Queries for senators
To Senators John Boozman and Tom Cotton: Since the Republican Senate's "health care" bill is being drafted in secret, with details to be revealed only after it has been passed, can you give your constituents some heads' up on what we can expect?
How many Arkansans will lose the health coverage they gained under Obamacare?
Do you have any advice for Arkansans with pre-existing conditions?
How much will Medicare benefits need to be trimmed?
And for your wealthiest constituents, how much of a tax break can they expect to reap?
Will you be able to keep the health plans afforded members of Congress?
I await your answers.
EARL BABBIE
Hot Springs Village
Downtown's the spot
We recently enjoyed an evening downtown, on Main Street south of Interstate 630.
Within a three-block area, we enjoyed a unique dinner of locally grown fresh food in a local-owned unique restaurant, without any of the highly annoying video screens on the walls or their loud noise. We and other diners were able to converse without having to scream to be heard.
Afterwards, we crossed Main Street to a locally owned ice cream parlor, where we enjoyed unique homemade ice cream. We found shops where we could find actual antiques and vintage items (not the fake kind so often seen in many stores today), and unique clothes, art and other products not found anywhere else.
Just try finding these things out in west Little Rock.
C.S. EVANS
Little Rock
Unions already did it
After the last 40 years of trying to destroy unions, big construction companies are now complaining that there aren't any skilled people to do the work anymore.
These unions were the breeding ground for these kids that weren't interested in college educations. The trade unions gave them a chance to learn a trade, and get paid while they learned.
The administration now says what we need are apprentice programs. However, it seems what they want is to have control of these programs.
The trade unions have been using these programs for many years, so they don't need the government to tell them how.
CARL ANDERSON
Hot Springs Village
One forgettable man
Jim Guy Tucker was convicted of mail fraud, resigned as Arkansas governor, rescinded, then resigned again in the face of a threat of impending impeachment. I'm not sure what rises to the level of "major scandal" in the executive branch for Mr. Rex Nelson, but I'd have to count that odd episode, and it was only 20 (or so) years ago.
I guess Rex, like most of us, prefers to forget Mr. Tucker.
JD ROBINSON
Little Rock
Bad logic everywhere
There's an epidemic of bad logic--name-calling, either/or, guilt by association. Some imagine there's a blood feud between McDemocrats and McRepublicans--two enormous clans of 50 million each. Absurd.
Jumping to conclusions, Clara Erickson insists Democrats did not condemn the baseball shootings. My search engine took me to CBS News where I read condemnations of the violence and tributes to fallen colleagues from Democrats Joe Biden, Nancy Pelosi, Steny Hoyer, Chuck Schumer, Claire McCaskill, Independent Bernie Sanders, and others.
Why this rush to feel victimized and outraged? Isn't there enough drama on television--must we manufacture insults and demonize our neighbors?
In a different illogic, Pam Montgomery says we shouldn't believe in climate change because scientists are often wrong. Examples are an 1879 naval expedition to the North Pole, the 1930s Dust Bowl, and the sci-fi film The Fly. None of this has anything to do with modern climate science.
Historically, scientists have made mistakes, but science has one great advantage: It is self-correcting. Scientists test each idea over and over before they ever accept it, and then only provisionally.
Decades of testing have convinced the vast majority of world scientists that human activities are causing dangerous climate changes. A total of 192 countries representing 95 percent of world population, and 70 percent of Americans accept these findings. But denialists assert a smug superiority over the rest of the world that is out of step. It seems they prefer to believe a confused, paranoid ideology perpetrated by propagandists and politicians in the pay of the fossil-fuel industry.
CORALIE KOONCE
Fayetteville
Roll up those sleeves
When the president announced the pullout from the Paris climate deal, you would have thought he had the ability to end the world. The cursing, shrieking, and caterwauling was deafening.
It's time for each country to clean itself up. If the gentleman from North Korea would save the money, material, and energy from one missile launch, he could buy enough garden tillers and fertilizer to produce lots of food. Reports tell us there is mass starvation among his people. The pollution from one launch is astounding.
Remember Rio de Janeiro and the Olympics? Also China? They have the ability to clean up their countries. They need to roll up their sleeves and pick up a shovel.
We need to limit the cash that we don't have, and send them brochures explaining how we clean our country.
Whether it is a city block or a nation, I can start by mowing and cleaning my small part of the world.
WILSON ROWLETT
Rogers
Editorial on 06/21/2017