Branch out of control
An FBI raid on former President Donald Trump, the likely opponent in the next presidential election of the current one, is unbelievable and unprecedented in all of American history. I believe it smacks of the tactics of a banana republic. It clearly proves to me that the DOJ and Merrick Garland are fully politicized as the Gestapo of the Democrat Party.
It seems the administrative branch of government bureaucrats is completely out of control, and must be stopped. Our government has been hijacked by unscrupulous, unprincipled people who are a grave threat to our republic, the rule of law, and our liberties and freedoms. This cannot be allowed to go unanswered. It's time to rise up and make your voice heard, America.
JEFFREY COOK
Springdale
Pay them accordingly
The education of our children is essential, and I believe teaching is the most important of our professions. Many professionals such as doctors, lawyers and accountants might not be writing prescriptions, briefs, or creating balance sheets if a first-grade teacher had not had the patience to teach them how to read and write.
Secondly, as adults, we count on the protection of our two principal assets: our families and property. As a state we are failing to adequately support those who protect us. With close to a $2 billion state surplus, we can both elevate the teaching profession and pay law enforcement a salary that aligns with the level of skill and responsibility required for the risks they take every day.
Those Arkansans who have chosen these two critical professions deserve a standard of living that reflects their contributions to all of us. Use some of the surplus for raises for teachers and law enforcement on a permanent basis. I am asking you, the legislators: If not now, when?
LARRY LAWSON
Cammack Village
Russians hypocritical
I find it extremely ironic and more than extraordinarily hypocritical on the Russians' part that they find U.S. athlete Brittney Griner guilty of drug possession, when slews of their own Russian athletes have been proven guilty over the years of using all sorts of performance-enhancing drugs at all levels of international competition and have never faced a single day behind bars. Explain that one to the world, Vladimir, right after you justify your invasion of Ukraine. Consistently wrong, if you ask me.
TYLER THOMPSON
Little Rock
On preaching hatred
Why is it that good Christian Americans can learn to hate so much? Even pastors use the Bible to preach and teach hatred for so many people, using the pulpit to condemn any and every individual they proclaim as "evil." If they can't find reason enough in the New Testament, they pull out the Old Testament to further their condemnation of people.
When these "good" people point out anyone who is different and/or contrary to their standards of behaviors as evil and explain that God is going to come down and punish the wicked, I just want them to first think: What would Jesus do? You don't apparently understand the scriptures and what Jesus taught. Can't you understand that all people are God's creation, and if you understood science you would realize all humans are endowed with many different traits? Not only do we not look the same but we all have different sets of genes that help to make us who we are. All of us have likes and dislikes, and our environment also affects what type of person we become.
Sometimes even the best medical science will forget that we are all not made the same. The best example I know of is a baby who was born with both male and female "parts" and so to "fix" things and make things appear as normal, they decided it was far easier to remove the male genitalia and let the child be raised as a girl. But when she grew up, she couldn't identify herself with other females but wanted to do things and act in a manner more like young boys. Eventually she began the difficult change back to being a boy again. See, a part of our brain is where part of our masculinity or femininity abides. But genes, hormones, upbringing, etc., all play a role in our development as a human being.
So those of you without sin, cast the first stone.
LARRY BINTLIFF
Bee Branch