Education indictment
Congratulations to Chris Goering, William Davis, and Jason Endacott on their groundbreaking column of March 12. They put together data as only well-educated professors could. Their discovery that smarter/richer people tend to rear smarter children should create a real earthquake in education.
I fear, however, it may put some doubt on policies of the last 60 years.
Paying poorer/dumber people to have children (in the form of subsidies) for the last three generations might explain why SAT scores are the lowest in years, along with a myriad of other social problems. With nearly half of all births in the U.S. (probably higher in Arkansas) paid for by Medicaid, and an education system filled with closed minds, gosh, things are going to be great.
PHILLIP FINCH
Batesville
They're just puddles
Recently, President Trump was on camera--again--this time signing another executive order to end the Environmental Protection Agency's oversight of clean waterways. He spoke of angry farmers and a few others in this category of profiting on some basis (business) and needing to pollute, or potentially pollute, waterways. Of course, he brought the sarcasm along as well, degrading the EPA and its overstepping bounds, calling it out for fines on businesses that were polluting their own "puddles" of water on their own lands. I still have not found the humor in any of it.
Anyone who has lived in a place with nature abounding (e.g., Arkansas) would tell you that polluting nature in any potential manner is not a positive ideology or action in any manner! Ya see, us hillbilly, barefoot and backward folk (majority of us) still hold true to the motto of "The Natural State," nixing the old motto of "The Land of Opportunity." We love our rivers, streams, creeks, ditches, puddles, lakes, and the like. Having any profiteering business (farmers and the like included) allowed to pollute without adhering to rigorous guidelines and penalties for not complying seems like a bad idea for most. As the water cycle makes its way through our state in many ways, the potential pollutants are then into our faucets and our bodies, our lakes and streams, our wildlife and fish. It then is not just a minority issue, but a holistic issue affecting everyone potentially in harmful ways. And quite frankly, the small proportion of bothered businesses have a hapless effect that could have been regulated as was, or even more rigorously. However, President Trump signed it out and signed nothing in its replacement.
Maybe Arkansas and the surrounding states have a system to somewhat circumvent this neglect and to stave off some perceived damage this could cause.
SHANE HAMPTON
Fayetteville
Prayer for president
Shouldn't the president say this prayer every night?
"Hi, God, this is the Trumpster. I am a tweetaholic. Please grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can and the wisdom to stop tweeting about Celebrity Apprentice. By the way, when I was on that show, the ratings were much higher than they are now. My doctor said I'm developing arthritis in my thumbs from my tweeting. I'm also trying to stop cheating at golf, but I'm not doing too well at that either."
GARY USELTON
Benton
Spies in White House
The morning paper of March 8 brought more headlines and cartoons about alleged presidential wiretapping and the gadgets wiretappers use. Regardless of the validity of the claims and counter-claims of those presently involved, the question could be asked if presidential wiretapping is anything new.
In their best-seller book, The Presidents Club, Nancy Gibbs and Michael Duffy document that several presidents often spied on others, especially political opponents, legality aside. For example, Gibbs and Duffy assert that lame-duck President Lyndon Johnson discovered late in the 1968 presidential campaign that candidate Richard Nixon had secretly plotted to delay the Paris Peace Accords of the Vietnam War with Nixon hoping to thereby gain political advantage over his major campaign opponent Hubert Humphrey, LBJ 's vice president. Using FBI, CIA, and NSA wiretaps, Johnson uncovered Nixon's scheme, a scheme that LBJ privately branded as treason. But there was a problem for LBJ. Since he had illegally obtained the damaging information on Nixon, LBJ concluded he could not publicize it. But intermediaries informed Nixon that others were watching him.
The obvious conclusion is that secret electronic surveillance has been used by more than one Oval Office occupant. Upon hearing that, some folks feign surprise and call for all spying to cease immediately. Others suggest that wiretapping is messy, but sometimes necessary. Still others contend that a president's failure to use all available spy hardware would amount to dereliction of duty, especially in cases of national security.
So spying is probably here to stay.
BILLY BOOTH
Hazen
To protect freedoms
A story from March 8: "LITTLE ROCK (AP)--An Arkansas House panel has endorsed the idea of naming the Bible as the state's official book."
Do our not-too-intelligent legislators not understand that the Holy Bible's Old Testament, which contains the "law" as transcribed by God to Moses, comes from the ancient Hebrew Bible? The Hebrew Bible was organized into three parts, collectively called the Tanakh. So would it not be more appropriate to name the Tanakh as the official state book?
In case it is not clear, I am making fun of our not-too-intelligent legislators. If this is all they have to do, then maybe it is time they just pack their bags and go home and save the taxpayers a lot of money.
Why they insist that we commingle government with religion to the point of making it the religion of one "sect" is beyond me. The U.S. Constitution was specific in stating that church and state should be separate to protect the freedom and rights of all citizens because of what happened in Europe when government recognized one specific religion as the official state religion.
CHARLES MARTIN
Hensley
Editorial on 03/17/2017