My original commentary was going to be about a letter I wrote to Dale Bumpers on April 5, 1998, after a fortuitous meeting with him. At the time, my husband was the president of the Chamber of Commerce in West Memphis, and we were able to attend the national convention in Washington, D.C. Senator Bumpers was a guest speaker, and I was able to talk to him privately after the meeting.
When I spoke with him about the problems I had discovered with the elderly, he asked me to write him and offer solutions he could possibly pass on. I had been the executive director of the South Arkansas chapter of the American Red Cross in the early 1990s, and left that job with concerns about the many, many people who were falling through the cracks of society. I had talked to David Pryor, who served on the Committee on Aging, about my concerns for the elderly.
David's grandmother Susie Pryor taught our Sunday School class when we lived in Camden, and my husband and I had been invited to her home when Senator Pryor, then-Gov. Bill Clinton, Hillary Clinton, and Chelsea were present. That is why later I felt free to seek answers from David as to needs of our elderly.
In my visit with Senator Bumpers, he asked me to write him, not only about the problems, but with any solutions I had. Being such an amazing man, he was challenging me, with that well-known twinkle in his eyes, and nothing gets my adrenaline flowing like a good challenge.
I thought my letter to him and his letter of response, along with other memorabilia, had been lost when everything we owned was water-damaged or destroyed in a storage unit we had used after retiring and exploring the possibilities of where we wanted to live. I also lost a letter from Hillary Clinton as I was supporting her teacher-testing program when she was first lady of our state, and some autographs, like the one from Richard Harris (Camelot).
In going through my computer, I found a file marked "Old Word Perfect Files," and there I found my letter to Sen. Dale Bumpers. In that letter, I proposed adding other benefits to Medicare, naming it Medicare Extended Package. These plans would be paid by the applicant, and would include a prescription drug plan and a dental plan. The cost would range between $25 and $50 per plan.
The last paragraph I wrote was: "I beg you to look into this matter and see if there is any possible help for the elderly in regard to their inability to pay for the prescription drugs that are necessary not only for their improved health, but for the quality of their lives. No matter what miracle drugs are discovered, if one cannot afford them, they are useless. As we keep finding ways to prolong life, we must be responsible enough to make provisions for those extended lives."
Since these options were included in the health-care plan proposed by Hillary Clinton when Bill Clinton was president of the United States, I like to believe that the suggestions I submitted to Sen. Dale Bumpers played a small part in that health-care plan, which of course was defeated.
That is a shortened version of the piece I was going to write, and I almost put it aside, until I realized that it is an important part of the history of the health-care problems we are facing right now here in Arkansas. When I read the paper recently, I was infuriated by what some Republicans are doing with the private option, renamed Arkansas Works. Well, Arkansas doesn't work!
Over the course of several months, I have been reading about the threats to this program, but I truly believed that those Republicans could not be cold-hearted enough to deprive over a quarter of a million Arkansans of health care and vital medications.
These Arkansas legislators should be ashamed of themselves! People will die due to the lack of funding for insurance to be able to see their doctors and buy lifesaving medications. They thumb their noses at our poorest and the middle class, which is becoming poorer and poorer. Arkansas was the first state to implement the private option, the extension of Medicaid funded by federal dollars, and I was so proud of the bipartisan writers of this plan.
In opinion pieces, David Pryor has been referred to as a statesman, and that term has also been used in defining Dale Bumpers. The definition of a statesman is: 1. A man who is experienced in the art of government or versed in the administration of government affairs; 2. A man who exhibits great wisdom and ability in dealing with important public issues.
Both men lived up to both definitions. I fear that wisdom and ability are gone forever. I believe that all we have left are a bunch of inexperienced and mean-spirited men and woman who represent very few Arkansans ... most likely the same few who believe that Donald Trump will make a great president.
I am totally embarrassed by these men and women who simply do not care, and I am angry.
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Sharon Williams lives in Little Rock.
Editorial on 04/21/2016