Children must be fed
The covid-19 pandemic has yielded devastating consequences across Arkansas, especially for children. According to new data released by Save the Children, Arkansas ranks 49th out of 50 states for child food insecurity rates, and more than 1 in 5 kids growing up in Pulaski County are food insecure. Child hunger is not an isolated issue and adversely impacts all aspects of a child's development, from their education to increased health risks. And, since covid-19, this issue has only worsened. I encourage Sen. John Boozman to support and quickly enact policy solutions that ensure kids don't continue to go hungry.
Tackling this challenge requires policy changes. One way to do this is to temporarily increase Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits by 15 percent in the next federal coronavirus relief legislation. This would ensure that families have the resources they need to put food on the table while also helping stimulate our economy by increasing spending at neighborhood grocery stores and other local businesses.
Ensuring kids can eat during this uncertain time should not be a partisan issue. Every day that goes by without real, substantive action is another day that an innocent child goes to bed with an empty stomach.
CAROL LEE
Russellville
How to change nation
In the '70s while working in D.C., I picked up a paperback copy of The Communist Manifesto out of curiosity. Reading it was OK, but there was a separate back page which intrigued me: one sentence or so, and then five or six numbered words. The sentence was something like "how to change a nation," and the words were: 1. Education, 2. Transportation, (3 and 4 I've forgotten); the last was Religion. Hmmm, interesting, I thought. It'll never work in America.
Religion and education are too set in their ways. Religion is the spirit of our acknowledging one God which unites us, and education is too fixed in its ways to change. Oh, but then the Bible, the history of a people of God, Jews and Christians, which had changed the world, was taken out of public schools, from upper to lower. Well, I wondered why they put religion last, but then it dawned on me that maybe they were hitting all aims together. Marx was long dead, so I didn't know who "they" were. Transportation didn't make much sense to me.
I remembered coming home from a year abroad in 1969 to a country which seemed entirely different. Maybe it was because I had spent that year in Colombia, where life was simple, the air clean, the trees flourishing, lots of happy music, and the people cordial in all three cities where I taught. Life began again for me, and these thoughts were incorporated into my own busyness.
America has changed. We now face so many divisions that trip us up! And now an invisible and mysterious virus encompasses the world, killing thousands and threatening economies, and we squawk and focus on the disease and need for money. Well, this is God's world, not ours. It is certainly within the scope of hope that the change will be for the better. But the scariest thing I read in the Old Testament was, "I am God, and I will do as I please." It seems to me that there is but one major division for each person to consider.
JUDITH H. BAUM
North Little Rock
Correct past practices
As is my custom, I woke up on Wednesday to read the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette and was amazed to read two pieces with an interesting connection.
In the opinion section, Rex Nelson wrote of the racist history of the
Clarion-Ledger newspaper of Jackson, Miss., and its influence on politics, as well as the "powerful" First Baptist Church of Jackson. He stated that the owner of the paper and members of the church in the last century proclaimed themselves devout Christians while holding those of color in contempt.
On page 4A was an article saying the Mississippi Baptist Convention had stated concerning their state flag that "lawmakers have a moral obligation to remove the Confederate battle emblem from the state flag because many people are 'hurt and shamed' by it." I believe this represents a major change in culture and beliefs of Mississippi Baptists and others who repent of past racist practices.
Last year the Arkansas Legislature had an opportunity to change the designation of one of the stars on our state flag that is said to represent and honor Arkansas' support of the Confederacy in the Civil War. It would be changed to represent our Native American heritage. This star represents our racist past as surely as the Confederate emblem on the Mississippi state flag. Even though Governor Hutchinson endorsed this change, Republicans in the Legislature blocked it. We missed an opportunity to be in front of the current move in our country to correct past racist symbols and practices.
I believe the Arkansas Southern Baptist Convention, as well as like-minded Christians of all faiths, should join our brothers and sisters in Mississippi and call on the Arkansas Legislature to change the designation of this star on our flag to one that we are not shamed by.
RON WEST
Little Rock
They already speed
After reading Noel Oman's article on the coming political rise in highway speed limits, I submit that the studies are accurate that 85 percent of highway and city drivers currently exceed the posted speed limits. So why waste a lot of time and money re-signing the speed limits just to legalize the speed most drivers already drive and give them an excuse to drive even faster? If you doubt this, drive the speed limit on the I-430 racetrack or I-40 between Little Rock and Conway and see if you pass a single car. Even driving Arkansas 5 between Cabot and Heber Springs, very few are going less than 55.
BRIAN WRIGHT
Heber Springs