure the dicamba herbicide ban becomes permanent.
ROBERT HARMON
Bentonville
Was an echo of past
Watching the TV coverage of the Trump rally in Phoenix was like a time-trip back to my childhood afternoons at the newsreels on Saturday afternoons in the 1940s.
The jutting jaw, the preening strut, the obvious code-word signals to the faithful baying in the audience ... Benito, Il Duce, lives on in the persona of Big Donnie. Swap out the flapping tie and Big Boy business suit with the Mussolini military drag ... throw in some golden locks instead of a scary shaved dome and voila--Donnie the Dooch!
We need to remember some of this stuff, sports fans ... do we need to repeat history?
ELIZABETH K. HARRIS
Cherokee Village
What they once were
These are worrying times for our country, when armed neo-Nazis and klansmen march through the streets of an American city, inciting violence and taking an innocent life. Good people everywhere are horrified, while our president acts as an apologist for those who would exterminate or enslave other Americans.
What are we to do? There is no easy answer--this is America, and people have the right to hold and express even the most repugnant views. At the same time, we cannot go back to an era where the Klan terrorized and lynched people with impunity. We cannot allow Nazis to invade and occupy American cities and towns.
They weren't always like this. I remember protesting a Klan rally here in Fayetteville in 1994. They dressed up in their little outfits (not the pointy sheets, but the "respectable" button-down shirts), waved around flags and did some speechifying. The police kept a distance between them and the overwhelming number of counter-protesters. At the end of the day, everyone went home, and democracy was preserved.
But when they started adding guns to the mix, it became a very different thing. Armed thugs marching through the streets under un-American flags feels a lot less like an exercise in free speech, and more like an invading force. The point is not the "free expression of ideas." The point is intimidation and the implicit (or explicit) threat of violence. This is not protected speech. This is a threat to our civil society.
They have shown both by their words and deeds that they are willing to attack and kill innocent Americans. They are by literal definition un-American.
So, OK, let them rally around some racist statue--unarmed, and contained by police. Let them speak--until and unless they call for violence. Let them issue public statements--and let our leaders and all good people disavow them. Turn them back into what they once were, and all they deserve to be: isolated crackpots.
DeLANI R. BARTLETTE
Fayetteville
Voices who can unite
Senators Boozman and Cotton and Representative Hill: I am writing to let you know my views on the wall, DACA, and immigration in general. Our country has been built on the premise (maybe it was imaginary) that immigrants are welcome and that anyone could come with nothing and work their way to a successful life. I believe that immigrants who are peaceful should have a path to citizenship. I support DACA and the DREAM Act. I do not support building a wall with tax dollars, nor do I support splitting up and deporting families.
I don't believe that immigrants will tear our country apart, but I do fear that racist rhetoric and the rise of white supremacist groups could. Please stand up against this hatefulness. We need voices who can unite, not divide further. Please support and fully fund the CVE (Countering Violent Extremism) grants. It's important that they retain their focus on white nationalist groups who would seek to destroy our country.
DONNA DRURY
North Little Rock
Editorial on 08/25/2017