Robotic legislators Dear editor:

Robots could replace our Arkansas representatives and senators. They could be programed just to vote with the rest of the Republican Party, like the ones in office now and without consideration for what is best for the nation. You can see this in the voting reports in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. They all vote in unison and when they are contacted about another viewpoint, they are quick to say they have a voter mandate to do what they are doing.

I must admit, they were elected and by voters with below-average intelligence and a brain devoid of critical thinking. They believe they must support the priorities paid for by the Koch brothers and other donors. This does not make good decisions.

It would even be a greater improvement if replaced with robots with artificial intelligence that could come up with the best solutions without bias. John F. Kennedy said, do not do what is best for the Democrats or the Republicans, but what is best for the country. Very few consider what is best for our country, but what might support their political agenda. Jerry Wayne Davis Hot Springs

Block part a success Dear editor:

On Aug. 27, 2017, the Park Avenue Community Association (PACA) hosted Park Avenue’s first neighborhood block party. Park Avenue came together for potluck, live music, games and visits with neighbors and friends.

I would like to thank the following businesses and neighbors for putting the event together and making the block party a great success: The city of Hot Springs and Denny McPhate’s office for permitting the closing of Reid Street; Fil and Angie Griggs, for the use their beautiful yard to stage the event; Elaine Nesmith and Clay Cook, itz gud fud for donating 35 pounds of pork butt; Adam and Brianna Moore, for staging musicians on front porch of Red Light Roastery; the musical duo of Cathy Pitts and George Goodwin; the talented solo guitarist from Little Rock, Alex Summerlin; Jody Sprague, Hot Springs Community Garden Network (HSCGN); and PACA officers/ board members: Janice Jones, Angie Ezekiel, Sharon Tremor, Dr. Jack Waddell, Dr. Kumar Maruthur and Dwayne (Zek) Ezekiel.

PACA would also like to thank the elected officials who joined us to kick off our neighborhood’s first block party: Sen. Allan Clark, Mayor Pat and Ellen McCabe, District 1 City Director Suzanne Davidson and District 1 Justice of the Peace Dave Reagan.

We look forward to next year’s block party and continued improvements on Park Avenue. PACA is committed to Park Avenue’s revitalization and improving livability in the neighborhood. The monthly meetings are held at 6 p.m. the third Monday of every month at historic Pullman Heights United Methodist Church.

Be hopeful in bad times Dear editor:

It is difficult to feel hope. It seems as though we are back in the biblical times of flood, fires and endless war. We have become a fearful nation and there are good reasons to have concern about our well-being and security.

Perhaps if we start doing what is right, paying attention and taking action concerning the changing weather and climate change, using extreme caution when dealing with enemies like Russia and North Korea. Re-evaluating our education system and in making decisions that promote aid and compassion to those who need support and repairing the long overdue health system, we could begin to feel hope again.

It is wonderful how Americans have banded together to solve the present crises in Texas. People from surrounding states came by the thousands with a fleet of watercraft to rescue people they did not know and probably never see again. This is the wonder of the compassion and nonjudgmental love that Jesus of Nazareth taught and modeled. Churches and community organizations across America held fundraisers and appeals for bottled water, food, toiletries and clothing. They loaded eighteen-wheelers, wall to wall, floor to ceiling bringing far more to Texas than just material aid, it came with caring compassion for fellow human beings, giving hope and light in the darkness brought by the disaster.

This is not America’s darkest time. America has seen worse times and has survived, the Civil War and the Great Depression when in 1933, the unemployment rate was 25 percent and long lines waited for a cup of soup. It’s true, at this time we are again a divided country with deep political and religious divisions. But, there is hope for healing. In the darkness of Harvey, a light glowed in the darkness when, for a moment in time, America was united in coming together in caring. I experienced renewed hope seeing that human suffering in Texas concerned men and women all across America.

Viewing television, I observed strong men in waist-high water gently carrying women and children to safety, elderly folk in wheelchairs on boats and rafts brought to shelter, water and food served to the hungry. Dry clothes and needed supplies freely given to those in need and no one asked, Are you gay or transgender or are you a Republican or a Democrat? Are you a liberal or a conservative? Are you an atheist? Are you a Jew or a Gentile? Are you an Islamic Muslim? Are you a Christian? Do you believe in God? No, for a time we witnessed a different world. The world as it should be. Undivided, caring for humanity.

It is important to be hopeful in bad times. How we choose determines the future. If we remember all the times and situations where we see people set aside their religious and political ideologies and have behaved magnificently, we will have a real likelihood of sending our world in a different direction. George Lindholm Hot Springs

Don’t ignore warnings Dear editor:

For millions of people coast to coast, Aug. 21 was the day of days as they gathered at various vantage points to witness a solar eclipse. Certainly this was a once-in-a-lifetime experience that will be remembered for years to come, especially for those who ignored warnings to wear protective eye lenses. However, I wonder how many of the “sun-seekers” will continually ignore the prophetic warnings of being watchful for the eventual return of the one true Son? Would they gather en masse if they knew of the date and time of His return?

According to Hebrews 9:28, “Christ … shall return the second time,” but not to offer Himself again as a sacrifice for the sins of mankind. That penalty was paid in full over 2,000 years ago (1 Corinthians 6:20a) on a Roman cross. Jesus’ Earthly mission was to deliver God’s message to His chosen people, the Jews, who were to share it with the Gentiles (non-Jews). This new covenant was sealed with Christ’s sacrificial blood (Matthew 26:26-28) and offered to every

generation as God’s free gift to all who would accept His Son as their Savior with all sins forgiven (Ephesians 2:8-9).

When Peter and his brothers asked Jesus about His return to set up His earthly kingdom, Jesus said in Mark 13:32 that He (in His physical state), nor the angels, know the day or hour when that event would take place; only God knows. Jesus further referred to His second coming in comparing it to a thief stealthily breaking into a house: “For when you think that the Son of man will not come, He will appear” (Matthew 24:43-44).

Jesus knew His disciples did not fully comprehend the seriousness of His warning, so He gave them (and us) signs to look for prior to His return. He said there would be wars and rumors of wars; nation against nation; famines; earthquakes in various places; recurring diseases (Matthew 24:6-7); signs in the sun, moon and stars; “the sea and the waves roaring” (Luke 21:25). Then there would be a time of great and terrible tribulation such has never been on the Earth since the beginning of creation (Matthew 24:21). Jesus compared those days in the near future to the time of Noah when they ignored Noah’s warnings and carried on with their lives, not realizing what was to befall them (Luke 17:26-27).

“Heed the warning signs so that you are not found living in careless ease and drunkenness when I come,” said Jesus. “Don’t let that day catch you unaware” (Luke 21:34). Donald Cunningham Hot Springs

‘No’ to second statue Dear editor:

Once again, the public has been attacked by an onslaught of misinformation by another new writer of Hot Springs Village, David Welch. He refers to the members of the Arkansas Legislature of May 1861 as “radicals.” Totally wrong. The vote to secede from the so-called Union was 69-1. And that came about because they followed the course taken by Virginia — the State of States and the State of Statesmen.

When Lincoln called for troops to invade the homeland of Washington, Jefferson, Patrick Henry, Madison and Mason, that was the last insult and illegal blow to the U.S. Constitution that our Arkansas ancestors would not accept. And Arkansas legislators voted only to secede. They did not immediately join the Confederacy, nor were they compelled to do that. They could have remained a sovereign state as “all states were” before the election of Abraham Lincoln.

The term “radicals” was applied only to the abolitionists and politicians of the northeast U.S. Real historians know very well whom I mean — the New England states that refused to aid our army and navy in the War of 1812 and the Mexican War in 1846. However, they jumped with joy when they invaded the Southern states. In every newspaper printed, even in the North, they were also referred to as black Republicans.

There were indeed several thousands of Arkansas volunteers in the Federal Army, literally all of them from the extreme northwest part of the state. That number was only a fraction of the 67,000 real Arkansans who joined the Confederate Army. Mr. Welch is delusionary if he thinks that the Southern and Northern states were “reunited” after the war. That war caused a wound so deep that it can never heal until the entire American public is made fully aware of the war crimes perpetrated by the New England states and Abraham Lincoln and how it degraded the Constitution and Bill of Rights that were left as a legacy of the Founding Fathers.

The absurdity of Mr. Welch to suggest that a Billy Yank statue be erected at Confederate Memorial Park in Hot Springs is tantamount to the lunacy of certain Marxist college students and their ignorant followers in the removal of Confederate monuments around the country. But that is at least understandable since all Marxist and most radical liberals have no regard for the Constitution nor the Bill of Rights.

Another reason for ridiculing Mr. Welch’s suggestion is because Yankee troops deliberately burned the village of Hot Springs, not once but twice during 1864. The Garland County Historical Society can furnish a photo of the burned structures if Mr. Welch desires one.

To the general public I say this: Always remember that our Founding Fathers “totally” rejected the idea of military troops from one state or from the national government invading any of the other sovereign states. They did that on May 31, 1787, and it remained the keystone to our national security until the election of Abraham Lincoln. Robert Freeman Hot Springs

‘Work together’ doubtful Dear editor:

Time to work together?

I would have to chuckle if I thought that Scott Ruff was attempting satire. He spent most of five paragraphs degrading President Trump, Fox News and his supporters with extreme radical leftist views, then in the very last paragraph states, “We need to work together.”

Give me a break. Not the best way to “win friends and influence people.” I guess that by working together, he means do everything his way or else.