Heroes apply within
We need heroes. We need them to inspire us. To bring us to a higher level of humanity. To explore, research and find new ways to improve the human experience.
When I was much younger, we had those heroes. The Gemini astronauts, space exploration in its infancy. John Glenn orbiting the earth. Neil Armstrong walking on the moon. Heroes. Those who placed their safety and lives subordinate to improving science and the human experience. Where has that gone?
Today we are bombarded by politicians with aspirations for themselves, not to expand the human experience, but to elevate themselves.
I want so much for my grandchildren to know what heroes are. To aspire to that level of sacrifice to expand the human experience. To expand our knowledge, to challenge current understanding and change our future for the better. That is certainly not in the hands of politicians, but in the minds of our children and grandchildren.
CHRIS BAKER
Little Rock
Promoting Arkansas
Don't take this wrong--P. Allen Smith has done wonders for promoting Arkansas. He's a niche. I wish him the best and pray he stays. It's not outlandish to at least ask for more money for his crew.
But I gotta tell you, my vote goes to Chuck Dovish, who probably does more to promote Arkansas. Being on PBS, Dovish already has funds available (government and private donors).
Wait a minute ... isn't P. Allen Smith also on PBS?
DALE SELLERS
North Little Rock
A simple little word
It's not complicated. The word you're looking for is t(R)eason.
STEPHEN KELLEY
Fayetteville
Less flawed than her
In response to Mr. Bill Polk's opinion stated on the Voices page, I understand his concern. Every voter in this country has their own list of undesirable qualities and most of Polk's entries would be on everyone's list. I believe that is why Donald Trump is now our president.
Certainly he has some of these qualities, but apparently the American voter felt his list wasn't as long as Mrs. Clinton's.
If someone like Billy Graham would have been on the ballot, we all would have voted for him. The problem was that our only choice was flawed Mr. Trump or flawed Mrs. Clinton. I can assure you that our country is much better off with Mr. Trump. This being said, I sure get frustrated with him sometimes.
Unfortunately for the country, I don't see any 2020 Democratic presidential candidate that I would trust with our unborn children, our economy, our national security, or our country's borders. I'm quite sure I can live with President Trump.
ED SPRINGER
Sherwood
Times different now
Coralie Koonce's letter about Borderers makes sense to me. That heritage is mine, too, through my mother's Scots-Irish ancestors who traveled through the Appalachians into North Carolina. Since reading David Hackett Fischer's Albion's Seed, I understand better how the Borderer traits have influenced Arkansas' culture today.
That culture contains some admirable qualities: independence, resourcefulness, loyalty, fearlessness, and bravery, to name just a few. But it also has less desirable ones: stubbornness, distrust, fierce pride, suspicion of the new or different, a reliance on violence, and an irrational defense of family honor. That loyalty, pride, and violence set up family feuds for generations--remember the Hatfields and McCoys?
The use of violence to solve problems is still evident today in the areas settled primarily by people from the border between northern England and southern Scotland and the Scots-Irish from northern Ireland. The dependence on guns, the eagerness to go to war, the resistance to change, are all still evident in the area that stretches from North Carolina to Oklahoma. Knowing this cultural history helps to understand why so many Arkansans are quick to fight, to go to war.
That fighting stance served them well 300 years ago, to survive in the wilderness, but fortunately, over the centuries many of us with that ancestry have learned a better way. We have seen that fighting rarely solves anything. We've learned to be slow to react to slights, to talk and listen, to negotiate and compromise. This better way works on all levels--personal, national, and international.
I hope that as time passes, we will all continue to honor our ancestors for the way of life that was right for them, while adopting peaceful ways that will serve us in the world we live in today.
MAYA PORTER
Johnson
Not the same old Fox
Fox News Channel has changed. Not for the better. It seems Fox News has been co-opted by the left.
Something very unfortunate has happened to Fox News Channel beginning several years ago with all of the mess with Roger Ailes and a bunch of the anchors. The philosophy of the entire Fox organization beginning at the very top: Rupert Murdoch. Neil Cavuto and Shepard Smith sound more like the talking heads at CNN or MSNBC.
Fox once preached news that was "fair and balanced," or so it goes, "we report, you decide." At least it was a facade of balance, but it really always tilted right! Now it is hardly a news organization but an ever-present editorial in motion. Blathering on ad infinitum ad nauseam. Pretend that it is "news," and they will come, like "build it and they will come"; nonsense. Good luck with that.
LOUIS BURNETT
Luttle Rock
Editorial on 08/01/2019