Cost of not having it
The continuing fight over a wall, fence or barrier is troubling. The thought that a wall or fence does not work is ridiculous. We use fences and walls all over this country. The statement that a wall is immoral is laughable. Is the fence around your backyard immoral? Should we remove the fence around our nuclear power plants for moral reasons? If someone climbs over the fence or wall to get into your backyard without permission, there are likely to be unpleasant consequences. Now you can go over, under or through any wall or fence, but a good barrier can make it difficult and discourage many and will at least slow down those trying to enter illegally.
I think most people understand there are areas that a barrier is not needed, but the Border Patrol officers could have valuable input on this.
The most important part of this argument is not what the barrier on our southern border costs but what is the cost of not having a barrier on the border.
FRED VERSER
Little Rock
Shut down on a whim
Remember when candidate Donald Trump told us that he would listen to his generals? He didn't listen to them, or even consult them, regarding Syria. Liar, liar, your pants are on fire. All those generals on his staff are gone now, one in disgrace. To whom is he listening?
Never ever put a businessman or businesswoman in the White House. The president still seems to be putting his business interests over country. He has never had to consider other people in whatever muck he was doing. The president should learn to put brain in gear before running mouth.
A question people should ask candidates is: "What are your foreign and current business interests?"
It's up to the Republican Senate to hold this president in line; a Senate that hasn't shown much backbone yet. It still wants to get into Social Security and Medicare and obviously believes Trump is the avenue to do it.
As far as the shutdown goes, it should be called the Fox News or Rush Limbaugh/Ann Coulter shutdown. How can one man shut down the U.S. government on a whim? Shouldn't this be a congressional issue? If I could only get the tax forms I need, I could pay my taxes.
MILLIE FOREE
Bella Vista
It wasn't urgent then?
Our federal government has been in firm Republican control for the past two years, all this time under the leadership of President Donald Trump, a Republican.
Congress and the White House could have, at any time, sent construction crews to the southern border. They did not. Only now with Democratic House control has it become an urgent priority.
Disingenuous is the mildest term I can use to describe our president and Republican representatives.
D.L. WILLIAMS
Hector
Would already have it
If immigrants, legal or illegal, tended to vote Republican rather than Democratic, the Democrats would already have an impenetrable border wall built stretching from San Diego to Miami Beach, Fla.!
A wall only became immoral when Donald Trump had the audacity to defeat Hillary Clinton and become president.
BARBARA E. GAROT
Little Rock
Outstanding Dolly
Thank you so much for the article on Carol Channing in the Jan. 16 edition. I enjoyed it very much.
I was sorry you did not include the information of her appearance in Hello, Dolly at the former Robinson Memorial Auditorium in Little Rock, Nov. 15-20, 1966. I still have my program for the outstanding event. On the night we attended, she got several curtain calls, and she finally came back out to speak to the audience. I remember that she called us "lovely, lovely, people." She also invited us over to the "gar hole" at a hotel that is no longer in existence.
She was an outstanding Dolly, and the writer was probably not aware of this appearance because it probably happened before he was born.
PHYLLIS BARTLETT BYRUM
Benton
Immigration answer
The letter from Ron Snider in Jacksonville this past Sunday is the most reasonable answer to the immigration problem that has been suggested by anyone. If our politicians in Washington would only do as he has suggested here, within a year our borders would be safe without a wall or spending billions to build one that determined immigrants could build tunnels under to get to a better way of life.
How I wish that Mr. Snider was running for Congress! He seems to be better educated and with solutions to help our country than any of the people holding that office at the present time.
I'm thinking seriously of printing his letter, making copies and sending it to as many of our congresspeople as possible.
LEE STRICKLIN
North Little Rock
A powerful reminder
Ron West's opinion piece Jan. 11 was a helpful fact-based description of Trump's neo-conservatives and how they, in their support of Trump, contradict many beliefs and goals of what I might call traditional evangelicals, as well as those of liberals like me. His words are a powerful reminder to all of us not to fall into stereotyping one another, or carelessly demonizing groups we really do not know.
Dismissing all conservatives or liberals as the enemy leaves no room for finding common ground and engaging in civil discourse. Being willing to speak plainly of factions who try to appropriate our ideology for their own purposes is brave and important.
DANA STEWARD
Sherwood
He still has a chance
In his column "A price too high," evangelical Ron West expresses his judgmental opinions on God and Donald Trump, as if Mr. Trump was an opponent of Christianity. I'm an evangelical with the biblical view that as long as The Donald has life, he has a chance to confess his sins, be forgiven and end up in paradise.
STEVE HILL
Bella Vista
Editorial on 01/20/2019