Here are excerpts from recent editorials in Arkansas newspapers:
Texarkana Gazette. Sept. 22, 2017.
News recently broke that the Social Security disability system is suffering a big backlog.
And that means a lot of Americans are suffering as well - including some right here in the Twin Cities.
Social Security not only provides for retirement benefits after a certain age, it also serves as a source of income for those who become disabled before they would normally retire. Another program, Supplemental Security Income (or SSI), helps those with disabilities who don’t qualify for traditional Social Security.
It’s hard to get. Almost all applicants are denied at least once and sometimes several times. And once an applicant is approved after the appeals process, the average benefit is less than $1,100 a month.
Still, that small amount of income could mean survival to those who can no longer work. And now it’s even harder to get.
According to a story by The Associated Press, five years ago it took less than a year to get a hearing before a judge to appeal a denied claim. Now it takes almost two years and more than a million of our fellow citizens are waiting.
That’s just not right.
Getting disability should be hard. If someone can work they should, even if they must be retrained for another position they can handle with their disability. But when help is genuinely needed, they shouldn’t have to navigate so many hurdles or wait so long to get what they are due under the law.
The Social Security Administration says it’s working on speeding up the system. We can only hope the agency works harder. Because some folks just can’t wait.
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The Jonesboro Sun. Sept. 24, 2017.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention would like for Craighead County residents to exercise more - they just won’t pay for it.
The CDC program to reduce obesity in high-obesity areas offers funds in conjunction with universities and colleges in the highest obesity areas of the country - and Arkansas was No. 3 among states in 2016 based on CDC figures compiled by the nonprofit Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, according to the website cdc.org .
The city of Bono received a $26,000 allocation through the program that Mayor Dan Shaw planned on using to create a walking trail in Bono Legacy Park.
In April the city also received a grant for $194,000 from the state to construct the park, and the city also sought a grant from the CDC to create a walking trail for residents.
Walking seems like a reasonable way to fight obesity.
According to the CDC website, “walking is a great way to get the physical activity needed to obtain health benefits. Walking does not require any special skills. It also does not require a gym membership or expensive equipment.”
On the CDC website, they highlight Craighead County as a high-obesity county, along with Chicot, Jefferson and Monroe counties. Craighead County’s population of adults is 40.4 percent obese, according to the CDC.
However, the CDC doesn’t want any of its grant funds spent on walking trail construction.
Mary Hightower, director of communication services for UA System Division of Agriculture, said the grant was rescinded when the CDC discovered asphalt was in the plan.
“While the community funds do allow for the purchase of some raw materials, the CDC approvers did not permit the funds to be used for construction and labor,” Hightower said. “The community funds were rescinded because it involved laying down asphalt, which the grantor, the CDC, determined was ’construction’ and not allowed.”
The CDC also took issue with plans to cover a portion of the track with a metal structure.
“They called me back two weeks ago and said, ’Whoa, we made a mistake,’” Shaw told The Sun. “This grant cannot be used for asphalt paving, and it cannot be used for anything metal. If you want to make your little cover out of wood, we can pay for that. Anyway, no walking track.”
The mayor said the track will be built with or without the CDC grant, and when completed next spring, Bono Legacy Park will offer a virtual buffet of obesity-fighting activities, including a playground, basketball court, baseball field along with the walking trail.
The Craighead County Road Department has offered to help with equipment. Shaw said the city will pay the cost of material, about $8,000.
It’s disappointing and ironic that a government agency that supposedly exists to mitigate disease would withdraw funding for a community asset that would promote fitness - while at the same time highlighting that community as needing to be more fit.
Kudos to Mayor Shaw and the Craighead County Road Department for carrying on with the walking trail.
Hopefully, some local philanthropic group or Arkansas State University will donate the money for the walking trail in Bono. It would be great if ASU could come through where the CDC has failed.
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Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. Sept. 26, 2017.
We saw a silly poll on television Monday morning. (We suppose we were lucky the “Today” show anchors weren’t talking about psychic pets.) The un-scientific social-media poll asked people if NFL players kneeling during the national anthem was disrespectful or an act perfectly within their First Amendment rights.
Why can’t it be both?
Gentle Reader will remember this kneeling business became a big deal when a quarterback playing for San Francisco started calling attention to himself in the last year or so. Players had sat during the national anthem before, quietly, focusing on the coming game, perhaps even unaware it’s considered poor form in most quarters. Colin Kaepernick, however, made it a political statement - and he’s no longer employed. Considering some of the quarterback play in the National Football League these days, a big reason that he can’t find work may be his kneeling when most others stand at attention, hand over heart.
Colin Kaepernick has every right to protest, being an American. And the owners of the team franchises have every right to not hire him for his conduct. What a country!
But only a few players thought it a good idea to kneel with him.
Until the president spoke up.
And you somehow knew he would. Donald Trump is attracted toward the limelight like a moth to flames. Ratings! He seemingly can’t help it. (He tried to get into the professional football business back in the 1980s with the USFL. For such a great businessman, he somehow failed to make a dollar … on football … in America.)
At another recent campaign-style rally, the president of the United States, who really ought to have other things to do, weighed in on the handful of kneeling players. He called the players dirty names. And then took to Twitter, of course, to really let them have it: “If NFL fans refuse to go to games until players stop disrespecting our Flag & Country, you will see change take place fast. Fire or suspend!”
Not too long ago, Donald Trump bragged to a crowd that he was more presidential than any president since Lincoln. Somehow we can’t see an Abraham Lincoln speaking publicly on such a matter.
Nobody can be surprised about what happened next: Instead of a handful of kneeling players, kneeling became a Thing, with whole teams either kneeling in protest or standing arm-in-arm in solidarity with their teammates. Even owners linked arms with their players. If you know anything about professional football, to see owners and players linking arms is rare indeed. And poor Donald Trump didn’t even get it. He seemed to think those standing arm-in-arm were agreeing with him. Their comments to reporters proved otherwise.
Here’s a hint for anybody reading from President Trump’s PR team: The president really should have a to-do list that doesn’t include rambling on about football. Here’s a partial list of what he could spend his time thinking about:
North Korea. ISIS. Libya. Health care. Taxes. North Korea again. Syria. The Kurdish vote. John McCain. Infrastructure. Medicare. Crime. Hurricanes. National security. The budget. Rand Paul. China. Earthquake aid. North Korea again, again. Education. Chuck Schumer. Emergency prep for possible epidemics. Social Security. Venezuela. Wildfires. The Pentagon. Nancy Pelosi. Germany’s elections. The travel ban 3.0. The Russian probe. Cyberattacks. Medicaid. His son-in-law. Alabama’s special election. And did we mention North Korea, which just said it considers flying bombers close to its borders, which the U.S. military did Saturday, an “act of war.”
Football, not so much.
Besides, if the president really was interested in more people showing respect by standing at attention, hand over heart, during the playing of this country’s national anthem, his best policy would be a quiet one. Because he’s not helping the cause one bit.
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