Should be our priority
I am an American citizen, natural-born in Fort Worth, Texas, to natural-born American parents, whose parents and grandparents were all natural-born American citizens. If I violate a federal law, the feds seek me out, arrest me, charge me, take me to trial and, if convicted, I pay the fine and/or do my time. Non-citizens should be treated no differently.
Entering this country illegally is a federal crime, and I believe that American citizens who protest foreigners being held accountable for their crimes are treasonous tyrants with no respect for our Constitution, our laws, the security of our country, or the safety of our citizens.
No, I did not support or vote for Donald Trump, or Hillary Clinton, for that matter. There was no lesser of two evils worthy of my support in the past election.
Neither a Republican nor a Democrat be. We all need to be patriots, including the partisans, who are not. If they were, the good of the country, not partisan control to the exclusion of all others, would be their common priority.
TED HOOD JR.
Fairfield Bay
Sure-fire vote-getter
When Roe v. Wade was decided in 1973, five Supreme Court justices appointed by Republican presidents voted for it (a majority). In the ensuing 44 years, the Republicans have had a majority in the Supreme Court for many years; the congressional Republicans as well as others in the party have used the issue in their platform claiming to be the anti-abortion party. And why not? It's a sure-fire vote-getter. Forty-four years; really!
But what is particularly outrageous to me is that those same men (and some women) blame only the woman for this crisis. Isn't there another person involved? Maybe if the men and boys would keep their pants zipped up, we wouldn't see so many abortions. It takes two, you know.
BETTY WILES
Mena
One long commercial
Donald Trump's team just can't stop pushing his product. His next speech may well be something like this: "We are in a high-stakes game with Russia. Speaking of steaks, have you tried Trump T-bones? If you wash it down with a Beaujolais from Trump Winery, you'll think you died and went to heaven."
He sips from a glass and says, "this is Trump Ice, a delightful spring water that teases the tongue as it dances over it. As you all know, Nordstrom has fired my daughter. I've met the women who run that place. I wouldn't rate any of them over a 4 or 5--sad. After this speech everyone here will have a Trump gourmet hamburger, normally $50 but tonight it will be half-price."
Despite the fact that his campaign was several times accused of plagiar-ism, he tries to smooth over his sales pitch by adding, "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall." (By the way, these are all real Trump products.)
GARY USELTON
Benton
Tainted with politics
I am 67 years old. In all my years I have never seen anything like this president making Steve Bannon first among equals in the White House. Now Bannon displaces the chairman of the Joint Chiefs with a permanent seat on the National Security Council, the central nervous system of U.S. foreign policy and national security apparatus.
Here is a little about Bannon, from an article in Bloomberg Businessweek in 2015: A friend said of him, "If there's an explosion or a fire somewhere, Steve's probably nearby with matches." But who needs friends? Bannon himself says he wants to blow up the government. Another friend--Andrew Breitbart--admired Bannon as the "Leni Riefenstahl of the Tea Party." Riefenstahl was a defender of Hitler and Nazi filmmaker propagandist.
Bannon is now installed in a full, permanent seat on the NSC. An unelected, hard-right, ultra-nationalist political adviser, now of a status alongside the secretaries of state and defense, and over the president's top military and intelligence advisers. Even George W. Bush wouldn't let Karl Rove anywhere near the NSC. Chief of Staff Josh Bolten reported that President Bush said that decisions involving "life and death for the people in uniform will not be tainted by any political decisions."
While we are buried under a deluge of impudent and dangerous Cabinet nominations, a chaotic and deeply un-American travel ban, and a ludicrous proposal for a wall--this is what's going on behind all that.
Sounds like an apocalypse to me.
ANITA SCHNEE
Fayetteville
Two aren't adversaries
Many people insist on making "science" the adversary of "religion." In fact, most cosmological theories leave plenty of room for God. Most investigators into the nature and origin of consciousness and the workings of the brain end up contemplating God. Life is not a function of matter. We can describe the human genome in amazing detail, and know all the components of the body down to a molecular level, but no amount of mashing elements together will ever make a living being.
If I understand it correctly, the anthropic cosmological principle suggests that we should not be surprised at the vastness of the perceptible universe. If all the various theories involved are reasonably close to correct, the universe has to be such as it appears to be if it is expected to be able to support a lifeform such as ourselves. Even if we are the only example of carbon-based conscious life in the universe. I fail to see how that equates to the insignificance of man in the face of the cosmos. Puny, perhaps. Humble before such grandeur, certainly. But how insignificant?
The principle can be applied locally as well. For instance, Philip Martin should not be surprised by the adolescent nature of most of what the "entertainment industry" produces. He can live what he himself describes as a comfortable, even elite, lifestyle based on nothing more creative than criticism, mostly because of the huge disposable income of Americans who are, in the main, adolescents regardless of age.
STANLEY G. JOHNSON
Little Rock
Editorial on 02/14/2017