More options needed
So, 10 employees on the current secretary of state's office were told they would not be retained by the new secretary and were placed on paid leave through mid-January. As a former public employee I understand "to the victor go the spoils," but never really grasped the concept of being paid for not working. It seems as though state auditors thought similarly.
In an effort to make things right, those 10 employees are now being told to either: (1) resign retroactively, effectively Dec. 3, or (2) keep working using their accrued vacation time until it runs out.
What about an option (3) to work until the transition occurs, or (4) not fill these 10 positions if the office can run just as effectively without them for a month and a half?
It seems like this situation has been botched on both ends.
JOHN R. BROWNLEE
Conway
Fill with good news
Each morning the first thing I read in the paper is the "In the News" column, short blurbs from anywhere, on the left side of the front page. Most often it seems it is about terrible accidents, hideous crimes, horrific human suffering being inflicted on one human by another horrible human.
I wonder if it has ever been considered to dedicate this space to the good things about the people of this country and the world. Doesn't it make you smile when one of those snippets appears? And maybe you even give a silent cheer? Yay for good people! Surely there is enough goodness to fill that space each day. And what a heartwarming way to begin reading the news.
It would give those of us that read the paper every day a greater sense of goodness in our fellow man before we start reading about the horrors. It might even encourage us to pay the goodness forward more than usual. Yes, the word good appears six times here. Hint, hint.
GWEN FULLEN
Arkadelphia
Just to delay process
It seems the hog factory farm's appeal of the denial of a permit that would allow C&H to spread 2.5 millions of gallons of untreated hog waste in the Buffalo River watershed is simply a maneuver to delay the entire process until the Arkansas Legislature convenes Jan. 14, 2019.
C&H and its industry allies apparently are hoping legislation will be introduced that will weaken the guidelines that led to the permit being twice denied. Factory livestock farmers seek weakened regulations that will allow for more factory farms. Such legislation is also designed to give industry farmers advantages over independent, small farmers.
Arkansans must call, write, and meet with their senators and representatives and urge them not to support any legislation that would undermine protecting the Buffalo National River watershed from hog factory farming.
DAVE KUHNE
Fayetteville
No surprises here
It's a good thing hypocrisy isn't an impeachable offense. The most recent grand revelation from the Trump Jersey golf course--that his bed was made and boxer shorts ironed by illegal workers--should come as no surprise to his still loyal cadre of followers. They've heard it all before and they still carry their placards--"Facts Don't Matter."
Add this to manufacturing the Trump clothing line in China and other international wage-slave-labor countries. Add this to the imported Caribbean workers working in his Florida establishments legally--made legal, that is, by fraudulent declarations.
Let me share a secret with you. Why is the Trump agenda--wall and tariffs and such--having so much trouble getting off the ground? Could it be that all his supporters have to spend so much time making excuses for the emperor and his clothes--or lack of--and that all the Trump appointees have to spend so much time protecting their behinds from the boss (see Tillerson, Sessions, Kelly, etc.) that they can't get any work done?
At least he's drained the Washington swamps of politicians. .. a few of which were actually selected by politicians other than himself ... but not many.
A collection of the pictures of Trump's most recently departed pasted on the wall look like a grade school yearbook--or is that a Post Office most-wanted gallery?
But to be fair, we have at least one successful appointee during this administration, the one who is tossing out bedmates of Putin at a faster clip than the ice packs melting. Now if Special Counsel Robert Mueller can perform a tightrope-walking miracle and survive the president's erratic behavior a while longer, he might actually end his term with at least one unquestionably successful appointment.
DANNY HANCOCK
Lonoke
Fresh eyes on movie
In reference to Philip Martin's Dec. 7 "On Film" column, titled "Schindler's List in retrospect": After my first time to see the movie, I was so grieved that I could not go home for 45 minutes. Ordinary, modern-day reality had to wait.
Twenty-five years later, after two revisits of the same movie, I continue to think Steven Spielberg is a genius in the movie-making industry. And I agree with Mr. Martin's viewpoint that Schindler's List is "historically important."
Yet Martin's "fresh look" opinions over the movie's perceived flaws seem to approach a lack of decorum as one visits and revisits the scope of the horror of the Holocaust, the reality of the continuing grief, and the compassion and courage of Oskar Schindler.
The movie is indeed "monumental, a film for the ages," but more significantly, Schindler's List is based on an actual event of massive and monstrous proportions with realistic images far stronger than human "flaws."
LINDA L. SCISSON
Little Rock
Editorial on 12/13/2018