Letters to the editor

The gravy train Dear editor:

People excluded from Congressman Westerman’s “Biscuits with Bruce” were critical of him. What did they expect? He would allow critics and nonfinancial donors to come in, asking tough questions? Today’s politicians don’t operate like that. The real “Biscuit buffoons” were those invited, normal citizens, thinking a Washington politician is interested in their thoughts and feedback. Nope, just checkbooks, and truth is, only to make you feel as though you have a voice. Big checks, the only ones mattering, needn’t attend a rinky-dink breakfast.

Weekly, the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette summarizes votes from our state congressmen and senators. Interesting ones over the past two weeks:

• Delay of Air Quality Standards

(HR806): Westerman voted with Republicans to extend compliance time for reducing ground-level energy and ozone emissions (pollutions) by five years. Your grandchildren can thank him.

• Natural gas pipeline permits

(HR2910): Sets “tight deadlines” for approval of Federal Energy Regulatory Commission permits to build pipelines. No sense doing pesky studies to make sure they’re safe. Energy CEOs and shareholders need profits now.

• American made iron and steel (HR

2883): This would have required those pipelines be manufactured and created in America. In other words, jobs. Westerman and Republicans nixed this. Yes, talk about jobs on the campaign trail, but don’t double cross those CEOs when it comes to making the extra dollar.

• Class action lawsuits (HJRes 111): My favorite, allowing credit card companies and lending institutions to force customers wishing to take legal court action into arbitration, foregoing rights to jury trials and normal court proceedings. Republican Congressman Ken Buck (Colorado) boasted, “While the new rule is bad for consumers, it is a huge win for trial lawyers.” Wow. An actual quote. Westerman voted for this.

You who have been critical of Westerman, remember he is only doing what 98 percent of politicians do today, voting straight down party lines. It is standard operating procedure in Washington.

Westerman far surpasses what I thought capable in political savvy. Mike Ross was good, rolling up his sleeves, coming home for a compliant photo-op with this paper once in awhile. Westerman is playing the game at a different level. Leadership? Courage? Empathy or contact with taxpayers who pay his salary? Not needed.

In our state’s current political climate, a Republican under the radar could literally shoot someone and get re-elected (actually, depending on who one shot, it might be beneficial). Simply visit a few key cities come election time, shout about guns, abortion and jobs (without specifics), and you get back on the gravy train to Washington. Anthony Lloyd Hot Springs

A true hero Dear editor:

What a hero Sen. McCain is, on and off the battlefield. He literally got up from his sick bed to cast his vote against the health care bill he thought was wrong. I have always admired Sen. McCain and how he endured torture for five years and proceeded to enter the battlefield of government.

I will always remember the stand he took when a voter accused President Obama of being a Muslim. He gently told her no and defended the president, saying he was a Christian, as the president had stated.

President Obama called Sen. McCain “a most worthy” opponent. To me those are moments when politicians must be both diplomats and skilled politicians.

I hope and pray for Sen. McCain’s recovery from his brain surgery. Two members of our family had brain tumors that required surgery. It is ironic that Sen. McCain needed surgery during the health debate. Strange indeed! I hope the elected officials will work together, as Sen. McCain advocated. They owe that service to the country, to the citizens and remember, as congresspeople, they can get the best care and I want to see them get the best care. That goes for the citizens as well.

Sens. Collins and Murkowski acted with bravery, as well, in their support to defeat the bill. It is good to see dedicated women serve in the Senate and House. I recall being active with The League of Women Voters and the battle to change the voting age from 21 to 18. Finally the argument was made that if you trusted an 18-year-old to fire weapons of defense, but when they got home, they would not have the wisdom to cast a vote. It made sense then and it does in the country. Now we league members saw the bill signed!

Now, as a poet, I would like to share a poem I wrote some time ago. It’s entitled “The Hostage”:

The lonely hostage sits and waits, dreaming of escape, freedom remembered, freedom lost, cursing the prison of body, while the soul escapes the jailer’s wrath.

Searching for truth, questioning faith, laughter silenced, hope disintegrating, listening, waiting for the captor’s boot, cowering, raging inside.

Faith returning, flashes of life mirrored in the brain, death, a hopeful wish, love’s fond memories recalled.

Blue skies, blue oceans, sad blues, sandy beaches, green trees, dreaming, hoping, waiting, praying, cursing the darkness, cursing the light, praying.

Freedom, elusive, precious, invisible, priceless, the hostage alone, vengeful, hopeful, listens, cries, curses, dreams, prays, curses, prays. Best wishes to all. Hazel Wright Hot Springs

P.S. I thrive on the diverse views expressed in The Sentinel-Record by fellow poet and scholar John “Doc” Crawford and other writers. I don’t think we ever get too old to learn! The more I learn, the more I realize I don’t know!

God did not choose Trump Dear editor:

A Holy God who gave us an example in Jesus as how to live did not choose Donald Trump to be our leader.

The misguided and confused evangelical Christians, by their votes and their insistence that they are always right, accomplished that deed.

Pride, especially spiritual pride, comes before a fall. Whether President Trump is impeached or not, he has destroyed what once was a great country. George Lindholm Hot Springs

The right of secession Dear editor:

I am very surprised and also very pleased that The Sentinel-Record has continued to publish letters to the editor regarding the Civil War and secession during these last several months. Loy Mauch and other writers have offered logical and practical reasons why the Southern states seceded from the so-called Union on the election of Abraham Lincoln in 1860.

Yet Stephen Orr Manning and a few other writers of the opposition have ridiculed those reasons and have attempted to warp what the U.S. Constitution really declares. In spite of that, Mr. Manning should have learned by now that the Constitution protected the institution of slavery in no less than four places. He cites Professor Edward Ayers, who claims that was the reason for the war. That is the standard guilt-ridden answer from Northerners, even those who, unfortunately, are now on staff at Southern universities. Nine of the first 12 presidents of the United States were slave owners, the last being Zachary Taylor, hero of the Mexican War, who died in office in 1850.

Not until a stooge of Massachusetts Marxist politics was shoved into office did the Southern states contemplate exercising their right of secession and that was because Lincoln made it quite clear that he would not obey the Constitution if he won the White House — and he did not obey it!

The states did not “belong to the United States” as Manning attempts to assert. They were independent sovereignties from our founding in 1789 until Lincoln launched an illegal war in 1861.

Rebellion and insurrection are specified as crimes in the Constitution. Secession, another well-understood and commonly used word at that time, was deliberately left out of that document after considerable debate in Philadelphia. Why? Because everyone of the former colonies reserved that right and would not have signed on as a state if it had been included as a crime.

The right of secession was and still is the only sure way of preventing corruption at the federal level. A reading of the minutes kept by Maj. William Jackson, the recording secretary of the convention, plus other notes kept by the delegates, will conclusively confirm that. Judge Andrew Napolitano, senior judicial analyst for Fox News and a professor of constitutional law for 28 years, will also confirm that — if Stephen Orr Manning has the backbone to contact Judge Napolitano for a statement. Robert Freeman Hot Springs