Since 2009 Benton County Justices of Peace have struggled with ambulance service. Expect to pay over $1 million to cities in the future. Per The Morning News, ambulance charge for city folks is $500. County residents pay $250 more. If five miles outside city limits, the additional mileage is 10 miles. Do they realize that is $1,500 per hour at 60 mph? Your recent editorial implied county residents were paupers. They pay the same sales tax as I do in Rogers!!! At these rates, 75 hours would pay for a new ambulance!

I strongly suggest the Quorum Court tell the cities that the discussion is over. Unless they wish to charge the cities a franchise fee for the service in the counties. This is one of the dumbest things I have seen in 69 years! Come on Quorum Court and cities, use your heads.

John Whitten

Rogers

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Free Flow of Ideas

Essential for Democracy

I'm glad that you didn't grant Bob Scott's request (July 16), to not publish hatred, because his letter could have been the first one not to be published.

My first reaction to his letter was to ask you not to publish letters that demand some letters not to be published, but then the application of circular logic would have made my letter unpublishable, so I didn't ask that.

Certainly there is some material in our newspaper that I would prefer not to see, but others like it and, who am I to disallow the free flow of ideas? That's one of the basic components of a free society, where respect for others is essential, even in disagreement.

I vividly remember the suppression of ideas (book burnings), masterly described by Ray Bradbury in his book "Fahrenheit 451." The forceful elimination of public dissent is another tool of a corrupt system. We must never go there, except only in a novel.

Octavio Sanchez

Bentonville

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Big Money Influence

Threatens America

The greatest threat to American democracy is the growing power of special interest money over legislation. The greatest contributors to this threat are big oil, the defense industry, pharma, automotive, education publishers and the financial industry. Throw timely (immediate) and perfectly revealing light on this activity.

Robert L. DeGarmo

Bentonville