By contributing today, you ensure that independent journalism not only survives but thrives in Arkansas. It is in that spirit of kiss my — you know, that I want to offer some thoughts about our recently passed Memorial Day and some preparatory fire for our next opportunity to wax apoplectically about our very own bloated, big you know military.
A clean and sanitized flag-draped casket or some newly dug dirt with a cluster of little clean flags stuck in it gets our inner faucets overflowing every time. Anyway, we blew the drums and beat the horns or the other way around, and wept and cheered, and got all warm when we saw old Colin Powell, one of the good — um, people, without his United Nations WMD clothes on, and wanted to go all Putin on those Obamacare-loving liberals.
And here we are in the afterglow, full of love for the dead and wanting to see some blood from that VA administrator with the unpronounceable, funny name. How about we try doing something else? Maybe it would be possible to maintain a reasonable level of national oversight and purchasing power while giving the state institutions administrative and operational authority.
Open the doors to all seeking health care. A bonus would be getting rid of the current federal government-run socialized medicine system we have now for military veterans. How much of a scandal would that be? As a final insult to our perpetual struggle at maintaining our childhood, what if we stop creating dead soldiers or military veterans? What if our children really do learn from the behavior we show them? Yeah, yeah, I know: carrots and sticks. David Steadman Damascus Bigger picture Dozens of preachers, mainly black, gathered at the Arkansas state capital today to protest gay marriage.
Regardless of your moral or religious stance, their priorities are totally misaligned. Arkansas ranks 49th in child poverty, minority voting rights are being threatened, mass incarceration of blacks, Hispanics and the poor is at an all-time high, Affirmative Action is about to be a thing of the past, federally funded health care coverage in under siege, violence in many of the neighborhoods where their churches are located is riveting — and you choose to march against what two consenting adults decide to do with their lives.
