Fruits of obstruction
Hey, Mitch, you said that President Obama's nominee could not come up for a vote during an election year and blocked it for 10 months. Now, before Trump even sends a nomination in, you say the Senate will vote this fall before the election. What happened? Oh, I get it.
ED PARKS
Rogers
All benefit from pacts
So the Supreme Court ruled that non-members working under a union-negotiated collective bargaining agreement don't have to "pay their fair share" to enjoy the benefits of that agreement if they object for some obscure personal reason? Can we then deduce that we don't have to pay taxes if we object to how those taxes are used to benefit the greater good simply because we have some personal objection to paying?
Taken to the extreme: Pay no tax if you object to garbage pickup ... object to arming the military ... object to public schools ... object to city, county, state and federal government services of any kind ... it's OK, you don't have to pay your fair share for any of those either.
There's something missing here. Collective bargaining benefits all workers covered by the agreement, so all workers should "pay their fair share"-- period. I choose the union.
JOHN COOKE
North Little Rock
John Cooke is a member of IATSE Local 204.
Times seem familiar
In the 5th century BCE, progressive, democratic Athens led a coalition to defeat Persia, led a coalition to maintain the postwar peace, squandered its leadership, and was defeated by Sparta. Socrates thought its old system of beliefs led to its downfall and called on poets to compose new myths to address the current needs of Greece. (Plato, The Republic)
National and world events in our century roughly approximate those of ancient Athens. The U.S. led the allied victory in World War II, led efforts to stabilize the postwar liberal order in the Cold War, and now squanders its leadership. Our system of beliefs, affirmed by the president and many Americans, divides humanity by religion, race, nationality, ethnicity and political persuasion, thus inspiring animosity and conflict.
Perhaps time has come again for poets and philosophers to fashion new myths--myths that embrace all of humankind as God's chosen people, not just some. Another star in the east would also help.
DAVID SIXBEY
Flippin
On just doing her job
This is really as easy as shooting fish in a barrel. Philip Martin says Sarah Huckabee Sanders is "just doing her job." What happened to the people 80 years ago who were just doing their jobs?
MURIEL LEDERMAN
Little Rock
Editorial on 07/02/2018