Adapting to the iPad
I can't believe I did that!
It was Sunday. I had read the newspaper online for day after day and thought I hated it and quietly cursed the Democrat-Gazette for making us do this. But it was Sunday. I had a stack of Sunday newspapers. The carrier had delivered it to my front driveway. I felt love for him and for the heavy pages of news. I dug in, reading and reading. And all I once I reached for my iPad (nicely given to us by the newspaper) and I opened it and I started reading the paper from it.
The pictures were in color, there was more to the paper than I'd ever seen before, and the color picture of the sows with their suckling pigs on the first page of the Business and Farm section was so impressive in color.
Thank you, Mr. Hussman, for helping us adapt to a new way of life.
BARBARA S. DUNCAN
Searcy
Poets and big money
I doubt that any parent ever said to son or daughter, "Go to college, become a poet." Most poets don't make a lot of money or garner a lot of fame. One of the best, Edgar Allan Poe, died destitute on a park bench in Baltimore. Of course, there are exceptions: Frost, Sandburg, Angelou, Markham.
What, you never heard of Markham? In 1899, Edwin Markham had a poem published titled "The Man With A Hoe," an ekphrastic poem based upon a painting by Jean-François Millet that earned him a quarter of a million dollars over a period of 33 years. It was translated into a least 37 languages. But those and a few others are the exceptions. Emily Dickinson, one of the most renowned and prolific American poets, had fewer than a dozen of her poems published during her lifetime and most of those were edited by the publisher to fit the conventional style of that era.
Stephen Crane died in financial straits at 28 from TB. He is mostly remembered for his novel, The Red Badge Of Courage, but he also wrote poetry. Like Dickinson, his poetry was not well accepted during his lifetime because it, like Emily's, was unconventional.
Another unconventional poet of sorts was Charles Earl Boles. In the late 1800s in northern California, he robbed some 28 Wells Fargo stagecoaches of about $18,000. He was known as Black Bart because he wore black clothes and a black-hooded mask. He was always polite, operated on foot, never fired a shot, and gained a reputation as a "bandit poet" by leaving a couple of mocking poems for authorities to find. You could say that comes to $9,000 per poem. Finally caught, he got four years in prison, which ended his career as both robber and poet.
JOHN McPHERSON
Searcy
Just senseless deaths
Re Ed Chevallier's "Hunting better death": Mr. Chevallier, the same can be said about you; you are going to die anyway. This is not hunting to feed a family, this is senseless killing for something to hang on the wall.
Praying the sports editor can find something worthy to print.
NANCY JACKSON
Edgemont
Love your neighbors
The Bible states that we should love thy neighbor. Well, what does that mean? We have the greatest country on the face of the planet. Folks, this is it; there is no better nation to go to after it is polluted and ruined, and no other Earth. Our society has become trash-blind in its complacency and apathy. What happened to our American pride?
We must all learn to be more considerate, having total cooperation between neighbors, respecting each other and becoming responsible homeowners and renters. Be proud of your neighborhood; remember, you're not the only one who lives there.
Why do we disrespect each other? Why is there degeneration of the human soul? Why is humankind always studying, but our schools never address these basic problems?
Over $2 billion worth of merchandise is stolen each year in our country, yet I've never heard a sermon against it. Isn't it listed in the Ten Commandments? Why do so many people steal copper wire from our businesses, utility companies and even our churches?
When you litter our city and pollute our great land, you disrespect our flag, our country, our Constitution and all those veterans and police who sacrificed their lives every day to keep our nation safe, and you're setting the wrong example for your children.
Neighbor, we can all change our bad habits. And why are the churches silent, blind and impotent upon these problems? This may be humanity's last chance to save ourselves, along with our world. You can become its greatest asset or its worst enemy. Remember the biblical quote: Love thy neighbor. Now you know how.
TOM KNIGHT
Little Rock
Priorities unbalanced
Re Little Rock garbage collection rate hike: This 30 percent rate increase will place undue financial burdens on many citizens. I think the city leadership voted for this so that the Public Works department could come closer to eliminating its budget overruns.
It seems we have our priorities out of balance. We can continue to subsidize that loser yellow tourist trolley that serves a very small percentage of Little Rock citizens, but we can't provide garbage collection for thousands of citizens without a 30 percent increase.
Hypocrisy abounds, and it's infecting city hall.
DON SHELLABARGER
Little Rock
Editorial on 09/21/2019