Letters to the editor for Sept. 6

Trump’s pardon closes Arpaio book so we can get on with better pursuits

Look up “saint” in the dictionary and you won’t find a picture of former Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio.

A redeeming factor for 85-year-old “Sheriff Joe” might be his six decades of service in federal and county law enforcement. In his 25 “colorful” years as sheriff he was reelected five times. He lost his 2016 bid but still got 665,581 votes, despite his federal indictment two weeks before the election.

The jury is still out on whether Donald Trump’s pardon of Arpaio will adversely impact the nation. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer criticized while New Mexico Governor Doug Ducey praised.

Controversy typically surrounds presidential pardons. Gerald Ford pardoned Richard Nixon even before an indictment; Bill Clinton gave the nod to his brother and fugitive financier Marc Rich; Barack Obama provided executive clemency to almost 4,000 drug offenders and convicted classified leaker Chelsea Manning.

In the absence of tarring and feathering, liberals wanted the maximum sentence for Arpaio. Envision “Convict Joe” wearing pink underwear — his inspiration to keep released inmates from stealing them – living in a prisoner tent, Arpaio said, “It’s 120 degrees in Iraq and the soldiers are living in tents and they didn’t commit any crimes, so shut your mouths!” and working on Arpaio’s old school chain gang.

Millions of taxpayer dollars were wasted trying to pin the tail on a donkey with only a misdemeanor conviction to show for it. Trump’s pardon closes the Arpaio book so we can all get on with bigger and better pursuits.

Church leadership has failed the faithful

“We must recognize that religious truth evolves and changes,” our leadership has told us in so many words. Truth is not absolute or set in stone; truth is what you want it to be. The leadership no longer believes in objective truth and that it cannot change over time.

When you have Catholic leadership at the highest level making such statements as, “The church no longer believes in a literal hell where people suffer,” Jesus spoke on hell three times as much as He ever did on heaven, thereby signifying the importance of believing in such a place. It is unfortunate our leadership dose not believe the word of God.

When your ability to determine fact from fiction is impaired, one must begin to question and evaluate the guidance one receives from such leadership.

Our prayers go out constantly for those priests who are loyal to our High Priest Jesus Christ, and pray the day will come soon when they can speak out boldly the truths of Christ without suffering the consequences from their radical leaders.

The crisis has not reached its peek, we are on board a ship without a rudder and taking on water more than the good priest and faithful loyal to Jesus Christ can deal with, she is in danger of capsizing and many will be lost.

Socialist groupthink dominates today’s Democrat Party

Gene Robke’s latest letters, pertaining to racism and hatred, are typical of the progressive/socialist groupthink, which dominates today’s Democrat Party. With health care on the back burner, at the moment, and white supremacists raising up their ugly heads once again, instead of Republicans/conservatives wanting to kill people by taking away Obamacare, those in the religious-right, Republican members in Congress and every single individual in the White House are hate-mongers. They are aiders and abettors of the white supremacist-Ku Klux Klan-Fascist movement. While this extreme rhetoric comes out every two to four years of the election cycle, they are going full boar now, as the current administration’s agenda is attempting to dismantle the progressive/socialist’s agenda of undermining this Republic and “transform” it into a centralized socialist State. Therefore, the volume of the rhetoric intensifies, ginning up the base to be pro-active.

A environment created where a Hodgkinson shoots at Republicans, a Wright uses her vehicle to run a Republican off the road and you have The Huffington Post, a part of this groupthink, telling the brethren, “It’s time to move beyond polite protests within specified boundaries. It’s time to escalate the expression of our outrage and our anger in a massive way.”

This incites the domestic terrorist group Antifa, to wreak havoc, sanitize our history and silence the right by all means possible, especially through violence.

As such, what Robke provides doesn’t help the political discourse and furthers the divide within this nation, which is his objective.

Not all jobs put wear and tear on the body

I certainly disagree with Col. Bill Malec’s blanket statement that “if you work 20-plus years, expect wear and tear on the body.” There are certainly a lot of jobs where that is true, both in the military and civilian occupations. However, there are also a lot of jobs where that is not true. Staff officers in the military, editors at this newspaper, ministers, schoolteachers, clerks at a desk, lab technicians. etc., etc., are all functions that would seem to experience, or require, very little physical wear and tear. On the other hand, auto and aircraft mechanics, welders, building trades, farmers, deep sea fishermen, etc., are all professions that would seem to absolutely require the physical activity that is wearing.

I am surprised that Col. Malec is able to quote that 92 percent of military retirees have some percentage of disability retirement, which I assume includes Col. Malec. I recently asked this very question of VA headquarters and they were not able to provide me an answer. While I was on active duty I noticed that a number of those nearing military retirement seemed to develop new aches and pains that had not previously existed.

For the record I have 26 years of active service, which includes 4,000 hours flying in prop aircraft, 135 active duty parachute jumps, and a year in Vietnam. I retired with zero disability, and that is true to this day.

A divided nation doesn’t work

It took just one rotten apple to come to this: the foundation of America is being torn down by the left Antifa. If George Soros masterminded this, then who is supporting their actions to invade this country? Cut off their cash flow, get that stuff out of our way, and put them out of business and out of this country. Law down doesn’t work. They crawl around in the dark. They are the Dark Ages. Their goal is themselves only. We can’t allow being undermined an unnecessary expense. Put a stop to this invasion. Who else besides Soros let them take over? Who has replaced Adolf Hitler? That army doesn’t belong here. Make your time worthwhile; earn it.

Donald Trump has to increase our army to claim our country. The United States of America has to stand as one. A divided nation doesn’t work. America, stand for the law-abiding rights given us. Believe in the power of God and stand, one nation, under God’s guidance. Stand for the knowledge that exists. Make life worthwhile. Stand for God and country. Stand.

This story was originally published September 5, 2017 at 6:34 PM with the headline "Letters to the editor for Sept. 6."