Saturday's Letters to the Editor

Where he wants to be

Dear editor:

The day before yesterday my son stopped on his way home and said he had a call from one of his friends. He told my son he has seen another young man they were at one time good friends with standing on the corner with a "homeless please help" sign. Sad because at one time he had a home. All the food he could want, clean bed clothes washed and clean. There were rules to follow as in every home. He was offered free dental care if he would just show up for appointments; he would not. At that point in his life solving those problems would have been easy. A couple of trips to the dentist was about all. Now he is a bum who holds a sign on the street. Why? Because that is where he wants to be. Please, Please people don't give money to these bums; they are exactly what they want to be. We know from experience.

Robert Freeman Jr.

Bonnerdale

The right to choose

Dear editor:

I have read a number of letters recently and seen numerous articles about the changing laws in some states concerning abortion. I have no doubt Arkansas legislators in the next session will attempt to even further the archaic legislation that Alabama and Missouri have taken up.

While I appreciate the religious zeal of Mary Robinson, I am a pragmatic person, and my time in Vietnam qualifies me as to the value of human life. So I ask a few simple questions, in favor of a woman's right to choose the value of her own, and the value of the life that may come. Numerous studies show that multiple children born into poverty will be far more apt to continue that cycle of poverty, crime, government dependence, and perhaps incarceration. So when a woman's right to choose whether to put someone into that equation is denied, you are multiplying the cycle. Those children are far more apt to fall into the welfare state, dependent on government handouts and all of the above mentioned.

A recent letter wrote about climate change, a totally different subject. But that writer brought up a valid point: Our country only has a limited amount of resources such as food, water, energy, land, jobs, etc. And the submission also pointed out that our country's population is rapidly surpassing that in the brief span of our nation's founding. Not to mention money. We're a country over $20 trillion in debt. Who's going to pay for these children to be on the social safety net? Mary?

I take the time to read these letters to the editor, every day. Another writer asked a couple of years ago a simple question, which never got a response: For those of you opposed to abortion, how many children have you adopted?

Semper Fi.

Ron Collins

Gunnery sergeant, USMC retired

Hot Springs