LETTERS TO THE EDITOR: Grateful for good neighbors

— Although Saturday night’s storms were swift, fierce and unexpected, they brought to my husband and me a great blessing. Shortly after all of the winds passed through, while it was still raining, our doorbell rang.

It was the young lady from two doors down telling me we had large limbs down in the yard but she had checked and found there were none on the roof of either the house or the garage. I told her how much I appreciated her checking for us because my husband had shoulder surgery the day before so he was in the recliner incapacitated due to pain meds.

Sunday morning I went out and checked and, sure enough, we had some very large limbs down in the front and back yards. I knew that a chain saw would be required to clean up the tree in the back. I told my husband not to worry about it since he couldn’t do anything anyway.

A little later, the door bell rang again and it was the same neighbor along with her husband and young daughter. They said that since my husband was in no condition to clean the debris out of the yard not to worry that they would take care of it. In an amazingly short time the limbs were all gathered up and hauled away. At one point I looked out to see a young man had a chain saw working on the tree in the back yard.

I watched in amazement as he hauled all the limbs out of the yard and hauled them away, The only thing I could think was how much my faith in humankind was restored.

I am so thankful there are still good people who perform acts of kindness out of the goodness of their heart.

Thank you good neighbors and thank you, God, for watching out for us.

You will not believe this!

Just as I finished writing this letter I went to investigate a loud noise outside and discovered anotherneighbor cleaning off our driveway and front porch with a leaf blower. Henry Little Circle in Pea Ridge, Ark., is a great place to live!

Thank you again, kind and thoughtful neighbors.

BOB AND SUE COTTINGHAM Pea Ridge, Ark.

Letters regarding religion

Editor,

Not too long ago, there was a letter to the editor by a gentleman who was leaving the area. He extolled the virtues of northwest Arkansas and stated that he and his wife would miss living here except for one thing - the constant flow of letters to the editor regarding religion. He even suggested, I believe, setting aside a section just for these letters so if you didn’t want to read them, you could skip this section. I support this suggestion.

Why? Religion is personal. Whether you have developed your religious beliefsthrough a church, family, personal study, observation or reading (my favorite) these beliefs are yours and more than likely are not going to be influenced by a letter to the paper. I have a very good friend who is a member of the predominant organized religion in the south. He and I periodically get into religious discussions where we have fairly diverse views. These discussions, while interesting and sometimes a little heated, never change either one of our views. And we leave it at that. We both respect the other person’s right to believe as they wish. I mention this only to suggest that letters to the editor regarding religion change no one’s beliefs, views or opinions. As the saying goes, “opinions are like rear ends, everyone has one.”

A side note: Thank you NWACC for recognizing a problem and dealing with it. PETE RATHMELL Garfield, Ark.

Opinion, Pages 4 on 08/10/2012