[Editor’s Note: I really don’t think a lot of folks do a lot of thinking these days. They are happy

Several decades ago while stationed in Europe my duty station was deep inside a mountain. Above the portico was engraved the motto, “The Price of Liberty is Eternal Vigilance”. Generations past have taken this statement seriously and it is now time for the latest generation to step forward. Now is not the time to be fatalistic or think we are powerless against some very, very powerful interests. The present is the time to be involved by studying the issues and getting educated thereon. The actions we take today will affect the America we want for decades to come. Will our country remain a democracy/ republic or lapse into autocracy, oligarchy and or kleptocracy and perhaps as some have surmised the dissolution of the Union. Under Trump the Executive Branch is making a strong move toward a super powerful executive, while the Congress are foregoing their part of “checks and balances” and the Courts have presented some very puzzling decisions. Comedian/ super observer Jon Stewart put out a YouTube video aptly describing what faces us and not the smoke and mirrors of President Musk and his “Whiz Kids.”

just going through life not really concerned about what is being done outside of the scope of their own lives, so unless something Trump (or whoever is in power at the time) makes a move that really impacts their day-to-day lives, most people will just keep on keeping on. I mean, clearly you’ve put some thought into this … I mean, “portico” and “fatalistic” and “thereon” are some fancy win-at-scrabble words. But remember, like another comedian/ super observer George Carlin once said, “The average person is pretty dumb. And that means that half the people are even dumber than that.” And I’ll say this… I have said before that I really do believe that Donald Trump, whether you support his ideas or not (I do not) truly does want to “make America great again,” but Elon Musk does not. Musk is a billionaire man-child who has never had a care in the world about anyone but himself. And now he’s a high-level government of_cial who is basically seeing what “cool” stuff he can get away with] —–— I have sent the following letter to all three of our members of Congress: For decades the US has competed against Russia, especially including when it was the Soviet Union. We won the Cold War, developed many allies in the process, and the Soviet Union collapsed. Now a former KGB agent trained in turning foreigners into willing and (especially) unaware helpers has become the dictator of Russia, and we have correctly opposed his many efforts to destabilize us and undermine our efforts around the world. Putin kills his own people who dare to speak against him and even decided to invade a neighboring country. We and our allies have helped the invaded country, Ukraine, which is very much in our interest, and in the process have helped upgrade our own defense industries, including ones in Arkansas. Now suddenly our President seems to side with Russia in many ways, symbolic and actual, apparently reversing decades of US policies and among other things injuring decades of work establishing good relations with military personnel in many countries. If agreements, contracts, and even treaties can be suddenly cancelled and/ or ignored, how can they trust us in the future? What is the purpose of all this? What is the role of Congress in all this astounding abrupt reversal of national policy? You have a key role in the Senate (House), and thus I would urge you to act and _nd out just what is

[Editor’s Note: I mentioned this in a Text the Times the other day in one of the e-editions (subscribe today!), but I’ll repeat it here… do not expect much, if any, objection to what the Trump administration is doing from any of the Arkansas GOP hierarchy at the state or federal level. They all not only are going to support 100 percent everything Trump is doing, they all know they are in of_ce because the folks who voted for them also voted for him, and they support what he’s doing too] —–— It’s great that the schools are getting new baseball _elds but maybe we should be spending that money on things like I don’t know _xing all the potholes _rst? [Editor’s Note: I would assume you’d know this, but maybe not, so I’ll just tell you … those funds are not simply transferable. The City of West Memphis and the West Memphis School District do not in any way, shape or form share funding. You can’t use school money to _x the streets any more than you could ask the City Council for money to buy new football uniforms. Sure, the two entities work very closely together on a lot of things, but that’s just not how money works. The new _elds are awesome though. There’s a story about it in the Sports section]