Questions to answer
Arkansas legislators have been diligent in passing laws that restrict abortion, but there is so much more to the issue than the "right to life." Unwanted pregnancies often become unwanted babies deprived of nurture. What provisions have our legislators made for that? Unwanted children become troubled youth. Will you allocate more money for youth lockups and prisons? What provisions have you made for dealing with the mental and emotional issues that accompany being unwanted?
Your moral convictions are admirable, but when the time comes to foster or adopt these unwanted babies, will you demonstrate those convictions? Will you feed and house them? Educate them? Love them? Will you "walk the walk"? Ask yourselves if your actions support the "right to life" or merely the "right to birth." Who suffers here?
CINDY MOMCHILOV
Little Rock
Dark day for women
The Voices page has recently been littered with racial and sexist slurs, no doubt caused by the leaked Roe v. Wade reversal draft that has stirred the anti-abortion pot, bringing out the political dregs that are normally hidden away at the bottom.
One recent correspondent from Garfield takes a statistic as deeply distressing as the disproportionately high maternal death rate among Black women and twists it into an attack on the sexual mores of Black women, scolding them for not keeping "their knees together in the presence of men who are not their husbands."
So, it's the woman's fault? How does such a backward and misogynistic stereotype find its way to the Voices page? There is nothing in the numbers of maternal death rates among Black women to suggest that these pregnancies originated with men who were not their husbands. Married women die too.
If a woman bears sole responsibility for her pregnancy, then she should have the sole right to terminate it. Approximately 65 percent of Americans believe Roe v. Wade should be retained in some form. The conservative majority of justices on the Supreme Court are predominately male and Catholic, a religion from the Dark Ages that only about 22 percent of Americans claim as their own.
If Roe is overturned, it will be a dark day for women of childbearing age from all walks of life and from all along the political spectrum. Those of us not directly affected because of age or gender will still be made less free because of it.
DAVID ELI COCKCROFT
Little Rock
Florida and Disney
I believe that most people commenting on the Florida actions against Disney fail to understand one thing. Disney had been granted permission to form an independent special district that would allow it to function as a government that was not answerable to anyone. It seems Disney was no longer acting only as a corporation, but as an independent government opposing a superior (legally) government. I think the state of Florida's actions were correct.
CHARLES THOMAS
Sherwood
Good candidate traits
Early voting (and mail-in ballot) voting has started in Arkansas for the primary election. I thought I would relate some of the factors I look for in the candidates I vote for. Perhaps some match the traits you look for in a candidate.
First, the candidate must be an adult who has long given up the practice of calling their opponents names such as "radical" or other childish tags. These appendages to a person's name serve no useful purpose, especially for those that use them.
The candidate must also have a history of not lying or are not lying in their commercials on television or in brochures. Voters/citizens cannot depend on a liar to keep promises made during the election process.
I also do not vote for any candidate who degrades an opposition candidate. Many of these claims fall into the category of tacking on a useless false name to a candidate's given name to try to spark disapproval of that person.
I also like candidates to supply some sort of job history, in essence, why they feel they are qualified for the position they seek. I see many candidates who are eminently not qualified for the position they are seeking.
Finally, I do not vote for a candidate who states they are supported by someone else, no matter what that supporting person's affiliation is and especially when using advertising support from those who have dishonored the position they held and essentially disobeyed the law during their term. This also goes for support from organizations who disobey the law openly and have a record of malfeasance or an outright disregard for the law.
We have far too many candidates that need competition. Unfortunately, too many possible candidates have been soured by the political climate in this country and state, and wish no part of serving the people or exposing themselves to possible ridicule, misinformation or embarrassment. I can fully understand how they feel. However, to sustain our republic, your vote is very important, so vote in whatever way you can!
GEORGE WILKEN
Little Rock