Why isn’t cost lower?
Why on earth is the University of Arkansas going to invest $160 million in a stadium?
If the sport brings in so much money, why hasn’t the cost of an education gone down instead of up? Some books cost as much as $500. The students need help.
Wake up, America. It’s a game.
FAYE ROBINSON
Hindsville
Heed voice and wait
Regarding the news about enlarging Razorback Stadium, my kudos to David Pryor. His voice is a voice “crying in the wilderness” when he asks for more thought on the subject of spending $160 million from the University of Arkansas funds and creating a bond debt for enlarging the stadium.
Some of us who value education as being as important as football wish there was not such a disparity in expenditures between the two.
DORINE B. DEACON
Jonesboro
Fun toy, but perilous
The newest popular ride is the hands-free hoverboard, also known as an “electric hands-free scooter.” These cool devices are awesome, but can also be very dangerous. They have set house fires and people have been very badly injured. Kids all over the world are hot for this new toy, but I believe they do not understand the risks that go along with getting one. When getting one of these products, children need to know all the risks that apply and how to prevent everything that could happen.
I am an owner of these hoverboards, and I ride mine all the time and understand how dangerous they can be. I know all the risks with riding one of these products. When riding I do not get near water; I also do not ride “stupidly” or in any way that I could injure myself.
My 5-year-old sister rides these devices and it scares me to death knowing all the risks. I have seen many Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter posts of people injuring themselves from doing something stupid that they thought would be cool and get them attention. I have also seen on the news that many of the chargers have caught on fire because they overheat. Manufacturers are working on fixing these problems and hopefully trying to work on making them safer for everyone.
ASHLYN THOMPSON
Bryant
Lessons of yesteryear
Oh, to go back to the days when families did things together, like sitting on the front porch and talking about times of the past. Families have quit being families and are almost strangers living in the same house. Staring at the TV was bad enough, but now people have their hand-held devices to stare at, no talking to each other, everybody just staring down at some contraption in their hands.
Sitting on the front porch in the summer or sitting around a wood heater in wintertime talking is how we kids built memories and learned valuable lessons from the yesteryears of our elders. I can remember doing that. I loved every minute and every story. Also, our parents would come out and play children’s games with us, like Annie Over, Ring Around the Roses and other games. It was an awesome time!
We don’t see that anymore. People nowadays are too self-absorbed, it seems, to care much about family activities, and we are all the worse for it.
BARBARA MYERS
Gurdon
Unmindful of advice
The verso-page opiners (who insist on anonymity) are fond of berating Barack Obama and others for a failure to call kettles black when they are in fact black. It is good advice, the recommendation to call a spade just that. But (if you’ll pardon my somewhat confused metaphor) I believe these advisers, these opinionators, are nothing but so many pots unheedful of their own advice.
When violent extremists are Muslims, they must be called violent extremist Muslims. Or, even better, jihadists. When the violent extremists are Christians, they must be called “crazies” from the hills or perhaps wackos from Waco. Anything but Christian jihadists, which I believe is exactly what they are. If the one term is appropriate, the other is too.
When non-Muslims read the Koran or, the more likely case, a translation of it, they must be wary of leaving certain words untranslated, as if they were technical terms. Whether your revelation comes to you by way of the Torah of Moses or the Gospel of Jesus or the Koran of Muhammad (or from Zoroaster or Mani or Hermes Trismegistus, for that matter), the words are all addressed to the soul; all the geography is in your heart. You will never find Canaan or Mecca with GPS.
All the jihad, the holy warfare, you need ever concern yourself with must be waged against the true oppressors, the troops of demons within you which daily whisper their petty, malicious and self-serving urgings.
STANLEY G. JOHNSON
Little Rock
New project for Saban
So Alabama is No. 1. Now maybe they can put Nick Saban to work on the mascot. If you play for Alabama, are you an Elephant or a Crimson Tide, whatever that is? Both seem pretty awkward. How does one draw a crimson tide? Or can they scream “Go Elephants go”?
Perhaps one could repair to the actual Red Sea, and there, examine the tide very closely. Something powerful and menacing may emerge that has gone undetected. It’s a pity we don’t have Moses to testify.
So where did the elephant come from? We know Alabama is not overrun with elephants. If it were, there would be an elephant hunting season.
I agree there’s an overload of the usual feral beasts. On a given Saturday it’s an even bet that we will be playing Tigers, Bulldogs or Wildcats. Any of these may still be better than the fighting chickens or horned frogs.
Thank God for the Razorbacks. They are unique. They are tough. They are aggressive. All over the county when you hear Razorbacks you know exactly what is being talked about, yelled or sung. Now look, no one ever needs to start trying to change the Razorbacks.
As far as Bama is concerned, there seems to be a lot of good possibilities. What about aquatic creatures? I personally like catfish. Alabama Catfish has a nice ring. But there are others: orcas, barracudas, king mackerels, etc. Would any of these do?
Nick Saban would know.
ROY MELTON
Little Rock