Keep Lunney on job
Just a thought from an old country girl from Kingsland, birthplace of Johnny Cash: Just keep Barry Lunney Jr. on as head coach. His pay would go up from each winning season. No more huge contract buyouts. We have all seen what these mean to all the other head coaches that have been fired. Just show them the money!
Barry bleeds Razorback red, just like all of the real fans. Come on, what can this hurt any more than the last few years have? W.P.S.
KAREN WISCAVER
Kingsland
Patients are suffering
Re medical marijuana: Why are huge health-care systems blatantly denying suffering patients by refusing to prescribe a safe and effective way to treat many health issues such as chronic pain, dangerously high blood pressure, cancer, insomnia, eating disorders and anxiety? Is it a false moral narrative or a cover-your-butts thing? I think it's backward and disgusting. God put it here! It's ridiculous and stupid. Way to support black-market drugs, though.
Time for this state to go forward into the 21st century. Until these systems get on board, they have no right to think they "save lives." It's actually only saving "some" lives. Since the law was passed, sales have raked in several million dollars. The shortsighted will stay scraping for funds; or are they afraid they may lose patients?
Wake up, Arkansas. People are suffering without need. Shame on you. WWJD? Right.
KATHY CASEY
Siloam Springs
Lack of reading skills
Once again, Dana Kelley has done a superb job of presenting facts, logic, and rationale into a very disturbing issue--the inability, or even the unwillingness, of people to see the incredible importance of reading in our world.
He put forth a very well articulated and well researched perspective on New York schools devaluing actual reading skills in favor of more indoctrination--into what I am not sure, exactly, but it certainly isn't education. Reading no longer emphasized? Reading no longer seen as valued skill? Reading no longer seen as the gateway to so much this world has to offer?
What this country will soon have, if not already, is a population which cannot put together a coherent sentence, cannot comprehend a sentence, cannot decipher the message of a sentence, and cannot think for itself because the ideas of so many will be unintelligible. I weep for the future of our country when people cannot, will not, read for themselves, because they can't, and must rely on others to tell them what to do.
Because the population cannot read.
DAVID KELLEY
Louann
Reasoning on Trump
I have been wondering for a long time what could possibly be the reason for such a large portion of the American electorate supporting a president with such obvious and blatant personality flaws. I gained sudden insight while watching a PBS program on artificial intelligence (AI).
Picture a man who spent 35 years working in an auto plant in Ohio. During his working years, he paid off his house, sent his three children to an in-state college, vacationed each year traveling in the U.S., and retired comfortably with a pension in addition to Social Security. A solid middle-class family.
His son, now in his late 50s, is working in the same plant. As robots have been introduced, jobs have been lost. His pay has not kept up with inflation, his wife has joined the work force, and they are one major medical problem away from financial distress. Robots at the plant have led to increasing productivity that, in turn, has led to increased corporate profits. He sees these profits being shared by the stockholders and CEOs. He is left wondering why he will never be able to enjoy what his father had been able to achieve. He has obeyed all the rules, accomplished all his father did, and yet he does not enjoy the same benefits. He feels the usual way of doing things that worked so well for his father is not working for him.
Therefore, the usual way must be scrapped and some new way, as yet unknown, must be attempted. So every time established politicians take exception to Trump's disregard for the established rules, this man cheers in the hope that new rules will help his situation. If his situation does not improve perceptibly and he sees no hope for improvement, I fear what he may be encouraged to try next. I do not want to be alarming, but I believe income inequality and the disappearance of a middle class needs to be recognized and addressed.
RICHARD PICARD
Little Rock
Times have changed
Finding something and keeping it without trying to find its owner is theft. In two weeks I lost two pieces of jewelry with a lot of sentimental value, given to me by my husband of close to 60 years, who passed away last October: a diamond ring lost at Walmart and a diamond necklace with a tanzanite pendant lost at Hobby Lobby. They were lost the first part of September. I was distraught but sure they would be turned in. I waited and frequently called the stores hoping, but to no avail, leaving me heartsick.
When I was younger and people found things, they rarely kept them without an exhaustive effort to find the owner. Although I have lost my wallet and my purse several times, they were always returned by the good Samaritan who found them.
What does it say about today's people and honesty? What caused such a difference in generations?
SUE RICHARDSON
Bella Vista
Editorial on 11/18/2019