Dear editor:
Unlike Robert Freeman, I am sick of the back and forth Civil War discourse between Stephen Orr Manning and Loy Mauch. While some of us may have the ability to learn from our past, you two don't, instead choosing to live in it and waste the time of serious letter writers.
As to Mauch, the one-term former state legislator, I'll let his own words and actions determine what readers think.
In 2000, while serving Bismarck in the state Legislature, he wrote a letter to the Democrat-Gazette that said, among other things, that President Lincoln was a "fake neurotic Northern war criminal," then termed Union leaders "Wehrmacht leaders," a reference to the Nazi party.
In another letter (that the Democrat-Gazette unfortunately printed) Mauch said "If slavery were so God-awful, why didn't Jesus or Paul condemn it." That's the type of individual we're dealing with here.
Finally, Mauch, in 2004, after being bounced from office, organized a conference in Hot Springs (that was actually allowed) where the keynote speech was entitled "Homage to John Wilkes Booth." Whatever you choose to think of him, I for one am sick of reading his vial rhetoric. This paper doesn't have to print it. You choose to, and it reflects poorly on you.
As to secession, if it's legal, so be it. As a matter of fact, Loy, why don't you spend some of your time and energy organizing a drive for Bismarck to secede from the rest of the educated state of Arkansas? I'm quite certain your values don't reflect the average decent, hardworking citizen there, but hey, you fooled them once.
Noah Little
Hot Springs
Editorial on 08/13/2017