Comes down to seats
Our legislators completed in record time the work assigned by Gov. Mike Beebe in a special session last week.
Could it be that, come next January when most of the same legislators are back and in a regular session, they can operate with the same speed and due diligence when considering items on that agenda?
I'd be willing to bet they could accomplish their jobs quickly if the seating--wooden, straight-backed chairs and thin cushions--was routed from the July meeting place to the state Capitol where they've been conducting business from those plush amenities for so many years. It would be a saving of taxpayer money and the legislators could git 'er done and git out.
More time for politicking, huh?
PAUL GOZA
Malvern
Think of scholarships
Where did more than $16,000 in lottery money go? The money went to five of the highest-paid employees of the lottery in the form of bonus/merit pay.
I wonder if five students who didn't get scholarship money will notice.
VERNA WELLS
Malvern
Still room to expand
Lately it seems that there has been too much praise of artificial birth control by fallible people who must think they have more wisdom than God.
I believe God created man in his divine image, male and female, body and soul. God not only gave us his Ten Commandments in the Holy Bible, but he also placed them in our intellects, which we call the natural law.
Increase and multiply, God tells us. With wars and birth control, the earth is far from being filled up.
LAMBERT G. SMITH
Pocahontas
Tide turns for Vandy
Recently I watched with bated expectations as Vanderbilt beat Virginia in the College World Series Baseball Championship.
Not only does the win represent Vandy's first major national athletic championship, it also upholds the tradition of the SEC putting a team in the finals, now for seven years in a row.
The sun is rising in Nashville.
J.P. MOORE
Benton
What country needs
Years ago, when Vice President Spiro Agnew was forced out of office for serious offenses, I seem to recall that one highly placed political figure, not known for his sense of humor, said: "What this country needs is a constitutional amendment barring Greeks from high public office."
In light of recent Supreme Court rulings, I'm going to suggest another: What this country needs even more is an amendment barring Italians, especially pudgy ones, from being appointed to the Supreme Court.
JON ZIMMER
Fayetteville
Owners have freedom
I've noticed a lot of letters about the recent ruling of the Supreme Court regarding Hobby Lobby and other privately owned businesses not being forced to provide birth control to its employees. Most seem to have been against the ruling, stating that it allows Hobby Lobby to impose its religious beliefs on its employees.
What about the owners' First Amendment right not to participate in the purchase of something that goes directly against their own religious beliefs?
If Hobby Lobby is providing insurance for employees and if said insurance is forced to provide birth control, then I believe the owners of Hobby Lobby are indirectly forced to pay for birth control, plain and simple.
Nowhere in the ruling did it say employees could not use birth control, just that Hobby Lobby doesn't have to pay for it. The workers are free to go buy, or even in many cases, get free birth control from county health units or other free clinics.
The First Amendment has a section regarding freedom "of" religion, not freedom "from" religion. It seems many get these confused.
We as Americans can choose our religion and should be free to practice it in our own private lives and businesses.
I believe our government is overstepping its bounds by telling private citizens what to do in their own businesses and homes with respect to religious beliefs.
We as Americans need to take back control from the government and return it to the people.
DAVID McFARLIN
Cabot
Sincere convictions
Several letters over the past few days appear to have characterized the Supreme Court decision regarding Hobby Lobby as a denial of a woman's right to access birth control and/or as allowing an employer to impose his/her/its religious convictions on the medical decisions of employees.
I believe such a characterization is misleading at best.
To my knowledge Hobby Lobby has provided and continues to provide company-paid access to 16 of 20 birth-control practices/products but not to four whose efficacy they believe depends on the destruction of a fertilized egg which is essentially an abortion.
While the company will not pay for those four items, there is no prohibition nor penalty to an employee who chooses to utilize those services; their freedom to do so is not a condition of employment as far as I know.
I believe Hobby Lobby is not imposing its religious convictions on employees but seems to be trying to consistently apply the religious convictions it holds to the practical, everyday responsibilities of running a legitimate business.
Striving for an integrity of one's professed convictions and the actual conduct of one's affairs, personal and professional, seems to me an admirable pursuit. Sincere religious convictions have implications for the whole of life, not only within the walls of a particular house of worship.
EGIL ANDERSON
Little Rock
Editorial on 07/12/2014