What a mixed bag of a week. The good news: anyone over 16 can get the vaccine. The bad news: the governor removes the mask mandate.
There are Covid hot spots in states all over the country and there are new variants in Arkansas. It’s too early to make people think that masks are unnecessary and that we have beaten the pandemic. Two-thirds of Arkansans remain unvaccinated.
I don’t even know where to start on the actions of the General Assembly. As usual and consistently, the lawmakers passed or proposed bills that will affect the lives of human beings that none of them even remotely understands and evidently don’t care about. Yes, I’m talking about transgender children.
First, the legislature decided that transgender children should only play sports in the classification of their birth gender. According to several reports, this is a problem that does not exist and something that the Arkansas Activities Association should handle. The AAA governs all high school athletics in the state.
And finally, the legislators are trying to let physicians refuse to provide medical care for these transgender children if the doctors object for moral, conscience or religious reasons.
I don’t care how you feel about transgender people, this is morally wrong. It’s now up to Gov. Asa Hutchinson to veto this horrible bill.
And here in Pleasantville, we are still worried about the dog breed ordinance. Social media, especially NextDoor, has gotten ugly, with both sides volleying in support of their viewpoints. I hope the City Council will let the people vote. It’s the right thing to do. Surely, they can find something more pressing and meaningful to focus on.
And I didn’t even mention the voter suppression bills…
Rally Around the Hogs
It’s a good time to be a Razorbacks sports fan. The women’s basketball team made a trip to the NCAA tourney, our men’s team made it to the Elite Eight in their tourney, our baseball teamis still ranked No. 1 in most polls, our softball team is ranked No. 11 and our women’s track team just won the national championship.
WPS.
Foodie News
Since I’ve been vaccinated, I am cautiously visiting a few eateries around town. My latest visit was to the Overtime Lounge. Had a really good, giant cheeseburger and plan to visit again.
There are several posts showing a sign on the Asian Buffet showing they are set to open Thursday, April 1. It will be interesting to see how they handle the self-serve buffet. Let me know if you go and share your experience.
Thought for the Week
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Rochelle Walensky went off script at a briefing Monday and made an emotional plea to Americans not to let up on public health measures amid fears of a fourth wave of the Covid pandemic.
"We’ve just got to hang in there a bit longer," she said. "I think the reason we’re seeing this plateauing and the increase that I hope doesn’t turn into a surge is because we are really doing things prematurely right now with regard to opening up." From Axios News.
I’m going to keep wearing my mask. I hope you will as well. It’s not about rights; it’s about respect for others.
I’m afraid that the pit bull breed ban will be lifted Monday without residents getting the opportunity to vote, sadly.
Transgender biological men have no business in women’s sports, it is an unfair advantage to women, period!
Second, children can’t vote or make medical decisions until they are 18, it’s the right thing to allow the decision to them at 18.
Those that choose to not wear
a mask, have every right to do so if the business chooses to follow the State.
Where do we here in Maumelle get a list of trash pick up for the April clean up days?
Go to maumelle.org, click on public works, there is a sanitation brochure that you download and it has the complete schedule
This brochure is great and full of info. The rest of Maumelle website is also very good. See Neal's link
https://www.maumelle.org/DocumentCenter/View/2241/Sanitation-Collection-Route-Schedule-2021