Justice isn't partisan
Was that a pig I saw flying past my window? I thought pigs would fly before I would agree with Mike Huckabee about anything, but his column on last Saturday's Voices page is spot on. Tom Cotton is wrong on this issue, and our former governor is right. It's refreshing to see a conservative Republican supporting this issue.
"We lock up a lot of people that we are mad at, rather than the ones we are afraid of," as former director of Arkansas Department of Correction Director Larry Norris said, is the best definition I've ever seen of our current criminal justice system.
The system needs reforming. The Sentencing Reform and Corrections Act of 2017 in the U.S. Senate is a step in the right direction and should be supported by legislators on both sides of the aisle. Justice is not a partisan issue. Saving money is not a partisan issue. Locking up nonviolent offenders for life is not a political issue; it is an issue of common sense.
The days of "lock 'em up and throw away the key" have passed. We have learned a lot since the 1980s when we overreacted to the crack cocaine epidemic, but we are still bound by the laws passed then. It's time we fixed a broken system.
Thank you, Mike. I hope our senators will listen to one of their own.
MAYA PORTER
Johnson
Address the hog farm
Arkansas has been reading about this CAFO in the Buffalo watershed for going on five years, with many thanks to a columnist in this paper, Mike Masterson. But ... it's still there. Why? I think three truths about human nature are at fault.
First, ignorance. Most of us are ignorant of many things; who has time to become well-versed in all the issues facing us, let alone this issue? Of CAFOs in Arkansas and the U.S., how many of us can speak intelligently about how many there are, how they are growing, who owns them, what percentage are owned by and exported to China (which accepts the hogs, but leaves the pollution in the U.S.), etc.? Who can speak intelligently about how much money is funded through lobbying to keep this situation as it is? Who of us in Arkansas has driven by the hog factory in Newton County and smelled the air? Who has observed the changes in the waters this factory drains into?
Second truth of human nature: habits of thinking. We habitually think of farmers as people who own a few acres, who love the Lord, go to church, and care about animals and the land. We don't think of them like Smithfield (owned by a Chinese company), Tyson, etc., who contract with large industrial farms for the feed, and contract with CAFOs for their product, and who pass the pollution issues on to the least able to do anything about it.
Third, indifference (perhaps the worst of these three truths about human nature). I recently participated in a few question-and-answer sessions with candidates for state office. The question of this hog factory in Newton County, or the plans for another in wine country, never came up, and when I brought it up, I could sense the indifference to this question in the room.
I'm asking you not to be ignorant and indifferent to this issue. Make it an issue ... it's nonpartisan, and needs to be addressed.
RG SMITH
Rogers
Courage under fire
America needs more citizens like John McCain and Rob Tibbetts and fewer like Trump Sr. and Jr.
JAMES DAVIS
Hot Springs
Preserve our treasure
The Buffalo River is a true treasure and gem that must be preserved. I grew up in Dust Bowl Oklahoma where there were few streams, and no lakes or rivers. The few streams were weak, muddy, and flowed only occasionally. The only bodies of water were stock ponds that were muddy and polluted. On my first visit to Arkansas, up Highway 71, I was astounded by the streams and greenery I had never seen in Dust Bowl Oklahoma.
I have lived in Northwest Arkansas for 50 years, and our family has floated the Buffalo many times in those years. As the nation's first national river, it is truly a national treasure and we absolutely must not risk the pollution to the Buffalo by a financially motivated hog farm if that, in fact, is the cause, which certainly seems to be a possibility.
Designated by Congress in 1972 as the nation's first national river, it is a true treasure not matched anywhere else in the country. As stewards, we have an obligation to preserve this treasure for future generations to enjoy.
I have difficulty understanding how the Department Of Environmental Quality can overlook the stark evidence of pollution closely associated with the operation of C&H. Is there something not visible here?
BILL UNDERWOOD
Fayetteville
Wrong culprit named
Dana D. Kelly wrote another brilliant essay published Friday titled "Virtue in education," but he made a major error in not correctly identifying the culprit(s).
He blames teachers and public education for the many in our society who seem to fail to grasp the concepts of right and wrong. And writes that, "children who get no moral instruction" and who have "lost touch with our nation's founding principles" are the problem. He quotes Ruskin: "Educate or govern, they are one and the same word." Kelley goes on to note that society needs leaders who "teach young people how to behave morally, ethically and legally."
I certainly do not believe that it is our teachers who are at fault for failure to exemplify and teach virtue. How can Dana not see and blame our political leaders, beginning with Trump, for their inability to act ethically and morally, let alone model virtue? There are no teachers who would retain their job if they behaved as badly in public as Trump.
BRUCE HAGGARD
Conway
Editorial on 09/05/2018