Federalism or Trump
It's high time for our state's Republican legislators to define their principles. Do you believe in federalism--the right of the states to define their own governance and futures, except in matters of foreign affairs and national exigencies, as the founders believed--or do you prefer President Trump's overriding of California's attempt to protect its clean air by clamping down on auto exhaust pollution? U.S. automakers favor pollution controls, but President Trump opposes them.
As an Arkansas citizen, I call on Senators Boozman and Cotton, Representatives Womack, Crawford, Hill, and Westerman, and all our state legislators: Tell us, your constituents, which side are you on? Federalism and states' rights to control pollution, or Trump? Don't waffle, tell us true. You can't be on both sides.
This letter doesn't represent the views of the University of Arkansas, my employer.
ROBERT LEFLAR
Fayetteville
Shift hard by design
Thanks to Kenneth Weber and Patti Robinson for reading and responding to my last letter. I'm sorry they both missed the point. It was not that nothing could or should be done about mass shootings, but that nothing could or should be done on the say-so of a single politician.
Changes can be made, including stripping out the Second Amendment entirely, but only if there is a national consensus to do so, and not just on the coasts. Fundamental changes in our system are hard by design, and those who want to shortcut the process to react quickly to the day's talking points misuse and misunderstand our system, designed to protect our freedoms. Our elected representatives have to represent a fundamental change in the people's desires and beliefs before great changes are made. And Madison aside, the Second Amendment has been widely understood since the 18th century to confirm a God-given, not a government-conferred, right to self-defense. Heller would not have been so decided had that not been the widespread understanding still in our own time.
Want to do something real about our violent and dangerous society? Marry the parent of your offspring, stay married, and raise them in the fear of God and the love of Jesus. That just might be the only thing that would really work. Told you it was hard.
KARL T. KIMBALL
Little Rock
Fee unfair to seniors
Seniors of Little Rock should thank City Directors Joan Adcock, Erma Hendrix, Ken Richardson and Kathy Webb for voting no to the 30 percent increase, about $7 a month, in garbage pickup fees. Many senior homeowners are on a fixed budget and will already be paying for recently increased water fees. Unlike the sewer fee, which is based on usage, the garbage fee is charged whether a family fills its trash can or a senior produces one small bag a month.
The excellent column recently published in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette proposes a "pay as you throw" option, or the possible use of smaller cans at a reduced fee for seniors who put less trash in our constantly increasing landfill.
It is disappointing that Directors Kumpuris, Fortson, Wright, Peck, Hines, and Vice Mayor Wyrick exhibited an unwillingness to explore options which could include lower garbage fees for seniors.
LINDA BELL
Little Rock
Fox News and others
A letter from Mr. Ruud DuVall straightens us out on "fake news." He says: "If you listen to Fox TV and Fox Radio for your news, it must seem like an alternate universe when you try to watch mainstream news and commentary on PBS, CBS, NBC, CNN, ABC, and almost any channel that does not have 'Fox' in front of it."
I am not acquainted with Fox Radio. Perhaps he means conservative radio. I may have missed something ... but we'll let that pass.
Mr. DuVall goes on to say that "Fox News" is the outlier--the real fake news. He seems to say that Fox News listeners and Trump's base are identical. He claims that they have in common (Trump's base): "Fear of the unknown and hatred for all who threaten them. That includes [he says] immigrants, homosexuals, Muslims, liberals, and black and brown people."
I think that is enough to comment on already. I normally don't reply to such balderdash, but I and my friends are weary of hearing this sort of thing.
Hillary called these people (conservatives) a "basket of deplorables." She didn't identify precisely who these folks were, but presumably anyone voting for D. Trump.
I, for one, am not in fear of black, brown, Muslim, liberal, homosexual, immigrant, et al., except those who might blow up things or physically prevent conservatives from speaking on a college campus.
Is it not odd that about half the folks in our country prefer one TV station over all the others that Mr. DuVall mentions? Were it not for Fox, who would be the dissenter?
FRED SAWYER
Little Rock
More harm than good
Tom Cotton and Leslie Rutledge claim that executions "reassure law-abiding citizens that our government has the will to protect them from violence" ... which means that capital punishment is about bald-faced politics, not true justice.
Let's face it, honestly protecting us would mean addressing the root causes of violence (including access to guns), rather than promoting revengeful executions. But politicians like Cotton and Rutledge hope we will let them off the hook on effective leadership by distracting us with emotional nonsense.
And let's talk about their claim that "capital punishment can help bring closure for victims' families," another politically expedient bugaboo. Many murder victims' families want to abolish the death penalty--including survivors of the Oklahoma City bombing who found that the promise of "closure" after Timothy McVeigh's execution was a horrible lie. True "closure" involves preventing deaths, not revenging them later. Politicians need to actually protect us instead of trying to "reassure" us by staging executions that do more harm than good.
CHERYL WOODARD
Little Rock
Went the extra mile
I would like to thank the person who turned my military ring into the DeSoto Golf Club, and the person (Harvey Shelton) who dug deep into the veterans' memorial to find the only veteran with the initials (RJY). Thank y'all very much.
RAYMOND YOUNG
Hot Springs Village
Editorial on 09/19/2019