As a resident of Benton County, I have been following the discussions about building a new county courthouse with some interest. I have come to the conclusion that placing the new court house on or near the Bentonville Square is not in the best interests of the majority of Benton County residents.
Logic would seem to indicate that a location with easier access for all citizens of Benton County, and opportunities for additional expansion as needed in the future, should be the location of choice. With the population of Benton County projected to increase substantially in the future, a new courthouse is necessary, but not a courthouse whose only access is by residential streets, and can only service future needs for a short period of time.
I do have worries that the decision has already been made, and the current discussions are just for show, but time will tell. I do know that I will never vote for a millage increase for a new courthouse on or near the Bentonville Square.
Denny Rogers
Garfield
Exporting the nation's water
You think it doesn't matter that foreign countries are buying up American land, businesses and property? Well, get this: Saudi Arabia has bought up thousands and thousands of acres of desert in Arizona. So what? They planted wheat and alfalfa for their dairy industry. They are sucking Arizona's water aquifers dry to raise wheat and alfalfa for their cows. So, Saudi Arabia is, in effect, exporting water in the form of grass. Now Saudi Arabia has bought up thousands of acres in California, which is already drought ridden.
There are no laws in place to stop Saudi Arabia from sucking dry the water aquifers of America. What will we do when the water runs dry?
Marianne Beasley
Fayetteville
Stop attack on Planned Parenthood
According to Wikipedia, Planned Parenthood's services include "birth control and long-acting reversible contraception; emergency contraception; screening and prevention for breast, cervical and testicular cancers; pregnancy testing and pregnancy options counseling; testing and treatment for sexually transmitted diseases; unique sex education programs; menopause treatments; vasectomies; community outreach, such as high school and college workshops and presentations; LGBT services; and abortion."
"PPFA is the largest single provider of reproductive health services in the United States. In 2013, PPFA saw 2.7 million patients in 4.6 million clinical visits. It provided 3.6 million contraceptive services, 4.5 million HIV and other STD-related services, about 1 million breast, cervical, and other cancer related services, over 1 million pregnancy tests and prenatal services, over 300,000 abortion services, and over 100,000 other services, for a total of 10.6 million discrete services."
I'm frankly disappointed if Planned Parenthood has indeed decided to stop selling fetal parts. The research done with this tissue could have one day found cures or vaccines for numerous diseases that someone you know and love may contract.
Cutting off funding for Planned Parenthood will affect millions of poor living in rural areas for whom it is their sole medical resource.
But like so many other Republican causes, ideology trumps pragmatism. Paul Greenberg is following the tried and true Republican M.O.: demonize, defund and privatize. Any institution that speaks to the public good, that corporations and the very rich don't profit from, are systematically destroyed by the Republicans and their Christian Dominionist allies.
The poor are being criminalized in this country: racist drug laws, police profiling, our class-based justice system, the mass incarceration of poor and minorities, the continuing hurdles that the Republicans put in the way of the voting process, mandatory drug testing of welfare recipients -- it's all part of the plan. Planned Parenthood is just another target on their hit list.
But it'll be a cold day in Elephant Land before Greenberg and his co-conspirators confront their own "barbarity" in this regard.
Brad Bailey
Fayetteville
Editorial on 11/07/2015