LETTERS

LITTLE ROCK — Just barely managing

The Perspective article about poverty in America was well-written. My husband and I happen to fall into that category along with 46 million other Americans.

I own (inherited) a modest home, have a 19-year-old car, Social Security, food stamps, Medicare, Medicaid and we get food from the food pantry each month. My husband is a low-paid county worker, but that still doesn’t keep our heads above water, so to speak. It’s insult added to injury.

As for incomes for income taxes, in 2010, we had more money than in 2011.

Like others, we struggle to make ends meet, and our income is right over $10,000. The person who did our income taxes told us to our face: “I don’t know how you manage to exist.”

To put it bluntly, we don’t. It’s hard to keep going.

Remember, the Bible tells everyone that the poor shall be with you even to the end of the world as we now know it. On the second Earth, there will not be any money, and therefore, no money problems, but you will have all of your needs met.

On Amendment 1, the road tax for four-lane highways, it seems to us that East Arkansas was left out of the deal. Even the weatherman stands in front of East Arkansas, and I have seen it happen many times.

CLAUDINE and JOE BRAGDON

West Helena

In spite of it, he won

Get over it, Barack Obama haters. He won.

He won in spite of the Republicans in Congress who said their first priority was to make Obama a one-term president, not what was good for the country.

He won in spite of those same Republicans who said they would say no to all Obama proposals in spite of the fact that they previously approved of some.

He won in spite of the type of people who write those sick hate letters and the people who agree with them that this paper so cheerfully published.

He won in spite of the billionaires who said they’d spend any amount of money to defeat Obama so they could continue to avoid paying taxes. I wonder if any have asked for their money back.

I like a recent comment I believe was made by Jon Stewart: “Obama ran as a black president for his first term. Since he is half-white he could run his second term as a white president!”

RUTH KIEHNAU

Bella Vista

Applause all around

Rita Gorman of Forrest City is an exceptional teacher and typical of so many of her Arkansas peers, willing to go beyond the usual school hours to render additional help to their students.

Arkansas Democrat-Gazette sports columnist Richard Davenport quotes Razorback recruit Tevin Beanum as crediting Gorman with helping him raise his ACT score from a 27 on his first try to a 30 on a second test. Beanum say they met “every morning about 6:30” when she assisted him with language and composition.

Beanum is to be commended for achieving the lofty goals he set for himself: a 30 on the ACT and an athletic scholarship to attain a college degree.

Sandra Angelucci must be a very proud mom. Tim Horton’s recruit will be a credit to the Hog Nation.

GAYLE BAUGUSS

Springdale

How to fix the lottery

We’ve been hearing the Academic Challenge Scholarship Program is losing money due to dwindling lottery sales and that scholarships must be reduced or the program will go into the red and not return. Here are some tips the powers that be might consider to boost sales.

Get rid of those awful break-even scratch-offs. No one buys a scratch off ticket to get their money back. People play to “win” something and breaking even isn’t perceived as winning-profit is winning and that means making more on your transaction than you paid to make it.

When you get rid of those breakeven tickets, replace the same number of them you had before with the same number of profitable tickets and make sure you don’t reduce the number of tickets that were already winning tickets; keep that number the same or increase it, too. If people begin to believe they have a greater chance of making a profit on their purchase, you might get more people to play.

Instead of creating just one or two scratch-offs with big-ticket amounts of $100,000 or more and which you distribute to only one or two retail outlets somewhere in the state’s 53,179 square miles, why not create about 20 or 30 of them so that, again, the increased perception of winning something substantial is created for those playing the game.

Perception is the key here. Increase that perceptive hope of winning something with tangible changes to your lottery operation, and you just might get increased sales.

GARY STANDRIDGE

Jacksonville

Bottom line at schools

Dennis Glasgow, the Little Rock School District’s associate superintendent for accountability, complains about being held accountable for the graduation rates in 2012 and 2011. This is due to the change in the state’s new accountability system for schools, and how the state classifies school achievement by five categories (or labels) that reflect achievement or lack thereof.

What am I missing here?

The accountability for schools reflecting student achievement is the graduation rate, old or new rating system notwithstanding. The bottom line is the graduation rate, and we won’t even go into how well-prepared our students are when they do graduate.

CAROLYN NAGEL

Little Rock

Here’s waste to trim

The Pentagon plans to spend $640 billion over the next decade maintaining and enhancing the nuclear weapons arsenal. These outdated Cold War weapons are unusable, unnecessary and extremely dangerous.

Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid are some of the most valuable and popular programs Congress has ever passed.

I hope Congress will use common sense and cut wasteful spending on nuclear weapons and save the programs that have meant so much in the lives of the American people.

JEAN GORDON

Little Rock