On the written word
I see in Sunday's paper there was an ad asking current subscribers to encourage others to subscribe. The ad has an air of desperation, but I hope I'm wrong.
However, I got my iPad last February (which, as an avid Android guy, pained me greatly), and the most encouraging review I can give for the digital paper is that I begrudgingly accept it and read it, but the Sunday printed edition is still the highlight of the week.
I am no Luddite; I readily embraced digital music and computers (PC, of course!). Life has never been, and cannot be, static. But I do not like reading the written word in digital form, and cannot help but believe we are losing the most powerful agent for change the world will ever know. The Magna Carta, which arguably established an individual's inherent right to be free from tyranny and despotism, Gutenberg's press, which played the key role in the Renaissance, the Protestant Reformation, the Age of Enlightenment, Thomas Paine's Common Sense, the Declaration of Independence, Emancipation Proclamation, Uncle Tom's Cabin, The Grapes of Wrath.
Last week my Internet was down for several days and my Sunday paper wasn't delivered. First time in my 50-plus years of reading newspapers that I missed one day, much less six. Ah, maybe I am a Luddite after all, and a melodramatic one at that.
GREG STANFORD
White Hall
Downtown on Farm
I spent a terrific afternoon on Oct. 27 at the Downtown on the Farm event in the River Market area of downtown Little Rock. Kudos to the Arkansas Rice Federation in conjunction with the Downtown Little Rock Partnership as well as the sponsors, participants, and volunteers.
The event itself couldn't have asked for better weather or a more interested and enthusiastic crowd, especially the kids, who got to pet a lot of different farm animals, milk an unsettlingly realistic plastic cow, plant a few seeds, paint a pumpkin, eat a lot of sweet stuff, get a sparkly tattoo, and ride a pony.
Several downtown restaurants served free samples of dishes featuring rice. Dragged through the food area toward the animals by a sharply focused granddaughter, I had time to sample only the seafood gumbo, the black beans and rice, the red beans and rice, and the cold chicken curry salad with slivered almonds. OK, I did manage to put together a delicious free lunch. Wish I could recall the restaurant names; I'd recommend them all. The food was phenomenal.
We loaded up on lots of fun freebies, bags to put them in, and had wonderful conversations with animal owners, farmers (one especially nice young rice farmer and family and their new dog), conservation folks, sellers of things, and many, many friendly people having a good time on a sunny Sunday afternoon.
Shopping opportunities included some vendors and food trucks. The live music featured really good local groups. There was music for pretty much every taste. And the saddest hog in all of Razorback Nation, Tusk V, even put in an appearance.
If you missed Downtown on the Farm, put a note in your phone to watch for it next year. You will not be sorry.
CHUCK ANDERSON
Little Rock
Where focus must be
It seems our soon-to-be-impeached obstructer-in-chief is at it again. Lying in plain sight. We know he lies. When has he not? We know he cheats. Where are the tax returns to prove he doesn't? We know he vilifies his opponents and demeans those he considers "losers" like John McCain or those "happy" Kurds he betrayed and then abandoned.
My generation was taught basic civics and American history in school. We learned about the three branches of government and the system of checks and balances built into the Constitution by the founding fathers. We are now faced with a rogue president--unchecked and unbalanced-- who refuses to follow those principles and who tries at every turn to obstruct Congress from fulfilling its constitutional responsibility of oversight.
But I refer to Congress as though it were a monolith, a body acting in unison to carry out its constitutional role. That is not the case today, since the Republican faction of that body is politically paralyzed. It has abandoned its duty to the Constitution, broken the oath of office and enabled this Fifth Avenue flimflam man to pursue his personal ambition at the expense of our national interest.
It is Trump and his conspiracy-minded cohorts who are fixated on the 2016 election and determined to debunk the Mueller Report. How petty and pathetic, like Trump himself. What we should be concerned about are his clandestine efforts, now made public, to illegally affect the 2020 election.
DAVID ELI COCKCROFT
Little Rock
What do we call him?
If by some wild scenario Pete Buttigieg were to be elected president of the United States, since he is married to a man, how would this person be addressed--first gentleman, first man, first person, or?
I doubt his spouse would be relegated to the basement or otherwise hidden from public view, although I have not seen his spouse on the campaign trail. I have not seen him address this issue nor seen anyone questioning him on this. No reporting on it.
What kind of precedent and statement would this present? A male first lady?
Our nation was founded on God-fearing principles to be a God-fearing country. When God says something is wrong, I do my best to avoid it; I am fearful of God.
What does this say about Buttigieg, his supporters, those who vote for him? He is now No. 4 on the totem pole behind Joe Biden, Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders in the polls. He says he is asked daily about his sexuality.
America, beware of supporting a man who flouts God's laws. What does this foretell for our country?
SHERRY SNOW
Pangburn
Editorial on 11/15/2019