Bad customer service
After a week of frustrating encounters with not one, not two, but three big-box stores for matters requiring that I interact with their customer service, I have reached a conclusion: Big business has concluded that we are all chumps and spineless as we accept the worst excuse for customer service daily, from every company we deal with.
I realize that many of us are already committed to attend protest marches almost every week, but we need to make room for one more. I am calling it the “I am sick and tired of bots and unintelligible call center staff pretending to provide solutions to problems and actually help customers who call for help! Ha!”
If AI is not smarter than the AI used for customer service by big business today, I think we can relax our anxiety about AI taking over the world. The bots that are answering the calls I make–and this is universal, regardless of company–are programmed so badly, I am forced to conclude it is deliberate. Clearly the goal of this software is to reduce the real person, the customer, to a slightly crazed human, shouting threats and the vilest cussing at the bot, sputtering spit.
SHARON MARCUM
Little Rock
Rescinding funding
“Any Republican that votes to allow this monstrosity to continue broadcasting will not have my support or endorsement.” This is what Donald Trump said about PBS and NPR and their receipt of federal funding.
I would say the same with regard to Trump himself! Has this bloated dummy ever even watched it? PBS provides the best broadcasting and news hour available on television–by far. And that includes cable and most premium streaming platforms. And it’s free for all who choose to watch. Trump hates anything even remotely intellectual because it appeals to open, discerning minds who want the whole story. And we all know that’s not descriptive of his fan base. I am disgusted that any legislator would vote to rescind this funding. Shame on all you Republican toadies–and that includes our entire gang from Arkansas.
DANE BUXBAUM
Little Rock
Threatening friends
I like children. Who doesn’t? But children should not be making high-level economic policy decisions for the governments of Canada, Mexico or the United States.
We all know threatening Canada and Mexico with 40 percent tariffs on everything is an opening negotiation tactic. But why do this? Mexico City and Ottawa know we will end up with something closer to 10 percent. Our three economies are deeply interwoven; we depend on each other for thousands of products and services. Let’s try being grownups.
Threatening your friends and neighbors with economic devastation is what kids do. Everybody, just grow up.
LARRY ASH
Fayetteville
Setting up roadblocks
Attorney General Tim Griffin is doing his level best to set “judicial” roadblocks handicapping the rights of our citizens to refer legislation to the voters of Arkansas. Helped by the recent law requiring that ballot titles be phrased at an eight-grade level, he attempts to thwart the right of the people to propose issues that the Legislature is unwilling to support when compelled by party allegiance or gubernatorial pressure.
So why the roadblocks? It is simple. Politicians in control want to control and want the public to see through their lenses, which they may then distort to continue control. This desire is common to both political parties, and most recently exemplified by the cover-up of Joe Biden’s cognitive problem. Or we can wonder about whether there is a cover-up involving Jeffrey Epstein. The fact is that we cannot trust our politicians and what the government, regardless of the administration, tells us. That is why the right of the people to propose and enact legislation to be voted upon by the people is critical to our democratic system. Any attempt to impede that right is an attack on our system. The burden should be on the government, specifically on the attorney general, when seeking to justify the deprivation of constitutional rights.
Not addressed by the eighth-grade requirement for ballot titles is that the Legislature often passes laws that are not written at this grade level. As a lawyer, I would love it if the Legislature would at least pass laws that lawyers and judges can understand. Instead, poor language and lack of crucial definitions haunt the judicial system, and many examples of poor drafting must be resolved on the appellate level when justices are called upon to decide what the Legislature must have meant. I recently spoke before a legislative subcommittee about the questionable reduction of the statute of limitations for children and pointed out certain ambiguities. Instead of deciding to clarify the ambiguities, they just passed the law as it was part of a larger package that Gov. Sarah Sanders wanted to pass, and thus the ambiguity was kicked down the road to let the courts decide.
J.L. PORTER
Little Rock
Public broadcasting
The fact that Sen. John Boozman voted for the rescission of funds for public broadcasting is ironic in that he recently appeared on “Antiques Roadshow” from Little Rock, which aired last week on Arkansas PBS.
MORT GITELMAN
Fayetteville