Store personnel deserve kudos for response to wrecks
Thank you to reporter Bill Bowden for his Jan. 2 article addressing the issue of runaway trucks on Highway 43 through Ponca in Newton County. Truckers routed by GPS are unaware of the steepness of the road. They lose their brakes down the mountain and come through town at a high rate of speed or, in seven cases, lost control and crashed.
I want to add some information to his coverage on the after-effects of these crashes. Three trucks overturned in the exact same spot, most recently on Nov. 9 and Dec. 22, all in the ditch across from the Lost Valley Canoe and Lodging Store right in Ponca. Their staff deserves recognition for providing immediate medical attention to the drivers' injuries, traffic control due to downed power lines across the highway, contacting emergency personnel and county work crews.
Their business has been the only one to experience any property damage and financial loss from these accidents while the rest of us only lost power for a few hours. In addition, they had to manage the cleanup and repairs each time of their own property. Kris Jorgenson, owner, has been a persistent lone voice with the state highway department requesting appropriate road signage for truckers since the worst crash four years ago. From Mr. Bowden's article, it sounds like signs may finally be on the way but it is unfortunate it took two crashes within five weeks to get the department's attention.
My business is next to Lost Valley's and I have witnessed one of the accidents as well as trucks barreling through town with brakes smoking on a regular basis. I thank the staff at Lost Valley Store for being proactive about the safety of our community as well as all the visitors to the Buffalo National River.
Sheilah Roenfeldt
Ponca
Good education may have some disadvantages
In the past I have written about the importance of having a good education, but maybe the time has come for me to question this philosophy.
In the first place, to obtain a good education a person has to attend classes on a regular basis, study and perform homework, all of which reduces the time you have to enjoy television, computer games, cell phones, movies and just hanging out. Is a good education worth sacrificing these important pleasures? In addition, obtaining a good education is costly, so if you decided to forgo it, think of the things you could buy with the savings?
Since today's books, movies, music and television programs are geared to people with a ninth-grade education, a person with a good education often has difficulty finding a form of entertainment that is satisfying. This could lead to anxiety, depression and an increase in substance abuse.
Being undereducated has not prevented many from making a good living, such as entertainers, professional athletes and movie stars. There are many organizations that do not require a lot of education to become a member such a churches, the armed forces, political parties and street gangs.
If you were well educated you would be expected to obtain a good job and make a lot of money, all of which might cause you stress and worry. You would have to pay more income taxes. If you lost your job this could lead to a loss of selfesteem. A less stressful job, at the bottom of the pecking order, would require less education, you would probably have more job security, and have more time to socialize.
If you lacked a good education you probably wouldn't have any investments in the stock market to worry about so you wouldn't need to question whether your friendly stock broker was putting his interest ahead of yours, and you might not have to file a tax return.
From 1966-1976 there was a cultural revolution in Red China where academics who voiced criticism of the government were harassed, intimidated and sometimes detained. Before Donald Trump's election anyone who suggested such might occur in the United States would have been be laughed out of town, but recent pronouncements by Trump and the Wall Street Journal, blaming academics for many of the country's troubles, sound a lot like the new administration is lining up a new whipping boy to blame for his administration's future shortcomings, which you know will occur. Also, this strategy would play well with his undereducated constituents whom he needs to keep happy.
Finally, with less emphasis on a good education, the fact that your child is doing poorly in school would not be much of a concern, and therefore you would not have a guilty conscience because of your failure to require your child to work hard in his or her educational endeavors.
Bass Trumbo
Fayetteville
Commentary on 01/13/2017