Message to president
As a young boy my parents instilled in me a set of values and principles that they hoped would serve as a framework for how I would live my life. We went to church and were taught God's rules about respect, dignity, and humility. I was taught the importance of telling the truth. I came to realize that a liar is someone you can't trust, someone of weak character, and oftentimes the tool of a bully.
President Trump, you are a liar. This isn't a profound statement; your record speaks for itself. No need to roll out a laundry list of your lies; I would have to have a couple of pages of this newspaper. It started with the Obama birther thing and has continued on an almost-daily basis.
I think we can agree that the press is quick to take issue with your lies, and thus you introduced the term "fake news." Yes, you scream or tweet that every time you are backed in the corner, or are criticized over one of your actions. I understand why you scream "fake news." You don't like it when you can't control the message. You would like to be the only voice that America hears.
Many of your supporters try to make excuses, rationalizing your behavior because you're not a politician, you come from the rough-and-tumble world of business. They like your "shoot from the hip" style and are willing to overlook the lies. But many people, myself included, are becoming tired of the tirades, the threats, the cries of "fake news."
I have enjoyed and trusted six decades of "mainstream media," realizing that a free press is a fundamental part of our great democracy. I trust them more than I trust you, sir. I respect the office of the presidency, but I do not respect you, sir.
JOHN GREEN
Eureka Springs
Money from thin air
I believe John Yates is a Republican because most Republicans don't understand where money comes from. They think that when the government provides food to poor people, "That money comes from my tax dollars! Money doesn't just materialize out of thin air!"
Actually, it does. Suppose you borrow $10,000 from a bank. The bank debits your checking account by $10,000. Where does that money come from? If the bank had already loaned out the maximum permitted by the Fed's reserve requirement (10 percent currently), it has just created $10,000 out of thin air. That is real money. The bank can now loan out 90 percent ($9,000) of the money it just created. Not only that, these new loans will be deposited in other banks, giving rise to more loans as it ripples through the economy.
Ronald Reagan cut taxes and tripled our debt to $2.9 trillion due to deficit spending. The Federal Reserve, by cashing those checks, enabled him to create money out of thin air.
Actual cash, in the form of coins and printed currency, is about 3 percent of the total money supply. In 2008-2009, the Fed loaned the big banks hundreds of billions of dollars with computer deposits to their accounts in order to prevent a worldwide financial collapse and another Great Depression. The big banks paid it all back with interest.
Everyone needs to study Money and Banking 101 to be a good citizen. The size of the debt does not matter as long as we are making the investments necessary to grow our economy (GDP) faster than the debt. It is the debt-to-GDP ratio that matters. The Fed can control the money supply with the reserve requirement, the buying and selling of bonds, and interest rates, among others, to maintain stability of the dollar and promote high employment.
RUUD DuVALL
Fayetteville
Important occasion
Thank you for the story on the 60th anniversary of the Central High School integration of 1957. Great photographs by Will Counts, and I will visit the Arkansas Arts Center before October. Special thanks to Jack Schnedler, and I hope to meet him when I visit the exhibit at the Arkansas Arts Center.
And here is a special thank you to the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette for devoting the time and space for this very important anniversary, especially with the current conflict over statues.
I would like to know whether the young lady following Elizabeth Eckford is still of the same opinion today.
BOB SCOTT
Rogers
Harmonious relations
I would like to thank Gary Johnson for his letter about Confederate symbols. Thoughtful and well-intended people like him who want to promote more harmonious relations with our fellow citizens have caused me to rethink my love of Confederate symbols and memorabilia.
Don't get me wrong, I am still adamantly opposed to removing statues that commemorate real people and events, for instance our Capitol Guards statue in front of MacArthur Park. Ones erected in the 1920s or '60s to protest civil rights should be considered differently.
I wish to correct him, however, about General Nathan Bedford Forrest. Having recently completed John Wyeth's extensively researched bio-graphy, I feel confident in stating that he was by no means a murderer, nor did he order any massacre at Fort Pillow. Ferocious in battle, he was always courteous and fair to those who surrendered of any color. Those cut down at Fort Pillow were reportedly drunk and firing at his forces. Forrest stopped the killing as soon as they surrendered.
Our own Albert Pike was similarly calumnified by Yankee newspapers falsely claiming he had ordered the scalping of Northern troops, when even bringing the Indians to Pea Ridge had been against his advice.
KARL T. KIMBALL
Little Rock
Ascending to heaven
Recently a letter-writer wrote about people saying their loved ones had died and gone to heaven. He used the scripture in John where Jesus said, "No one has ascended into heaven except the one who descended from heaven--the Son of Man."
He is absolutely correct. Another scripture that proves this is in I Thessalonians: For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a loud command with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will be the first to rise. After that, we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air.
And what about the judgment? If people are already in heaven (or hell), why have the judgment?
It is puzzling to me why so many people who proclaim to be Christians seem to have so little knowledge of the Bible. Wally Hall already has Frank Broyles in heaven.
All this makes me think of a joke I heard when I was a teenager. A man in town had the habit of drinking so much that he passed out. To teach him a lesson, a group of men carried the man out to the cemetery and threw him in a freshly dug grave one night after he conked out.
The next morning he pulled himself up and peered over the top of the grave just as the sun was coming up. He exclaimed, "Well, I'll be damned! It's judgment day, and I'm the first one up!"
BOBBY MOORE
Stuttgart
On rewriting history
I find it fascinating that we think we can rewrite history by removing flags and monuments that make certain groups uncomfortable.
I think it would be interesting if the Indian Nation rose up and demanded that we get rid of the Statue of Liberty because it represents those people that came to their country and killed their people and took away their land. I would love to watch the result.
LAWRENCE H. ALLEN
Highland
Editorial on 09/01/2017