LETTERS

— At last, wisdom emerges

Finally, a comment from the Arkansas Department of Higher Education that makes sense.

Like a rare beacon of intelligence, Interim Director Shane Broadway finally posed the question that some have been avoiding for years: “What good does it do to have more people with degrees if those people can’t find jobs?”

For years we have been told by intellectuals that if poor Arkansas just had more folks with college degrees, our economic woes would be solved and we’d all be on easy street and live happily ever after. Common sense says otherwise.

Just suppose, hypothetically, that everyone in the state had a college degree. Does that mean that entry level burger-flippers with a degree should be paid higher salaries? If so, the price of burgers would have to go up to pay the higher salaries, thus affecting those who buy burgers. A college-educated burger-flipper demanding a high salary might just price himself out of a job.

Furthermore, does a college degree necessarily enhance job skills? Do mail carriers need to be versed in William Shakespeare’s 37 plays and 154 sonnets to enhance job proficiency or salaries?

There are some jobs better served by college graduates, but there are many jobs that are better served by employees with technical training and/or on-the-job experience.

Appreciation is due Mr. Broadway for clarifying the viewpoint of the Arkansas Department of Higher Education.

BILLY BOOTH

Hazen

Opposing ignorance

Congress has so much urgent legislation stacked at its doorstep that gun control likely will never get across the threshold. We must not stake our hopes to get AK-47s and AR-15s out of the public domain with gun-control legislation. Gun-control laws are sporadically enforced and prosecuted.

Public opinion is the more powerful mechanism if applied vigorously and steadily. Assault rifles and other guns with mass-killing ability must not find a comfort zone anywhere in civilian culture.

Informative education will be our salvation to assemble mature minds. We must dissect every aspect of the reasons to possess an assault mass killing weapon. We must be able to articulate the foolishness of immature thinking.

We must inform assault-gun owners of the danger of passing their firearm along to another person without a background check being performed on that person.

We cannot let the National Rifle Association lead us down the rosy path to believe that assault rifles are no problem.

I know from personal experience that no one ever speaks out in opposition to ignorance unless you do it yourself.

RICHARD BULLARD

Stuttgart

Criminals just chuckle

How long is it going to take all you mental giants out there to realize that only honest, law-abiding people obey laws? You can pass more gun laws in addition to those we already have and the crooks just laugh.

It seems that all the really smart people have joined in demonizing the NRA when actually they are correct in saying the only solution to stopping a deranged nut with a gun is someone else with a gun. Or should I say some nut with an “assault weapon,” aka your semi-auto deer rifle. Think about it.

I am sure that there plenty of teachers who would volunteer to be trained to handle a firearm and do just as good a job as some hired law enforcement personnel.

HAROLD HICKS

Mabelvale

Honesty is imperative

I realize this may seem like fantasy, but it’s true. When it comes to any and all elected officials who represent the citizens, they need to be honest, with unquestionable trust and ethics. If not, how can they be trusted to do what is appropriate for the benefit of the public?

It doesn’t matter what political party they are from. If they will violate the rules of office, lie, cheat on their wife, break laws and violate any oath they have taken, they have proved that they can’t be trusted. They should not be permitted to hold office one day longer or ever be elected. Who would want a representative who would lie, cheat, steal or misuse funds?

I’m surprised and disappointed at the Arkansas Ethics Commission, which fined Jeremy Hutchinson, saying he illegally converted campaign contributions into “personal income.” If elected officials of government cannot uphold true ethics, the law, and his/her oath of office, then they should be removed. The citizens deserve better.

This holds true for Attorney General Dustin McDaniel over the admission of an inappropriate relationship with an attorney he met during the 2010 campaign, another who cannot be trusted to follow the oath of marriage; and Treasurer Martha Shoffner over questionable activity regarding a decision to sell bonds before maturity which auditors said cost the state several hundred thousand in unrealized earnings, which raises some ethical questions.

ROBERT L. MAYNARD

Hot Springs Village

What to recommend

Thank you for the chart you published recently showing some of the deadliest school shootings. It was interesting and instructive, but I’ve been looking for additional details.

I know that the NRA provides firearm information and training, so now that they’re back on the Internet and answering their phones, I intend to contact them to find out what weapon and ammunition they recommend for a school shooting.

JON ZIMMER

Fayetteville

Brought on ourselves

It’s no surprise to see the announcement of the reduction of the fleet at Little Rock Air Force Base. I would bet dollars to doughnuts that other states are hearing similar news.

While it is to the credit of this great state of Arkansas, we are not responsible for Barack Obama retaining the presidency. I wonder how many of us, including myself, voted for those in the Senate and House who allowed this reduction in our armed forces to occur.

The recent slaughter of schoolchildren by a man armed with a weapon meant for war gave cause to those who would completely disarm our nation. Please don’t misunderstand. I’m in favor of forbidding anyone except the military to possess weapons with that capacity. However, I’m definitely against allowing the government or anyone else to have the knowledge of who owns what arms.

The last election, we did great as far as the presidency slot. I don’t know how we fared as far as the Senate and House was concerned.

Next time, I hope and pray we will consider not only the party our candidates represent, but their stand on other primary issues. Contact your friends and relatives in other states to see the light and vote accordingly.

DICK STEMPLE

Sherwood

Special spot for bullies

Every week, my 87-year-old mother-in-law gets at least a half-dozen letters from fear-mongering so-called lobbyists demanding she sign petitions and send money so the lobbyists can save Social Security, impeach the president and eliminate the “ job killing, Obama health plan.”

These bullies prey on older Americans in every city in every state. No one is safe, not even the children and grandchildren of the prey. We have to try to overcome decades of teaching and manners. That mail must be read, the someone who asks for help must be helped, and someone who pretends to value an older person’s opinion must be listened to. Right now, I have a pile of letters gathered at my mother-in-law’s home over the Christmas holiday.

These people have no morals. They prey on people who are living on limited retirement accounts and Social Security, people who are quite honestly concerned with whether they can pay bills and buy food, even if their bank accounts hold sufficient funds.

Those who seek out fear, who profit from another’s anxiety, those who prey on the defenseless will receive their reward, but not until they have taken hard-earned money from their victims.

By law, relatives cannot stop the fear-mongers from hounding our elders. We cannot interfere with another person’s mail, but we know there is a special place in hell for those who take advantage of the elderly. I regret that punishment is not available right now.

ROBERT MERRIMAN

Hensley

Simply fulfilling intent

There has been a series of foolish and downright silly comparisons made concerning street-ready semiautomatic assault weapons. It began when this newspaper’s editorial staff stated that the only difference they saw between a semi-automatic assault weapon and a deer rifle is how they look. Then one person equated a bus accident that killed nine people with the Sandy Hook killings. Several people asked if we should ban cars because people are killed in cars. Then the topper, someone from Benton opined that a ban on assault-weapon ownership could lead to the federal government curtailing the ability to purchase a big-screen TV.

Is this what passes as serious dialogue? Be clear: No domestic bus, or car, or TV is designed for the purpose of killing people.

The weapons under discussion are thinly modified versions of military semi-automatic assault weapons. Both versions are designed to quickly kill a lot of people, up close and personal. A person can use his domestic weapon only for target shooting or out in the woods blowing away critters, but in doing so he is not using this weapon for its designed purpose. Both versions of these weapons are designed for the purpose of being effectively deadly killing machines.

Remember the next time that a person uses a domestic semi-automatic assault weapon with a high-capacity magazine in a movie theater, a drive-by or a school and kills scores of innocent people, that person is using that weapon exactly the way it was designed to be used.

SAM ALBRIGHT

Hot Springs

Feedback

Perilous intelligence

We have two cats. Both are reasonably smart as far as cats go. But they are not smarter than dogs. Do cats care? No, they couldn’t care less. They don’t have anyone to suck up to, no rules to follow, no behavior to follow except their own.

But what if they woke up from one of their cat naps and found they suddenly had intelligence? What a burden! They’d ask “what does all this mean?” “Where am I going when I die?”

And getting no reasonable answer, they’d start fighting over trivia and nonsense more than they did when they were just stupid. Their fights would escalate in viciousness, as most fights tend to do, particularly when they inevitably disagree over which cat’s god is the one and only true cat god.

BILL WATSON

Little Rock

Solve current woes

I haven’t thought completely through Bradley Gitz’s recent column on marriage, but a couple of things occur to me right away.

One is that individuals who are not home raising kids probably tend to be in the workplace; and two, most of our local and global problems likely are linked to rapidly rising population.

So we can probably turn these two developments into positive influences if we just apply ourselves to seeking solutions to problems before us. It’s past time to do that anyway.

KAY CARPENTER

Little Rock

Editorial, Pages 11 on 01/14/2013

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