Letters

Those days are over

Excuse me; I feel a rant coming on.

I let it slide when Mike Masterson embarrassed himself by adopting several of the Dark Side's conspiracy theories regarding the recent presidential election. He even came up with some I hadn't heard before. (No points for novelty.)

But I must chastise him severely for his column of Dec. 22 in which he graciously commended the women of his world for doing all the work required to make their men's Christmas so pleasant. Surely a smart man would not put those words in writing for all the world to read, even if he were so lazy and insensitive as to make them true, or so dumb as to speak them. Age is no excuse; no one likes an old sexist.

If ol' Mike doesn't help his wife next year, at least he should refrain from proudly writing that she does all the work, including buying and wrapping all the gifts, decorating the house, cooking breakfast and lunch and washing the dishes afterward. It seems he thinks he does his part when he eats and settles into his recliner to watch Hallmark movies. Oh, yeah, and he notices her hard work.

Shame, shame. Those days should be long over for even slightly enlightened men.

VICKI FEWELL

Sherwood

New home for statue

Gov. Ralph Northam of Virginia, since you ordered the removal of Gen. Robert E. Lee's statue that has stood in the National Statuary Hall for 111 years, please ship it to my home here in Arkansas so that I can proudly display the image of this great general and fine Southern gentlemen who gave up so much to defend his beloved state of Virginia which you are now defiling.

PHIL WARNER

Garfield

Desperate, baseless

Leslie Rutledge and other attorneys general in this country tried to overturn a free and fair election for president.

Their argument to the Supreme Court was based on some bizarre and fabricated voting scheme that makes "The Twilight Zone" look like a reality check. Rutledge's fellow Republicans think South American banana republics are involved.

It seems this was an attempt by Rutledge and her fellow attorneys general to subvert and overthrow our democracy. Apparently, Rutledge did not pay attention when studying the Constitution in law school. Ignorance of the law is no excuse, according to my grade school teacher.

I believe Rutledge's action could be considered treason and at a minimum she should be impeached by the state Legislature. Leslie Rutledge is an embarrassment to the state of Arkansas.

I did an FOI request to Rutledge's office to ascertain how much her trip to meet Trump cost the taxpayers of Arkansas. As expected, I got no response as required by law.

Despite the desperate and baseless attempts of Rutledge and her fellow Republicans, Joe Biden is our president-elect and our national nightmare is coming to an end.

JOHN ROLLANS

Little Rock

On frivolous claims

As a lawyer with 46 years of experience in the courtrooms of this state, I have always agreed with public sentiment which abhors frivolous lawsuits and the lawyers who file them. Baseless suits waste the time of judges, court personnel, and the parties who are wrongly sued.

When the offenders go unpunished, it causes a loss of trust in the judiciary and in attorneys. After all, we're supposed to be about the serious business of helping our clients, with honesty and integrity.

So why did our attorney general, Leslie Rutledge, engage in an effort to dissolve American government as we know it, sowing the seeds of doubt in our electoral system by joining the patently frivolous Texas lawsuit against four other states?

Any first-year law student knows that one state cannot sue to meddle in another state's elections; it's called "lack of standing." If Rutledge doesn't know that, she should go back to the minor-league job she had before she was elected. Oh, yeah, Ms. Rutledge, and when will you be paying the taxpayers back for the time and expense you and your office spent pursuing Texas' silly political stunt?

Have you even practiced enough law to know what "Rule 11" is? Just so you know, it happens when lawyers who file baseless lawsuits (i.e., like this one, with no evidence) are fined enough to reimburse the other for their time and expense. In the judiciary where I practice, a judge would make you pay dearly for frivolous claims. That you would participate in such a blatant effort to tear down faith in our democratic elections--a bedrock of our democracy--told us all we need to know about where your values lie.

And it's not a good picture, Leslie.

MIKE EASLEY

Forrest City

Doesn't go very far

Six hundred dollars in 1920 is equivalent in purchasing power to about $7,806.87 today, an increase of $7,206.87 over 100 years. The dollar had an average inflation rate of 2.60 percent per year between 1920 and today, producing a cumulative price increase of 1,201.15 percent.

I and many others are going to be very grateful to finally receive help. But $600 just does not go as far as it used to, at the end of the last pandemic. I pulled these numbers from the Internet. The other sites said it was closer to $8,500.

JOEL WILSON

Bentonville

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