Letters

To breathe clean air

I applaud the courage of the council of the city of New Orleans to demand that their citizens have a right to clean air.

A lot of our citizens stay away from public places because of the rude and inconsiderate patrons that force us to accept smoke blown in our faces. We have a right to breathe clean air!

BILL PICH

Hazen

Get back to business

Gentle reader, based on the comments during a recent Pine Bluff City Council meeting, it appears that four of the council members will not return until Alderman Bill Brumett resigns. It seems these members have painted themselves into a corner and stand to lose their own seats if they fail to return.

As a pastor and city resident, I strongly encourage the four Pine Bluff City Council members--George Stepps, Thelma Walker, Glenn Brown Sr. and Glenn Brown Jr.--to return to their seats and conduct the business of the thousands of Pine Bluff citizens they collectively represent.

Council members, you have made your point to Mr. Brumett and I concur with you; nevertheless, you should return without delay and conduct the city's business as scheduled. The bills and business of Pine Bluff must not be held hostage while some of you engage in personal issues not associated with city business.

More importantly, Pine Bluff's law governing attendance is as follows: Duty to attend--It shall be the duty of each alderman to attend all meetings of the city council. Under state law, the governing body has the authority to compel attendance at meetings. No council member should try to overthrow or suppress the vote of the people.

Finally, I appeal to Mr. Jimmy C. Cunningham as a Christian to publicly accept the offered apology by Mr. Brumett. I believe you know it's the right thing to do.

JESSE C. TURNER

Pine Bluff

Not the first woman

The April 18 Arkansas section featured a story on Arkansas Tech University President Robin Bowen. It called her the "first female president of a college or university in the state."

This probably comes as a great surprise to Dr. Ann Hayes Die, who served as president of Hendrix College from 1992 to 2001.

I'm not sure if there have been others, but Robin Bowen is certainly not the first.

WILLIAM SHADLE

Sherwood

Editor's note: A correction for the story was published Tuesday.

Move King elsewhere

The other day I read on splitting Robert E. Lee's and Martin Luther King's holiday up and that Lee's birthday should be removed and done on another day. Lee had the date first and before King was born. I think King's should be moved to a later date.

We should respect our elders. So why don't we? But some don't respect others.

I also agree with Barbara Walls and a lot of others that daylight saving time should be stopped because it is useless and a pain and serves no purpose.

JOHNNY SIMPSON

Jacksonville

There's no consensus

Scientific consensus? Not again! The "97 percent of scientists" often quoted were for the most part responding to the question of whether they believed man has caused some global warming, not whether that warming is cause for extreme measures to prevent global catastrophe. And a number of them have reportedly stated that their answers were misstated to look like "consensus."

But none of the "climate-change crowd" have been around long enough to have directly observed climate change, and their computer models have been demonstrably inaccurate. Science should be provable and reproducible, not based on flawed computer models. Climate change has been around for eons, as the earth warmed and cooled for quite natural reasons having nothing at all to do with man-made CO2. Perhaps someone would care to explain the Ice Ages (actually we're in an interglacial period of the Quaternary glacial cycle) and Medieval Warm period (9th-13th centuries) when the Vikings colonized Greenland, on the basis of humans burning fossil fuels.

As reported by CFACT (Committee for a Constructive Tomorrow; cfact.org), the world is getting colder, not warmer, and scientific review of satellite data shows temperatures have "flat-lined" in the last two decades.

A variety of natural forces, including the tilt of the earth's axis, volcanoes, water vapor and cosmic rays all play together to contribute to the temperature of the atmosphere. CFACT says that man-made CO2 is only a small factor.

So please, stop spreading this 97 percent misinformation as if it were proven science.

LARRY ANDERSON

Sherwood

Disturbing sentence

A recent article concerning a Boone-ville man who ran over and killed a woman with his SUV was very disturbing to me.

According to the article, Jason Rhodes hit Joy Duvall and left her to die in the ditch. He apparently tried to cover it up, but was arrested and charged with felony and misdemeanor crimes. Then, just before the trial date, the misdemeanor was dropped and Rhodes pleaded no contest to the felony. He was then sentenced to three years' probation, and a $1,000 fine and costs.

Who was the sentencing judge? Why was no jail time assessed? Why was he not tried? Is that all a woman's life is worth in Logan County? Wasn't it insulting enough that she had to die like so much roadkill?

Please tell us the "rest of the story" if there is one.

BOYD BURKHOLDER

Hot Springs

Someone call a doctor

If, as John Landers of Benton states about Tom Cotton, "his opinions are food for thought," then I have food poisoning.

ELLEN W. HARRISON

Little Rock

Editorial on 04/25/2015

Upcoming Events