A memorable present
My most memorable Christmas happened many years ago. My grandparents visited every year, bringing all kinds of homemade goodies and lots of love. My sister and I gave up our beds to them and were sleepily moved to cots in the living room when the adults went to bed.
Sometime during the night we always woke up, quietly turned on the tree lights and checked out what Santa had brought us.
That year I really, really wanted my first big bike. After looking over the stockings and the presents placed in front of them, I knew the bike was not there.
I think I cried myself back to sleep, but in the morning, I found something I hadn't noticed in the dim light the night before. A string was attached to my stocking going through the kitchen, porch and out to the garage where my beautiful new bike was waiting!
SUSAN HENLEY
Cherokee Village
Doing more with less
Folks, your 2018 Social Security bonanza is at hand. The 2 percent increase is going to better your lives and stimulate the economy. More money to spend and help boost sales in stores and take expensive vacations.
But wait, the calculations may throw you for a loop.
You see, Medicare is costing more and just about erased any increase for us to spend. Our combined increase is $4 a month. I don't know about you, but prices go up daily. Four dollars didn't pay for the increase in our newspaper subscription.
Our taxable income increases because of the new rate and nibbles at the $4.
We are thankful for what we receive, but there is a need for actual money in the hand. Now without Medicare we would be destitute, and it seems as though the politicians want to reform entitlements.
How long can we do more with less?
ROBERT SPENCER
North Little Rock
Muddying the issue
I don't understand how refusing to help someone is showing Christian values. If Christ had been a baker instead of a carpenter, I think I know who would get a cake.
I think the Colorado baker is being selectively indignant. Does he refuse to bake for people who have committed other sins? Why not? If those who are adulterers, steal, lie, covet and murder can get one, what's the point, other than discrimination?
This is not a free-speech issue.
ED PARKS
Rogers
Old South whispers
It seems the Republicans, formerly of "family values" fame, have now sold their soul for 51 votes.
The Republican Southern Strategy has worked too well, but at a terrible cost for us all as a nation. When we Democrats went fishing for Southern candidates, we came up with Sen. John Edwards, a man who should have never gotten within 100 miles of the White House.
With the libidinous antics of John Kennedy, Bill Clinton and John Edwards, it appeared that the trophy belonged exclusively to the Democratic Party. The current locker-room president has turned the tide and started a stampede to claim the top spot.
The Republicans would have done well to consider the fate of the Tar Baby of Uncle Remus fame.
You are now stuck to the legacy of David Duke's KKK, TV evangelical hucksters with their paid prayer lists, George Wallace's "Segregation now, segregation tomorrow and segregation forever," the moral double standard of Strom Thurmond and his Dixiecrats, the legacy of Jesse Helms and his voting intimidation of blacks. The Helms legacy is still alive, well and wiggling its way through confirmation hearings for a for-life federal judgeship.
I am a Southerner with roots to Civil War Tallapoosa County, Ala., and more recent roots to Guntersville and Gadsden, Ala.--hunting grounds of Mr. Moore.
But as long as the New South politicians resemble the old ones that came before, I would warn the rest of the nation to beware the Southern Trojan Horse. There are hidden agendas and whispered plans to return the Old South to greatness.
DANNY HANCOCK
Lonoke
From empty wagons
There are rules in business. Growing up in Crockett, Texas, Tom Rhoden with Rhoden Feed and Supply said, "You cannot sell from an empty wagon."
It was obvious that he practiced this. Customers could find anything from livestock supplies to live chickens.
This principle has existed for thousands of years and is something businesses have forgotten. "You cannot sell from an empty wagon" applies to products and services. Wal-Mart and other stores ignore this. The computer orders when the last item is sold. It may be days or weeks before it is restocked.
I went to Wal-Mart for items and they were not in stock. I searched online and one of the five Wal-Mart stores 10 miles away had it. They are often out of something on my list. For groceries I shop at Kroger, which stays well-stocked. I do not intend to shop at one store and then drive to others to find what I need.
Consumers and employees also need to remember the Golden Rule of Business--the person with the gold makes the rules. If you do not like their rules and way of doing business, go somewhere else, and I do.
Teach your children and grandchildren, "You cannot sell from an empty wagon," and that the person with the gold makes the rules. When they own a business, maybe they will sell from a full wagon and become the person with the gold.
JERRY WAYNE DAVIS
Hot Springs
Editorial on 12/18/2017