Not safe in America
When watching a promotion of our military keeping us safe and free, I realized we are not safe or free in America. We are in a war right here in our homeland.
There are one or two shootings of civilians by civilians every single week. Thousands dead. Thousands injured. Millions of us are afraid and grieving. Religious places, schools, concerts, clubs, even yoga places are under attack.
We need something done; what?
LINDA MONROE
Rogers
How it will be funded
Recalling as a voter in the late '70s in Pope County, voting in one of my first elections, two measures were on the ballot: one to construct a new Pope County courthouse, the other to raise taxes to pay for that courthouse. The measure of the new courthouse passed. The taxes to pay for it did not.
The passage of the mandated rise in the minimum wages over the next three years in Arkansas evokes similar sentiments. All Arkansans, those on fixed incomes, working and nonworking, will feel the impact of the inflationary pressure this measure will soon bring to the state. Are the wages that people make now going to go up the same ratio as the minimum wage does? Will goods and services' costs rise due to the measure's impact? Will some lose their jobs to cover the mandated wage increases? Will the monetary standards of poverty rise due to the increase? Will social services be altered? Will life be better in Arkansas?
Emotion wins again.
WILLIAM HOYT
Russellville
Welcome opposition
In canvassing in the past three elections, I always thank opponents for participating in the political process. Opposition makes democracy.
The majority and opposition are the two legs of public opinion that have moved our nation forward through the years. Their names reflect the ideologies and changing conditions of the times: Federalists and Democratic-Republicans, Whigs and Democrats, Redeemers and Freedmen, Bourbon Democrats and Copperheads, Republicans and Democrats, liberals and conservatives.
We, the electorate, shift our support from one ideology to the other as conditions change. The metaphor of walking on two legs seems especially fitting since we now call the two primary ideologies the right and the left.
We are currently faced with conditions that demand urgent action: unprecedented disruption of climate systems, unprecedented numbers of refugees, unprecedented power concentrated in a small number of global companies, and an unprecedented rate of change on all levels.
With these realities as the backdrop the current majority has not sought dialogue with the opposition, even eliminating opposition within its own party. Vitriolic attacks divide us exactly when the times demand united, concerted effort. This does not make us more stable or secure. It does not help us move forward nor arrive at our best decisions. It is like trying to balance on one leg.
I think we have been standing on one leg too long and it is past time to shift to the other one. Whether you agree or disagree, be grateful for the opposition.
DENISE MARION
Hot Springs
Improve the schools
The most important things a parent can give their children are love and a stable home life. After that, parents must give their children the opportunity for a good education. There are some lousy teachers in the Little Rock School District that have a stronghold on the district. If I were a teacher, I would not want to be identified as a member of a union that clearly doesn't care about children as much as its own pocketbook. I would welcome a way of getting rid of a few bad apples that spoil the teachers' union. It is ridiculous that these incompetent teachers cannot be fired. If I were a parent of a student in the district, I would be outraged!
I am pleased that Johnny Key has finally taken a stand in an effort to raise the quality of education children can get in the district and raise the quality of the teachers as well. I hope the union leaders consider the honorable profession that they are part of and let the district do whatever it takes to improve the schools.
BONNIE HOLMES
Little Rock
Not far-fetched now
A TV series for your consideration: The Man in the High Castle on Amazon Prime. The series shows us an alternate reality in which the Nazis and Imperial Japan have won the war and divided America between them--the West to Japanese and the East to the Nazis. While interesting as sci-fi, the show is more notable for its realistic portrayal of life under two different authoritarian regimes.
The Japanese are depicted as brutal occupiers who believe in the inherent superiority of their highly ritualized, emperor-worshiping culture, but who are satisfied with keeping their inferior American subjects meek and subdued. By contrast the Nazis have found enough trustworthy Americans of the Aryan variety to fully staff their American Reich without having to field an occupying force. In the American Reich, Nazi ideology has found fertile ground, and the devastating psychological effects of that ideology on the individual freedom of all--even for those who run the Reich--are fully explored.
When the series kicked off in 2015, we did not yet have as president a wannabe dictator who fanned the flames of racial and ethnic hatred to gain and maintain power. We did not have a Republican Party that cowered in fear of offending its boss or his newly recruited red-hatted storm troopers. So High Castle's depiction of how quickly and completely people give up both their moral compass and their freedoms to dictators seemed a bit far-fetched.
It doesn't anymore.
ALEX MIRONOFF
Fayetteville
Seriously, Masterson?
I quote one paragraph of the essay Mike Masterson chose to run in his Nov. 3 online column as an example of something perfectly stated regarding the terrifying "caravan" of immigrants that people like him want to believe is some Democratic Party conspiracy.
"Some people in the caravan are drug smugglers, terrorists, or human traffickers. Many are likely guilty of sexually abusing the women in the caravan. Some of the strong men of military age may just be looking for work, but some may be soldiers in an invading army. How do we know? The rest are probably hostages and human shields, likely duped by false promises, a front group exploited to capture sympathy."
Look at the assertions, speculations, and sheer nonsense in that paragraph: "are drug smugglers, terrorists, or human traffickers" (which the author knows ... how?). But descending from assertions to speculations: "Many are likely," "some may be," "the rest are probably," "likely duped."
Come on, Mike. Give us some Fox-style "people are saying" to go along with your mendacious boosh-wah. (I cleaned that up for a family newspaper.)
Anyone who doesn't spot such obvious fearmongering and propagandizing is willfully trying not to see what a total scam is being run on the American people by the conman-in-chief and his accomplices.
Has Mike Masterson lost his mind? Or just his soul?
KEVIN DUKE
Wynne
Editorial on 11/12/2018