The real beneficiaries
Thank you so much for your recent editorial "Shaken--and stirred." We appreciate your recognition of the intelligence of the good people of Russellville who have said "No" to a casino in their community.
We had the joy of living there for five years and are so glad Russellville recognizes that gambling is not the way to grow the economy nor create a healthy environment. Thinking people know that the real beneficiaries of a casino or a lottery are those who own and operate them.
VIC and FREDDIE NIXON
Little Rock
Way to address chaos
Mike O'Cain is correct in his assessment that Congress is a dysfunctional mess. The Senate and the House of Representatives have abdicated their constitutional duty. They are the lawmaking branch of government. By abdicating their duty we now have a government by the executive order. Our prior president told us he had a phone and a pen. He did and he used them. That continues today. A single individual is making law for our country. This means every four or eight years the previous regime's lawmaking is reversed. This promotes division. The entire federal government budget is run using continuing resolutions, which are always short-term. Such a lack of planning is beyond irresponsible.
Mr. O'Cain's argument of voting out the bums is a viable solution, but as he says, our elected leaders do all they can to slice a satisfying piece of pork from federal spending to showcase their great work for us folks back home.
There is a sure way to address the dysfunction and extreme danger we face. Our founders were uncommonly wise. They provided two methods for amending the Constitution in Article 5. Congress may pass a proposed amendment with a two-thirds vote. The states ratify it by a three-fourths vote. The second is by a Convention of States. Two-thirds of state legislatures can approve a convention to propose amendments. Again, three-fourths of the states must ratify. There is an organization working to achieve this. Arkansas' legislature passed an application recently, joining 14 other states. Term limits are certain to be proposed. Hopefully 19 more states will join them.
MICHAEL SANDERS
Little Rock
The real loser in this
Last week former White House Counsel John Dean testified before Congress. He spoke of the similarities between Richard Nixon's corrupt administration and Donald Trump's corrupt administration. Mr. Dean, like Mr. Mueller, is trying to warn us of the danger of continuing to support the wannabe king.
Needless to say, Trump immediately attacked Mr. Dean, calling him a total loser. Not surprising, considering Trump attacks anybody that challenges him with the truth.
Nevertheless, I think the real loser in this is the United States of America and its citizens. Barring a second term, Trump will be out of office soon. Then we can begin to rebuild our status in the world. But our House and Senate leaders will still be in place. The same elected officials that have been cowed by Trump and have cowered in fear of Trump's base. Forget representation. Their allegiance is skewed more toward Trump than toward the U.S.
Is that what we voted for? Let your vote represent your answer.
JOE ZAMORA
Monette
Let's ratify the ERA
On March 22, 1972, the U.S. Senate passed the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA). As the next step in this constitutional process, the ERA was sent out to the 50 states for their concurrence. At least three-fourths of the states (38) needed to approve in order for the amendment to be added to the Constitution. To date, 37 states have approved the ERA, needing only one more state to complete the process of certifying that men and women are equal before the law.
In case you have not had an opportunity to read the entire amendment, here it is: "Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of sex."
Had time to get through the whole thing?
Arkansas could make history by approving the ERA and putting it over the top. Surely our Legislature does not want to remain on record as saying women are second-class citizens. Some of them surely have mothers, wives, and daughters. Let's do the right thing.
EARL BABBIE
Hot Springs Village
Big change coming
Transitioning from a world order that's destroying the planet to one that preserves it will be difficult, if not tragic. Resistance to change is daunting. To create the current world order of corporate industrial marketing, 18th to 20th century entrepreneurial agents employed revolution, war, and imperialism to break the resistance of ruling kings and nobility, archaic empires and colonial rebels. Uneven industrial and imperial development produced two world wars to determine the global balance of power; and differences between Smithian and Marxian advocates of industrial production led to the Cold War. The current war on terror seeks to extinguish remaining patches of resistance.
As the current world order prospered, its science and technology raised Earth's population from 1 billion to 7.7 billion, ravished the ecosystem and created global warming that poses an existential threat to life on the planet. For overviews of the science and early failed reform efforts, see Bill McKibben, The End of Nature; David Wallace-Wells, The Uninhabitable Earth; and Nathaniel Rich, Losing Earth.
Efforts to protect the environment through regulation provoked inevitable cultural resistance, so Donald Trump has blocked further efforts. His supporters seek American production free of restrictions, while his detractors seek to forge a sustainable world order. As philosopher Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel observed, tragedy is a struggle not between right and wrong, but between right and right. Yet the future is bringing massive cultural change, which will come either as constructive effort to avoid ecological collapse or as crushing dystopia ... or both.
DAVID SIXBEY
Flippin
Editorial on 06/16/2019