We can all be better
We are all in this together. We are all wanting to make things better. Some of us need it for ourselves; some of us can see to need it for all of us, for our world. We are all fallible, human, and imperfect, but doing the best we can from where we are.
Please consider how much more constructive it could be if we choose to listen to each other, use each other's strengths and skills, respect our differences, and work for what common goals we have rather than angrily accusing, polarizing, and seeking to destroy parts of each other out of our pain and fear.
Power can be a builder as well as a destroyer, depending upon how we choose to grasp it and how we choose to wield it. It takes more courage to respect and build rather than to disparage and destroy.
We can only really succeed by collaborating, by bringing the best selves we can be with each other, by honoring that part of each other, and by seeking our best integrity. Please. We can all do better.
KARMEN HOPKINS
Little Rock
Not its responsibility
In response to the letter, "The role of the church," by P.L. Gustafson: It is not the role of the church to preach on social issues. It is the role and mission of the church to preach on the love of God and that our sin separates us from him, and then to baptize those who accept him and his ways into the body of Christ on Earth. From the pulpit, a pastor or preacher may preach on social issues if it is within the context of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, but again, it's not to be the main focus of a sermon.
It is the pastor's responsibility to remind us that we all sin and to bring us to repentance and back into fellowship with God. When this happens, we are more likely to think of others first and not insist on having our own way. It is up to all of us, Christian or not, to accept responsibility for our own lives and to help others when and however we can. Perhaps we would not have so many social issues to deal with.
JUNE MORGAN
Austin
History will see you
Senator Cotton and Senator Boozman, how will history record your vote?
Are you for the "Big Lie" of election fraud or do you accept the opinion of the courts and wishes of 81 million voters that Joe Biden was lawfully elected as president? Are you for throwing out the certified vote or having all votes counted?
Are you for the violent overthrow of the government (a coup) and threatening our elected officials with harm or not? Are you for autocracy or democracy?
Are you for shredding the Constitution or relying on it as the basis of our democratic republic? Are you for anti-democratic values, sedition, insurrection and violence or the peaceful transfer of power?
How will your vote be recorded? What principles will people say you stood for? Will they say you stood for lies or truth? For one man or for your country? What choice will you make? Will you honor your oath of office to protect and defend the United States against all enemies foreign and domestic or allow them to go unpunished?
When the history books are written, where will your name be written? Which side will you be on? Time will tell.
DORRIE MECKES
Cabot
End party, start anew
It seems the Republican Party acts more like a gang of street thugs than civil elected officials that are supposed to follow their oath of office and uphold the Constitution. They are not acting in the best interest of this nation. They vote in a bloc and are complicit in closing their eyes to illegal and immoral actions. They even censure party members that take legal, moral and ethical action, and they use intimidation like a dictator to get their way.
I believe Republican unity at all costs, regardless of how absurd it is, is dividing the nation and destroying democracy. Their actions support corruption. They remain blindly loyal to most likely the worst president in U.S. history. They support insurrection, gerrymandering, purge legal registered voters, follow unfounded conspiracy theories, and are puppets to donors, lobbyists and special interests at the expense of doing what is right. They seem to sell their vote to the highest bidder and are the worst politicians that money can buy.
Sane people recognize this and are bailing out. The GOP deserves to be completely purged of its members and start over.
JERRY DAVIS
Hot Springs
The hateful polemics
I wrote to this newspaper in January 2016 to say that I expected Donald J. Trump to fail. I was not disappointed. I had no idea that this twice-impeached accused seditionist would do so in such a spectacular fashion.
I know that most Republicans in Arkansas would likely vote for a rock if it was connected in some way to citizen Trump. Sarah Huckabee Sanders has no governing experience. She is only known as a shill for Trump's lies and obfuscations. She was also a very unpopular press secretary.
Arkansas needs a governor that will unite us and not someone so tainted and divisive as Sanders clearly is. We need a governor that can put the hateful polemics of the last four years to rest.
K.E. POLLOCK
Little Rock