It's a dangerous place
Congratulations to Arkansas legislators on their transparency. They have made their cruelty, ignorance, pettiness and zealotry crystal clear. They have shown the world that Arkansas is no place to relocate one's family or business. They have shown they value guns more than the welfare of children or public health. Arkansas is a dangerous, un-American place and getting more so with every day this Legislature is in session.
NANCY CONLEY
North Little Rock
The things you learn
Some things I've learned along the way: Animals are sometimes better people than people, and people are sometimes more animal than animals. Mules are smarter and better workers than horses, but horses get all the glory. Some people can tell something is not worth a plugged nickel without knowing what a plugged nickel is.
My greatest talent is being the person that allows another person to brag about what a great deal he made. My second greatest talent is being invisible in a store when I need help and a person magnet when I don't.
Trouble can be a blessing in disguise, but that disguise can sometimes last a lifetime. Chickens can lay but not lie while setting but not sitting. Storms last as long as they bloody well please and it's best to let lying dogs sleep. Patience is a virtue and sometimes a girl's name, but never a man's. There may be a lesson in that.
Eleanor Roosevelt is quoted as saying, with two words added by me: "You must [learn to] do the thing you think you cannot do." I wish I had learned that sooner.
JOHN McPHERSON
Searcy
Its historical legacy
We hear the words "systemic racism" thrown around quite a bit. There is the historical legacy of slavery which fades some every year. Years ago deep in Nevada County, a conversation took place revealing a battlefield antidote to racism as a matter of the heart.
It was like this at a school board meeting: A nice young lady who taught political science at college level who had family connections to Harriet Tubman thought in principle that there should be quotas for African Americans and, in response, a retired military man who joined the school board with a desire to help said, "I don't know why you refer to people as African Americans. I fought with men in Vietnam who died. They didn't even know where Africa was. To me they were just Americans with dark skin."
CHARLES VERMONT
Bentonville
Parents' hall of shame
Can we all agree that Mexican and Central American parents are the worst in the world? Who does that to their kids? Animals.
ROBERT KITTLESON
Powhatan