Exercise your right
Every election, I always think of the same people.
I think of Lucy Burns--beaten and jailed and left overnight with her hands cuffed to the bars above her head--for trying to vote as a woman.
I think of Medgar Evers--slain by a racist in his own driveway while carrying "Jim Crow Must Go" shirts--for trying to register black people to vote.
I think of the indigenous people of this country, who have lived here for centuries, and gained full suffrage just 70 years ago.
I think of my parents--a public school teacher and a firefighter--and the things we talked about at our kitchen table growing up. I think about the money my mom spent and spends out of her own pocket for her students. I think of my dad walking a picket line and worrying about his pension. I think about how it shouldn't be so hard to be a working-class family.
And I think of my grandmothers--strong, beautifully smart women whom I didn't get to know nearly well enough and almost certainly would have disagreed with on so many things and agreed with on others. I think about how they'd want me to think and act and know our history and vote for myself.
I think about these people when I vote. I think about these people when people don't exercise their right to vote. I think of them and I hope you'll all take action to ensure every person you know will go vote.
WILL WATSON
Fayetteville
Don't support puppet
Do campaign contributions affect the votes of the recipient? Look at U.S. Rep. French Hill's voting record. He and his PACs received more NRA contributions--over $1 million--than anyone else in the entire House of Representatives. In the past year, he voted three times to block discussion of a bipartisan committee to investigate mass shootings, and discussion of expanding background checks, which most Americans and Arkansans support. In 2016, Arkansas ranked 10th in the percentage of murders. Why is Representative Hill afraid of simple conversation? We pay our legislators to talk to those with different opinions so compromises can be reached and good legislation can be enacted. That's his job.
Recently we've learned that Russians contributed to the NRA. Perhaps that explains Hill's vote to block debate on establishing a bipartisan commission on foreign interference in the 2016 election. It seems Hill is an extreme partisan and supports politics as usual with his actions.
Fortunately we will have a better choice. Clarke Tucker has a proven track record of working with Republicans in our state Legislature. He got paid maternity leave for state employees passed, as well as an increase in pre-K funding and some major criminal reform. With respect to gun violence, he voted against the state law passed by our Republican Legislature, despite opposition by all colleges in Arkansas, that lets students carry guns in secret in their dorms and in classes. Vote Clarke for common sense and cooperation, not for an NRA puppet.
KATHLEEN BEATTIE
Little Rock
Don't take for granted
Republicans and other friends, please do not take any race for granted. Please vote. The supporters of abortion, sodomy, open borders and sanctuary cities must never be permitted to control our government again. Never, never again!
JACK MAYBERRY
Sheridan
Who is the coward?
On Thursday, the Democrat-Gazette editorial writers accused our three outstanding mayoral candidates of cowardice. The particulars? No candidate agreed with Education Commissioner Johnny Key--and, not incidentally, the editorialists--that the Arkansas Teacher Fair Dismissal Act should be disregarded in certain Little Rock School District schools.
The state Board of Education took our schools away from a democratically elected, black-majority school board years ago, replacing it with one white man, a racist move. In that time, Commissioner Key has done nothing to improve our schools. Instead, with support from the state board and monied interests from other parts of the state, it seems he has skimmed from LRSD some of the students most likely to succeed, predictably increasing the number of distressed schools from six to 22.
I trust our mayoral candidates more than I trust Commissioner Key or the editorial writers to know what's best for LRSD and to have our students' best interests at heart.
Recently, though, the editorial writers offered us a blatant example of cowardice, failing to favor one of our three excellent mayoral candidates with endorsement, just as they failed to make an endorsement in the 2016 presidential election. While I agree that all three candidates are worthy, I made a choice when I walked into the voting booth. The editorial writers, by contrast, in a cowardly act, shirked their duty to their readers.
BARRY BLOCK
Little Rock
Misrepresented him
A Voices letter published last month claimed that French Hill was going to almost single-handedly save Social Security and Medicare. The letter also stated that Hill knew how the economy works because of his business success. This misrepresentation of Mr. Hill's actions is simply amazing.
Mr. Hill voted on May 4, 2017, to repeal the ACA, an action that would have left millions of Americans and Arkansans without health insurance. In November 2017, Mr. Hill voted essentially to raise taxes on lower and middle-income Americans and reduce taxes dramatically on the richest Americans, the result being trillions of dollars added to our national debt. The increase in the national debt will be the excuse for gutting social programs such as Medicare and Social Security in the near future.
I believe Republicans have never supported programs for middle- and lower-income Americans. Republicans were against Social Security in the 1930s, Medicare in the 1960s and the ACA in 2010. Logic dictates that Mr. Hill and his fellow Republicans are not interested in saving Medicare and Social Security.
As far as Mr. Hill being a successful businessman, how could he not be? He was born to a life of economic privilege. He sold his bank in March 2014, leaving a large number of employees without a job. Some success.
We need to elect Clarke Tucker to Congress.
JOHN ROLLANS
Little Rock
Editorial on 11/06/2018