LetterS to the Editor

Society is grateful

We would like to thank the annual Pea Ridge Golf Classic tournament committee for their donation to our organization. Your generosity to the community and the Historical Society is greatly appreciated.

Gus BradleyOn behalf of the Pea Ridge Historical Society

McNiel resents donations

When did it start? Everyone is always asking for our money.

If they are not asking for money to take care of the dogs and cats at the animal shelter, they are asking for your money for breast cancer awareness. Then, there is a need for Jerry's kids: the Muscular Dystrophy Association.

What about the Wounded Warrior fund or the fundraiser to raise money for the U.S. Marshall's Museum in Fort Smith. How about the money for the campaign to fight diabetes or heart disease?

Locally, we have a need for the million meals for all the people who do not have enought o eat. They say a dollar will buy five meals. Where can I go to get one of those 20 cent meals?

Then, what about the money for the Bright Futures fund that the local schools use to buy pencils for children who do not have pencils? I do not recall anyone giving my mom and dad any money so that we had enough school supplies to go to school with.

It will not be long and we will be asked to donate our old, slightly used coats for those who do not have coats as soon as it starts to turn cold.

If I understand it correctly, a recent commercial on TV said that one in seven children in the U.S. is doing without a meal. However, they said that here in northwest Arkansas, that number is one in four. Question: Has anyone ever tried to specifically find out why we have so many people who are doing without?

How can the state that has the worlds' largest employeer with the largest work force in the world be so impoverished?

Many, if not all, of these causes are good causes, but since ther is no way that we can know for a certainty that the contributed funds go where they say they are going, I am very weary (sic) of giving to any of them.

I will leave you with one more question concerning fund raising which would be funny if it was not true. Which nation do most churches raise money for each and ever week? Many of you will say the nation of "Israel" but in reality it is "Donation." The churches collect more money than all these other fund raisers combined.

As always, this is just my pesonal opinion on the subject.

Boyd B. McNielPea Ridge, Ark.

Why pay for insurance?

Mr. McDaniel,

On Aug. 8, 2013, my family suffered a flood and had to leave our home in a rush of water. Calls to 911 were answered with "sit tight" and subsequent calls in the following hours were finally answered with "we can't get to you." My family and I were then helped through the rushing water by a co-worker with a small boat. We carried flood insurance and were overwhelmed in the process and twice calls to the Benton County office of Emergency Management were blind transferred to the Red Cross. Over the next 10 months we were without a home while haggling with three separate insurance companies and our mortgage company Bank of America over our homeowner's insurance, auto insurance, and flood insurance. Letters of complaint to the Arkansas Insurance Commission only garnered a reply letter that did little more than slow the process. Hiring of an attorney ... proved to be a $1,000 fruitless endeavor as he was too preoccupied with the Arkansas Legislature to adequately follow up. We finally gave up and paid him his time and attempted to solve the problems ourselves.

We finally settled the insurance. While not entirely to our satisfaction, we just wanted it over, then began the arguments with Bank of America over cancellation of a supplemental flood policy that we had carried through our previous lender before BofA bought them out. Calls to numerous government agencies ... all met with a passing of the buck and referrals. Once again, we decided we were on our own and proceeded to document as best I could and argue from a position of weakness with Bank of America, Farmer's Insurance, Farmer's Flood Insurance Program, and USAA Auto Insurance. While all those public offices may have thought we were stuck with losing we did eventually convince the insurance companies and mortgage company of their mistakes and they did correct them. After 10 months, we finally settled everything and while our home was a loss we then bought a single wide trailer that was a former rental in June of this year. Since then we have depleted our savings with extended drives staying with family, extra costs for food because of the hours needed to drive and work, and remodeling this trailer to even make it habitable. We moved into the trailer on Sept. 6. We were homeless and moved five times in the last 394 days.

On Friday, Sept. 12, my wife received a ticket from Elm Springs Police Department for "failure to pay registration fee" while driving my daughter's car to and from work as the vision teacher for Springdale Schools. She was in my daughter's car because the timing belt was out on her car, the transmission light is on in our truck and my Jeep is 34 years old and worn out. The registration had expired in July and we had completely forgotten to register it. The insurance is current and, in fact, I had just put tires on it. It simply slipped my mind. Elm Springs fine for "failure to pay registration fee" was $195. Almost four times the amount of the registration, and when I spoke to the city clerk and chief of police about cutting us some slack because we don't have it extra they said that the court set the fine and there was nothing they could do but since it was out the ticket was legitimate and that's the system we live in so I would just have to live with it. My wife just started her job and the circuit court system in Arkansas is inherently skewed to the police going to court would only be an additional waste of time. I renewed the license and paid the extortion money on Monday, Sept. 15, because that is a day I could get away from work.

If any single government entity would have taken even the least bit of interest in assisting us, them maybe we would not have spent a year essentially homeless and maybe the registration would not have slipped my mind.

My question Mr. McDaniel is: Since every single public employee I have dealt with in the last year during a time of crisis for my family has been wholeheartedly unhelpful often to the point of being obnoxious and then a man with a gun extorts my family for almost $200 or the threat of restricting movement and possibly jail for a simple lapse of memory, then why should I not withhold all taxes I pay and respond with the same level of apathy, disdain, and force that the bureaucrats and police of this state do?

Cameron McNabbGarfield, Ark.

Editorial on 10/15/2014