Letter was repulsive
The letter on Monday's Voices page by Robert W. West from Greers Ferry honestly sickened me. I found it so totally repulsive. He started out saying his letter would probably take some heat for the content, but I had no idea how disgusting he would get in the text he presented.
My father was a war hero in World War II. He piloted a B-29 in the 509th Composite Group that helped end that war. I will never forget a time in my childhood when my family visited my father's hometown on a family vacation. My aunt--my father's older sister who I was meeting for the first time--asked me if I understood what a hero my father actually was. Her eyes welled up as she explained how he was little more than a child when he volunteered for military service at 18 years of age. By the time she was through explaining the magnitude of his service, I so proud of my father. My father never bragged about his bravery because he felt it was about the honor of defending our country. He wasn't shot down or captured, but each time he went into the air, it was a definite possibility for a very young man. His service and bravery were both beyond the comprehension of me or anyone who had never been through it.
My father died in 2015, but he would have written this letter if he were still alive. Mr. West needs to honor John McCain and every other person who served in our military service in times of war and forget the political drama being created over his death by so many who never served and have no deeper message than to belittle a political opponent.
STEVE EASTON
Conway
On carbon emissions
Recent news reports indicate that the EPA is considering new rules that would encourage the continued use of many coal-fired power plants. What's next, subsidies for fax machines and typewriters? The administration is also considering relaxing proposed emission limits for automobiles. These are major steps backwards when the deleterious effects of climate change are becoming more and more evident. Extreme weather events and their impacts, including larger and more intense fires, floods, heavy downpours, and droughts, have become more frequent. Sea-level rise is putting coastal communities and island nations at risk, and is happening at an increasing rate.
Inquiries to our representatives expressing concern about climate change are generally met with comments that the cost of cleaner energy would hurt the economy. Do these people not care about the future of their children and grandchildren? The cost to mitigate effects of climate change is already significant and will certainly get worse.
We need to be looking for ways to reduce carbon emissions instead of encouraging them. If we wait for greater disasters to occur, it will be too late to solve the problem. On a positive note, the Climate Solutions Caucus in the House of Representatives has 86 members at last count, consisting of equal numbers of Democrats and Republicans dedicated to finding economically viable solutions to climate change. These members need to be supported and new members encouraged. Note that there are no current members from Arkansas. In order to make the transition to cleaner forms of energy faster, the fossil fuel industry should absorb some of the costs of climate change with some form of carbon tax, or a carbon fee and dividend plan as proposed by the Citizens' Climate Lobby.
ROBERT BROWN
Bella Vista
Anonymous letters
Out of curiosity, I wonder how many people who have letters printed on the Voices page get an anonymous letter from someone criticizing their comments?
JAN BUFORD
Hot Springs
The answers are clear
Question: Who was recently described by a noted jurist as "tenacious, tight-lipped, by the book"? Donald J. Trump or Special Counsel Robert Mueller? Who would you consider honest and trustworthy, hardworking and focused? The answers to these simple questions are clear to any rational sentient being.
It is too late for anti-Trump rants and partisan screeds. Anyone who gives any thought at all to what is happening to our country must know their vote for Trump in 2016 was misguided. Anyone who cares about the rule of law and constitutional checks and balances knows we have a president who is unruly, unchecked and unbalanced.
Some may choose to vote Republican regardless of the truth. Perhaps the tax cuts and removal of regulations to protect consumers and the environment have made them richer. Perhaps they aren't concerned about looming cuts to Medicaid and Medicare resulting from the ballooning federal deficit caused by these tax cuts.
Evangelicals and religious conservatives will vote for him again--not because he is a religious man, far from it, but because he can, has and will put conservative justices on the Supreme Court. He has kept his word about that. Xenophobes and racists will vote for him regardless of what crimes he may commit. They are beyond reason and beneath contempt.
There really should be no one left to convince after two years of this un-presidency. We just need reasonable folks to get out and vote. Admit their mistake and try to make up for it by voting for every Democrat on the ballot. Send a message to Washington that is unmistakable. My grandchildren and yours will be the winners in the end.
DAVID ELI COCKCROFT
Little Rock
Blew his chance early
President Trump and Congress are responsible for my opinions of them. Trump did not get my vote, but I thought he deserved a chance; however, he blew that early on. His fetish for communism and dictators soon fried me. I believe he's receiving his marching orders from the Kremlin. Vlad Putin may not be Trump's enemy, but he's an enemy of democracy, which made Trump a billionaire.
The GOP-controlled Congress must be of like mind; otherwise, it would muzzle and impeach him. One can only believe that many members of Congress have no respect for the United States Constitution, have the advantage to gut it and want unequal opportunity. Those who aren't running for their positions again probably knew about the Russian hackers and just couldn't overlook it.
Trump should stop thinking he's in a real estate deal and begin to understand the presidency is in a global society. Managing a country is not a real estate deal, but he's just too old to change his way of thinking, and it's always going to be a real estate deal. It seems he wants to drub someone, which is our allies, so he can feel good about himself.
Party first? Nation last?
MILLIE FOREE
Bella Vista
Editorial on 09/13/2018