LETTERS

LITTLE ROCK — 'Retirees' should stay retired

I have been waiting for the three Garland County employees who have been exposed for double-dipping to retire and stay retired. Anyone who helped them conceal their scheme should do the same. Their greed shocks and angers me. How can they be trusted in anything they do after what they have done?

Yes, I know that our "public servants" in the state Capitol passed laws giving public employees the loophole to allow such a stunt. Passing laws like this is how they keep government employees voting for them.

I don't see how they could legally sign anything while they were "retired." For instance, I just received new property tax assessment, which increased. How can anyone believe that property values have increased in the economic mess the country is in?

I thought that U.S. labor laws forbade not paying people for work performed. If so, how could they work for three months without being paid? Another matter is the liability of having people hanging around the office while not on the payroll. Presumably, the county doesn't carry liability insurance for people not on the job.

I read comments by Gov. Mike Beebe about his voting for the bills while he was a state senator. Those comments and those on his monthly radio show are disingenuous at best. On the radio, he pretended to not foresee the consequences of his vote. According to Mike, his colleagues talked him into it. Don't ya know he was just a dumb ole country boy and didn't think that double-dipping would be problem?

NYLE CEARLOCK Hot Springs Issues more important

Here are a few issues that our country is facing. Which do you think are the most important?

What about Iran and North Korea with nuclear weapons? The constant threat of attack by Muslim extremists? An economy that is continuing to try to climb out of the latest recession? Unemployment issues? What about the immoral spending spree in D.C. that is robbing our grandchildren of their paychecks before they even earn them? Our federal government heading toward socialism by taking over the banking, auto, health care and health insurance industries?

Would any reasonable person consider climate change legislation more important than these critical issues? How out of touch is a person who believes that climate change and energy, i.e., referring to clean air legislation, "are the most important issues facing the country"?

Shouldn't our representatives in Washington know what is important? Obviously not. The quote above comes from our 2nd District congressman, Vic Snyder. We need representatives in D.C. who at least know which issues are really important to the country and to Arkansans. For example, a nuclear attack here would certainly trump windmill power in terms of importance.

Knowledge of the important issues means that our representatives can focus on them. Then they need to read the pertinent legislation and consider the impact on "we the people" and then cast their vote.

JUDY GALLAGHER Hot Springs Village Keep the pressure on

It seems to me that if you had spent as much editorial space and time on the lottery before the election as you have in the last several weeks, the lottery most likely would have been defeated by the voters. However, don't quit now. Maybe we can get this python repealed.

BOB McMURTREY Wynne Flood of 1927 revisited

During the Great Flood of 1927, the center section of the Baring Cross railroad bridge linking freight cars from North Little Rock with the capital city gave way due to the swift current of the Arkansas River. The Missouri-Pacific Railroad's 16freight cars, filled with coal, swept away.

In April 1927, Little Rock had received 10 inchesof rain; in North Little Rock, Main Street was under two feet of water, as was Broadway.

The storm of April 1927 empowered the Mississippi River with 15 inches of rain and poured over several hundred thousand square miles from Cairo, Ill .,to the Gulf of Mexico. Secretary of the Interior Herbert Hoover came to personally inspect the enormous flood damage to the Mississippi Delta region.

Arkansas U.S. Sen. Thaddeus H. Caraway sent a wire to the secretary of war that at Forrest City 5,000 people were without shelter and without food and that both ought to be supplied immediately. In New Orleans, the Times-Picayune reported the arrival of 640,000 sand bags to protect the city. Hotels emptied and closed off floors.

In the presidential election of 1928, several states within the "solid South" voted Republican. Tennessee, North Carolina, Virginia and Louisiana helped put Hoover into the White House.

RICHARD B. DIXON Benton Not much of a bargain

Just received my phone bill for last month. I have a calling plan on a landline phone at 12 cents (was 10 cents) per minute per call. I made a one-minute call from Beebe to Searcy and the total monthly long-distance charge was $5.97. How ridiculous is this?

WANDA BARRON Beebe Let's have all the facts

The letter from Ann Link was very interesting, and sad. She wrote about the plight of "Hispanic mothers working for poverty wages who had no insurance and no sick leave who were forced to take time off from menial jobs they could ill afford to lose to ride hours on buses, often transferring two or more times, to sit up for eight hours in a hospital ER waiting room with a sick child." Her solution? She is fully supporting total revision of the health care system and a public option.

She omits one fact. Are these Hispanic mothers legal immigrants? The bill in the House states, "Nothing in this subtitle shall allow federal payments for affordability credits on behalf of individuals who are not lawfully present in the United States."

President Obama apparently has not read this, and his czars, "expert" advisers and staff have not made him aware of this clause, either. Recently in Montana, when asked a question about paying for health care, he said, "I can't cover 46 million people for free." However, while there are supposedly 46 million without medical insurance, an estimated 12.6 million are illegal aliens. Does he not know what is in the bills written by his party faithful in Congress or was his politico speak, spin or deceit?

Also, later he restated that AARP supports the reform after the organization vehemently denied this the last time he said it. I think the American people are tired of hearing falsehoods to sell a position from the very people who have all of the correct data.

DON R. KLINE Yellville Snitching un-American

It seems that hardly a day goes by lately when I don't see something that I can't believe is happening in America. The latest was a White House invitation for citizens to report instances of "disinformation" in the health care debate. If you see something "fishy" on the Internet, you were asked to send it to flag@whitehouse.gov.

Blanche Lincoln recently called those who are showing up to protest at the town hall meetings un-American. The best example of un-American I've seen is this White House invitation to inform. Looks like something you'd have seen in Nazi Germany or Josef Stalin's Russia.

I'd suggest that Voices readers do what I've done and use the provided White House e-mail address to let them know exactly how you feel about their tactics, but the e-mail address has since been closed by these geniuses.

JIM LAUX Sherwood Drug companies reign

I think Republicans own at least 90 percent of television, radio, newspapers and other so-called media makers, and most financial institutions, Wall Street,vacation resorts, and oil and gas production and distribution systems.

Most drug companies have the right to spend millions on Congress for re-election purposes. They own the shipyards and aircraft industries and almost all communication facilities and research facilities. They own the Supreme Court of the United States and many congressmen and senators. They set up bogus vote surveys. They resort to false news reports and Rush Limbaugh to lead their false ideas. They deny that the Earth is warming up or that President Obama was even born.

The above group furnishes almost all of the Republicans' re-election funds. You see why a few sleazy, scared Democrats are about to wreck the whole Democratic program?

JOHN I. PURTLE Conway More czars not needed

We would seem to owe serious thanks to Congressman Mike Ross and the Blue Dog Democrats for slowing down the mad rush to Obamacare. The slowing has provided time for senators and representatives to read part of the bill if not the entire script.

It seems there will have been some significant changes to the original bill, which Barack Obama assumed would be rubber-stamped. However, any bill at all that involves the federal government will keep coming back for updating into more and more government involvement.

The transparency promised during the campaign has become a bad joke while our power-hungry president proceeds to advance his obvious quest for a socialist dictatorship a la his buddy Hugo Chavez. This should be apparent by his action in appointing 32 czars answering only to him.

Should any type of Obamacare be passed, we can expect, no doubt, a health czar. Perhaps Dr. Jack Kevorkian comes to mind.

L.J. TORKELSON Bella Vista Homes difficult to find

A month or so ago, a gentleman wrote that he had attempted to take an abandoned animal to the Humane Society, since it has a no-kill shelter, but was told that they were full, and they refused to take the dog. He wondered what recourse he had, since he didn't want to take the dog to the Little Rock animal shelter knowing that the animal would be euthanized if not adopted within a period of time.

Since that letter was published, I have heard two other people say that they have had the same experience when they attempted to take abandoned puppies to the Humane Society. The last person also stated that the people at the shelter were not friendly or even courteous and did not seem to be interested in the plight of this puppy even though the person was willing to make a sizable donation to help with the costs.

Being a lover of animals great and small, I have always supported by local Humane Society along with various national organizations. I also have encouraged my family and friends to adopt shelter pets-my daughter has four rescued cats, as do we-instead of buying through a kennel. While I certainly recognize that the Humane Society must have limits, where do I go if I've tried to find a home for a dog or cat and simply cannot? Is the Little Rock shelter my only choice now? KAREN DAVIS Little Rock May progress continue

Thank you for your reprint of Lurita Doan's commentary on the Gates controversy from the Los Angeles Times. It is the most objective and succinct opinion piece I have read. I was grateful to read my own opinion expressed so well. Her touching and inspiring account of her father's experience at Harvard is, indeed, "a teachable moment."

My hope is that the tendency toward the victimization reaction fades as we continue to progress in race relations. My personal challenge is to stop perceiving animosity from some African Americans I encounter in daily life. My hope is that I meet the goal.

JO ANN PUGH Portland Feedback Merce unforgettable

Back in the '60s, I attended a Merce Cunningham concert at the Arkansas Arts Center as a guest of Bill Lewis, a reporter at the Gazette. I endured it as long as I could before trying to make my way down the aisle and out the door.

I didn't make it. I burst into howls of laughter at the strange antics of the dancers and the harsh noises of the "musical accompaniment." It was the funniest thing I had ever seen, and I will never forget the tears and irrepressible laughter I couldn't hold in. Merce was unforgettable.

FAY JEAN ROYCE Little Rock Tribute appreciated

Thank you for the obituary editorial regarding Merce Cunningham and editor Paul Greenberg's reply to someone who questioned running it. There are many of us who know of his work. The fact that the Democrat-Gazette would publish such material proves that it is not the fanatical paper that many in our state assume it to be.

ERNEST L. CASHION Prairie Grove