OPINION | LETTERS TO THE EDITOR: In horrible situation | Know something first | Farewell, Godspeed

In horrible situation

I have never actually written a rebuttal to an opinion voiced on an op-ed page before, but the breathtaking ignorance and privileged righteousness demonstrated by Robert Kittleson in branding an entire group of people as "animals" has stirred me to action.

His condemnation of Mexican and Central American parents shows clearly that he has no idea of the Hobson's choice these people are facing. Instead of righteous judgment, Mr. Kittleson might try empathy.

He could try imagining the horror of feeling that his child's best option is to go, alone, to a different country. He could try understanding that what drives these decisions is a poverty so deeply entrenched that there is no hope of escaping it. Add to that the real threat of physical violence from militant terrorism, rape, beatings, killings, kidnappings, and were he there, he also might choose to hope that his child possibly could have a better life somewhere else.

These people are not animals, any more than you are, Mr. Kittleson. They are desperate and trying to get their children out of a situation that is so horrible we privileged Americans can scarcely imagine what it's like.

APRIL J. BAILY

Mountain Home

Know something first

I think before passing laws that affect someone's personal life, perhaps you should know something about them. I haven't heard of any conferences inviting trans people to share their life stories, hardships, discrimination and life-affirming changes that transitioning brings. How can arrogant, ignorant and dismissive people make laws about a segment of our population without really knowing anything about them?

SARAH BOYETT

Little Rock

Farewell, Godspeed

My response to Paul Greenberg's death is almost as complicated as my response to the man himself. I moved to Arkansas in 2004, seemingly near the end of the Civil War. Confederate Boulevard was being renamed, and letters to the paper flowed abundantly on the topic of Southern identity. As an outsider, I felt I had to chime in.

Paul responded to my letter in a column titled "Dear Yankee" that ended with "Bless your heart." Alas, I was already fluent in the Southern dialect and the use of politeness as a weapon. I wrote many letters to the editor and annoyed Paul regularly on email. He sent me a bottle of gin once in thanks for giving him an idea for a column. Our interactions swerved from painful to enjoyable to downright strange.

For most of a year I made regular musical references by email that he answered in his column, a call and response of sorts, à la Fletcher Henderson. It was mesmerizing and it worked, like everything that he wrote; he could make room for so much in his writing. And we both understood the power of music. For if you have lived it, someone has sung it and the song is without flaw, pure and distilled, like Paul's writing, painfully beautiful and evocative and concise.

One of my favorite pieces was "The Dream," about trying to reach his wife's side in a crowded dream party and not making it. He creates the tension and then mixes humor with pain: "But one day, or one night, I'll make it to her side again. If they'll just let me up from the underworld to visit."

So in the spirit of a final journey, "Farewell, Godspeed, and thank you, dearest Paul; in the end it was wholly a pleasure."

KATHY CURTIN

Fayetteville

City needs better plan

I am so disappointed that once again Mayor Frank Scott is wanting to increase the sales tax collected in Little Rock. A sales tax is the most regressive way to raise money. Surely our esteemed mayor can come up with something that doesn't harm the people who have very little discretionary money, making them pay the same as others of us who can easily pay an increase to the sales tax. There must be a better way to increase the revenue for the city without adding more expense to people who have to watch every penny. Sales tax is the easy and lazy way to get more money for the city.

It seems Mayor Scott has been no friend of the police since before he was elected. If there is any increase in revenue, I believe it should go to hiring more police and firefighters and give them a pay raise that they deserve. It is ironic that the poorer neighborhoods with the most crime are called on to pay more tax and not get the benefit of enjoying a safer neighborhood. The people living in poor neighborhoods deserve to feel safe. In addition to the safety issue, our roads and bridges are shameful. Improving the infrastructure of Little Rock would be welcomed by everyone.

Also, Mayor Scott is going to add to the city bureaucracy by adding someone, apparently to gerrymander the wards in the city, to better fit Mayor Scott's agenda. I hope the board of directors can come up with a better plan for raising money and for more practical use of the revenue.

BONNIE HOLMES

Little Rock

And yet it's not funny

This time of year when our papers are filled with all things being spewed from the hallowed halls of Washington, D.C., and Little Rock's statehouse, I'm reminded of that famous quote from the Oklahoma "Ambassador of Wit and Good Will," Will Rogers: "But with Congress--every time they make a joke it's a law. And every time they make a law it's a joke."

BILL PLEGGE

Little Rock

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