LETTERS

Putting America first

I ask the following question as a concerned citizen, taxpayer, veteran, father, and grandfather.

Is there no way to stop or even slow down the steady dissolution of our American financial strength? No one-not even our congressmen who are elected to protect our way of life-apparently wants to talk about forcing meaningful change regardless of political fallout.

Everyone recognizes the humongous, mind-boggling waste, fraud and uncontrolled spending in the entire federal system. Reported examples: Untold billions in Medicare fraud; $4.1 million spent by IRS for a convention; $36 million paid to deceased farmers by the Agriculture Department. Who knows how much foreign aid is wasted?

Where is the willpower to stop even the very worst of these? Are our leaders naïve enough to believe the magnitude of insidious spending coupled with the $17 trillion debt are not monumental problems that demand action now, not on someone else’s watch?

Think of the billions (perhaps a trillion) that could be saved and directed to poverty, health care, education, research, technology, and creation of long-lasting jobs.

You may say this is a far-out pipe dream. I say: Where are honest leaders who will put America first again? JACK MURPHY

Little Rock

Find methods to cope

High-achieving college students have an increased rate of using prescription stimulant medications. Stimulant medications like Adderall are used to treat attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, and according to the Huffington Post, up to 30 percent of college students regularly abuse Adderall. In other words, they use it for purposes like increasing academic performance.

I understand why. The pressure to do well in school is stressful, especially when there are high expectations involved. High-achieving students are motivated to continue excelling in school and rely on stimulants to give them a competitive edge. I was offered Adderall as a freshman with the promise of focused attention and boosted energy to improve my grades. I did not accept the offer because I believe it is only a quick fix for the larger underlying problem of academic pressure or stress.

Since I began college, I stay up later and have dramatically increased my caffeine intake in order to keep up with my schoolwork and retain a high GPA. Sometimes I feel stressed and overwhelmed. I do yoga to handle my stress, but many of my peers resort to Adderall to help them focus. They are more concerned with the positive short-term results instead of the harmful long-term effects such as addiction or suicide.

Not every high-achieving student uses Adderall; I am proof of that. Perhaps instead of college students immediately turning to stimulant medications to quickly solve their academic problems, they should consider a healthier alternative such as exercise.

WINSTON MEYER

North Little Rock

Overhaul that system

I am 83 years old and almost deaf.

I favor Channel 7, but the closed captioning is terrible. I wish it could get an overhaul.

BOBBY JOHNSON

Dumas

Behaving appallingly

It is appalling that the Republican Congress would rather shut this country down than accept that the Affordable Care Act was signed into law and found to be legal by the Supreme Court.

We become very indignant when any of our citizens are held hostage by foreign enemies; I hope there will be such outrage against the members of this Congress who, in essence, are acting in a similar manner.

Why is it so difficult for some people to give Obamacare a try? Surely, there will be problems at first, as there are with many new systems. When the Social Security Act was first passed, many resisted, yet now it is accepted as valuable and necessary.

It is a travesty that so many of our citizens, including children, are unable to have even minimal health coverage. Health care for all is not a privilege but a necessity. I am retired now, but worked as an RN for over 35 years. I have seen so many of our citizens suffer unnecessarily because they were unable to afford a doctor visit. I have seen numbers of people hospitalized at great cost to the taxpayers, when an early visit to the doctor may well have prevented it.

Our current system does not work well. Our current coverage costs for health insurance are not affordable for the majority of people. Let’s aim for improvement through the Affordable Care Act and give it a chance to succeed rather than decide it is doomed to failure from the start.

Shame on our Republican leaders for being more interested in flexing their own muscles than in working with Democrats to best serve the American people.

DARLENE SIMMONS

Eureka Springs

An improved picture

I would like to applaud the Pine Bluff School Board for voting yes on installing cameras into the classrooms.

I think the additions of cameras will improve those schools’ learning environment drastically. It will make it easier to point the disruptive students out and bring clarity to student-teacher disagreements in the sense that a teacher will no longer be able to accuse a student of doing something, and the student will not be able to deny the dispute, because everything will be captured on camera.

Furthermore, it will help targeting bullying and the students that are texting. I believe texting and cellphone usage deserve the majority of the blame for students’ lack of focus in classrooms. With the addition of cameras, it allows authority figures to point out the ones who are trying to learn and the ones that aren’t.

RASHAD McINTOSH

Little Rock

Editorial, Pages 17 on 09/25/2013

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