OPINION | LETTERS TO THE EDITOR: Investing in ourselves | On erasing of history | Reducing party ranks – Arkansas Online

Investing in ourselves

Finally, something positive happens for the U.S. and its citizens: Congress passes an infrastructure bill. Its about time we invested in ourselves and the infrastructure of this country, something that will benefit most Americans in some way. Better highways, safer bridges, cleaner water, cleaner environment, etc.

And what do our beloved Arkansas political leaders say? Oh, its wasteful. And I ask: Where were you when you were passing tax breaks for millionaires and billionaires? Where were you when supporting wars in Iraq in the name of protecting us from weapons of mass destruction? Well, you were right there supporting these mistakes and for spending trillions. Yet when we spend money on ourselves, it's too much.

Yes, the party of no that endorses the myth of voter fraud, supports a president who promoted Jan 6, believes in the Big Lie, and thinks women can't make their own reproductive choices, taking away their freedom.

But Ms. Sanders is going to protect us all from those evil liberals who think we should help disadvantaged and disenfranchised fellow citizens because that would be socialism. And she will protect us from taxes by doing away with the state income tax? What a farce!

BRUCE OWENS

Benton

On erasing of history

In response to the guest column by Mary Remmel Wohlleb published recently, Ms. Wohlleb states very eloquently, "I pray that Arkansans and Americans learn to see dignity of all human beings, of prisoners, of refugees and immigrants, of those who have traditionally been held down as 'other.'" She makes a clear case that all human beings should be respected and cherished. I believe her pleading could not be clearer in making the case for protecting preborn human beings.

As we go through a period when we look to our past and many want to erase that past because of the dark shadow it casts over our present, we are reminded that all human beings have value. In the past we have classified some humans as being something not-human or below human. We did that to assuage our consciences while taking full advantage of those we labeled subhuman.

Today we classify the preborn as tissue, other, or anything besides "human." As in the past, we do that to assuage our consciences and prevent the accumulation of liability for killing humans. We should learn from history but we rarely do. The lessons of the past should tell us that not honoring all humans as God's creation will ultimately place us on the wrong side of history. And that is a very good reason to not erase any part of history.

AL DRINKWATER

Bigelow

Reducing party ranks

Do the Republicans realize they're shooting themselves in the foot? Most people dying from the virus are unvaccinated, yet it seems the Republican Party is still urging its followers not to get vaccinated.

Seems to me they will end up with fewer supporters, fewer Republican voters!

REG EDWARDS

Compton

Take virus seriously

Starting school in 1954, we children knew about polio. It was the girl in class who wore iron leg braces, the house we passed that contained an "iron lung" and someone lying helpless and immobile inside, and it was my friend with throat scars, a present from polio surgery.

In the first grade we collected dimes for the March Of Dimes to finance research. Polio fear thankfully ended with three sugar cubes saturated with a polio vaccine developed by the lionized Doctor Salk. So strange Dr. Salk was considered a medical hero, not as a witch doctor like Dr. Fauci.

Two years later fear returned. One of our classmates with a raging headache was sent home. She died of meningitis. The school sent home a sheet warning parents with written instructions where and how to get children vaccinated. I don't remember any protests against governmental overreach, but these were different times.

In high school dread resurfaced when equine encephalitis, a disease transmitted to humans from horses, began to be spread by hungry mosquitoes (via their saliva). It was years before my aunt could raise her hands over her head.

Whispers started about a miserable, fatal disease spread by blood contact, AIDS. No vaccine arrived in the nick of time, but after years, treatments to mitigate the effects and reduce the spread were found (thank you, Dr. Fauci) No problem, no sweat, we have plenty of time to continue our foolish infighting. Let's make this about morality and divine punishment.

Now we can add our current contender, covid, to the list of early warnings we've received, and this is just one generation of observations.

We could take these serial scourges seriously and get the message: Medical issues are not political opportunities.

Or, we could save our dimes and join the GoFundMe for Sen. Ted Cruz's project. His apparent plan: Surround Texas with a chicken-wire wall to keep out Big Bird and his politically incorrect messages.

DANNY HANCOCK

Lonoke

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OPINION | LETTERS TO THE EDITOR: Investing in ourselves | On erasing of history | Reducing party ranks - Arkansas Online