State recognizes incarceration ills, but 'nothing happens'
In the last few years, newspapers have reported the deep trouble poor communities face with drug abuse, mental health and inadequate prison systems. Gov. Asa Hutchinson and other officials know it and have ideas to deal with it, but they get nowhere.
I raised seven children in a collapsing rural community. Some families once proudly self-sufficient over 40 years ago have changed. Lots of dysfunction and drugs came with the disruption of old patterns of life. There are a lot of ex-cons in Arkansas as a result. Incarceration alone doesn't cure this brokenness or else the swollen prison population in this state would be the national model for rehabilitation. Without help or rehab, a person has a vastly reduced chance of succeeding where they had already failed before their incarceration.
I talk to friends -- even strangers -- about the problems of our broken communities and or broken families. I talk to and read of people who work on the front lines of Arkansas' social collapse. They have connected the dots for us in this sadness. They know the needs of this population are not being met -- many children are caught in this pipeline of disaster. Working families struggling to make a living will receive the ex-felons who have no hope, help or job after prison. Without reforms the burdens of an ex-con will strain their meager resources often until they break.
The governor knows the problems. Sen. Jeremy Hutchinson got Senate Bill 136 passed to deal with one aspect, the mental health problems that often put folks in prison. He even makes the case for how much big money it saves. But even when the Legislature has evidence that the complicated remedies of restoring broken lives will save the state money (yes, helping these folks is cheaper than hating them), nothing happens.
So I wonder: Why don't these reforms ever show up?
People who can afford this paper and the time to read it comfortably could do something. They can push the Legislature to act on what they have in front of them. What is stopping good folk from making reforms happen? If Arkansas can afford to look at ex-cons and drug users as human beings for a change -- actually save money by being decent and good to them --why doesn't Arkansas do better?
Yes, we "good folks" could get out in the streets and demand help for these broken people, our neighbors.
Because if we don't get out in the streets to make change happen, and fast, the streets will be so clogged up with ex-cons and the homeless that we won't be able to drive off for our papers and morning coffee without running over a few.
Maeve Courteau
Fayetteville
Hallmark movies charming, but miss the message of Christmas
I am charmed by the two Hallmark TV channels featuring Christmas folklore this time of year. I am saddened by the lack of the reason for the season, the celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior, in most if not all of the stories.
The acting isn't bad but false angels, false snow signifying love, ghosts; iconic Santa Clauses and Christmas trees, flying reindeer and sleighs, elves, etc., are insensitive to Christ followers.
What do Christ followers see? "For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved." (John 3:17)
In addition, Jesus said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me." (John 14:6) He is the gateway to eternal life.
The absence of Jesus Christ on the day we celebrate His birth is truly nonsensical and tells us something about the administrative staff in Hallmark.
Hiram B. Cooper
Bella Vista
Commentary on 12/06/2017