Letters

Put kettle on the stove

President Trump fired FBI Director James Comey because he said he wasn't doing a good job.

Isn't that like the pot calling the kettle black?

BETTY HUNT

North Little Rock

According to logic ...

Fellow reader Jerome Tidmore's letter suggested that churches, exempt from taxes, should not be permitted "to tell people how this country ought to be run. No taxes, no voice."

Interesting thought. I wonder if he would apply the same logic to the 47 percent of the population who pay no federal income tax. Maybe he's on to something.

DENNIS LAWLER

Fayetteville

Their charitable acts

Jerome Tidmore, in his letter to the editor, argues that churches have no say in running or building our nation because they pay no income tax.

Taxpaying church members often have a say in that endeavor as elected government officials. Most members do so through exercising their right to vote. There are religious leaders who speak out on certain issues, but not as an official representative of a specific church.

Most churches spend offerings received that are not dedicated to daily operations on food banks, clothes closets, free medical events, homeless shelters and many other functions to help those in need.

I'm guessing Mr. Tidmore might approve of that money being given to the government to perform those charitable acts. It has such a sterling reputation for efficiency and lack of corruption.

MICHAEL SANDERS

Little Rock

Blinded by the lights

I have problems with being blinded by lights at night when driving in normal conditions and when headlights from oncoming cars are the standard headlights we're all used to.

Whose bright idea was it to allow the new LED/HID headlights in vehicles on our roadways? The lights are a safety hazard at best, blinding even the best of drivers with perfect vision. It is absolutely ludicrous how blinding, intense and distracting the lights are when they are behind you or in oncoming traffic.

I think a law prohibiting these blinding lights should be passed. Why is Arkansas law enforcement not pulling people over for these ridiculous and unnecessary new auto accessories, like they do for window tint that's too dark or other vehicle defects posing a safety hazard?

So you can see better? Well, now no one else on the road can!

AMBER SPEER

Malvern

There's a reason for it

Since God himself controls the weather, people should read the word, the Bible, and see why he is bringing all the floods, storms, etc.

HERBERT PAGE

Conway

Solution to the crisis

Concerned scientists are predicting that the flash floods we experienced recently to be a problem that will intensify as our world gets warmer. Global warming from coal, gas, and methane is causing our oceans to heat, coral and other sea life to die, and makes the ocean temperatures create evaporation faster than our atmosphere can contain. This causes intense rain and snowstorms around the world.

Scientists expect the amount of rainfall during the heaviest precipitation events to increase 40 percent by the end of the century. Since our planet is in a warming cycle, caused by the emissions of fossil fuels, it will take longer than 100 years to get the earth back to a healthy temperature.

One solution being discussed in a congressional caucus would give citizens incentive to use less energy, but does not affect the economy. This idea called the fee/dividend solution would collect a fee from companies extracting fossil fuels from the ground. Products are expected to go up in price as companies reimburse themselves of the fee imposed producing their product. The consumer will be compensated for these higher prices with a dividend distributed equally in the form of a monthly or quarterly check. This equal distribution will in most cases be more than enough to compensate for the expected higher prices. Customers will have incentive to buy products that use less fossil fuel, and companies making products using fossil fuel will invest in renewable sources of energy to make their products more desirable.

Sen. John Boozman is in favor of using incentives instead of taxes to encourage citizens to conserve energy. The bipartisan fee/dividend idea might be an idea our Senator Boozman can support.

MARGARET COFFEY

Fayetteville

Voting for the animals

Thank you for reprinting the editorial from the Chicago Tribune about pending animal cruelty legislation before Congress.

It is confounding to many that every member of the Arkansas delegation received such terrible scores on the Humane Scorecard published annually by the Humane Society Legislative Fund. Senators Boozman and Cotton both received an abysmal zero out of 100, and Representatives Crawford, Hill, Westerman, and Womack each received a whopping 7 out of 100. Because there are dozens of bills introduced each session, the scores are partially based on co-sponsorship of key bills. For example, a bipartisan bill titled "Preventing Animal Cruelty and Torture" (PACT; S1831) already has 39 of 100 senators as co-sponsors, yet neither John Boozman nor Tom Cotton has signed on.

Animal protection is not a partisan issue. In 2009 a bipartisan group called the Congressional Animal Protection Caucus was formed to unite good people of like mind in support of humane legislation. I urge our elected leaders to reconsider their extreme anti-animal positions as most of their constituents love and respect animals. And we vote!

SUZANNE HAMILTON

Little Rock

Editorial on 05/15/2017

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