LETTERS
Posted on Sunday, October 5, 2008
URL: http://www.nwanews.com/adg/Editorial/239428/
‘Illegals’ label dehumanizing
“Illegals” is used so consistently in this newspaper that if there’s a story about immigration, “illegals” is going to be in it. Never mind the illogic of supposing that persons, as distinct from their acts, can be against the law. The editors’ word is worse than that: It denies that immigrants are persons at all. But we know better than this. We can’t deny that we know better because Martin Luther King Jr. taught us better a long time ago. In his “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” he said that when we substitute an “I-it” relationship for an “I-thou” relationship, we end up “relegating persons to the status of things.” We can treat things any way we like. It is more comfortable to imagine banning “illegals” than to imagine banning promising young students. This is all so old-timey. We have given up the N word long since, and I haven’t heard “redskins” at the movies lately, but the Democrat-Gazette continues to use demeaning words like “illegals” and “aliens” to appeal to a false sense of superiority discredited since the 1960 s. Under current U. S. immigration law, being an undocumented immigrant is not a crime, but a civil violation. Is the paper aware that the National Association of Hispanic Journalists has urged the news media not to use dehumanizing terms when covering immigration ? The attitude of the Democrat-Gazette seems to be, well, that’s them and we’re us. We’re us, all right, with the lowest college graduation rate in the United States, feeling superior to “them.”
NANCY WILLIAMS
Fayetteville
Productivity overstated
On Monday, Sept. 22, Chesapeake Energy announced that it was reducing its drilling budget by $ 3. 2 billion and shutting in 100 million cubic feet per day of production because of low prices due to the glut of natural gas on the market. On Wednesday, Sept. 24, in an editorial, you wrote that “the price of natural gas is still relatively high and likely to get higher” and “profits in the Fayetteville Shale are being measured in the billions.” Editors who do not do their homework are doomed to embarrassment. The fact is that the profit-producing clearing price for gas from the Fayetteville Shale is about $ 6. 50 and the price for October is less than that after deducting costs to move the gas to the Henry Hub. Even worse for Arkansas, our shale is much less productive than the Haynesville Shale and significantly less productive than the Woodford or the Barnett. I certainly hope that the market comes back and money is made from the Fayetteville, but today’s conditions indicate cutbacks in production and less than marginal profitability. Higher taxes might have shut the play down, and indeed that may happen anyway. Please cease trying to influence public policy with inaccurate statements.
EMON MAHONY
El Dorado
Shakespeare was right
Who would’ve thought that a steelyeyed Republican like Paul Greenberg could fall for a great orator with a pretty face and a sketchy record ? I thought only shallow Democrats could be seduced by such slick operators. Remember “Ba-rock Star” and the whole Paris / Britney flap ? Sarah Palin is an unknown commodity, and it is neither a baseless accusation nor a personal attack to ask
questions about who she is. We don’t even know if she is, as Greenberg insists, “a deft counterpuncher” because her handlers keep her sequestered out of sight, perhaps in the now-retired Straight Talk Express.
Greenberg, a man always stern on the perfidy of Democrats, is starry-eyed enough to overlook the obvious misrepresentation by Palin of her stance on the now infamous “bridge to nowhere” earmark. There are, after all, photos of her wearing a T-shirt supporting it. And even though the bridge was never built, Palin did not send the $ 223 million back to Washington. It stayed in Alaska.
There’s also the secessionist party connection and Troopergate and the lobbyist she hired to acquire earmarks when she was a mayor. Why is it off limits to ask her how she feels about the abstinenceonly education she supports ?
The vetting process, as we saw with Barack Obama, can be painful and ugly. But a woman who can shoot a moose ought to be able to handle it. As for the smitten Mr. G, I offer the Bard’s monition that love makes fools of us all.
ROBERT MARTIN
Midway
No surprises expected
Those who regularly read the Editorial page of this newspaper should know the history of it. The Bush presidential ticket was endorsed here in the past two elections. Thus, it should only be expected that it continue its policy by endorsing John McCain without examination or forethought. Are you better off than you were four years ago ? Eight years ? As the economy collapses around us, understand the slant of what you are reading here.
SUE FARQUE
Little Rock
Lotteries do little good
My wife and I moved from Arizona recently. Some years ago, we were going to vote on a lottery. Of course, the big gambling company advertised a lot about the schools getting a lot of money out of it over a period of time. This sounded good to a lot of people and it easily passed. As time went by, the schools did get some money, but Arizona had many schools, so none of them got too much. We noticed that many couples who were in the low-income bracket were buying 10 and 20 lottery tickets at a time. One couple we knew quite well would buy as many as 50 each payday and the man wore $ 9. 95 canvas shoes to work. The economy was good in our town, but the number of poor families did increase. Then they built a casino 20 miles from our town. Our local mission had more families to pick up bags of food and clothing. We know gambling creates poverty, and I don’t believe any family worries about education when it doesn’t have enough to eat. Well, I never did buy one of the darn things.
RALPH RANEY
Searcy
Proof’s in the bailout bill
Barack Obama recently said that the bailout bill is the final verdict on eight years of failed leadership from President Bush and the Republicans. I don’t think I could say it any better than that. In November, I will gladly vote for Obama so that we can start the process of climbing out of this deep hole we find ourselves in.
RICHARD MOORE
Camden
Feedback
Calling Mr. Churchill Where is Winston Churchill when you need him ? Faced with war with Germany, he was brutally honest and people loved him for it. Today both Republican and Democratic candidates promise reform and change. However, it is politics as usual. They are going to cut taxes, balance the budget, pay for the mortgage meltdown. One is going to fight a $ 340-million-a-day war, and both are going to reform health care. What, am I stupid ? How ? I say the first one who is honest with us wins. Or maybe I should run for president. All I can promise you is blood, sweat and tears. I might win. God help us. JOHN
DAVID ALDRICH
Rogers
Some change in order
All the members of Congress who ran for president should have resigned when they announced. Instead, they and their staffs continued to be paid their huge salaries by us taxpayers. Those who dropped out of the race returned to the positions they had before. How many employers would pay an employee when he or she did not show up for work while trying for other employment ? In November, the last losers will return to Congress and continue to be paid by us dumb taxpayers. Some changes should be made.
I. F. JONES
Bald Knob