Integrity of the vote
Re the letter to the editor Otis Young of Cabot wrote hammering John Brummett's column about voting absentee: The Commission on Federal Election Reform, co-chaired by former President Jimmy Carter and former Secretary of State James A. Baker III, was created during the George W. Bush administration to evaluate the impact of the Help America Vote Act and make recommendations to the executive and legislative branches of federal and state government for election reform. The report was issued in September 2005.
President Carter did say, "Absentee ballots remain the largest source of potential voter fraud," and his statement was the reason for the recommendations about absentee voting. And, apparently unbeknownst to Otis, the report's recommendations have been followed and there are now laws in place to protect the integrity of the absentee vote. Obviously, Mr. Young doesn't have a clue what those laws are.
I believe Brummett is absolutely accurate and correct in that the Republicans just don't want some of you voting.
SUSAN INMAN
Little Rock
Should stay course
With all the talk of "What next?" going on, we must remember to not let up on the social distancing, washing hands, masks, etc.
I just heard the perfect analogy of why we must stay the course: You've jumped from the burning plane and your parachute has slowed the fall. But you don't take the chute off until you're safely on the ground.
STEVE HEYE
Little Rock
The cure seems worse
I read the paper most every morning. One, because I like to read, and two, I can't watch the news because of the anchors' total focus on the world's tragedies du jour. Of late, news of the coronavirus occupies many pages. Every day I see the updated count. Friday's infection count was about 2.2 million worldwide. Here's where my problem begins.
A Google search tells me that global population is approximately 7.8 billion. I quickly do some division. Correct me if I'm wrong, but that transfers to 0.00028 percent. My dilemma intensifies.
Why did we destroy a global economy for this small amount? How did we allow mayors and government to impose draconian rules upon us? I read that most who contact this virus experience cough, fever, aches, and pains. We are told these measures are necessary so as not overwhelm hospitals. Well, they're working; hospitals are empty and going broke as they are no longer able to serve many other patients. It is time for this country and the world to go back to work. Wash your hands, keep some distance. The current "cure" is becoming much worse than the disease. Maybe the Swedes got it right. Time will tell.
BILL WYER
Bella Vista
Simply preposterous
Your preposterous second-to-worst columnist has now added mind-reading to his list of amazing accomplishments. In John Brummett's Tuesday column, he purports to perfectly understand the thinking of all misguided Republicans who, in his fevered liberal swamp of a world, are motivated only by greed, lust for power, and hatred of poor and minorities. I suppose feeling such superiority over the beknighted gratifies his ego since he is too good to feel superiority over the idle, the ignorant, or the amoral. He appears to purport, as all Democrats and leftists do, that any attempt to verify the honesty of any vote is an attack on minorities and the poor. Balderdash.
It could not seep into his one-way thinking that perhaps not only Republicans but most Americans think their vote not only a sacred duty but a precious right, whose value is tarnished by every dishonest and fraudulent vote. That it is always Democrats who scream loudly at every attempt to make voting honest should tell us all we need to know about who wants to manipulate, distort, and cheat in the process. Some of us would crawl through broken glass under machine-gun fire to cast a vote protecting this country from the socialists who would steal our God-given rights and enslave us to the state. Yet our votes can be canceled one for one by ballots bundled by Democratic apparatchiks, whether from the living or the dead, the engaged or the unaware, and mailed in whatever numbers are required to put the Pelosi-ite party in power.
Of course, any questioning of the validity of any vote is racist and evidence of hatred of the poor, right, John? After all, you can read our minds and know our motives. Preposterous.
KARL T. KIMBALL
Little Rock
Paycheck to paycheck
What happened that let the coronie get so bad in the U.S.? Well, one, we didn't have the supplies/equipment needed to combat it. We had disbanded the crisis pandemic team that was part of the National Security Agency. The 2018 CDC pandemic budget was cut by 80 percent. Even after we learned of the seriousness of the virus, we ignored and then minimized the effect it could have.
We had no leadership at the national level; therefore, we had no plan. We still don't have a comprehensive plan. We do have 50 plans--one for every state. What good does it do if Memphis has a stay-at-home order and West Memphis doesn't?
To my point--the working class in the U.S. is broke. They don't have any money in their pockets or in the cookie jar. They live from paycheck to paycheck--they couldn't pay for a $400 emergency if they had one. So when they were told to go home from work, and the fridge was empty, the first thing they thought of: How am I going to eat tomorrow? They couldn't and the feds knew it, so the feds jumped in and tried to figure out how to get food on their table. They are still trying to figure out how to get everybody fed.
Now, my what if: Let's say the working class had been making not $10 an hour, but $25 an hour for the last 25 years. They might have a little savings--a little extra money for an emergency. They might have been able to fund their own food/rent needs for maybe two or three months. This would have given the feds time to come up with a coherent plan to get some money to the working class. Now the effort to get money to the working class looks like a food fight at a fraternity beer bust. They are giving some money directly to the people; when they can't do this they are giving it to the small businesses and banks and telling them to give it to the people--any people--all people.
The effects of the wages over the last few years might have come home to roost. If the coronie keeps on going, $25 an hour might start looking like it would have been a bargain.
WAYMOND TEAGUE
Greenbrier
Helpful in quarantine
With the coronavirus in place, if you have the iPad version of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, you don't have to lick your fingertips to change the page.
JOHN RACHWAL
Hot Springs Village
Editorial on 04/19/2020