To new opportunities
As a banker in Southwest Arkansas and an attendee of the opening of Caddo River Forest Products last week in Glenwood, I want to commend Caterpillar, especially Jeff Sampson, as well as Governor Hutchinson, federal, state and local elected officials, and all the many others for their efforts to successfully reopen the sawmill that had been closed since 2009.
The people of Southwest Arkansas owe a debt of gratitude to those at Caterpillar Financial Corp., who showed themselves to be exemplary corporate citizens in our state, working through many obstacles to reopen the mill.
They were dedicated to selling the sawmill to someone who would put it back into production and put our community back to work. For nearly 10 years they paid taxes, back taxes, 24-hour security, insurance, environmental assessments, plus enormous environmental cleanup costs. This will soon put hundreds of Arkansans to work, with benefits reaching into every aspect of our community and region.
As a banker for over 30 years, I have experienced the negative economic impact the closing of a sawmill can have, resulting in a loss of community businesses, hospitals, and local schools. I've seen the hurt in people's eyes when they were forced to move from family homes to find jobs in other areas, so I want to show my appreciation.
On behalf of the people of Southwest Arkansas, we owe Caterpillar a debt of gratitude as well as our elected officials, the Arkansas Economic Development Commission, Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality, the Regional Intermodal Authority, quorum court, and countless others, including the investors in this endeavor. We look forward to new opportunities and economic growth with Caddo River Forest Products.
DARWIN HENDRIX
Antoine
Washington clowns
It seems Donald Trump has done everything he can to turn our allies against us. His whole group acts like they are on Russia's side. Paul Ryan has again proved himself to be a complete idiot.
The Donald said he will bring jobs back to America. Ha, ha! His daughter's shoe company is in China ... low wages, slave labor.
BOB MASSERY
Little Rock
To stop the pollution
USA Today quoted a Michigan representative as having said that he isn't concerned about the effects of climate change because he believes that God will take care of it.
Apparently millions share that belief. Some even point to Bible verses to back up their assessment of the situation, like the phrase found in Revelation (Apocalypse to some) which says in one modern translation that God will "bring to ruin those ruining the earth," while an older translation expresses it this way, that God "shouldst destroy them which destroy the earth."
It might not please the representative to contemplate that God will get rid of polluters in order to stop the undesirable effects of pollution.
LEE WADDELL
Clinton
An uncultivated mind
After decades of reading "letters to the editor" in various newspapers around the country, I discovered that most were biased toward politics and theology, and many were decided failures. I am confident this contributed to the realization that it was unlikely religion or politics were going to change the world in fundamental ways that would make life better for future generations.
I kept asking myself, what can we do to make a better world? Certainly not one blueprinted by opportunists whose modus operandi is that of greed and windfall profits. Some political and religious hucksters can be numbered among those. These individuals have their own agenda, and little regard for future generations or their fellow man.
It is my opinion that a large percentage of this world's inhabitants are not even vaguely aware of who they are or what they are, and know next to nothing about the world and universe they live in. This is an open invitation to be manipulated and exploited by financial swindlers and religious charlatans.
I believe with the advent of religion man became a mental serf, and today a slave to the modern-day marketplace. The ingenuity with which this was accomplished is nothing short of diabolical. We are a society tainted to the roots by the poison of commercialism and religion. It seems the dull, uncultivated mind is scarcely interested in anything beyond the sensations of the body in which it dwells.
AL CASE
Onia
Makes the city better
It is my understanding that the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette is the sponsor of "pay what you can night" at The Rep.
For this, many thanks, as it makes great entertainment available to those who could not otherwise attend. It makes our city a better place.
KARL FLEISCHBEIN
Little Rock
Betrayed constituents
Reading a report from the Guardian, I was shocked to discover that Sen. John Boozman joined 21 other senators in signing a letter to President Trump urging him to withdraw from the Paris climate agreement. The signers have all received contributions from oil, coal, and gas companies. According to the Center for Responsive Politics, Senator Boozman received only $149,930 from those companies in the years since 2012, which is chump change in the huge cost of a U.S Senate campaign.
Is that all our clean air and water are worth to the senator?
The letter states that withdrawing from the agreement is necessary for Trump to be able to "unwind President Obama's Clean Power Plan regulations." Removing these protections is not in the best interest of Arkansans. Nor does it increase jobs or grow our economy. Instead, it harms the health of our people, especially children, from polluted air and groundwater.
Even some oil companies urged the president not to withdraw. Big business is supposedly opposed to the Clean Power Plan protections, but these companies, among others, wrote their own letter to urge staying in the Paris agreement: Apple, BP, DuPont, General Mills, Google, Intel, Microsoft, Novartis, PG&E, Shell, Unilever, and Wal-Mart!
Senator, what were you thinking? Even Sen. Tom Cotton knew better than to sign that letter, and he is not known for either his environmentalism or his restraint. You really betrayed your constituents this time.
MAYA PORTER
Johnson
Wrestling with words
I would like to offer a possible solution to the great Donald Trump "covfefe" tweet mystery.
I believe that Trump meant to tweet "kayfabe" (pronounced keifeib), which is a word used in professional wrestling that describes its scripted storylines, fierce rivalries, matches, and outcomes. Trump, of course, was involved with World Wrestling Entertainment for years, was supposed to have owned the program Monday Night Raw at one point, and is in its Hall of Fame.
I propose that he heard the word kayfabe numerous times with the WWE but never learned how to spell it, thus leading him to misspell it as "covfefe." His phrase "negative press covfefe" suggests that he was attempting to compare "fake news" with a fake sport. In the aftermath, he preferred to have it linger as a mystery than to admit that he misspelled a word.
Incidentally, I don't mean to disparage professional wrestling, as my wife and I have attended a number of wrestling matches, particularly those of the old World Championship Wrestling (WCW), and we actually own a small amount of WWE stock from which we get a nice little quarterly dividend. I often agree with wrestler Mick Foley's assessment that "the real world is faker than wrestling."
ED CHESS
Little Rock
Editorial on 06/08/2017