On matters of concern
I wrote about this in February, but I still do not have a clue why President Trump continues to share a compulsion with the North Korean dictator to come out clapping their hands when they appear before a public gathering. Are they clapping for themselves?
Also, after many years of marriage, why hasn't the president's third wife or the two before her taught him, as my first and only wife did for me, to tie a tie so that it ends at the belt or above and not hang down to the crotch?
Obviously these are matters of national concern.
GEORGE McCLAIN
Little Rock
Things have changed
Have you ever felt like things are different today? Remember when up was up and down was down. When right was right and wrong was wrong. In the not-too-distant past there were "fascist" groups; today they are called "anti-fascist." There used to be conservative right groups, today they are called "alt-right."
There was a time when people actually knew their neighbors. Not today. Half of the population live in gated communities behind barred doors and windows. The other half are lucky if they have doors or windows at all. Half of the people in this country actually had a job and went to work earning a living. It seems like today half of the people don't work at all and rely upon government assistance. A small group owns more than half of the nation's wealth. This leaves the rest of our citizens living day to day and paycheck to paycheck.
What happened? The United States has financially supported other nations for the entirety of my lifetime. Trillions upon trillions have been spent rebuilding and feeding all the world's people. When I was raised 70-odd years ago, there was a phrase that "charity begins at home." Last Thanksgiving I was invited by a good friend in the church to come to their family annual get-together and share a "thanksgiving dinner." There were people of all ages gathering together to love being together and to give thanks for their many blessings.
This annual event is not practiced in many homes anymore. Why, you ask? Because it is no longer an event revered by the many multicultural people living in America. This important event was given to America by our heritage and founding fathers. The immigrants from all over the world do not have a connection to our original traditional values and experiences. Things are certainly different today. One might say they are upside down and backwards.
LOUIS R. BURNETT
Little Rock
Definition still works
I would argue that, for the aborted babies, Jimmie Thomas' definition of holocaust is very applicable--they are obliterated and are denied the opportunity to participate with the people, the language, the culture and the literature.
LARRY PARKS
Little Rock
Ideas on monuments
What to do with Confederate statues and monuments? Monuments are not simply descriptive: They hold up their subjects for our admiration. This is an obvious truth, but apparently needs to be repeated at present. At the same time, if we simply remove and destroy monuments, it is reminiscent of the way Stalin would have his enemies airbrushed out of official photos as if they had never existed.
So the task is this: How can we preserve monuments yet negate their laudatory aspect? One possibility that has been adopted is to place the monuments in museums, where they are the object of study, not admiration. Several other possibilities suggest themselves:
Carefully tip over the monuments and allow them to remain lying on their side, the way one topples the defeated king in a chess game.
Add a conspicuous inscription reframing the monument. For example, on a statue of Robert E. Lee, we might place the following: "Dedicated to the memory of the uncounted enslaved African Americans whose bondage Robert E. Lee fought to perpetuate. He fought valiantly in an unholy cause. May God forgive him." Or, "This monument erected by white supremacists as part of their plan to keep African Americans in subordination."
The monument could be defaced in a way that makes it an object of shame, rather than pride.
Other figures could be added: perhaps Rosa Parks glaring accusingly at J.E.B. Stuart.
Minds more creative than mine can no doubt come up with other suggestions.
JACOB ADLER
Fayetteville
Cutting ties to paper
We have been subscribers to this newspaper for three or four decades. We have seen and despaired the liberal trash spewed by John Brummett and Philip Martin, to name several. And could someone please explain to them how the electoral college works? We have been Bill and Hillary'd to death.
This past Sunday's paper is the last straw. That this paper would publish the rubbish article "Confederate monuments" from the Washington Post (author Yuliya Komska) is the last straw. To equate American history to Nazism goes beyond the pale. It seems you do not present information fairly; you have bought into "Where they lead me I will follow, what they feed me I will swallow." Paul Greenberg is the one consistent voice of balance that you share with your readers.
We, after so many years, are done. We will subscribe to the Wall Street Journal instead. One final thought: "Those who will not learn from history are doomed to repeat it."
TIM and SANDY MALCOLM
Conway
Editorial on 09/02/2017