FAUBUS
I was Governor Faubus’ secretary for 11 years and helped him all through the years, especially recently as he was getting his affairs in order. I thought I was doing really well with his death, until I saw the empty rocking chair in George Fisher’s cartoon and then I just lost it. It was the most touching and poignant symbol I have ever seen.
The governor loved the Old Guard Rest Home and I think he would like for it to survive. I also love Fisher’s cartoons and have several of his books. His cartoons are never mean-spirited but a microcosm of the issues of the day.
I heard on the radio that George wanted to hear from his fans about the survival of the Old Guard Rest Home. I hope it continues, even with the empty chair.
Del Tyson
Little Rock
I usually enjoy the columns written by Bob Lancaster and often agree with the stands he takes on issues. He went far beyond the pale Dec. 23 when he ridiculed Gov. Faubus. I thought the man had more class. He also called Faubus a “wicked” man. That’s disgusting. Faubus was not a racist, he was an opportunist who used the ’57
Central High crisis to gain a third term. Prior to Faubus only Gov. Jeff Davis had been elected to a third term. Davis was a racist. Had I been able to vote in Arkansas in the late 1950s and early 60s, I would have voted against Faubus every time, because of his role in the Central High crisis. As I’ve grown older I’ve studied the Faubus years as governor. He was a true Democrat who wanted to help the poor and many of his programs did just that. I don’t believe Faubus would ever have joined the Republican Party, the party that favors welfare for the rich. Mr. Lancaster, go study the record of the Faubus administration and then write a retraction. Shame on you.
Floyd L. Dunn
Conway
Your last derogatory editorial about Faubus wherein you call me a “hate monger” brought to mind a phone call I made to a great Texas historian on his 92nd birthday.
I asked him how he was getting along and he told me he was happier than he had ever been in his life; that he didn’t have an enemy on earth and then after a pause he said, “I have outlived all the sons-a-bitches.”
Evidently, Faubus and I have not been so fortunate.
Jim Johnson
Conway
HEALTH ADVICE
I saw an article in your paper about the services that Janice Guthrie provides for a phenomenal $270. I wanted to update you on what is available for free for cancer patients. I strongly agree with Mrs. Guthrie and Dr. Kent Westbrook that education is key for the patient. The patient’s knowledge allows the patient to participate in the best way to make decisions on what kind of surgery or treatment they should have done.
There are free services available at nearly all the hospitals in Little Rock. Baptist has a service called Especially for Women. The number is 800-262-0054 or 277-8478. Doctors provides The Women’s Health Resource at 661-4599. The Doctors for You Physician Referral Line is 661-4100. St. Vincent’s provides Help Link at 800-446-7341 and 660-3800. Another service is St. Vincent’s second opinion panel at 227-2500. The Ottenheimer Education Center in the Arkansas Cancer Research Center is specially designed to teach, not only physicians, but also patients about their diseases. Information comes from computer networks including the Physicians Data Query and the National Institute of Health. Starting in January, there is a Cancer Information Service through the National Cancer Institute of Health. The number is 800-4-CANCER. A person to contact on the University of Arkansas Medical Sciences campus is Susan Kern at 686-8801. She can provide a resource file on what Arkansas has to offer any cancer patient. Any cancer education outreach programs can be obtained through 686-7829. The American Cancer Society also provides a help service at 800-ACS-2345.
Dr. V. Suzanne Klimberg
Assistant Professor of Surgery
UAMS
Little Rock
THE LIGHTS
Jennings Osborne is to be understood as being possessed by a common human frailty—identification with the deity—”Let there be light(s)”—God’s first words.
Dr. Vale Harrison
Little Rock
THE ANNUAL JOKE
You have made several references to the John Hancock (Sun) Bowl over the last few years but you still haven’t got it right. You seem to be under the impression that this bowl was named after the Revolutionary War patriot. This is only indirectly true. You apparently need to know some history on the name changes of this bowl:
1. This bowl had been known as the Sun Bowl for as long as I can remember. However, like a lot of other bowls, they got into financial difficulty, and looked around for a sponsor. They eventually found one—the John Hancock Insurance Co. of Boston.
2. This caused the name of the bowl to change to the John Hancock Sun Bowl. However, much to the chagrin of the head honchos of the insurance company, most people still referred to it as the Sun Bowl. They insisted that Sun be dropped from the title.
3. This caused the name of the bowl to become the John Hancock Bowl. That was how it stood until this year when the insurance company decided to withdraw its sponsorship.
4. This caused the name to revert to the Sun Bowl.
Bud Carter
Little Rock
THANKS
Thank you for providing good positive reading for us. Also, for pointing out the one-sided reportings of the so-called state newspaper. I enjoyed the Gazette very much, but will not subscribe to the Democrat.
Charlene Clark
Hope
Please renew my subscription for two years. I really enjoy your paper, especially Bob Lancaster and Deborah Mathis. Your special features are great. Keep up the good work. Thanks for standing up for our president.
Rilene Martin
Chidester
NO THANKS
I subscribed to your newspaper believing I would receive something of interest statewide in arts, travel, activities of interest. Instead, after three or four issues all I seem to get is the ramblings of liberals regarding their rejection by the people in the past election. Your paper is totally biased to the left and as such should appeal to those who believe we masses must be cared for by elitist eggheads like Hillary Clinton. No thanks.
B.J. Chelstrom
Bella Vista
My first copy of the Arkansas Times arrived a couple of days ago and I doubt there is scroll of sufficent length, nor time between now and the second coming to fully set forth the degree of umbrage at this—what?—rag?
I’ve decided to cancel herewith and seek a high-class, prestigious, uplifting publication, something like the Star or maybe the National Enquirer.
Albert Bell
Cherokee Village
Arkansawyers with one eye and half sense have long known the chauvinism and intolerance of intellectually superior persons who put together such self-consciously snobbish rags as Arkansas Times is bigotry as transparent and as militant as any to be found. Railing against these people only encourages them. So does subsidizing their polemic. No more Times, thanks.
Jesse Cowling
Mineral Springs
THOSE LETTERS
I am constantly amused by readers who write to your publication spewing venom about your leftist viewpoints and immoral leanings. Their letters all seem to begin or end with “cancel my subscription.” I suppose they feel that they can stick their head in the sand, banish the Times to hell and await the Lord’s triumphant return on the Republican ticket on some great day in the future.
Although I am thrilled with the recent elections, support the campaign of Lt. Gov. Huckabee and disagree with many of your editorial positions I am enclosing a check to further continue my subscriptions.
How can any of us on the Right expect to effectively counter our opposition if we do not know what they are thinking? No conservative’s week should be considered complete without a good dose of NPR and the Arkansas Times. Keep up the good work.
Bruce W. Holsted
North Little Rock
Your routine habit of publishing notices of subscription cancellations, five in the Dec. 16 issue, is bizarre if not perverse. In your eyes, this is a badge of honor? Can you imagine any other business bragging about the number of customers it drives away to competitors? I suspect you publish the names of those cancelling as a way of insinuating narrow-mindedness and bigotry. In limiting the philosophical scope of your paper to a very liberal bent, I charge you with the same bias you see in others.
Stephen Christ
Harrison
PINUPS
A pitiful little Penthouse pinup, who for years has suffered the torment of the damned, is finally bringing charges of harassment against our president. She says she is not at all interested in the money—all she wants is to get back her good name…which she lost in confiding in a reporter of a sleaze publication that she had snuck up to a certain room in a certain hotel one night, uninvited, all primed for some high-classed, politically correct harassment, only to be soundly rejected by the occupant.
Now she spends every hour of the working day trying to keep her badly bruised and battered name in the headlines, hoping for the opportunity to tell the world what her lockerroom boyfriend told her she was to have seen there. Perish the thought she would do such a vile and disgusting thing for money.
So, if there are any other pitiful little pinups out there who are truly interested in protecting their precious names who are suddenly consumed with an irresistible, uncontrollable, insatiable desire to kiss—the smart thing to do is not tell.
Clyde Payne
Rogers
CLINTON
How sad that even the Arkansas Times is negative about our president. I believe President Clinton is doing a really fine job. A Republican majority in Congress isn’t going to get him down; now he will really show his strength. If the print and broadcast media will do an honest job for a change, the citizens in the country will learn what a good job he is doing. Whatever happens, he has reached the pinnacle of success.
Why other than just plain viciousness is Congress planning to continue investigating “Whitewater”? Isn’t that what Kenneth Starr is doing? How much is it costing taxpayers and why should it take so long—other than lawyer Kenneth getting rich and the hope that he will find something that might affect the 1996 election?
Frances Grace Block
Little Rock