At a crossroads
Dear editor:
We are at a crossroads in our country. Our choices could not be more clear. We're either a democracy or an oligarchy. Choose. It's one or the other.
Mitch McConnell has established his path making us an oligarchy with his pulling the strings of power through the White House. He's aligned himself with the Trump administration because Donald J. Trump feeds off adulation and ignorance. McConnell abdicated his right of oversight of the executive branch setting himself up as Grand Marshal in charge of the White House.
The Democratic Party debates will shortly begin and one of the main issues will be the ability of any candidate to reach across the aisle. That is no longer a possibility with Mitch McConnell as Senate Majority Leader. He will never give up that power or control as long as he sits in that position of authority. Trump has no fear of EVER being found guilty of any high crimes or misdemeanors.
Newt Gingrich set up the divisions between conservatives and progressives aka liberals. Mitch McConnell has cast it in stone. The ability to "reach across the aisle" is long past. There will never be mutual consensus as long as Mitch McConnell is the leader in the Senate.
Judy Ladd
Hot Springs
'Fed up' list
Dear editor:
Where are all our conservative letters? Mr. Alexander, Mr. Bamrick and Ms. Randazzo are really put out with President Trump! OK -- (and me).
Let me tell you what I am, and have been, fed up with, for a while. And this is just a condensed list.
Liberal Democrats pulling the wool over people's eyes and dragging more and more dupes into their circle of crime and sneaking off, seemingly, untouched.
If a Republican said, "What does it matter at this point, who killed them?" about four terrorized Americans, would there be the same free pass that heartless Hillary got? No!
If President Trump went overseas and knocked Christians, as Barack Hussein Obama did -- a free pass? No!
If Republicans bought thousands of slaves and turned them loose in our streets to upheave thousands of citizens' lives, as the Democrats did in 2016, would it be ignored, like it was for the Dems? No!
If Republicans planted "screamers" to disrupt a Supreme Court hearing for a Democrat, would it be ignored, as it was during the Kavanaugh hearings? No!
If Republicans' ultrawealthy party members rigged up a mass flood of immigrants into our country to hurt a Democrat president, would it be allowed, and encouraged to go on and on and on until it's uncontrollable? No! (Rescue the Americans from the filthy [Democrat's] streets.)
Mr. Bamrick, is the one who chooses to kill her unwanted baby going to be able to talk God into saying "It's OK, honey, here's your baby, I've been babysitting for you?" No!
Christians -- pray for the evidence-laden boomerang exposing the crooked liberal socialist democrats to make its way home soon! Yes!
Oh yes, Mr. Bamrick, my ninth-grade education is alive and serving me well -- thank you.
God bless America and President Trump.
To be continued.
Mary Robinson
Hot Springs
Spraying raises concern
Dear editor:
Recently, the electric company's people came out to my property and sprayed poisonous chemicals on everything that was growing under their power lines, though nothing was anywhere close to the lines. They did not tell us they had sprayed. There are two neighbor houses about 25 feet from the spray area. One family has a small child that plays in the yard. The other family has a dog that was always lying in the shade of a large blueberry bush. He was there all of the time. That blueberry bush was sprayed with the poisonous chemicals. I don't see the dog anymore. I don't know what happened to him. There is a large vegetable garden nearby. I have two other blueberry bushes that are out a little further. They weren't sprayed but the berries will never be safe to eat and they'll have to be destroyed. A little way down from there was a big blackberry bush. That bush was sprayed even though it wasn't under the power lines. I had been eating those berries as they ripened. I didn't know they had been sprayed. I didn't eat many, but then, how many berries are too many when they've been sprayed with poisonous chemicals? On one day I had been walking through my yard, just enjoying my land, checking out the berry bushes, flowers, and whatnot. Everything still looked good at that point, but I had an asthma attack. For the rest of the day I had trouble breathing clearly, I had bouts of nausea, and my eyes were funky, like there was dirt in them. My vision went down, almost like there was a film over my eyes. The next day I was back to normal.
We finally realized that something was going on when we saw that everything was dead. We suspected what had happened but we needed to be sure. On June 12 my husband called the electric company. After being passed from person to person to person, a woman finally agreed to talk to him. It wasn't a local person; you can never talk to a local person. My husband explained to the woman what had happened. The woman, after talking about owning the right of way, admitted that spraying was going on in our area. She admitted that they contracted the sprayers, and she also admitted that the residents were not being notified that spraying was going on in their vicinity. My husband made a formal complaint with her about the spraying of poisonous chemicals on my berries without notifying us and my eating the berries. He also said we needed to know what chemicals were used. The woman said someone would be in touch with us within a few days. We have yet to hear from anyone.
So, fellow residents, if you have power lines that run over your yard, stay aware because you may get a visit from the sprayers and they won't tell you they're coming or that they've been there. It looks like our electric company doesn't care for their customers' health or the health of all of our wildlife in beautiful Garland County.
Janet Gould
Hot Springs
Prayer is the key
Dear editor:
This is a response of disapproval to "Doc" Crawford's critical letter (June 18) concerning the Rev. Franklin Graham. Shame on you for writing many untrue things about one of God's choicest servants! You twisted and distorted the facts in order to make Rev. Graham look bad. Remember -- if something is not entirely true, then it is false!
You charged that the Rev. Graham was wrong to declare Sunday, June 2, as a "special day of prayer for the President of the United States." What's wrong with holding a prayer meeting?
May I remind you that God actually approves of prayerful activity like this in 1 Timothy 2: 1-3. It says: "First of all, then, I urge that petitions, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for everyone, for kings and all those who are in authority (over us), so we can have quiet and peaceful lives full of worship and respect for God. This is good and it pleases God our Savior."
Asking God's blessings of various kinds is certainly not being political. "Doc," I strongly suspect that you and others on the far left liberal side are still suffering from "Trump derangement syndrome!" In other words, you and your side hate President Trump and all of the good things he is doing. You also obviously hate someone like Franklin Graham who supports him. Isn't this the real reason for your poisonous letter?
There is nothing wrong with having a specific purpose in mind for a prayer meeting. It doesn't always have to exclusively center on the gospel.
Billy Graham preached the gospel to more people than anyone else in our time. Franklin Graham has and is also one of the greatest evangelists these days. Just recently (May 19-30), he visited seven cities in the northeastern area of our nation. The Northeast is now the most secular (unsaved) region in our nation. It is very insulting when folks like you accuse Franklin of being more interested in politics than the Gospel of Jesus Christ!
You quoted the Washington Post liberal columnist, Michael Gerson who had an article entitled, "Graham betrays gospel to promote Trump." I refer to him as a liberal even though he pretends to be a conservative. I predicted that you would jump on this piece of rubbish and use it for a letter.
There are other notable Christian leaders who are strongly supporting President Trump in prayer. Tim Wildman, the president of the American Family Association, described the day of prayer as a type of "spiritual warfare," necessary because Trump's many accomplishments "make him very unpopular with the Devil and the kingdom of darkness."
In 2016, millions of us evangelical Christians believed our nation was going in the wrong direction. We prayed fervently. God heard and answered our prayers by raising up Donald Trump to be our president!
Christians must continue praying for our president every single day as well as for Spiritual Revival!
Franklin Graham is trying to encourage us to do this.
Prayer is the key!
Lloyd Hoffman
Hot Springs
Editorial on 06/23/2019