OPINION | LETTERS TO THE EDITOR: Costs us a lot of coin | Conservative views | Symphony building

Costs us a lot of coin

Live by the Internet, die by the Internet. Businesses and institutions seem to be forcing us to conduct our daily transactions over the Internet. Some retail stores are claiming that the U.S. Department of the Treasury is not manufacturing enough coins to facilitate the use of cash, thereby forcing customers to use their credit cards, which rely on the Internet to complete and record the monetary transactions. Of course, when the Internet goes down, most retailers scramble to take cash and checks because they do not know when the Internet will come back on.

But what if the Internet didn't come back on for a long, long time? Would there be enough coins for retailers to make change? Even the most optimistic Henny Penny knows that cyberspace could fall and become monopolized by the Russians, or an artificial intelligence, or a group of corporate investors. Use of the Internet could become very expensive and exclusive.

But what can we do? We are at the mercy of clerical xenobots that stare into the Eye of Sauron (video screen) all day, every day, and have lost their minds to the one-eyed monster. They cannot understand why everyone else is not dependent upon the Internet, too. No wonder these poor creatures pay millions in cyber ransom over and over. They cannot handle reality, and must dwell in virtual reality. This costs everyone else a lot of coin.

GENE MASON

Jacksonville

Conservative views

To Bruce Plantz of Little Rock: I, too, am not sure why he reads Mike Masterson's columns as Bruce seems to have a problem with conservative viewpoints. Bruce stated in disagreeing with Mike that the year 2021 was not so bad and the majority that elected a new president were breathing easier. That same majority and many others are now choking while inflation soars; we have the worst border crisis ever; China, Russia and North Korea all rattling their sabers; plus the Afghan disaster while the president fiddles. By the way, we met China coming in as we were leaving Afghanistan, possibly abandoning one of the world's largest lithium reserves. Think car batteries. As for President Biden speaking a coherent sentence, it seems he has difficulty even reading his prepared script, and when he tries to ad-lib it gets worse. It is tragic that he is being used and manipulated the way he is.

As for Mike Masterson, it is enlightening to read his well-informed and diverse columns, not to mention his many past human-interest stories like the Janie Ward mystery and the elderly blind lady recently released from incarceration. These stories were interesting and informative and were not detailed to Mike's extent anywhere else that I saw. I suggest that Bruce keep reading or just go ahead and watch CNN and MSNBC for his enlightenment.

To Sandy Wylie of Bella Vista, who lambasted the award-winning ADG because it also offers a few conservative opinions: Last I checked, and I read them all, there are plenty of liberal views offered like Brummett, Krugman and others, to name a few. Attacks on Democrats? Hogwash. There are many pieces in the ADG that by Sandy's criteria would be considered attacks on conservatives. I suggest that maybe Sandy should confine his reading to The New York Times so he can control his blood pressure a little better.

As for me, I will keep reading the ADG from cover to cover, including Voices. One other thing, when did one editor's opinion become the official opinion of the ADG? Just wondering. Deus existo nobis!

HOWARD D. HUGHES

Maumelle

Symphony building

I heard a little on the news about getting money up for a new symphony building. I hope we build one. However, I think a drive for all Arkansans to donate whatever they can should be made.

I also hope it's built just outside of Little Rock but near it because of all the shootings and other evil done in the city every day. I would love to hear symphony music.

HARRY HOHENSTEIN

Searcy

Disgrace to his legacy

The Martin Luther King Jr. Commission was tone-deaf to true civil rights heroes like MLK Jr. when it invited a man to be its prayer breakfast's keynote speaker who once cynically questioned Barack Obama's Christianity, who is on the wrong side of voting rights issues, and who besmirched Black Lives Matter efforts (even drawing the ire of MLK III). Additionally, this man's daughter is the likely Republican candidate for governor. Will she be there campaigning?

That our four congressmen, who recently voted against strengthening voting rights so important to Reverend King, are apparently invited to the highly restricted event is also troubling. These Republicans' 100 percent obstruction of the federal voting rights bills (bills more necessary than ever because politicians in states like ours are passing laws not only to suppress votes but to subvert any unwelcome election results) is stunningly sad to anyone who cherishes this democratic republic in 2022.

Republican influencers have created these egregious laws here and in other states to fight against their own claims of voter fraud, claims that have been widely debunked. There was no stolen election in 2020.

Sadly, if they succeed, there will be stolen elections in 2022 and 2024 with few, if any, possible legal remedies. America will lose our global standing as a country whose governmental style has been deemed exemplary to so many around the world. And as ever more citizens fall prey to the lies spun by politicians and pundits, we will tumble ever closer into autocracy and dictatorship.

Would MLK Jr. approve? I doubt it! Would he approve of those who are still fighting against his dreams of equity and equality in elections? That, too, is highly doubtful.

MARY REMMEL WOHLLEB

Little Rock

Thought for Monday

Yes, Virginia, there is a Robert E. Lee, and all the woke Democrats in the world cannot erase his memory nor cancel the content of his fine character.

PHIL WARNER

Garfield

Cowardly in actions

As to Mr. Fred Fisher's and Mr. Rick Armellini's recent letters about Republican cowards: Amen!

SKIP HARRIS

Benton


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