Physics and schools
When I was studying physics back in the '60s, I came to appreciate the branch called thermodynamics for its "black box" approach to the world.
Suppose you have a box, like a generator or an air conditioner, where things are happening inside but you can't observe the working parts. Without knowing exactly what's going on inside, you can measure what goes in and what comes out and draw conclusions even though you can't see directly into the box itself.
The Little Rock School District has gone from six failing schools to 22 failing schools in the three years since the state took over the district. We don't need to know why to know something is rotten in Denmark or, in this case, the state Capitol of Arkansas.
GENE REID
Little Rock
A campaign for kids
Let's have another campaign. Engage the media. Here are the platform planks.
Hug your child today.
Read with your child today.
Pray for your child today.
KAY HICKS
Little Rock
They're not the same
In his letter Oct. 27, Mark Dague showed how much he is indoctrinated into the Republican death cult. He compared weapons (guns) to tools, and asked why we don't blame the car for a drunk-driving incident and other utterly stupid fallacies.
OK, let's take it back to kindergarten. The definition of car is a road vehicle used to transport people or freight. The definition of a gun is a weapon incorporating a metal tube from which bullets issue. They are completely different and used for completely different things. Can you ride a gun into town to pick up groceries? No, you cannot. Before I move on to his question about mental health, I say this: If guns are just tools and tools should not be restricted due to this, why do we ban bombs? They are, after all, just tools.
As for the mental health issue, he has a point but fails to realize that is what gun control is about. We need mental health and background checks on guns, thus restricting them from every nutjob that wants to buy one. But far too many people in Congress think democracy falls when someone has to ask the guy buying an AR-15 out of his truck if he's crazy. And no one is trying to take all the guns. Just ban high-powered assault rifles and high-capacity magazines. If you really need an AR-15 with a 30-round magazine or higher to defend your house, you need to leave the area.
DANIEL GIPSON
Cherokee Village
Ponzi would be proud
I get it. Just when you think you're getting your mind around T-Rump's latest insult, indignity or outrageous act, he trumps himself with another one which is equally or more appalling. A little later, he trumps himself again. Then again, and again.
It's the new Political Ponzi Cycle. It's a monumental con job playing out right before our eyes.
What separates investors in a Ponzi scheme and those investing in T-Rump's Ponzi politics is the difference between an unwitting investor driven by greed and a witting constituent with a disturbing appetite for hate speech combined with utter indifference to the truth.
Charles Ponzi needed new investors to help fund his early investors so he could sustain and fund his fraudulent scheme. T-Rump has a similar challenge. He must continually "fund" his early investors with more lies. More disgrace. More shamelessness. More dishonor.
T-Rump differs from Charles Ponzi in that he's the fraud. The currency exchanged between him and his investors/constituents is their adulation for his nuttiness.
He's in high gear ordering troops to the border to fend off a caravan of disparate immigrants hundreds of miles away consisting mostly of young women and children. Ending birthright citizenship with an executive order. Declaring a tax cut for medium-income Americans before the elections. Reversing himself by promising insurance coverage for pre-existing conditions. These are nothing but outrageous statements followed by lies.
He's succeeding in defining new bottoms for bad behavior with every act. Every tweet. Every public statement. By all accounts, his initial "investors" are being richly rewarded with hate speech, fearmongering and endless lies.
Endless. Ponzi politics.
HARRY HERGET
Little Rock
The realities we face
These are facts: (1) The global climate is changing for the worse, and despite denial by a handful of outlier scientists, human behavior is part of the problem. (2) With "whites" rapidly becoming a minority in the U.S., we will soon be a nation of minorities, and we have yet to learn to put our common humanity first. (3) The Internet and artificial intelligence are already changing our lives in ways we can barely imagine, much less understand and control.
Every day we spend pointing fingers and spewing hate at one another is wasted. We urgently need to be learning about the realities we face and finding ways to cope with our changing culture, economy, and politics.
That last statement is just my opinion and you may disagree. But if I'm right, our children will pay a horrifying price for neglect that we can no longer afford.
CHARLEY SANDAGE
Mountain View
Editorial on 11/09/2018