Letters

Future of the Buffalo

My wife and I have a place at Centerville south of Dardanelle. The Petit Jean River is less than a couple of miles away, and it runs dirty. I have asked some of the people that were raised in the area of Petit Jean River, and they tell me that the river ran clear when they were children about 60 years ago.

A person can drive across the pontoon bridge or anywhere from there to the other side of Blue Mountain Lake and see the river runs brown from the runoff of farms with chicken litter being placed on pastures and cropland. When litter is placed on the land, vultures will land in fields, thinking something is dead in the fields. The other day the stench was so bad on the Petit Jean River that vultures were lined up on the bank of the river at Slaty Crossing.

To make a long story short, I believe this is the future of the Buffalo River, with all the hog-waste runoff into the river, and most of the fish will go missing. As in the Petit Jean River, the Buffalo River will run brown.

JOSEPH L. BERRY

Redfield

Trump final solution

I believe Donald Trump's prejudiced hatred of President Obama has resulted in his petty destructive actions on everything President Obama has achieved. Trump promoted the ridiculous nonsense that President Obama was not born in America. And now Trump's deportation crusade against the DACA dreamers is blatantly discriminating against young people from Latin America.

These young "Dreamers" trusted the American government, and now they are being stabbed in the back by Trump's petty actions. Trump has no qualms about splitting up Christian families from Latin America as part of his "Herr Gropenfuhrer Volksgerichtshof" (Master groper kangaroo court) agenda.

It seems some so-called Christians have sold their souls to the Trump ideology thinking and are now supporting the persecution of fellow Christians from Latin America. So now we have hypocritical Christians helping Trump persecute other Christians with his Trump crusade. These Trump Christians are "CINOs" (Christians in name only).

PORFIRIO GUTIERREZ

Hot Springs

They're already here

The liberal media have again revealed their bias by reporting that those attending a rally in support of the Insane Clown Posse on the National Mall last weekend outnumbered pro-Trump "America First" demonstrators two to one.

A truly objective press would have combined, rather than contrasted, the turnout. After all, looks like both rallies were in support of insane clowns.

ALEX MIRONOFF

Fayetteville

Question credibility

I read with interest the Perspective-section commentary by Dr. Brian Joondeph denouncing climate change as unproven despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary. This begs the question: Why is the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette publishing opinions regarding climate change from an eye doctor from Denver as if he is some type of an expert on climate change?

I suspect he, as a physician, is well-versed in the scientific method, as he claims to be. But how does this translate into an expert on all things scientific? I certainly wouldn't take seriously a climate scientist spouting off opinions regarding the practice of medicine.

Everybody has a right to an opinion. The question is about credibility. If you push every loudmouth with an opinion to the forefront regardless of qualifications, then you might as well give equal time to flat-earthers and Holocaust deniers. There are still plenty of people out there who deny that man ever landed on the moon or that the HIV virus causes AIDS.

The chance that 97 percent of climate scientists around the world are somehow conspiring to fabricate the idea of climate change is farcical. If your newspaper desires to publish dissenting opinions regarding climate change, then please have one presented by a credible climate scientist. And good luck finding one.

JAMES ABRAHAM

Little Rock

A century of Tarzan

Readers should take note of an interesting hundredth anniversary coming in 2018. In 1918, the first Tarzan film was made, starring Elmo Lincoln, a former Arkansas peace officer, in the title role. While the original print version of Tarzan by Edgar Rice Burroughs was published in 1912, the first celluloid Tarzan appeared six years later.

Born Otto Elmo Linkenhelt in 1889 in Rochester, Ind., the barrel-chested actor was noticed by Burroughs when his shirt was torn open in a fight scene. Burroughs is said to have commented, "That's some chest you have there." Lincoln appeared in Birth of a Nation, 1915, and later as the ape-man in Tarzan of the Apes.

In 2012 celebrations marking 100 years of Tarzan were held, and perhaps there will be similar events noting 100 years of Tarzan films. The jungle icon has become so popular--copied so often--it's difficult, perhaps impossible, to count the total number of Tarzan films made worldwide, but at least 43 films were made featuring 24 different actors playing the Lord of the Jungle.

In addition to the films, Tarzan appeared on television for 57 episodes from 1966 to 1968 as well as other TV versions later. Bill and Sue-On Hillman have created an extremely detailed website with a wealth of Tarzan information (see ERBzine).

Though elements of the storyline have varied over the century, the basic plot has endured--boy raised in the jungle by apes. As an adult he protects humankind from greedy, unscrupulous villains.

JOHN C. JARBOE

North Little Rock

Editorial on 09/22/2017

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