PUBLIC VIEWPOINT: Blue Lights Not So Special To Pedestrian, Samaritans

Sunday, February 10, 2013

I have a big problem with the police: Benton County, to point fingers.

I’ve had to walk twice a day 2.2 miles to my bus stop at 7 a.m. and 5:30 p.m.. I’ve done this for the last seven years up and down Arkansas 12. Yes, it’s dangerous, I know, but I go in style.

I have battery-operated Christmas lights on my book bag and wear a bright green vest so I can be seen as I walk with traff c.

Everyone who drives this road knows me and I get a ride a lot.

Well, twice now I have been blue-lighted.

The other day, it was raining cats and dogs and I was trying to get home, hand in one pocket and umbrella in the other. A car stopped to give me a ride and, lo and behold, Benton County hits the blue lights on me again and tells me it’s against the law to hitchhike,which I was not doing.

Doesn’t Benton County have better things that need to be done than to stop someone walking. I can see if I had done something wrong, but I was just trying to get home (Oh, by the way, the kind-hearted person who stopped to give me a ride left when the officer put on his blue lights, but to whoever stopped that day, thank you).

By the time I got home, I dumped three-quarters cup of rain out of my shoes.

MARY WALKER

Rogers DOMINANCE RE-ESTABLISHED We can all sleep a little better at night now that our Legislature is hard at work reasserting dominance over women who might wish to undergo medical procedures - legal medical procedures, at that - by coming up with new bills that would restrict a woman’s access to abortion, as well as trying to insert their very own Arkansas version of the infamous and medically unnecessary transvaginal ultrasound in the bills.

Sexually humiliating medical examinations aside, the exemptions for rape and incest are a little intriguing.

Would a simple accusation of rape/incest be enough, or would an arrest be required?

Or an actual trial and conviction?

That beats the bill that wouldn’t allow for any exemptions at all, I suppose.

It’s sort of fascinating that in one part of the world, women are now free to fight for a democracy in which lawmakers can debate their concerns over the possible “constitutionality” of these laws, yet not the fact they turn pregnant women into indentured servants for the state of Arkansas - or even let the word “woman” escape their lips, as seems to be the case with most of the lawmakers who have been speaking about this bill.

RICHARD S. DRAKE

Fayetteville REDISTRICTING TOO MUCH We have been reading several articles about the school boundary changes in Rogers. Some of the articles have said parents just need to volunteer more and stop making a big deal about nothing. Well, the people writing them do not know what parents are upset about.

First, the district is not adding any kids, just an elementary school.

They will take some students from a few other elementary schools to fill the new Darr Elementary.

It will be at least 2 school years before any kids from Darr will go to a middle school. They want to change the middle and high schools around next year to allow growth in the next 4-5 years. They are proposing to overcrowd Heritage High and have 600 fewer kids at Rogers High. They are not taking into account the new Tech High opening next year. The middle schools will all have more than 800 students, except for one, and it will have about 600.

It does not make sense to do any changes to the middle and high schools until we’re adding new students to the district. This might happen by 2017 by predictions of growth.

I have one son who will be a junior and one who will be a freshman. Through what is proposed, my sons will be at two different high schools. They are involved in Friday night and other activities that will separate our family from supporting our sons. My wife and I volunteer 600 to 800 hours a year at their schools. We believe in being involved and supporting the school and students. We are not the only family this will be happening to.

If they would wait for a few years, the district would have time to grow more and they would have time to get the number in for the new tech high. Not to mention to give parents a chance to move to areas so their kids can go to the schools that they want. We understand the district needs to do some changing, but they are going to drastic levels too early.

TROY ADAMS

Rogers

Opinion, Pages 12 on 02/10/2013