Pedestrians in danger
Dear editor:
I am writing this letter to address what I view to be a serious issue in this city.
My daughter does a lot of walking to different destinations, because once she's in an area, it's what she prefers to do. For the last two weeks, she's come very close to being hit by a car because they were turning off a side street, coming from behind her, where she could not see them. One came within literal inches of hitting her legs, and they weren't going slowly. The other one was very close, too. They both expected her to stop.
This was when she was crossing Malvern where the Neighborhood Market is, and the light doesn't last very long to begin with. The orange hand sign almost immediately starts flashing, counting down the seconds that one has to get across the street. She was crossing at that light because she wanted to go to the library. Tonight, she was crossing Central, and someone turned in front of her. She could see them this time, but just like with the other two, they expected her to stop.
I'm concerned that someone is going to be hit and either gravely injured, or die. With the manner in which people are ignoring the law, it's only a matter of time. I don't care how much of a hurry someone is in, they can wait to allow someone to safely cross the street. Pedestrians have the right of way. This hasn't changed.
The police can't do anything about it unless someone does get hit, though these people are repeatedly breaking the law. It would be great if they were to choose random times and intersections on the busy roads to sit and wait to ticket people who break this law. It would hopefully be an excellent deterrent.
I often wonder how they would feel if it were to happen to these drivers while they were crossing the street? Or their young child? Or older parent? Not everyone can hustle, either. I do not understand why there's so much discourtesy.
Susan Currie
Hot Springs
More hypocrisy
Dear editor:
More hypocrisy from the Governor! It's bad enough that Sanders preaches "education but no indoctrination" for our students and then with her LEARNS plan promotes indoctrination through the voucher part, where public schools students can use 90% of state funding to transfer to a private or religious school. (With her SBC Baptist background, is she not aware that religious schools indoctrinate?)
My Cherokee grandfather who raised me would say, "She speaks with forked tongue." Translation: She is a big liar! Has she never heard of "separation of church and state?"
Now her desire to indoctrinate goes even further. She now has the Department of Education require that any applicant for Teacher of the Year in Arkansas state how great her LEARNS program is. If that is not self-aggrandizement I don't know what is. Talk about continuing hypocrisy! Add her using Beer Koozies poking fun at drag shows to make a profit, and one has the ultimate in promotion of self. Of course, having served the master of egotism for two years certainly provided her much on-the-job training for deception.
God help us for the next four years! We will be the laughingstock for common sense-thinking folk everywhere. If God takes sides with politicians, Arkansas is going to need tons of prayer.
John W. "Doc" Crawford
Arkadelphia/Hot Springs
Living the lie
Dear editor:
Christianity is declining and 80% of our ministers are uneducated (Harvard Research). There are many lies, but here are two.
One, they are called by God. No one has been called by God for 2,000 years, but ministers use this lie to establish unquestioning support.
The second is that the Bible is the inerrant word of God. The Bible is a composite of mythology, allegories, history, and stories by the Hebrews to show their God was most powerful.
Many New Testament and Old Testament Gospels have forgeries with people writing under the Gospel names. Some forgers wrote false words against women that ministers use and support today. This does not include nine Gospels thrown out by translators because they were not "protestant" enough.
Churches are splitting due to lies and misinformation, often over a word or verse, and believing mythology, not science. We have 6,222 protestant denominations in this country and churches fighting over false beliefs, all using the same Bible. The splitting Methodists show some following Biblical teaching of love and acceptance and science. Others are denying science that homosexuality is caused by DNA and genetics and believe the mythology in Genesis.
The decline of Christianity, and church membership, will continue. There will not be peace on Earth until truth prevails, and churches show that it can exist.
Jerry Davis
Hot Springs