Abandon the lottery
Some legislators are disappointed with the failure of the House to authorize issuing bonds which would lead to adding the sales tax to the cost of gasoline to maintain highways.
If I have understood the news, the government readily authorized paying a marketing firm more than $34 million to advertise the lottery. I suggest using that amount to fund highway work, shore up the teachers' retirement, or raise teacher pay. If the lottery can't support itself, it should be abandoned.
GLENN PICKEL
Fayetteville
Controlling narrative
LOL, too funny. You've got to love it. Playing the "rope-a-dope" with the national media, broadcast and print. Ha ha!
In the campaign Donald Trump referred to the major media outlets and talking heads as the most dishonest people. Today it seems he totally controls the slobbering media folks like a monkey on a leash. Just when you they think they have caught him in another embellishment (read lie), they are all over themselves like little gleeful children. Yet the shoe is really on the other foot.
I believe he is totally controlling the narrative. His direct line to the "American people," completely bypassing them, rips their guts out and totally infuriates them no end. They are exploding like Jonathan Karl, the ABC rabbit (as reported by Reuters News Service), while arguing with Sean Spicer every day. What a circus.
I believe the news agencies and self-important news media folks are irrelevant today. The real people out there can obtain all the real news, not fake news or spun news, on their own. The question of the day: Why don't they get on board and be a team player rather than acting the fool? MAGA, GBA.
LOUIS R. BURNETT
Little Rock
The home of the brave
Really? When I hear claims that the so-called travel ban would keep us safe, I don't know whether to laugh or cry!
First, we Americans need to realize that the United States of America is the most violent developed country on the face of the earth. According to health statistics tables (Source: Centers for Disease Control), between 2001 and 2013, there were 406,496 deaths from gun violence in our country, while the death toll from terrorism targeting Americans on U.S. soil and abroad combined was 3,380.
I will not even get into pedophilia, white slavery, road rage or any other dangers. So my point is that no one is really safe at any time. And remember that travel ban is for those people who have been vetted thoroughly and granted visas and are coming here legally.
So let's live our lives without fear and be deserving of the words in our national anthem, "land of the free and the home of the brave."
ROSE GOVAR
Maumelle
Death penalty's right
Letter writers have said the death penalty is wrong, and one writer said for "morality and the Gospel." But God says in the Bible whoso sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed, for in the image of God made he man.
HERBERT PAGE
Conway
We were soldiers then
Sometimes good men die because of preventable mistakes by their leaders, mistakes like a bombing pause for North Vietnam or a complete pullout of U.S. troops in Iraq. Inevitably these battles must be refought at great cost to those doing the fighting.
In the winter of 1971 the mood was tense at Joint Airbase U-Tapao, Thailand. B-52 crews there had seen the loss of six of their airplanes and crews over North Vietnam a few months earlier. President Nixon had then declared a bombing halt, giving the enemy time to rebuild its air defenses, but he was now considering sending bombers over Hanoi again. These men knew if that happened some of them would not be going home again, ever. And so it was.
I remember that evening when some grim entertainment was prepared outside the officers club. A king cobra was placed in a wire cage with a mongoose. As I watched, I thought the furry little mongoose had no chance against the powerful, deadly cobra; surely it would be over quickly. Not so. That night the mongoose taught me a lesson about wisdom, courage, tactics and patience that prevails. It knew that in a short fight the cobra would win, but in the long fight the endurance of the mongoose would allow it to live.
The mongoose would never allow the cobra to rest. It would periodically face the snake and slowly advance to deliberately draw a strike. That is when the mongoose would counter, attacking the cobra's head with teeth. The next morning the mongoose was still alive but the cobra lay dead on the cage floor.
Our nation is also in a fight we didn't choose against an ideology of terrorism that must be defeated. Our leaders should adopt the mongoose way, fighting smart, and as if the life of our nation depended on it. As to the military veterans who have borne the battles, I'm sure many would like to sit down and tell a grandchild, "I was there; I did that; we were soldiers then."
DAVID BRYANT
Lonoke
Short-term memory
It seems as though a number of writers of letters to the editor suffer from hypocrisy or short-term memory only. In his letter, David Robinson complained about President Trump's barrage of executive orders. Mr. Robinson seems to have forgotten President Obama's barrage of executive orders; remember--"l have a pen and a phone"? I don't recall reading a letter by Mr. Robinson in which he expressed concern about that "power-over" leader!
And how about David Burrow, the "money-saver." He is so very concerned about taxpayers having to foot the bill for President Trump's trips to his home in Florida and for protecting Trump Tower in New York City and the Trump family. I guess Mr. Burrow has forgotten about President Obama's numerous vacation trips to Hawaii and trips around the world on "government business." And what about the many trips made by Mrs. Obama, accompanied by her two daughters and mother, to places like China and Spain? Were those taxpayer-funded trips?
Is this hypocrisy or short-term memory only?
VERL SANDERS
Valley Springs
Editorial on 03/19/2017