LETTERS

LITTLE ROCK — It smacks of injustice

As the Race for the Cure was going on, I heard that a good friend had to get chemotherapy treatments. So very sad. It’s sad to hear that people would deny her the medicine to relieve pain and nausea associated with it. Research for yourself—it’s very well-documented. It has helped many people with a myriad of conditions including fibromyalgia, glaucoma, migraine headaches—the list goes on and on.

I would hope that cooler heads prevail and see marijuana for what it truly is, a medicine. For sure, I hear worse things about our pharmaceutical industry, not to mention alcohol and tobacco. Even to the abortion travesty, I’ve even heard that you can’t tell a woman what to do with her body, but then you tell her she can’t have a certain medicine.

To me, that smacks of injustice.

SAM MILLER

Bonnerdale

Votes will decide path

I was against the lottery and I wrote about it. After it was legal I wrote again. I said that because you can doesn’t mean that you should.

In this election, once again votes will determine if our state will be blessed or cursed. When something is wrong in the past, it is also wrong in the present and future.

Some will be asked to vote in liquor. As a state, everyone will be asked to make marijuana legal for the purpose of pain relief. I believe both liquor and marijuana will cause the need for insurance to go up, cause more families to break up, and goals to become a thought of the past.

To vote no on what is wrong is the right thing to do. We need to vote and we need to consider the results of our last election and do what we can in Arkansas to be blessed and not cursed.

TIMOTHY RYE

Van Buren

Why, in its own words

Why you should vote “no” on Ballot Issue 1. Taken from text:

Section 2(f)(2): “Other fees or taxes that are dedicated to the repayment of the bonds”; means such statutes presently on the books and those the Legislature could add in the future.

Section 3(a)(1): “Except for food and food ingredients . . .”; the largest “businesses” in Arkansas—schools and government itself—will be subject to the new tax. How much pressure does this add to increase taxes in other areas? Utilities alone can be significant. And the new revenue is outside control by the Legislature.

Section 4(d)(1): “. . . the sales tax and use tax will be collected over an approximate 10-year period and so long as the bonds are outstanding. (2) The sales and use tax shall terminate upon payment in full of the bonds.” Note that the language does not definitively end the tax in 10 years. Further, schools for a long time have used the device of refinancing bonds to protect and produce additional revenue for purposes beyond that necessary to pay principal and interest on issued debt-service bonds. Why would such practice not happen in this instance?

Then the language in Section 22: “. . . and permanently dedicating one cent per gallon of the proceeds derived from the existing motor fuel and distillate fuel taxes to the State Aid Street Fund.”

This reduces the amount of money available to the state Highway Department for its operation and maintenance. Counties are going to demand similar diversion.

TOM EASTERLY

Hot Springs Village

On the offensive line

Thank you for the recent editorial regarding Boone County quorum court candidate Freeland Dunscombe of Harrison.

There are too many examples of genocide—Rwanda, the ethnic cleansing in the Balkans, the killing fields of Cambodia, Stalin’s purges. Some would include the clinical abortions in the U.S., Europe and China, the genocide of the unborn.

Whom did we offend by omitting them? Can a dead person be offended?

JOHN ROACH

Harrison

Brighter future ahead

October 25 will stand out as one of the most important days in Arkansas Game and Fish Commission history, as the new majority on the commission threw off the shackles that had bound them, and selected Mike Knoedl as the new director.

To understand the significance of this action, you have to go back to 2009, when Emon Mahony was appointed to the commission. He joined Rick Watkins, Craig Campbell and Ron Pierce in an alliance that I believe just about ran the commission into the ground. A series of events, from the abrupt ending to the tenure of a popular director, to the handling of the cancellation of fall turkey hunting in the state, to an attempt to abolish application of the Arkansas Freedom of Information Act had destroyed the confidence sportsmen had in the organization. At the same time, morale reached an all-time low, with many employees taking early retirement, and others leaving for other employment to escape the environment there.

Gov. Mike Beebe deserves a lot of credit for recognizing the problem, and addressing it by appointing three strong, classy individuals to join Commissioner Ron Duncan, and ultimately turning the situation around, with the final step being the selection of an equally strong, classy individual as the new director.

The commission is now structured to do great things for the sportsmen of Arkansas. I applaud the positive actions of all who contributed to this end result, and assure you that the employees are ecstatic about the selection.

SHEFFIELD NELSON

Little Rock

Foregone conclusion?

Sandy may get the blame for this year’s election results not being known for days, weeks or maybe even months if electricity is not restored to the whole East Coast soon. There will be a lot of paper ballots to count and room for even more of the problems that we had in 2000.

The problem is that we are being encouraged to vote, but the experts already know who in which states are voting. The count is already in. They know which candidate each state is leaning toward.

Come election day, is there any reason anybody would stand in those long lines just to cast a vote when the outcome may or may not be known anytime soon, knowing their vote will not alter the outcome because the mighty electoral college has already spoken? In Arkansas we have six electoral votes, most likely for Mitt Romney and that smile, like he knows something that you don’t.

I can remember when Arkansas was a one-party state and we had true statesmen the likes of the former governor and U.S senator, the honorable David Pryor, William Fulbright, John McClellan and Dale Bumpers.

I am praying that no more lives are lost, power is restored, all is well and a president is elected Nov. 6, 2012.

FRANKLIN E. FURLOUGH

Little Rock