LETTERS

Should pay for its defense

I have an idea: When a legislative review says a proposed bill is unconstitutional, what if the state made any legislator who wrote and/or voted for it pay into a fund to cover any future legal costs for when the state has to (try to) defend it later?

From what I’ve read, it cost about $150,000 for a 1999 unconstitutional abortion bill that was passed after the state’s lawyers advised against it.

The money could be collected at the time the votes are cast and escrowed until the court renders its decision. If for some reason the legal department was wrong, then the escrowed funds could be released back to those who voted for it.

Maybe adding a premium for the authors would be another good idea. After all, they’ve taken an oath to support the law and the act of writing and passing something that is unconstitutional is a disservice to our citizens.

Legislators need to be the model of legal accuracy. When they go off half cocked (no pun intended) and write or support a bill intended to affect something beyond their jurisdiction, then they are essentially attempting to miseducate the public. We’d fire a teacher who was telling students untruths. If an employee told a customer something that wasn’t true about the company he was working for, he’d get fired and end up with negative recommendations for future jobs.

Isn’t it time we apply the same standards to our elected officials as we do our other workers?

Of course it is.

CAROLE HARTER

Fayetteville

We must do something

The First Amendment says: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof …” Yet, why is it not prohibiting the free exercise of Catholicism to force it to underwrite abortion with the falsehood that it is an insurance company which will pay for the abortion when it is the church that has to pay for the insurance?

And, what is it to attempt to use the law to force the use of the term “marriage” for something that is not what Christianity has held for centuries to be marriage-the union of a man and a woman before God?

Why would these acts not be called, at the same time, making laws respecting the establishment of a religion, where that religion is called atheism?

Write Congress, sign a petition. If you don’t do something, you are part of the problem.

CLYDE C. GRADY II

Cabot

That respect is illusion

Well, Jim Rawlins’ recent letter was the typical liberal diatribe: mean old white men trying to keep a defenseless woman from getting an abortion.

You know, for years I have pondered how thoughtful men like Jim, who apparently have the utmost respect for all women, probably either ignore or would vote in a heartbeat for men like Eliot Spitzer, Anthony Weiner or the great Bill Clinton? Then I had an epiphany: This whole “liberal men respect women” idea is nothing but one great big lie. I believe the truth is that the liberals just want to make sure they don’t have any offspring after they “love ’em and leave ’em.”

I think this notion that liberal men respect women has been one of the greatest frauds perpetrated on women ever; they don’t respect women. I believe that to most liberal men, women are little more than animals to vent their passions with.

ROBERT YEAKLEY

SpringdaleCan’t afford defunding

Some elected officials want to defund Planned Parenthood health centers in Arkansas. What would that mean? It would mean more unwanted pregnancies, higher abortion rates, more undiagnosed cancers among our state’s poor and uninsured. In other words, more government expense and more demand upon limited resources for people in need.

Arkansas deserves better than this. If we want to empower young women, if we want to improve the lives of families in our communities, let’s fund Planned Parenthood. Two-thirds of Planned Parenthood patients in Arkansas are at or below the federal poverty level. To defund Planned Parenthood would make it all the harder for them to achieve their life goals of education, careers and children when they are ready to become parents.

You don’t like abortion? I really don’t like it, either. If we want to reduce or eliminate abortions, fund evidence-based sexual-health education. Education reduces the demand for abortion. Young adults aren’t going to stop having sex; let’s be honest. To reduce sex education will drive up birth rates and put more women into poverty. Spending a few dollars now on sex education will save thousands of dollars down the road.

Arkansas can’t afford to defund Planned Parenthood.

MANUEL LOPEZ

North Little Rock

Good reasons for ban

An NRA-member neighbor of mine asked me to give him two good reasons to ban assault weapons in the United States.

I gave him 26 good reasons: Charlotte Bacon, 6; Daniel Barden, 7; Olivia Engel, 6; Josephine Gay, 7; Ana Marquez-Greene, 6; Dylan Hockley, 6; Madeleine F. Hsu, 6; Catherine Hubbard, 6; Chase Kowalski, 7; Jesse Lewis, 6; James Mattioli, 6; Grace McDonnell, 7; Emilie Parker, 6; Jack Pinto, 6; Noah Pozner, 6; Caroline Previdi, 6; Jessica Rekos, 6; Avielle Richman, 6; Benjamin Wheeler, 6; Allison Wyatt, 6; Rachel Marie D’Avino, 29; Dawn Hochsprung, 47; Anne Marie Murphy, 52; Lauren Rousseau, 30; Mary Sherlach, 56; Vicki Leigh Soto, 27.

All 26 were killed by the combination of a man and an assault weapon at Sandy Hook Elementary in Connecticut.

PORFIRIO GUTIERREZ

Bella Vista

Aw … go take a hike!

My weight is about the same as it was 50 years ago. My problem is that what was once on my arms, shoulders and chest has now gone down around my waist.

I guess it’s age, or I have been eating too many low-fat foods.

I wonder how many people made a resolution to lose weight this year. A therapist told me years ago that the best way to reduce weight was to walk a mile in 16 minutes or less, four or more times a week. Anything over this time was good exercise for the muscles, heart and lungs, but not to lose weight.

Eat regular meals, but don’t overeat. It wouldn’t cost you anything to try to cut out between-meal snacks, drink plenty of water and limit yourself to one can of pop per day.

People with abnormal health problems should not try this, but most people can do it. So, if you are serious about losing weight, start walking, faster and faster.

CHARLES LASITER

Fordyce

Every little bit helps

I bet if each citizen sent a one-dollar bill to President Barack Obama at our White House, he would soon have enough to allow the schoolchildren to once again tour during their spring breaks to Washington. What a great idea.

JOSEPH C. BECK

Little Rock

Treat all as important

My ancestors were Irish immigrants who came here as indentured servants. My grandmother would tell me stories of their lives and their treatment. These conversations came about because of discussions, when I was growing up, about the civil-rights movement. I grew up in a small town out west and we didn’t see any of that firsthand. I had a hard time imagining how they must have felt because in our town everyone was equal, from the mayor to the girl who served coffee in the cafe.

So you could only imagine my shock when I moved to the South. I adjusted well but now in the last few years I’m getting a taste of how my ancestors must have felt.

I work for a university, and unfortunately I’m not in a professor or coaching position. I do the cleaning for some major facilities, and have done that for many years. I was and still am proud of my profession, but some people think less of you if you’re in that position, even down to the students. I’m proud that I can go home each day and know that I have made my work area as clean and safe for our students and staff as possible. But I resent the fact that the work I do is taken for granted or, worse, looked down upon. I raised and sent two children to college on this job. But I have never been more disheartened than I have in the last few years. Many of my co-workers feel the same but will not voice it for fear of losing their jobs. I also fear that. I just wish we were treated as important, or at least as equal.

THERESA SIMS

Farmington

Women deserve better

When I went to Planned Parenthood, I did not go there to make a political statement-I went there to get my basic, preventive health-care needs met at a high-quality, affordable women’s health provider I knew and trusted.

Before I had health insurance, Planned Parenthood was one of the very few health-care providers in my area that I could turn to for the basic care I needed because I was among the one in five uninsured women in Arkansas. The care I received was extremely professional, thorough and compassionate. I was not a number or a quota; I was treated with respect and regard, even though my income was at the poverty level, even though I did not have the means for necessary checkups that could, for example, diagnose and treat cervical cancer.

The Legislature should reject Sen. Jason Rapert’s proposal to bar public funds from Planned Parenthood health centers (Senate Bill 818). Planned Parenthood is a trusted health-care provider; in fact, one in five U.S. women have visited a Planned Parenthood health-care facility.

When politicians campaign against Planned Parenthood-and seek to bar the nonprofit organization from funding that helps women get health care we can afford-there’s no question that they are putting politics ahead of the health of women like me.

I deserve better. Women deserve better.

AMY BISHOP

Little Rock

Pssst-want a nuke?

If everyone having guns makes us safer, shouldn’t all nations have nuclear bombs?

HAROLD MOSIER

Cherokee Village

Feedback

Hypocrisy abounds

Re the concealed-carry permit list: Why is there so much hypocrisy with this issue? If those in the liberal press want to publish a list of those who have this permit, then can we expect them to publish a list of those who receive food stamps, get housing vouchers for reduced rent, Medicaid, Supplemental Security Income, or the like? Knowing where some of these folks live might be beneficial as it seems crime follows them.

Of course, this suggestion is just as ridiculous as is this hysteria over the concealed-carry laws.

DON SHELLABARGER

Little Rock

Vote saved money

Troy Gittings derides the “Ledge” for failing to pass higher minimum wages.

All single minimum-wage earners (families are different) and anyone who spends money in Arkansas should send letters of thanks. All costs to the employer will be passed on in higher prices for the spenders. And the difference on a 52-week 40-hours worked would, at $9 an hour, result in an actual $546 less in take home for a single worker. Check the IRS withholding tables.

MARY WARREN

Hot Springs