I am a teacher at Bryant High School. We had a lockdown drill Friday. The bell sounded, and we practiced barricading the doors, turning the lights off, hiding and being quiet as administrators and school resource officers walked around knocking on doors and checking the locks. It was not real, but it was still scary. You cannot help but think about the reality and terror of it as you sit there waiting behind locked doors, lights off, listening for the jiggle of a doorknob.
In those moments today, I looked around at my students. They are 16, 17, 18 years old, and they have never known an America where they did not have to be scared of getting shot at school. They deserve better than this. We all do. And there are common-sense measures we can take that will not infringe on anyone's right to bear arms, but could save thousands of lives.
Ninety percent of Americans support universal background checks on gun purchases. Ninety percent! Sen. John Boozman owes it to the citizens he represents to urge Sen. Mitch McConnell to allow debate and a vote on HR8. America needs our elected officials to take a principled stand on this issue. I urge Senator Boozman to be on the right side of history and help ensure that all of us have the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, free from the constant shadow of gun violence.
LISA STINE
North Little Rock
Change management
The big elephant in the room is not about cutting benefits to retirees. It is not about raising working employee contributions. It is not about raising employer pay-ins. It is about managing the $9 billion investment portfolio, and it is not complicated.
Vanguard provided a side-by-side, apples-to-apples comparison of its managing just the $3 billion U.S. stock portfolio as compared to the various portfolio managers hired by the Arkansas Public Employee Retirement System (APERS) board. The Vanguard report showed a $24.8 million dollar per year increase for the last five years, or the equivalent of a 5 percent per year increase in the benefits paid to all retirees over that time period by just taking over the management of a third of the $9 billion investment portfolio. Vanguard is a unique investment manager because it is a cooperative owned by those that invest in their funds and does not provide earnings to corporate owners.
The legislative committee members touring the state explaining potential benefit cuts is nuts when they could be increasing the portfolio returns by a simple change in portfolio management.
MAC FAULKNER
Little Rock
Questions for nation
When will this nation quit buying more than it sells? When will the selling nations own us, lock, stock and barrel? How much more can this nation borrow before we go bankrupt? Twenty-five, 35 or how many trillions of dollars more? Does history tell us anything? Could term limits and/or a balanced-budget amendment stop this slide? Is less government a better government?
WILLIAM F. JEBB
Cabot
Editorial on 09/16/2019