It isn't just about you
Imagine if you were a fully clothed adult, sitting in a field with several naked infants sitting to your left and right. Some are facedown, some with the soft spot on their head exposed upward, others on their sides giggling.
Suddenly a rain and hailstorm hits. The balls of hail are tiny and do not hurt you much, but you extend your arms to cover the infants and protect them. The rain starts to puddle and some of the infants facedown start to drown. Others get life-threatening injuries by the hail on their tender skin. You don't have an umbrella because rainstorms hardly bother or affect you. But you still put your arms out to protect the children.
Please consider this and put your arms out for a covid-19 vaccine. The lives you protect are not just your own.
SUSAN PORTIS FERGUSON
Lincoln
Vaccination's effects
These are the effects of the Pfizer vaccination to my body. It was a great relief to feel that I was safe, imagined or otherwise. Various stages of change happened. If a chip indeed now resides in my body, I must say I am about the same as always. The few days I have not felt well did not produce any strange growths on the exterior of my body, nor did they erase any of my lifelong imagination. When I do my art, the results are about the same, not too bad, certainly no Picasso, but it never was.
I do not see any space creatures as I look out the window. People still look the same, and a good laugh remains intact. I do notice the ongoing pro and con opinions about yes or no to the vaccinations. The comments made have become so negative no matter which side of the argument you are on. The obnoxiousness of the politicians is worse than ever. Pundits must be smoking peyote to alter their minds as they spew their weird prognostications. The rage exhibited confuses me. Spending years learning to remain civil makes me happy.
I do worry about the schoolchildren and what is going on with schools. We put pressure on the young students to return to a normal that may not ever occur. We do not want to ruin an entire generation.
Is there is a solution to convince people to take the vaccination? We know that it is each person's decision, right or wrong. Is there is no resolve to conquer this virus? Is it going to rival the Dark Ages in deaths? Reach out with love in your heart as you talk about this issue with others. Let us not take the wrong fork in the road.
ROBERT SPENCER
North Little Rock
Surplus population
In 1978, I took the Hippocratic Oath, and I call for the death of no one.
However, as I read headlines of covid deniers, anti-vaccine proponents, and many elected officials, Mr. Ebenezer Scrooge may have been prescient when he proclaimed: "Many can't go there; and many would rather die. If they would rather die, they had better do it, and decrease the surplus population."
Hard words. Hard, sad, times.
CHARLES FEILD
Little Rock
Socialism for the rich
Let me see. The state has a budget surplus of a billion dollars or so, but Arkansas state retirees and teachers have to pay more for their health care. And on top of that, the Guv is advocating a tax cut for the highest income earners in Arkansas.
Nationally the Democrats are advocating a large and needed infrastructure plan that could be paid for by getting back a little of the tax-cut windfall that upper-income people received from the deficit hypocrites of the Trump era. Naturally, most Repugnants are against this because it would cause their wealthy constituents a little bit of discomfort. Seems to me that the socialism going on now is primarily for the rich.
By the way, on top of the tax cut for high earners, the Ledge wants to pay a consultant over a quarter-million to tell how that's going to work. Meanwhile, there is a covid surge that was brought on by the Ledge's effort to prevent mandatory vaccinations, mask-wearing and social distancing. I think the Legislature is only qualified by now to write a book that would be a very successful hit: "Arkansas for Dummies."
BRUCE W. OWENS
Benton
Relocate to Arkansas
Rex Nelson, Arkansas' most informing cheerleader, had a recent column about Bradley County tomatoes. At the same time, I was reading "Cadillac Desert," a book written decades ago about the management of water resources in the western states.
The West is in a prolonged and severe drought. Arkansas has soil, water, and opportunity. It is not clear that current available water resources can support the current population, for example, of California. Perhaps California can handle 25 million, but not 40 million.
A reversal of the Dust Bowl migration of the 1930s is not impossible. Arkansas could plan for a scenario where agriculture, business and people (particularly retirees) would want to relocate. In fact, it's time to solicit that relocation.
CHARLES VERMONT
Bentonville