Letters to the editor

Cuts didn’t help workers Dear editor:

Recent letters from Dennis Bosch, Rick Cherry and Mike Williams lauded the Trump tax cuts (mainly for corporations and the wealthy) as having a positive impact economically.

In fact, a Labor Department report recently showed another 2.4 percent rise in consumer pricing (2.9 when food and gas were figured in), which basically means higher prices on everything we do or purchase. So despite corporate tax rates going from 35 percent to

21 percent, prices went up, the fourth straight month.

Now because of those tax breaks, employees should be making more, right? No, according to the report, “wages were unchanged in July from the previous month and dropped 0.2 percent from a year earlier.”

So where is this money companies are saving going? According to Newsweek, a recent analysis of Fortune 500 companies “found only

4.3 percent of workers received a one-time bonus or wage increase directly tied to the tax cuts, while businesses received nine times more in cuts than they passed on to workers.”

The report answered the question as to where the money went: companies “spent 37 times as much on stock buybacks than they did on increased wages or bonuses for workers.”

Finally, the report cited the fact that “433 corporations out of the Fortune 500 have announced no plans to share their tax cuts with employees.”

So the bottom line is, people like Warren Buffett, George Soros, Mark Zuckerberg, the Waltons, Stephens and the small group of 1 percenters got what was, in effect, corporate welfare, but didn’t and don’t plan to, share it. Does that surprise anyone?

Obviously, those letter writers must have large stock portfolios, because this tax cut isn’t helping the average American.

Oh, and by the way, the projection on what it is estimated to add to the 2018 federal deficit alone was just boosted by $242 billion higher than the original projection.

Noah Little Hot Springs

Become a volunteer Dear editor:

If you are sitting and pondering your life’s direction, I have a suggestion for you. Join the CHI St. Vincent’s Auxiliary volunteer team. As an 11-year volunteer, I love what I do. The camaraderie and help we provide is amazing. There is nothing better than the giving of yourself to help others. We have fun and make other’s feel better.

There are tons of positions you can choose from: the gift and uniform shop, the information desk and couriers who push departing patients from their rooms. We have computer office workers, card senders, outpatient volunteers and people who work up in the maternity ward and the surgical waiting room assisting family’s needs. There are computer trainers, cart drivers, workers at the Cancer and Heart centers and Meals on Wheels drivers. We have a Mercy Closet of donated items that are sold and provide funding to buy sweats for patients that need clothes. A shift is a mere four hours. You can do more, if you chose to.

Let me brag about our accomplishments. We have donated $175,000 toward the Mobile Mammogram bus that travels to outside areas, where it is difficult for some to make the trip to our hospital for Breast Care. We gave

$175,000 toward the DaVinci Robotic Surgical Unit. We have donated moneys toward remodeling the outpatient area and have pledged

$500,000 for the creation of maternity suites. We give baby car seats, homemade baby hats, heart pillows and blankets to the Cooper Advocacy Center. We have a Mercy Lodge for those who cannot drive back and forth for daily appointments. The list goes on and on. We are not small potatoes and make a huge impact on the community under the excellent leadership of Susan Rima, our volunteer coordinator.

If you feel called to serve, call Susan at

501-622-1033. We need you. What you receive in satisfaction is so much greater than what you give. Please consider sharing yourself for the betterment of others. It is a gift of giving of yourself and very rewarding.

Thank you and God bless.

Janet Mauk Hot Springs

Praying for unity Dear editor:

I do not discuss politics, as is part of my calling. But when I see all that goes on in our country, I’m so reminded of the 10 years Lynda Hall and I worked for the National Day of Prayer in our beloved city. Each year there was so much love and unity and anticipation for the gathering.

Their mission is not only to mobilize prayer in America but to encourage personal repentance and to promote morality. They don’t just distinguish between good and bad behavior and right and wrong, but they strive for the good we are all deserving of and strive to be of great service to God that He is so deserving of.

It seems people are turning a deaf ear and a blind eye to truth, facts and what is according to the word. We see unacceptance of our great differences, freedoms and rights, which are God-given. Not reconciling the two, of course, will bring division. Cannot we do both?

While the Bible says we are to pray for our president and those in authority, it also says God is love and love produces unity and righteousness will exalt a nation.

We have made it negatively about others and not positively about God. In the end, it will be as it should be, all about Him. In the interim, we have a personal responsibility. We have believed and stood for years, “If my people who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray, seeking my face, and turning from their wicked ways … then I will hear from heaven and forgive their sins and I will heal their land!” Once again, where does the responsibility lie?

I pray this is received with the intent, desire and love for peace and unity as believers, as I’m so grateful we are a democracy. And that, my friends, needs to remain a serious part of our prayer life now.

Lovingly, Joan Way Hot Springs