Destroying our river
Warren Carter's "It's personal" guest column was so disturbing. It is beyond personal that our most national treasure, the beautiful Buffalo River, is seriously threatened by a hog farm. Yes, it was approved by the state, thank you, Governor Beebe.
That was wrong to approve the farm, but it does not make it right to destroy our Buffalo River.
Shameful!
SANDRA WOMACK
Fayetteville
Bit too much 'acting'
T-Rump has fewer Senate-confirmed officials in his White House than ... well, most any previous president. When asked about this obvious deficiency, especially in his Cabinet, he dismisses the question with an enthusiastic, if not predictable, response: "I like 'acting.' It gives me more flexibility."
Emphasis on the word "me."
An acting official has little to no decision-making authority and is obliged to rely on the "Decider-in-Chief" who famously asserted that he alone can fix Washington. So that's where we are. T-Rump is the de facto head of Homeland Security, the Department of Defense, the Small Business Administration, the Office of Management and Budget; in addition, his chief of staff, Mick Mulvaney, currently serves in an acting capacity. And there's more.
A man with no government experience and with no idea of how to manage large groups of people is in charge. He has the added history of business ventures that were apparently inspired by the Beatles' hit song, "I'm a Loser." His titanic business failures were record-setting in themselves. If being a business failure was an Olympic sport, then raise the American flag and key up the Star Spangled Banner for our gold medal winner.
In the word of a former secretary of state, chief of staff, as well as his current national security adviser, just to mention a few, T-Rump is a "moron." Relying on acting secretaries as stand-ins, T-Rump has assembled an ignominious coterie of "proxy morons."
Geez. America needs a president who is really surrounded by "the best people," willing to serve and confirmable.
HARRY HERGET
Little Rock
More saber-rattling
Here we go again! President Donald Trump reportedly has been told by his chief war hawk John Bolton and others that proxy friends of Iran may have blasted holes in four ships owned by Saudi Arabia and others.
Bolton, criticized by both Republican and Democrat members of Congress, several years ago said on national television that he favored regime change in Iran, and now he appears to be attempting to make that happen.
Trump hopefully is smart enough to not let Bolton, his national security adviser, get us into still another war based on untrustworthy information. Anyone remember when former president George W. Bush ordered the invasion of Iraq based on false information about weapons of mass destruction which were never found?
As for Saudi Arabia, only Trump seems to believe it is our friend. After all, the Saudis had an American journalist killed, and furnished 15 of the 19 terrorists who attacked the United States during 9/11. With friends like that, we don't need any more enemies.
VERNON McDANIEL
Ozark
In another dimension
I chuckled at Tom Cotton's remarks the other day about sacrifice for the Trump tariffs. He quickly tried to compare that sacrifice with the sacrifice of our great service men and women in the military.
Two entirely different things. His remarks and the chirping of Lindsey Graham and other top Republicans can't hide the fact that this will really hurt American families, and not just for a few weeks. I get the impression that these guys know this Trump thing won't last forever, so they're cramming as much of this type of decision-making as possible into this window of opportunity for them. This group is so totally out of touch with middle-class America they couldn't possibly comprehend the sacrifice of the average Arkansas family and the effect it will have on their income.
These tariffs will affect everything a consumer buys, including staples like toilet paper, toothpaste and most especially food. Middle-class Americans tightening their belts means any advantage you may think you reaped from the corporate tax cuts will be wiped out by inflated prices on imported goods.
All this means for Tom and his buds is less lobster with the filet, and one less expensive bottle of chardonnay. This is the very reason so many voters get frustrated when they try to contact their senators and representatives and get a form letter or no response at all. The Supreme Court Citizens United decision of 2010 made a "level playing field" obsolete. These people who are supposed to represent you have no choice but to beg at the table of those whose resources really get them elected.
And if you will notice, you never hear one of these guys deny it.
WADE GREEN
Camden
Education resources
One box does not fit everyone when it comes to learning. My child is enrolled in public school and was diagnosed with dyslexia a year ago. Although we had a 504 in place, we faced a huge struggle getting the necessary paperwork in order to access additional services that the school could not provide. The result has been a year's loss of intervention and learning. Outside testing reinforced the need for an IEP program. She needs a smaller classroom with one-on-one help from a teacher with dyslexia-intervention training.
As her current school cannot provide the resources she requires, I will need financial assistance to enroll her in a school that offers intervention and ongoing educational resources she needs to excel. She has no issues with discipline, is eager to learn and has my "dig in and go" personality, which will help her despite her academic challenges.
It is a hard daily feat for a child who has learning challenges to attempt to see material presented on the board only to go back to her desk to backwards or jumbled words. I know it is hard for her to do her best when she needs more help and more one-on-one attention with the material. She has a great capacity to learn in the proper atmosphere, one that I feel can be provided with the help of the Succeed Scholarship.
ANDREA LAMPROE
Van Buren
Editorial on 05/19/2019