LETTERS

— Chance to do more wasted

Every time I hear Mitch McConnell or John Boehner, I wonder who they think they’re kidding. But then all I have to do is look around me to see who, and it’s quite a lot of people.

These men have much to offer the country if they could put aside their strictly partisan stand on everything and try to help solve thevery real problems we all have. But all they can do is look angry and say, “No.” With them, it’s “Play my game my way or don’t play at all.”

I heard McConnell on NPR say he would not allow the nominations of two men to be federal judges to come up before the Senate. One of these men had been approved unanimously by the Judiciary Committee and the other had received only one negative vote. McConnell said he was holding these nominations up because President Obama made a recess appointment to a position recently, thereby circumventing the Senate right to “advise and consent.”

I remember that he had no objections to President George W. Bush doing the same thing several times over. Good for the goose, good for the gander, I say.

ROBERT McGEHEE Paris

Details uncalled for

Kenneth Heard’s recent story, “Witness tells 911 ‘two cops are dead,’ ” was more information than I needed. I am wondering what purpose was served by reporting in such detail the murder of the policemen in West Memphis.

I am quite sure that the families of the men who gave their lives in the line of duty are struggling daily to deal with the tragedy, and to be reminded of it in this manner is, in my opinion, unnecessary.

That space could have been better used for some other story.

TOM JENKINS Beebe

New corrider needed

Probably most of the time our capital city’s planners spend our money wisely, but not always.

For example, the Little Rock Parks and Recreation Department used poor judgment several years ago when it chose to make a city park in the Chenal Parkway median.

Now they are constructing yet another walking bridge that will connect the river bank at the Interstate 430 bridge to a nearby peninsula and park in western Little Rock. Do you think they calculated cost to the number of citizens who will use this bridge to nowhere? It is another boondoggle.

We citizens of Little Rock need more opportunity to voice our opinions, a way to say no to ridiculous, unnecessary spending. (It used to be a vote.)

Would you speak up if given an opportunity to select the top 10 projects for city improvements and rank them in order of importance to you? Would that new bridge make your list?

On my list I would put the straightening and widening of Kanis Road. Little Rock badly needs another east/west corridor, and there it is.

Perhaps a TV station could conduct such a citizen poll. Our city planners should only consider projects of the greatest need for the benefit of the largest number of people. If the expense is not justified, we need to veto it.

MARGARET CORNETT Little Rock

Test names mislead

Every year thousands of high school students in Arkansas undergo knowledge-based testing in English, biology, algebra and geometry. These tests are administered during April, after which the students still have five to seven weeks of school remaining, so why does the Arkansas Department of Education call them end-of-course exams?

Most students must believe they are finished with the class because of this name. Many teachers must befrustrated because it adds to the classroom management headaches they already have. It is already difficult enough for teachers to motivate this technology-dependent generation to learn. Why does the department need to compound this by giving a name to a test that does not accurately reflect its purpose?

The other name that appears on the cover of the end-of-course exam is ACTAAP. Why couldn’t the department just stick with that as the name for the test? In grades 3 through 8, the state calls these tests Benchmark tests. Why couldn’t the department continue to use that name at the secondary level?

So what’s in a name? A lot. The Education Department needs to realize the mistake it has made and change the name of these tests. I call these tests Subject Knowledge-Based Assessments. This designates exactly what the state is trying to learn without insinuating that it is something it is not, an end-of-course exam.

DAN MOURITSEN Forrest City

Feature appreciated

I enjoyed the recent story by Rachel O’Neal Chaney about Sally Elaine Scudder more than anything I have read in a long time. To think that this family was raised to work and run a business, even through a vegetable stand, is outstanding. They learned that hard work was rewarding and also enjoyable.

I’m sure the children learned good work ethics and how to live a good life from their mother. I, too, remember when families put up large amounts of vegetables, killed hogs and cured meat with sugar or salt or smoked it. My mother canned vegetables from a large garden and my grandfather took care of the meat. Mother and I helped a family as they cut corn off the cob into a large wash tub, then canned it in jars. We had a friend who said he could tell what time of year it was by what was on the dinner table.

Thanks to Elaine and Jane Reynolds for making the River Market what it is today and bringing back memories like the outhouse in the back with the Sears catalog that everyone had. I don’t visit the market in Little Rock, even though I would enjoy it, but we have a nice one here that now has a covered pavilion. They have increased the variety of vegetables, meat and plants each year, and we are fortunate to have it.

Thanks again for the wonderful newspaper, with all of the interesting and informative stories and the Arkansas section, that keeps us up on everything going on in our state.

VIRGINIA FINLEY Hot Springs

Remarks misdirected

Paul Greenberg’s recent column decrying Hastings Law School’s denial of support for the Christian Legal Society is off the mark. Hastings is a government institution; the Christian Legal Society is a religious organization. Powerful well-funded interests are constantly pushing at the boundaries of the Constitution’s wall of separation.

This is another case of the camel’s nose under the edge of the tent. It should be pushed back.

ARTHUR LUCK Maumelle

Planes flown too low

On a recent Friday around 11:20 or 11:30 a.m., two large four-engine planes, presumably jets, flew low over my neighborhood, the Pleasant Hills area, about 3 1 /2 miles west of the Hot Springs airport.

I’m not a trained observer, but the planes’ altitude appeared to be considerably less than 500 feet. The sound made me think of a jet’s engine starting up on a nearby runway when one has to deplane on the tarmac. The house didn’t quite shake, but one could feel a vibration as the planes soared overhead, banked to the north and vanished.

Someone at the Hot Springs airport told me that the dun-colored planes were military and the airport had no control over their flight patterns. I, of course, have no idea how to complain to the military or which branch of the military would be appropriate and so can’t protest what seemed a dangerously low flight over a residential area.

By making this incident public, you may provide a voice for that protest and so perform a public service.

STUART SILVERMAN Hot Springs

Still time to do right

Almost 423,000 Arkansans voted for Barack Obama. Boy, did they screw up.

How do they feel now? What are they going to do about their big mistake? They can’t go back and changetheir vote, and they might not get another chance to vote against him, but they can vote against anyone who would help the Obama agenda and vote for anyone who will try to stop it.

Their next chance to make amends will happen in November. They may like their current representatives, but if they are Democrats, Obama will get their votes when he needs them because his party controls their committee appointments, re-election dollars and manpower, as well as whether they will have a strong primary opponent.

JIM N. KIPPEN Garfield

Throw them all out

I am with letter writer Troy Juzeler 100 percent about the illegals running all over the place. They get everything that’s free. They can get a loan quicker than we can without telling the history of their lives.

I was in a store one day and they gave someone a slip to sign to exempt the taxes and there I was, a 75-year-old woman, been here all my life working and still working, and I had to pay three taxes on my purchases.

Also, they drive with no car insurance and will leave the scene of an accident if they can. I know several people they have hit. I am sure we couldn’t go to their country and get anything if they had it. Let’s throw them all out. I can’t get nothing, not even food stamps.

DOVIE L. SHACK Little Rock

Bias very easy to see

A recent letter to the editor, “Remarks revelatory,” is one of many letters and numerous long columns by guest writers that support the homosexual lifestyle. My last count of these letters and columns was about 30.

In December 2008 I responded to a letter in which I voiced disagreement with the position of a writer. I had to write to Paul Greenberg to get the letter published. There is obviously a bias by the Voices editor.

Letter writer Gary Evans suggests that we Christians should read what the Bible says about homosexuality. Obviously, Evans has not read or refuses to believe what God says in the Bible. That is his privilege.

A number of places in the Bible condemn homosexuality. Has Evans heard of Sodom and Gomorrah? Logic and medical studies also condemn the homosexual lifestyle.

GILBERT R. LAY Searcy

Feedback Shift to compacts

The first thought that came to my mind about these state owned vehicles being abused by our elected state employees was of the type of vehicle.

I can’t afford to drive an SUV, so why would I want my tax dollars to pay for one, provide the insurance on one and pay the gas on one? Someone is not thinking of our state budget here.

Buy a no-frills compact car for these people that gets great mileage, has a low cost on insurance and doesn’t cost a small fortune to fill the gas tank. Bet we won’t have to worry about abuse of the taxpayers’ dollars then.

MARY SHERE Little Rock

SUVs are plentiful

Why is it that the state-supplied vehicles used by our constitutional officers all seem to be gas-guzzling SUVs?

BILL THRASH North Little Rock

Editorial, Pages 17 on 07/22/2010

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