LETTERS

LITTLE ROCK — Unions are outdated

Re parent Dawn Jackson’s call for the immediate resignation of Pulaski County Special School District board members, where can I vote no to a union-controlled school board?

Unions served their purpose during the Industrial Revolution. Since then they have been instrumental in driving jobs overseas and bankrupting large corporations, most notably the steel, automobile and airline industries.

Though teacher unions speak of doing what’s best for our kids, rest assured, their main interest is the welfare of their members. Union tenure rules practically guarantee a bad teacher lifetime employment with annual lockstep pay raises, while there is no incentive pay for outstanding teachers.

Using their political power to block education reform, unions lobby to limit the number of charter schools and talk down any freedom of choice federal or state voucher systems. Both of these initiatives draw students and union jobs away from ineffective public schools.

Know that those candidates challenging Pulaski County School Board incumbents this fall will be doing so primarily because they are union recruited and backed, and, if elected, the union will not only be represented on both sides of the negotiating table but will be in the majority and the teachers’ union will have achieved its goal of negotiating with itself.

LARRY TOWNSEND Jacksonville

Things have changed

A story in the October 1959 Independence County Chronicle recently caught my attention. It told of the Jan. 2, 1935, murder of Deputy Sheriff Everett Wheeler by Robert Rose.

Wheeler was attempting to arrest Rose on a warrant for non-payment of gasoline and driving a stolen vehicle. When confronted in his residence, Rose, using two women as shields, shot and killed Wheeler.

On Jan. 4, several sheriffs from surrounding counties located Rose in a barn and he surrendered. On Jan. 17, at a special term of the Independence Circuit Court, a grand jury composed of 16 leading citizens indicted him for the murder. The next day, Rose, represented by attorneys from Batesville and Newark, pleaded guilty.

By law, a petit jury of 12 citizens was then selected to decide punishment. That afternoon the jury returned their verdict and Circuit Judge S. Marcus Bone imposed the death sentence. On Feb. 23, 1935, 59 days later, the death sentence was carried out at Tucker Prison.

Comparing this case to the pending trial of Abdulhakim Mujahid Muhammad, a.k.a. Carlos Bledsoe, in connection with the June 2, 2009, murder of Pvt. William Andrew Long offers an interesting study on how our jurisprudence has evolved over the past 75 years.

CHARLES F. COLE Little Rock

President is the worst

Before the current disaster in the White House was elected by the liberal media, I warned about this man’s anti-American beliefs. It would take someone who’s naïve, ignorant or extremely stupid not to believe that this administration isn’t intentionally ruining our economy.

The planned net results will be much more government control along with our loss of personal freedom the likes of which we may never recover from.

Over the last year, I heard bumbling journalist types talking about this “mean-spirited talk” about our failure of a president. I can’t imagine anyone who obviously cares so little for our country that he fails to understand the destruction created by this, the worst president ever. If not stopped, I fear he may continue to force unwanted change on this, the greatest, most generous country in the history of the planet.

Voting in November can’t come soon enough.

RANDY KELLY Rogers

Sisters under the skin

A DNA test is required to verify if Nancy Pelosi of San Francisco and Martha Shoffner of Little Rock are related. They are two government employees who are arrogant and more “holy” than the taxpayers.

WOODY NUTTER Fort Smith

‘Nobody’ should pay

Recently, I spent three hours sitting on Interstate 40 waiting for a wreck to be cleaned up. According to the Democrat-Gazette, I spent three hours on I-40 while “troopers and police hovered nearby, talking in small groups, making brief inspections and then talking some more.”

The paper said that the wreck occurred at about 2:30 p.m. I got on I-40 about 3:45 p.m. at the Levy ramp not realizing that I-40 was already backed up. They didn’t start directing us to Arkansas 365 until 6:30 p.m.

Thank God a real, widespread emergency hadn’t occurred. The obvious incompetence of officialdom in the timely and efficient rerouting of traffic indicates that thousands might die while trying to escape. If nothing else, they’d die of starvation. I’m sure that it is important to assist people in going about their business.

Perhaps it’s a case of troopers and cops being too fastidious to direct traffic. Might I suggest then that there be a subclass of police created who could be used exclusively for traffic control and other hands-on duties? Or maybe it’s a case of nobody is in charge and we need to determine who the “nobody” is and get him fired. But let me repeat that this is incompetence and is potentially deadly. It needs to be fixed.

M.B. SCOTT Maumelle

Send players home

The Obama administration wanted universal health insurance to be provided by the federal government. Because of the American people’s opposition, they could not get that legislation passed, so they came at it through the back door.

Congress passed a bill that gave the feds jurisdiction over health insurance providers. There have been a number of insurance companies already go out of business knowing that they cannot make any money when they are forced to issue coverage to uninsurable applicants.

Now we have new regulations issued by the White House folks that should lead to the demise of the remaining insurers. They cannot have deductibles or co-insurance on preventive screening measures even though those provisions were disclosed and included in the policies and considered in their pricing.

It is just a matter of time until there will be no more private insurers. Guess who will be the only source for health care insurance. Of course, the federal government-a very clever (and devious) way to achieve their initial goal. What’s next, folks? The feds now control automobile manufacturing, banking and health insurance, and have oil production in the cross hairs. That is a huge start to installing socialism. Freedoms are diminishing.

Please do your duty on Nov. 2. Both parties have many players who should be sent home to stay. Let’s replace them.

MICKEY JORDAN Hot Springs Village

Position hypocritical

The NAACP calling the tea party racist? Give me a break. That’s like the pot calling the kettle black. And not a peep from them about the New Black Panther leader’s tirade, calling for the killing of “crackers.” What hypocrites.

JIM HENNEBERGER Austin