Dear Editor,
After reading the staff article "Wyatt defends Huckabee"
and corresponding letter from Dr. Leslie Wyatt in Thursday's
Herald, I find myself disturbed and insulted by the conduct both
of David Huckabee and President Wyatt.
First, the notion that Huckabee's entrepreneurial endeavors
are not business is perhaps the most ridiculous thing that I
have ever read. If your profitable venture has an artificial
name by which members of the public recognize you, you are operating
a business. Having the word enterprise incorporated into the
name of your operation (as in "H&K Enterprises")
is, to most, a fairly powerful indicator of the existence of
a business arrangement (considering that the word enterprise
is a synonym for the word business). Moreover, Huckabee admits
that he and 'K' have a checking account together. Hello...in
what other circumstances do partners have a joint checking account?
Husband-wife mixed doubles? And, yes, if a kid and his partner
mow the lawns of their neighbors under an assumed name and put
the profits of that activity into a co-signed checking account,
they are probably engaged in a business as well.
Second, operating a business without a license is, clearly,
unethical. Licensing registries is one way by which the State
tracks business ownership which is done. In part, this is because
business owners are required to pay a business tax in addition
to their personal income tax. When H&K Enterprises participates
in an "open bid process" with fellow business entrants,
they can successfully low-ball their competition who will be
forking over 20% more in taxes each year than Huckabee, who,
ostensibly, would not have been paying taxes on his 'completely
legitimate service' (that is, before he was discovered by the
City Collector). Thus, contrary to Wyatt's comments, Huckabee's
activities were neither "proper" nor "fair."
Wyatt is right however that no "Arkansas Statutes regarding
ethical behavior" were violated by Huckabee...of course,
there are no Arkansas Statutes regarding ethical behavior so
violating one is only slightly more difficult than getting me
to believe anything either of these two individuals will ever
say.
Third, Wyatt urges us to believe that we should applaud Huckabee
for the initiative he displayed to further his education. Did
I really read this? When did it become praiseworthy to break
the law in order to pay for college? I sell dope to pay for college...do
I get a scholarship to the business school?
I take it to be a personal insult that Wyatt would make so
vacuous an attempt to defend the conduct of the governor's son
at the expense of the Herald staff. Why do I believe that, had
it been me in Huckabee's position, Wyatt would not have defended
my activities?
Note to self...never mass-fax a letter to statewide media
outlets without having someone proofread it first.
Travis M. Brooks is a junior philosophy major of Jonesboro.
