LETTERS

To be clear, concise

Re the letter by Mr. Paul Christ and the answer to his “Why”: Comparing clarity and conciseness of the Affordable Care Act and the Constitution overlooks great differences between the times and the documents.

The Constitution was written in far simpler times as a guideline to preserve freedom and national unity, not as a how-to manual covering every possible legal challenge or purposeful misinterpretation on the path to those goals in the future. Obviously, such was not the case with the Affordable Care Act, where contingency anticipation was attempted, whatever the lack of success in doing so.

I submit that the delegates to the Constitutional Convention would still be writing the first draft of the Constitution if today’s Congress were involved!

GERALD K. O’BRYAN Springdale

Pay more in the heat

Imagine: It’s a hot and cloudless July afternoon, you’ve a bow-rake in both hands, straddling a fresh ditch, dragging and pulling concrete pouring off a truck. Your back is bent, your eyes burning, and the humidity is making sweat course down the crack of your butt. You can’t even think about stopping. Once that truck starts, there is no stopping.

Finally, it runs dry and you have about three minutes before the next one moves in. There is no shade or shelter from the broiling sun and you’re cooking inside your suit. It’s only hour six, and you may have two or four more ahead of you to spend out here killing yourself.

Most people will tell you a little sunshine is part of the job, comes with the territory, and most often the weather isn’t 100-something. But when it gets hot, real hot, your tasks as a laborer in any field transform. Work in blistering heat is much harder to perform and maintain. It’s also not very good for you. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, in the United States in 2011, 4,420 registered laborers were injured and 61 died as a direct result of exposure to environmental heat.

I believe employers should provide additional pay for work performed in extreme temperatures. Laborers are often in circumstances where they have no protection from the sun and are constantly active. A bonus for the extra energy and resolve required to maintain in such deplorable heat would be a great way to show appreciation and respect to the man meeting your deadline.

CHARLES WARD Bryant

Anything for a dollar

I don’t know why I continue to be shocked by what the newspaper continues to print; lurid and graphic details of the latest sex-crime arrest seem to be given without restraint almost daily. Have you lost your sense of shame?

Did you actually approve of the main article in your Style section about strippers, “Risqué business”? Seeing the subtitle-“With heels, pasties, and little else, neo-burlesque dancers get cheeky onstage”-I folded that section of my paper and threw it in the trash.

How nice it would be to have a newspaper staffed by editors and journalists who choose to have a career marked by integrity and professionalism. It is obvious to me that you will print anything to sell newspapers. KARLYN McCULLOUGH Roland

Selective enforcement

We have gotten so used to this president brazenly declaring that he is not going to enforce laws with which he does not agree.

Barack Obama declared that he was not going to enforce the Defense of Marriage Act; then that he was not going to enforce immigration law; and more recently he was going to defer implementation (conveniently until after the next election) of some parts of Obamacare. Now, even though the current law of the land prohibits the Veterans Administration from extending spousal benefits to same-sex couples, he is going to mandate that sharing full financial benefits be done.

This man swore to uphold the Constitution, but in his 2011 State of the Union address, he asked for “the authority to consolidate the federal bureaucracy so that our government is leaner, quicker and more responsive to the needs of the American people.” Have you seen any thinning in the bureaucracy?

I believe his various power grabs are examples of government by administrative order, avoiding even paying lip service to the inconvenience of such things as the constitutionally mandated separation of powers.

How can this super-slick Teflon president not even be by touched by reaction to his radical and, I believe, unconstitutional actions and disregard for the law? It required a compliant and complicit national media. It is as if he cannot be touched by legitimate criticism, and he is able to get by with claiming, with a straight face, that IRS targeting of conservative groups and the fiasco in Benghazi are phony scandals. He must be held accountable.

GEORGE SCHROEDER Little Rock

Not all are to blame

Re William Carlyle’s letter blaming the angling community for trashing the river: This seems to include all anglers, but not all are responsible.

My friend and I have waded in many streams and rivers this summer.We have permission to cross some landowners’ property because they know we will leave it as we found it. My fishing buddy says the only thing we leave behind is our tracks.

A lot of us appreciate the beauty we have in Arkansas and want to preserve it for future generations. Once again, all fishermen are not to blame for what a few seem to destroy.

GENE DAVIS Fayetteville

Doesn’t deserve prize

Malala Yousafzai and Edward Snowden are both among candidates this year for the Sakharov Prize for human rights. I believe the young lady deserves a prize, but Snowden does not.

Snowden is, in my opinion, a traitor to the United States. He has no country willing to accept him with the possible exception of Russia. I think he should be in solitary for the remainder of his miserable life.

VIVIAN HIGGS Sherwood