Who holds the power
A few years back during Thanksgiving dinner at Dad's house in Charleston, I was given a very important lesson in politics. The table talk naturally turned to Sen. Dale Bumpers, because it was Charleston, hometown of Bumpers and my stepmother. Aunt Myrtle, who had lived in Fort Smith for years, made one of the most remarkable statements I had ever heard. She said she had never voted in a primary. I was astounded. In all the family gatherings over the years, the talk of politics and Dale's campaigns, and she had never voted for him in a primary. Wow!
And yet, no one else at the table seemed in the least surprised because they already knew that Myrtle had worked for a company that did not favor its employees voting for Democratic candidates. That moment taught me how much power corporations have over our elections.
During the caucuses in Nevada the other day I thought about Aunt Myrtle when thousands of union workers were reportedly herded into the caucus sites by trail boss Sen. Harry Reid and his ramrod union leader. There were also 100 drovers ("organizers") at the caucus sites to "make sure people know what they're doing." This power play within the Democratic Party was somewhat different from my Aunt Myrtle's experience, but the outcome was the same, and in some ways more egregious. As Senator Bumpers bluntly put it in one of his numerous debates with Senator Reid, the mining companies "own all the senators here."
So to my Aunt Myrtle and all the Aunt Myrtles past and present, this primary vote is for you.
JANIS K. PERCEFULL
Hot Springs
Of hope for the world
As usual, I sit in my chair by my front window with my newspaper open, scanning the print for some good news. Most of what I see is nations at war or threats of it looming in the future. Suffering humanity risking their lives seeking a better dwelling place of peace and security. News reports of nature erupting in deadly earthquakes, tornadoes, floods and untreatable disease and my spirit starts to sink within me. Is there any hope for a better world coming?
I look out my window just as the sun peeks over the trees, lighting up God's world as a visible reminder he is still in control of his universe. I observe a little red bird among a gaggle of black ones happily pecking away at crushed acorns from the mighty oak and I am revived in my spirit. These little creatures are not fretting over the world situation, for they have a creator who provides for them daily. I am reminded that this same God also has promised to provide for his human creatures everything they need, for I have his printed words of absolute truth also laying in my lap.
Jesus, the creator of all things, has given many words of hope and peace for his human creatures to look up in the midst of troubles, for I believe our help and hope comes only from him and he never lies. He visited this old earth many years ago to secure the hope of a better eternal world to come. He secured this path of redemption for sinful man on an old rugged cross on a hill far away. The narrow way to this home is by faith in his sacrifice alone for hope in man for answers is not viable or trustworthy. Are you on this path to this eternal home? Today is the promise secured. Tomorrow may be too late.
WILLA ROMINE
Bryant
Just pay the ransom
Mr. Mayor, please pay whatever ransom is being demanded to release our street department so they can get back to work. They have been away so long and our roads have fallen into a state of total disrepair. The citizens of Little Rock thank you.
WALTER TUCKER
Little Rock
Judged by his actions
I rarely agree with this outstanding newspaper's editorial comments, but the one in the Feb. 23 issue about Donald Trump is outstanding.
I surely cannot understand anyone, even real Republicans, supporting him if they bother to look at his record. The debacle he created at Atlantic City, N.J., so well-documented by the editorial comment, should be enough to warn supporters of what the USA might become if he should be elected president.
Then there is the matter of his catering to the ultra-right Christians like Jerry Falwell Jr., who likened Trump to Christ. I believe the pope is very right--those who do not demonstrate by their acts of kindness, love, and caring for justice for all, and those who create walls, do not show a Christian spirit.
If Trump truly is one of us who have found "The Way," his behavior should reflect it in a better way than he has in the past and in recent months.
JOHN W. "DOC" CRAWFORD
Arkadelphia
Delaying the nominee
I feel for Antonin Scalia's family dealing with his death. I also come from a large family that recently dealt with the loss of its patriarch.
But as a liberal, I wonder what the hurry to replace him is while this new, bizarre Republican Party rules. It seems to me that a tied court, where lower-court rulings stand, is better than a 5-to-4 conservative Supreme Court that overturns the liberal rulings of lower courts.
This current Republican Party is happy to delay a nominee for 11 months. Hey, let us delay a nominee until the Democrats win control of the Senate.
HAROLD SLATER
Little Rock
Fund senior services
The Arkansas Legislature will soon make key decisions about health-care access, delivery and quality for low-income and vulnerable Arkansas populations, including Arkansas senior citizens. In addition, budget hearings will determine the level of funding for senior services such as senior citizen centers and Meals on Wheels.
These programs are critically important to low-income and/or homebound seniors, many of whom live in food-insecure households. Currently about a third of all Arkansans age 60 or older are not sure where their next meal is coming from, giving Arkansas the dubious distinction of being No. 1 in the nation for senior food insecurity.
This is a major public health problem for our state. Senior hunger leads to deteriorated physical and mental health, an increased risk of disability, decreased resistance to infections and lengthened hospital stays, all of which have the potential for substantially increasing health-care costs. Vulnerable Arkansas seniors need their legislators to restore the senior services budget to its previous level or possibly increase it to accommodate the growth of Arkansas' aging population, which is expected to double in the next 20 years.
Food security is essential to the health of Arkansan seniors, and senior center meals programs play a major role in ensuring that Arkansas seniors do not go hungry. It is time for our legislators to acknowledge that providing adequate funding for critically important senior services is both morally right and a good cost-containment strategy for Arkansas Medicaid.
GLORIA GORDON
North Little Rock
Feed hungry children
I read with interest the letter from my friend and former colleague, Scott Vaughn, asking for someone to tell him why the United States can't afford to provide health care for all its citizens.
I totally agree with the spirit of Scott's letter, and I have another question. Why don't we, as one of the most prosperous nations in the history of the world, see that no American children go to bed or to school hungry?
Some day, hopefully not too far in the future, Americans will look back on today's politics and ask how we could have been so stupid as not to care for the least among us. While we are slowly working to protect the civil rights of African Americans, women, Native Americans, the mentally ill, the disabled, the elderly and, most recently, LGBT citizens, we still don't take good care of our children.
VICKI FEWELL
Sherwood
Definition of 'stupid'
So Donald Trump says our government is run by really stupid people. I assume he is referring to the president.
Well, let's see, if a mixed-race kid from a broken home, raised by grandparents, who graduates from Harvard Law School, gets elected to the U.S. Senate and is the twice-elected president of the United States is his idea of being stupid, well, I'll take a double helping!
JON McQUIRTER
Hot Springs
Editorial on 02/27/2016