Those who will serve
There are many good, thoughtful people in Arkansas who could serve our state well, people like Chris Jones, who is running for governor. But unfortunately he is not receiving the attention he deserves.
And there are people like Sarah Sanders, who is totally unqualified to be governor of our fine state. Her commercials on television suggest that she is a running mate for Donald Trump and only wants to use the position of governor as a stepping stone to national office. She will likely bankrupt the state by doing things such as getting rid of state income taxes and listening to her former boss about how to run the state, while keeping Arkansas a "red" state, ready for his next election.
It is time to vote in people to all elected offices, state and federal, who are sincerely interested in the people they are supposed to serve, and who will do whatever is necessary to protect our democracy. Our top priority should be getting rid of inept people who are only interested in doing what is necessary and popular to get and keep themselves in power!
The attempted insurrection of Jan. 6, 2021, and recent Supreme Court events suggest that our democracy is on shaky ground. We need to restore public confidence and trust in those who are supposed to protect and serve our democracy, not destroy it.
LOUISE HENDERSON
Hot Springs Village
The usage is divisive
Your publication continually uses the term Black (an adjective) as a proper noun. While I understand it is in vogue to use this when referring to "race" issues, I do not understand why you choose to not afford this treatment to the term "white" when referring to "race." This is where it appears your usage is hypocritical.
There is only one race, the human race, which is inclusive of all individuals regardless of their skin color. Assigning people to races based on skin color is a construct that divides populations by the genetic diversity (skin color) of all human beings.
JIM LITE
White Hall
Editor's note: The Democrat- Gazette, in general, follows AP Style. In June 2020 the Associated Press changed its style to capitalize Black when used in the context of race and culture. The next month it announced it would not do the same for white. The article explaining the AP's decision can be found at www.arkansasonline.com/83letter.
Pay by serving public
Re student debt forgiveness: A great idea. How to implement it? Paid public service. Let indebted students earn $15 an hour for performing public service. Those already in public service--military, law enforcement, fire and emergency, teaching, hospital work, etc.--would earn the $15 an hour credit over and above their regular hours and pay. The others would have many opportunities to earn credits by performing hours of work in existing public-service organizations.
JACK SCHMEDEMAN
Little Rock
Punishing the poor
I don't understand why the editorial writers opined against student debt cancellation. Arkansas is the fifth-poorest state in the nation. Benton and Saline are the only two counties with a poverty rate of less than 10 percent. I know this because I'm an organizer for the Poor People's Campaign and I study these things.
It's immoral that poor students are required to take out student loans, and then be asked to pay them back with half a job or no job at all. Moreover, the editorial writers' affordable education alternative is abominably sexist as it proffers industrial jobs in a labor-intensive workforce dominated by men.
This idea that poor people must be punished, and that low-income and low-wealth people will be taxed to death because the feds may forgive student loans is immoral and extreme. The biggest burden on American taxpayers is our war economy, which is set to spend upward of $800 billion per year on weapons, war, and genocide.
College grads don't need lessons in humility or accountability, not from people who preach pro-life all day and then rally for policies that drain the life out of them the very next day. The real college lesson here is that America's guilty conscience for its multitude of broken contracts and crimes against humanity is evident in its defense spending. College grads know that now because they've witnessed it in real time. American history is a series of vulnerable people standing up for their rights to live free and just lives only to be met with insurmountable militarized violence.
There ain't no holes being dug 'round here, but there are certainly a lot of unnecessary graves being dug because so many Arkansans continue to cling to an old-time slave economy that places profit over people.
ANISSA FORD
Haskell
They're working on it
Now that the anti-abortion folks have made their case, may one assume that they are presently working diligently to help procure baby formula for those already born?
MARY N. WATERS
Little Rock
What the money gets
On May 9, the city of North Little Rock finally got started on its long-delayed "Jump Start" project on John F. Kennedy Boulevard in Park Hill. (If this is anything like the one in Levy, plan on the work taking a year or more.) Billed as an upgrade, the existing curbs, gutters, landscaping and sidewalks will be replaced so that we can have a three-foot-wide green strip between the sidewalk and the curb.
It's amazing what you can do when you have $2 million to play with in taxpayer money and don't mind using it to secure trivial items.
JOE WHALEN
North Little Rock