Missing Doonesbury
Yes, I miss Doonesbury on weekdays. For years I have started my day with coffee and Doonesbury at the kitchen table. Not finding Doonesbury in the paper each morning is like losing a beloved family member--you expect to find them milling around in the kitchen, but they're not there. You look for them every day until you finally give up. They're gone. The only memories are the strips taped on my kitchen cabinets alongside Christmas cards and family recipes.
I loved the Doonesbury retrospective starting at the beginning and seeing how the characters evolved. I smile recalling strips published 30 years ago that, with scathing humor, Garry Trudeau tried to warn us about Trump. Yes, thank you, Democrat-Gazette, for introducing us to Doonesbury.
One upside to my loss is I no longer have to endure Mallard Fillmore. Another for me is the money saved by the absence of classified ads selling things I don't need. Best yet, I was able to purchase all of Doonesbury's strips in a series of coffee-table books. It was pricey, but I calm my grief thinking the books could pay for themselves within the year if I would just cancel my newspaper subscription. I doubt I will, since I still have the pleasure of Doonesbury on Sunday, but the thought helps me hold on.
RON HUGHES
Little Rock
Doesn't merit praise
I have been an avid reader of Paul Greenberg's columns since my move to Arkansas 18 years ago. However, I must take issue with the column in which Mr. Greenberg praises the record of Speaker Paul Ryan, specifically mentioning "fundamental tax reform."
This is the tax bill that grants huge tax savings for corporations and the wealthy which result in a huge increase in our national debt. Sorry, Mr. Greenberg, but Speaker Ryan could have done better.
Even more disturbing is the information contained in the article "Group urges House immigration votes" in the same issue of the Northwest edition of your paper. There I read that Mr. Ryan has publicly stated that he doesn't think this vote is the best way to handle immigration because, according to the story, "it gives the majority party--and congressional leaders--less control over the outcome."
BOB BRYANT
Rogers
Rancor on voting age
Re Mr. Frank Latimer's letter about lowering the voting age: He neglects to tell you that the Washington Post piece on lowering the voting age to 16 was an opinion piece, not a news piece. To leap to judgment on the whole of the Washington Post is ... in his words ... "just plain stupid." He obviously knows little about the places where 16-year-olds do vote today.
I asked the only 10-year-old I know about Adolf Hitler. He said: "That was a very bad man. He killed many people a long time ago." Perhaps Mr. Latimer's time writing a letter would have been better spent running as fast as he could to the history teacher and the principal at the school that his stupid group of 25 18-year-olds attended. Time to make a real difference!
MICHAEL PREBLE
Hot Springs
Of shameful behavior
John Brummett's Sunday column centered upon Judge Wendell Griffin's protests against the "death penalty." For me the story evolved the shameful behavior of a former governor and president, William. J. Clinton.
In early 1992, Ricky Ray Rector sat on death row at Cummins Prison. He had been convicted of murdering a policeman and another person. His sentence was death by lethal injection. The fly in the soup for most everyone was that Ricky Ray had attempted to kill himself just before he was apprehended. Until that day, Ricky was already in the lower quartile of the IQ scale. The bullet he put in his brain and the subsequent surgery was the equivalent of a frontal lobotomy and left him with the mental faculties of a small child. His capacity to comprehend was such that he elected to save the pie that he had ordered with his last meal for later.
Then-governor and presidential candidate Clinton set the date for Ricky Rector's execution during his campaign, returning to our state for the event. Many thought he did it to show the electorate that he was not "soft on crime." I agreed with the many.
As a low-IQ adult, Ricky Rector killed two people. As a person with the intelligence of a young child, he was executed for his crime and for political expediency.
DAVID M. PHILLIPS SR.
North Little Rock
Values unrepresented
Reading Charles Sykes' newest book, How the Right Lost Its Mind, caused me to try and answer the question of what it once meant to be a conservative. Here's what I've learned.
"Once upon a time" conservatives were people who had certain values and beliefs. They valued civility, expertise and intelligence, prudence, character, modesty, and inclusion. They believed in fiscal conservatism (and, believe it or not, once argued for a balanced budget), limited government, a strong military, states' rights, constitutionalism, gradualism, free markets, ordered liberty, the rule of law, the sanctity of life, personal responsibility (instead of governmental rules), and above all else, the maximum amount of freedom for individuals and business.
In my view, the current Republican establishment does not represent most of these values and beliefs. In fact, again from my view, the daily actions of the leader of the party--and the leaders of both Republican-controlled houses of Congress--show an utter disregard for all the values and all but two of the beliefs.
Until they do, or we elect people who do, the Republican Party will not get my financial support--or vote.
JIM HAMMONS
Fayetteville
Can't fool everybody
In response to Jennifer Rubin, whose Washington Post column appeared in Saturday's paper: You are so right in your rant that "you really cannot fool all of the people all the time," which is exactly why Hillary Rodham Clinton is not your president.
LaVERNE WELCHER
Hot Springs
Editorial on 04/24/2018