Letters

Repair, don't repeal

My admiration to Rep. Steve Womack for meeting with his constituents in West Fork, even the ones who didn't vote for him. One thing I heard him say clearly was that "the people of Arkansas sent me to Washington to get a hold of spending." I agree. Here's my question: How many billions of dollars will be spent destroying the Affordable Care Act only to try to rebuild it? Wouldn't it have been cheaper to fix the program already in place?

Parts of the ACA worked. Thousands of people in Arkansas got medical insurance for the first time. It's not perfect, but it's something, and now it appears we are about to get nothing but a suggestion that we open a savings account. A health savings account is a great idea; I have one. But my HSA will not reduce the price of insurance for my kids, and it will not make my insurance company treat me fairly. Good old "Obamacare" did both. Parts of the ACA worked because hundreds of people from the medical and insurance industries cooperated with our government to build it.

Who did not cooperate? Members of Congress like Representative Womack. They insist on destroying a huge program we already paid to build and now want to spend millions more to replace it. I believe that is money wasted, it is government spending out of control, and not what we sent him to Washington to do.

JEANMARIE MAKO

Pettigrew

Beyond its proper role

Arkansas Senate Bill 148 requires any aborted fetus that is born alive to receive immediate medical care. If the doctor fails to provide such care, he would be subject to a Class D felony punishable by up to six years in prison. The bill further provides that such a fetus, if unwanted by the parent(s), shall become a ward of the state and that the mother be informed that her child was kept alive against her wishes.

This would apply to fetuses at 19 weeks or less because the state outlaws abortion at any later date. This stands in direct conflict with the American Medical Association's recommendation that "resuscitation should be withheld when the gestational age is less than 23 weeks, birth weight is less than 400 grams, anencephaly is present, or with a confirmed diagnosis of trisomy 13 or 18."

Of course it's no surprise that the Arkansas Legislature thinks it knows better than doctors. Or parents who have decided for a complex set of reasons to terminate the pregnancy.

Arkansas can't afford to take care of normal children, much less provide for five months of neonatal medical intensive care. The costs don't stop there. Extreme prematurity comes with a host of lifelong disabilities. Amid the cries for cuts to Medicaid expenses, now we've got money to force life on aborted fetuses?

I believe this outrageous legislation steps far beyond the state's proper role. The decision to produce a child rests with the parent(s). Period.

DENELE CAMPBELL

West Fork

Bringing in the leaves

North Little Rock is not the only city in the area with a vacuum truck to pick up leaves. Although the service has ended for this season, Sherwood also does a great job.

CLAIRE LEHENY

Sherwood

A depressing future

Having read Mike Masterson's column, "A sea change," I felt compelled to respond. That column was certainly the most depressing piece of work I've read lately.

I knew Mr. Masterson briefly in Newport and I often wondered what had become of the person I once knew. He always seemed to be a thoughtful and concerned person.

The predictions by this all-knowing guru of Wall Street or whatever are truly terrifying. He states that the EPA will be "defanged," and that climate-change legislation will basically be dead. If all his predictions are true, then I am glad that I'm 70 years old and may not have to see a world like this. He describes a nation totally dedicated to the pursuit of greed, with massive increases in funding for weapons and no concern for the vulnerable members of our society; a world where breathing will be difficult because of pollution, and there is zero concern for endangered species. No, they are not instrumental in making money, are they?

No, I truly do not want to be around for this future. I believe this horrifying scenario is possible given the ascent to power of an ignorant and vile person in our country. If you feel the same and want a different future for our country, now is the time to act.

And I won't be reading Mike Masterson.

CATHERINE LAMB

Little Rock

Fundamental breach

Recently we witnessed the resignation of a highly placed National Security operative for behavior that can only be described as insubordinate; information that was provided to representatives of our current government was less than accurate and as such placed the credibility of the VPOTUS and the United States in question. As a result, the person involved was "asked" to resign and did so.

On its face, this is a relatively straightforward issue. However, several security officials who spoke on condition of anonymity reported to the mainstream media that the adviser had been in contact with a highly placed Russian government representative during the administration's transition period and may have lied to the FBI regarding the topics of those conversations. This is not in question. SIGINT intercepts/transcripts of those conversations exist.

"We the people" are guaranteed life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness by our Constitution. Each and every person that works inside of the federal government takes an oath of office that reiterates their responsibility to "protect and defend the Constitution of the United States from all enemies, foreign and domestic." It says that because internal threats are real. People have and will act against the best interest of the governed to achieve their own agenda. Unless we as a people are willing to blindly accept what our government tells us (which I am not), we must insist on a full and complete accounting of this fundamental breach in our national security.

"The supreme quality for leadership is unquestionably integrity. Without it, no real success is possible, no matter whether it is on a section gang, a football field, in an army, or in an office."--Dwight D. Eisenhower.

LENNY BURNETT

Jonesboro

Editorial on 02/25/2017

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