Wednesday, December 15, 2004
THE NANNY STATE RETURNS
-- Don Elkins, Fayetteville Free Weekly
Yes mother…..n-n-n-no mother…I’m sorry mother…
Sound familiar? No, it isn’t Norman Bates speaking to his long-lost mom, and it isn’t one of your kids taking a scolding after having messed up his or her room. That’ll be you, behind the wheel, on local roads, courtesy of the State Police.
Before I explain this, let me make something perfectly clear – no one should litter. No one should pollute, and no one should drill for oil in a wildlife refuge in Alaska.
Yes, if former Utah Governor Mike Leavitt does as well in his new job at the Department of Health and Human Services as he did heading up the EPA, we’ll all end up taking two weeks off work as the result of some major epidemic (or worse.) But too far is simply that – too far. Last week, the State Police announced a new Stalinesque tactic in their never-ending effort to keep all of us on the straight-and-narrow. But, as much as I might agree with their stated goal, I don’t agree with their methods.
You see, the State Police want to clean up the highway, literally. Goodbye drifting and blowing-blue Wal-Mart bags and sonic Styrofoam cups. Goodbye cigarette butts. Goodbye all floating trash.
Just too bad they couldn’t take things a little farther and institute a truly oppressive set of regulations, like mandated car emissions checks each year. After all, what good does it do to clean up the roadside when none of us can breathe? OK, so I’m drifting here..the point is, the State Police will set up a 24-hour-a-day-7-days-a-week hotline manned by an officer to take calls from tattle-tale drivers who’ve seen someone drop a butt out the window (and I’m not talking about mooning.) You see it happen, you call, you report to an officer staffing the phone bank.
That officer takes your word for it, whips up a letter, and chastises the wayward litterbug.
I haven’t heard if those letters carry any kind of fine or some other slap on the wrist.
Things like that have a way of driving people up the wall, and usually have very little effect on the behavior of most people. Those who cast the used cigarette butt out of the car window will continue to do so, few people will see it and call it in, and the State Police get to have a low or no-cost program that looks environmentally conscious and can boast results if even one person calls in and makes a report.
So, the latest fixer-upper program comes as another effort to control human behavior from our current “Nanny State.” OK, I just really wanted to use that phrase, because it simply rolls off the fingertips on the keyboard.
But on further examination, it seems to fit. You can’t play the lottery in Arkansas, you can’t gamble really in any way, you can’t smoke in restaurants, and now you have encouragement from the government to inform on your neighbors for the most minor of insults and trespasses.
Perhaps just the pain of getting a “scarlet letter” from the county Mounties will do the trick, unless the offending driver chooses to take that letter, wad it up and throw it out the window somewhere on I-540 near Bella Vista.
-- Don Elkins, Fayetteville Free Weekly
Yes mother…..n-n-n-no mother…I’m sorry mother…
Sound familiar? No, it isn’t Norman Bates speaking to his long-lost mom, and it isn’t one of your kids taking a scolding after having messed up his or her room. That’ll be you, behind the wheel, on local roads, courtesy of the State Police.
Before I explain this, let me make something perfectly clear – no one should litter. No one should pollute, and no one should drill for oil in a wildlife refuge in Alaska.
Yes, if former Utah Governor Mike Leavitt does as well in his new job at the Department of Health and Human Services as he did heading up the EPA, we’ll all end up taking two weeks off work as the result of some major epidemic (or worse.) But too far is simply that – too far. Last week, the State Police announced a new Stalinesque tactic in their never-ending effort to keep all of us on the straight-and-narrow. But, as much as I might agree with their stated goal, I don’t agree with their methods.
You see, the State Police want to clean up the highway, literally. Goodbye drifting and blowing-blue Wal-Mart bags and sonic Styrofoam cups. Goodbye cigarette butts. Goodbye all floating trash.
Just too bad they couldn’t take things a little farther and institute a truly oppressive set of regulations, like mandated car emissions checks each year. After all, what good does it do to clean up the roadside when none of us can breathe? OK, so I’m drifting here..the point is, the State Police will set up a 24-hour-a-day-7-days-a-week hotline manned by an officer to take calls from tattle-tale drivers who’ve seen someone drop a butt out the window (and I’m not talking about mooning.) You see it happen, you call, you report to an officer staffing the phone bank.
That officer takes your word for it, whips up a letter, and chastises the wayward litterbug.
I haven’t heard if those letters carry any kind of fine or some other slap on the wrist.
Things like that have a way of driving people up the wall, and usually have very little effect on the behavior of most people. Those who cast the used cigarette butt out of the car window will continue to do so, few people will see it and call it in, and the State Police get to have a low or no-cost program that looks environmentally conscious and can boast results if even one person calls in and makes a report.
So, the latest fixer-upper program comes as another effort to control human behavior from our current “Nanny State.” OK, I just really wanted to use that phrase, because it simply rolls off the fingertips on the keyboard.
But on further examination, it seems to fit. You can’t play the lottery in Arkansas, you can’t gamble really in any way, you can’t smoke in restaurants, and now you have encouragement from the government to inform on your neighbors for the most minor of insults and trespasses.
Perhaps just the pain of getting a “scarlet letter” from the county Mounties will do the trick, unless the offending driver chooses to take that letter, wad it up and throw it out the window somewhere on I-540 near Bella Vista.
RECOUNT CITY
When most of us got out of bed November 3rd, we hoped we would learn the general election had come to a close.
Within a few days, with a concession speech, Democratic challenger John Kerry seemed to seal things up, and bring the entire campaign to a conclusion. But the situation may have changed in the past couple of weeks in places including West Virginia, Washington State and especially in Ohio.
It would seem in our haste to prevent a “Florida 2000” from ever happening again, the nation may have created even more problems where none previously existed. The so-called “provisional” ballot has made more recounts necessary and has resulted in some serious questions about the results we saw November 2nd.
New laws created the “provisional ballot” as a way to prevent the possible disenfranchisement of voters who encountered problems at the polls.
They worked like this – if a voter encountered a challenge at a polling place, or ended up at the wrong polling place, but still insisted on casting a ballot, election officials would produce the said provisional ballot.
That ballot cast, the voter could feel confident in having done his or her civic duty and depart.
Election officials and commissions would then later make a determination about the validity of that ballot.
Sounds good, but in some places, voters complained about reporting to the same polling stations they’d always used, learning their names didn’t appear on the rolls, and complained about receiving provisional ballots, fearing partisan forces would manage to throw those ballots out when everything came to a conclusion.
The number of stories starting to percolate from the ground up about alleged election malfeasance like that has started to increase.
Initially, those arbiters of what the nation should consider news, the major television networks, pooh-poohed the idea of an election as fraught with trouble as the one we saw in 2000.
Now, much of that has changed, courtesy of newspapers in Ohio, and the odd network news program, including MSNBC’s “Countdown” with Keith Olberman – one of the few program which did not simply dismiss voting problems out-of-hand.
Serious questions have been brought to light about electronic voting as well.
One story out of Oklahoma serves as a simple example of some of the trouble facing voters in the wake of what was still a close election, a three million vote margin notwithstanding.
On-line, writer Bob Nichols recently ran an article on the Oklahoma Independent Press website asking whether voting machines in the Sooner state have the capacity to count backwards.
Seems that on November 3rd, the Tulsa World reported John Kerry winning 59 of that state’s rural counties with 70 percent of the vote count “complete.”
A little bit of math then leads Mr. Nichols to wonder why the President unexplainably coughed up a big win anyway.
Did someone monkey with those machines?
We also still have yet to answer the big question…why if it appeared Mr. Kerry would win in the exit polls, did he instead lose?
Consider those polls accurate or not, most media outlets have traditionally relied on them for up-to-the minute election night predictions, which have most often turned out correctly.
In the Buckeye State, which has a much larger number of electoral votes in play, and which may have given the President the election, third parties have ginned up the cash and have demanded recounts.
The Rev. Jesse Jackson recently engaged in verbal fisticuffs with the Ohio Secretary of State over a possible recount, and newspapers in Cleveland have exhaustively reported on problems with polling place challenges, provisional ballots, and the as-of-yet unexplained news that someone shut down and sealed off a major election office with a phone call, claiming the location faced an overwhelming risk of becoming the target of a terror attack.
Research conducted by policy freaks at UC Berkeley claim the number of votes in all Ohio counties came in at least a thousand ballots more than each county’s number of registered voters.
Is it all just a bunch of noise?
Even a former Republican strategist and newspaper columnist this past weekend admitted to me it wasn’t, and that it seemed Democrats had not actually decided to let the election results go unchallenged. They may instead have decided to take a more cautious approach than we saw in Florida in the year 2000 when the very public post-ballot battle between Mr. Bush and Mr. Gore had Americans worried about the state of the nation and the state of our democracy in general.
If this story continues to intensify, and we start to see legal challenges or major changes to the final ballot count in some key states (perhaps unlikely, but also not impossible) we may actually find ourselves staring at what could become the biggest story of the year, something with even more impact than the Florida 2000 story. Perhaps the voting hasn’t ended yet.
When most of us got out of bed November 3rd, we hoped we would learn the general election had come to a close.
Within a few days, with a concession speech, Democratic challenger John Kerry seemed to seal things up, and bring the entire campaign to a conclusion. But the situation may have changed in the past couple of weeks in places including West Virginia, Washington State and especially in Ohio.
It would seem in our haste to prevent a “Florida 2000” from ever happening again, the nation may have created even more problems where none previously existed. The so-called “provisional” ballot has made more recounts necessary and has resulted in some serious questions about the results we saw November 2nd.
New laws created the “provisional ballot” as a way to prevent the possible disenfranchisement of voters who encountered problems at the polls.
They worked like this – if a voter encountered a challenge at a polling place, or ended up at the wrong polling place, but still insisted on casting a ballot, election officials would produce the said provisional ballot.
That ballot cast, the voter could feel confident in having done his or her civic duty and depart.
Election officials and commissions would then later make a determination about the validity of that ballot.
Sounds good, but in some places, voters complained about reporting to the same polling stations they’d always used, learning their names didn’t appear on the rolls, and complained about receiving provisional ballots, fearing partisan forces would manage to throw those ballots out when everything came to a conclusion.
The number of stories starting to percolate from the ground up about alleged election malfeasance like that has started to increase.
Initially, those arbiters of what the nation should consider news, the major television networks, pooh-poohed the idea of an election as fraught with trouble as the one we saw in 2000.
Now, much of that has changed, courtesy of newspapers in Ohio, and the odd network news program, including MSNBC’s “Countdown” with Keith Olberman – one of the few program which did not simply dismiss voting problems out-of-hand.
Serious questions have been brought to light about electronic voting as well.
One story out of Oklahoma serves as a simple example of some of the trouble facing voters in the wake of what was still a close election, a three million vote margin notwithstanding.
On-line, writer Bob Nichols recently ran an article on the Oklahoma Independent Press website asking whether voting machines in the Sooner state have the capacity to count backwards.
Seems that on November 3rd, the Tulsa World reported John Kerry winning 59 of that state’s rural counties with 70 percent of the vote count “complete.”
A little bit of math then leads Mr. Nichols to wonder why the President unexplainably coughed up a big win anyway.
Did someone monkey with those machines?
We also still have yet to answer the big question…why if it appeared Mr. Kerry would win in the exit polls, did he instead lose?
Consider those polls accurate or not, most media outlets have traditionally relied on them for up-to-the minute election night predictions, which have most often turned out correctly.
In the Buckeye State, which has a much larger number of electoral votes in play, and which may have given the President the election, third parties have ginned up the cash and have demanded recounts.
The Rev. Jesse Jackson recently engaged in verbal fisticuffs with the Ohio Secretary of State over a possible recount, and newspapers in Cleveland have exhaustively reported on problems with polling place challenges, provisional ballots, and the as-of-yet unexplained news that someone shut down and sealed off a major election office with a phone call, claiming the location faced an overwhelming risk of becoming the target of a terror attack.
Research conducted by policy freaks at UC Berkeley claim the number of votes in all Ohio counties came in at least a thousand ballots more than each county’s number of registered voters.
Is it all just a bunch of noise?
Even a former Republican strategist and newspaper columnist this past weekend admitted to me it wasn’t, and that it seemed Democrats had not actually decided to let the election results go unchallenged. They may instead have decided to take a more cautious approach than we saw in Florida in the year 2000 when the very public post-ballot battle between Mr. Bush and Mr. Gore had Americans worried about the state of the nation and the state of our democracy in general.
If this story continues to intensify, and we start to see legal challenges or major changes to the final ballot count in some key states (perhaps unlikely, but also not impossible) we may actually find ourselves staring at what could become the biggest story of the year, something with even more impact than the Florida 2000 story. Perhaps the voting hasn’t ended yet.
LOVING THE LOCAL ARTS
Not that it matters much, but “Child” magazine recently ran a list of things to do if you’d like to thrive in a small town.
One of those secrets had something to do with your willingness to travel a little more than you’d need to if you lived in a big city to take part in cultural events.
According to the Census Bureau, most of us live in “small” towns up and down the I-540 corridor.
No harm in that.
And perhaps you’d think it necessary to buckle up the kids and drive to either Tulsa or St. Louis to engage in those “cultural” things referred to in that particular article.
Not so, and that’s fantastic!
Most of us have something truly amazing right here, and that thing shines and glows on a regular basis on-stage at Fayetteville’s Walton Arts Center.
Perhaps you’ve had the pleasure of enjoying the precise and spirited talent of the North Arkansas Symphony Orchestra.
Nice thing about it – you can appreciate that group of talented performers regardless of your political affiliation, regardless of your “family values” and regardless of just about anything – this group of people truly makes living in Northwest Arkansas a rewarding experience.
Could they actually help us make our first small steps toward finding that vaunted common ground upon which we’d all like to start building? Leading the crew is one of the most energetic and positive human beings with which I have had the pleasure to meet and work, Director Jeannine Wagar.
Through sheer dumb luck, I recently ended up on-stage with Ms. Wagar and the Symphony for a couple of shows and a couple of rehearsals.
I played the only instrument I have any excuse to use – my vocal chords. I occasionally play the guitar, but according to my wife, children and our three housecats, the only tunes I can honestly crank out closely resemble the buzz of a dentist’s drill and may also qualify as violations of the Geneva Conventions.
Don’t even ask me to read music, ‘cause none of it makes sense to me. Yet, I still had a chance to narrate several operatic arias, including “Ombra mai fu” and “Lachia chi’o pianga.”
My Italian is as pathetic as my music reading skills, and appreciation of opera has never been my strong suit.
So, two performances later, my Italian still sounds more Asian than Mediterranean, but my appreciation of both opera and the North Arkansas Symphony has undergone a radical shift.
I can’t get some of those tunes out of my mind, and find myself itching for another live performance by world-famous mezzo-soprano Susanne Mentzer. People must think I’ve lost my marbles when I walk by humming “Dido’s Lament” from “Dido and Aenaeas.”
I can’t help it, and yes, my musical tastes often run toward rock acts Led Zeppelin and AC/DC, but I’ve rarely run into a group of performers who can generate the sheer emotion and sheer voltage the Symphony did last weekend during their season-ending “Diva!” program.
It helps that I had a superb seat for all the performances, and it helped that I had something to do with the performance, however peripherally, but that still doesn’t change the raw power of the strings and the roof shaking power of Ms. Mentzer’s voice.
Top that off with Jeannine Wagar’s skill with that conductor’s stick-thingy, and her ability to make it all come together seamlessly and you have the best show in town, and I might add hyperbolically, America.
And, honestly, if you’d seen violinist Piotr Janowski perform, and you have my culturally deaf bona fides, Hendrix would immediately spring to mind.
So, now that I’ve exposed my own cultural naivete in under eight-hundred words, maybe at least I’ve given you have a line to one of the best ways to thrive in your small town.
They’ve convinced me to pick up season tickets, and I can hardly wait for next season.
If you don’t spend some time and money on this, you’ll miss out.
So. Probably, much like yourself, I spent yesterday offering up thanks for things that matter most in life – family, health, a free country, elections every four years and the like.
Today, I’m making my post-Thanksgiving day list of things to requiring some gracious thinking and the North Arkansas Symphony and Jeannine Wagar top that list.
They ought to top yours too.
And what’s more, you should take some time come New Year’s Eve, when you make those little end-of-the year promises to yourself, to promise to support the Symphony and the arts in your small town.
Those organizations and activities speak volumes about the soul of our communities and speak kindly of us as people to the greater outside world. If you help them thrive, they’ll help you do the same, and they’ll help your small town thrive as well.
Hope you had a great holiday.
Not that it matters much, but “Child” magazine recently ran a list of things to do if you’d like to thrive in a small town.
One of those secrets had something to do with your willingness to travel a little more than you’d need to if you lived in a big city to take part in cultural events.
According to the Census Bureau, most of us live in “small” towns up and down the I-540 corridor.
No harm in that.
And perhaps you’d think it necessary to buckle up the kids and drive to either Tulsa or St. Louis to engage in those “cultural” things referred to in that particular article.
Not so, and that’s fantastic!
Most of us have something truly amazing right here, and that thing shines and glows on a regular basis on-stage at Fayetteville’s Walton Arts Center.
Perhaps you’ve had the pleasure of enjoying the precise and spirited talent of the North Arkansas Symphony Orchestra.
Nice thing about it – you can appreciate that group of talented performers regardless of your political affiliation, regardless of your “family values” and regardless of just about anything – this group of people truly makes living in Northwest Arkansas a rewarding experience.
Could they actually help us make our first small steps toward finding that vaunted common ground upon which we’d all like to start building? Leading the crew is one of the most energetic and positive human beings with which I have had the pleasure to meet and work, Director Jeannine Wagar.
Through sheer dumb luck, I recently ended up on-stage with Ms. Wagar and the Symphony for a couple of shows and a couple of rehearsals.
I played the only instrument I have any excuse to use – my vocal chords. I occasionally play the guitar, but according to my wife, children and our three housecats, the only tunes I can honestly crank out closely resemble the buzz of a dentist’s drill and may also qualify as violations of the Geneva Conventions.
Don’t even ask me to read music, ‘cause none of it makes sense to me. Yet, I still had a chance to narrate several operatic arias, including “Ombra mai fu” and “Lachia chi’o pianga.”
My Italian is as pathetic as my music reading skills, and appreciation of opera has never been my strong suit.
So, two performances later, my Italian still sounds more Asian than Mediterranean, but my appreciation of both opera and the North Arkansas Symphony has undergone a radical shift.
I can’t get some of those tunes out of my mind, and find myself itching for another live performance by world-famous mezzo-soprano Susanne Mentzer. People must think I’ve lost my marbles when I walk by humming “Dido’s Lament” from “Dido and Aenaeas.”
I can’t help it, and yes, my musical tastes often run toward rock acts Led Zeppelin and AC/DC, but I’ve rarely run into a group of performers who can generate the sheer emotion and sheer voltage the Symphony did last weekend during their season-ending “Diva!” program.
It helps that I had a superb seat for all the performances, and it helped that I had something to do with the performance, however peripherally, but that still doesn’t change the raw power of the strings and the roof shaking power of Ms. Mentzer’s voice.
Top that off with Jeannine Wagar’s skill with that conductor’s stick-thingy, and her ability to make it all come together seamlessly and you have the best show in town, and I might add hyperbolically, America.
And, honestly, if you’d seen violinist Piotr Janowski perform, and you have my culturally deaf bona fides, Hendrix would immediately spring to mind.
So, now that I’ve exposed my own cultural naivete in under eight-hundred words, maybe at least I’ve given you have a line to one of the best ways to thrive in your small town.
They’ve convinced me to pick up season tickets, and I can hardly wait for next season.
If you don’t spend some time and money on this, you’ll miss out.
So. Probably, much like yourself, I spent yesterday offering up thanks for things that matter most in life – family, health, a free country, elections every four years and the like.
Today, I’m making my post-Thanksgiving day list of things to requiring some gracious thinking and the North Arkansas Symphony and Jeannine Wagar top that list.
They ought to top yours too.
And what’s more, you should take some time come New Year’s Eve, when you make those little end-of-the year promises to yourself, to promise to support the Symphony and the arts in your small town.
Those organizations and activities speak volumes about the soul of our communities and speak kindly of us as people to the greater outside world. If you help them thrive, they’ll help you do the same, and they’ll help your small town thrive as well.
Hope you had a great holiday.
THE RUMSFELD THING
-- Don Elkins, Northwest Arkansas Times
Just a thought from a veteran.
All the recent news about the armed forces has me a little mixed up.
First, I read about this solider from Morrilton who wanted to stay home while a federal court determined whether the U.S. Army had run a “bait-and-switch” scam on him by extending his enlistment.
David Qualls had, and still has, a very big problem with the entire “stop-loss” policy practiced by the Pentagon. The military rarely exercised it’s contractual rights under that clause until we started running short of boots on the ground in Baghdad.
Some have criticized the “stop-loss” policy as nothing more than a sneaky form of the draft.
Although I can sympathize with Mr. Qualls, I’m not certain I think he has a proverbial leg to stand on in court. He hopefully read the fine print on the contract he signed with Uncle Sam. I know I did, because that contract governs one’s entire life after signing.
In my experience, the military never fudged on explaining it. If the government found it needed your help for an extended period of time, you had to stay, no excuses accepted.
I think most of those with whom I served knew about it, and freely signed their names on the dotted line, raised their right hands and swore an oath to uphold the constitution against all enemies foreign and domestic. The “stop-loss” kind of sat there in the same territory as the chance of being captured, tortured or even killed in the line of duty. It could happen, but wasn’t likely. If it had happened, oh well, it wouldn’t last forever, and those of us who signed up agreed to the rules.
Again, I sympathize with Mr. Qualls, but not that much – so sorry, and perhaps his story could serve as a “buyer beware” tale for other young people preparing to sign up for military service.
If you don’t like it, choose another field of work. On the other hand, I just saw Defense Secretary Rumsfeld speak with troops on their way to the front lines.
Rummy needs to fire either his PR folks or speechwriters or both. When a national guardsman asked why those on the line had to sift through Iraqi junkyards to get armor for their vehicles, Rumsfeld hesitated, and stuck his big foot into his own mouth.
The SecDef proceeded to explain that the question wasn’t really valid. He implied that roadside bombs could blow even armored humvees to smithereens. He also made perhaps one of the more unfortunate statements of this war, and there have been some real doozies.
Mr. Rumsfeld said something along the lines of, “you go to war with the army you have, not the army you want.” That’s not an exact quote, just one from memory. But anyway you slice and dice it; it may have been a less the well-considered response to the situation at hand.
Any good psychologist will tell you that ignoring someone’s valid concerns does nothing to bring you closer to each other or closer to a resolution to the problem. And it’s plain rude.
Worse still, it’s symptomatic of a cavalier attitude toward the lives of others, and worse because it’s a cavalier attitude toward the lives of sons and daughters and husbands and wives who have unselfishly laid those lives on the line in service to America.
Mr. Rumsfeld made things worse later by saying he thought the Army would talk to the questioning service member and perhaps – I’m paraphrasing here – “do something about it.”
Who has the job of Secretary of Defense?
Can’t Mr. Rumsfeld do something about it?
Can’t he at least adjust his lousy attitude toward the troops?
They probably didn’t enjoy the pep talk before going on the firing line and more than a couple of us staying home safe and sound didn’t like the tone of the talk either.
I’m still trying to gauge the feeling from fellow veterans on this week’s bravura performance from a man who perhaps could have taken a cue from Secretary of State Colin Powell by also stepping down at the end of the President’s first term.
Barring any late decisions on that front, perhaps Mr. Rumsfeld could remember a little empathy the next time he addresses the “best trained, best equipped volunteer fighting force” on earth.
If, like me, that leaves you confused, and a more than a little frustrated, just imagine what it does to already irritated soldiers like Specialist David Qualls, the man with his mug splashed across the nation’s newspapers.
After listening to Secretary Rumsfeld’s broadcast performance the other day – you may actually wonder if Qualls – wrong or right – has something very, very serious to worry about when he returns to duty.
-- Don Elkins, Northwest Arkansas Times
Just a thought from a veteran.
All the recent news about the armed forces has me a little mixed up.
First, I read about this solider from Morrilton who wanted to stay home while a federal court determined whether the U.S. Army had run a “bait-and-switch” scam on him by extending his enlistment.
David Qualls had, and still has, a very big problem with the entire “stop-loss” policy practiced by the Pentagon. The military rarely exercised it’s contractual rights under that clause until we started running short of boots on the ground in Baghdad.
Some have criticized the “stop-loss” policy as nothing more than a sneaky form of the draft.
Although I can sympathize with Mr. Qualls, I’m not certain I think he has a proverbial leg to stand on in court. He hopefully read the fine print on the contract he signed with Uncle Sam. I know I did, because that contract governs one’s entire life after signing.
In my experience, the military never fudged on explaining it. If the government found it needed your help for an extended period of time, you had to stay, no excuses accepted.
I think most of those with whom I served knew about it, and freely signed their names on the dotted line, raised their right hands and swore an oath to uphold the constitution against all enemies foreign and domestic. The “stop-loss” kind of sat there in the same territory as the chance of being captured, tortured or even killed in the line of duty. It could happen, but wasn’t likely. If it had happened, oh well, it wouldn’t last forever, and those of us who signed up agreed to the rules.
Again, I sympathize with Mr. Qualls, but not that much – so sorry, and perhaps his story could serve as a “buyer beware” tale for other young people preparing to sign up for military service.
If you don’t like it, choose another field of work. On the other hand, I just saw Defense Secretary Rumsfeld speak with troops on their way to the front lines.
Rummy needs to fire either his PR folks or speechwriters or both. When a national guardsman asked why those on the line had to sift through Iraqi junkyards to get armor for their vehicles, Rumsfeld hesitated, and stuck his big foot into his own mouth.
The SecDef proceeded to explain that the question wasn’t really valid. He implied that roadside bombs could blow even armored humvees to smithereens. He also made perhaps one of the more unfortunate statements of this war, and there have been some real doozies.
Mr. Rumsfeld said something along the lines of, “you go to war with the army you have, not the army you want.” That’s not an exact quote, just one from memory. But anyway you slice and dice it; it may have been a less the well-considered response to the situation at hand.
Any good psychologist will tell you that ignoring someone’s valid concerns does nothing to bring you closer to each other or closer to a resolution to the problem. And it’s plain rude.
Worse still, it’s symptomatic of a cavalier attitude toward the lives of others, and worse because it’s a cavalier attitude toward the lives of sons and daughters and husbands and wives who have unselfishly laid those lives on the line in service to America.
Mr. Rumsfeld made things worse later by saying he thought the Army would talk to the questioning service member and perhaps – I’m paraphrasing here – “do something about it.”
Who has the job of Secretary of Defense?
Can’t Mr. Rumsfeld do something about it?
Can’t he at least adjust his lousy attitude toward the troops?
They probably didn’t enjoy the pep talk before going on the firing line and more than a couple of us staying home safe and sound didn’t like the tone of the talk either.
I’m still trying to gauge the feeling from fellow veterans on this week’s bravura performance from a man who perhaps could have taken a cue from Secretary of State Colin Powell by also stepping down at the end of the President’s first term.
Barring any late decisions on that front, perhaps Mr. Rumsfeld could remember a little empathy the next time he addresses the “best trained, best equipped volunteer fighting force” on earth.
If, like me, that leaves you confused, and a more than a little frustrated, just imagine what it does to already irritated soldiers like Specialist David Qualls, the man with his mug splashed across the nation’s newspapers.
After listening to Secretary Rumsfeld’s broadcast performance the other day – you may actually wonder if Qualls – wrong or right – has something very, very serious to worry about when he returns to duty.
LOOKING BACK AT '04
--Don Elkins, Citiscapes Magazine
The election has come and gone, and 2004 has just about expired, for better or worse (some say better, some say worse.) That means the time has come to take stock of the year behind, and to remember some of the more interesting moments we experienced in Northwest Arkansas. This list is by no means exhaustive, just a collection of a few moments that stick in my mind, and maybe yours.
Finally, just a word of thanks to those of you who cast ballots in this year’s “best of” poll. I appreciate the encouragement you’ve lent me to keep tilting at windmills and to keep writing. I consider that my holiday gift. Hope you get what you want this season.
--Don Elkins, Citiscapes Magazine
The election has come and gone, and 2004 has just about expired, for better or worse (some say better, some say worse.) That means the time has come to take stock of the year behind, and to remember some of the more interesting moments we experienced in Northwest Arkansas. This list is by no means exhaustive, just a collection of a few moments that stick in my mind, and maybe yours.
1. The General Election. One of the most expensive, divisive and hard-fought pieces of American electoral combat the country has seen since about the civil war. Republicans delivered the state for the President, but we saw November 2nd turn out as the “night of the incumbent” in the natural state, with pundits and voters turning their attention to the mid-term elections in 2006 and the next general election in 2008. Already, the questions have started: will Hillary run for the White House, and would her past as Arkansas’ First Lady help win her the Natural State’s six electoral votes in a race with an unnamed Republican opponent?No, please, really!!! You’re making me blush…
2. The “surprise attack” in NWA. OK, perhaps this one didn’t make anyone else’s top ten list, but it sure surprised some of us who watch politics. When the U.S. Chamber of Commerce broke with long tradition and endorsed incumbent Senator Blanche Lincoln, a Democrat, for re-election, her Republican opponent Jim Holt showed up with supporters to protest, and to ask pointed questions of the Senator. She gave as good as she got, but it was a surprise mugging to say the least, and one that didn’t seem to have much of a long-term effect.
3. The vote count from the Senate race. Mr. Holt, out-fundraised, not endorsed by the state’s relatively conservative Democrat Gazette editorial board (which in fact criticized him relentlessly as he criticized the media, Democrats and pretty much everyone else) and only half-heartedly supported by the state’s party apparatus, still managed to surprise most people by grabbing more than 40 percent of the vote statewide. Some say that was on the “coattails” of the Amendment Three issue (gay marriage) on which he campaigned so heavily, and which passed with some two-thirds approval statewide.
4. This one is from the “strange file.” Last month, Governor Huckabee and his wife, Janet, went on a statewide tour to promote an event happening Valentines Day. The folks at Little Rock’s Arkansas Times described that event as “moonie-like” and a couple of other people also made the connection between the 1970’s Unification Church mass-weddings in football stadiums and this upcoming Valentine Day’s “mass covenant wedding” happening at Alltel Arena in Little Rock. OK, not earthshattering, but interesting nonetheless.
5. Another personal favorite, from the summer and from the campaign trail. While interviewing two of the three candidates for the Third District Congressional seat, yours truly decided to take another approach. The question for hard-charging candidates Jan Judy and John Boozman? A twist on the old Rod Stewart tune – “Do you think you’re sexy?” Both essentially demurred, but did come back with responses. The Congressman, at an ice-cream social, gracefully replied that if he was, it wouldn’t be in the traditional sense, but more a Dick Cheney kind of get-the-job-done sexy. Jan Judy said she didn’t know, but that at the Democratic National Convention, she did run into some unusually admiring and friendly teamsters who, if asked, may have given an honest answer. Seems like a resounding yes from both humble contestants!
6. Bikes, Blues and Barbeque. OK, it isn’t strictly political, but it was one of the year’s most interesting events. Why so interesting? I still haven’t seen the final count, but some wags suggest a quarter million people jammed Dickson Street for the annual Biker festival. I spent a little bit of time downtown on the final day, really the Saturday, and have really only seen that man people packed into one civic space while in Chicago for the Independence Day fireworks in Lincoln Park.
7. Changing of the Guard. Washington County Sheriff Steve Whitmill resigned his post to grab a better-paying one with Tyson Foods. That set off a small-scale, single-party battle for the Sheriff’s office, which ended with Lee Owen and Tim Helder splitting things – Owen holds on to the top spot until a new term begins, then Mr. Helder puts on the top badge. Also, in Fayetteville, PD Chief Rick Hoyt retired to spend more time with family, and the city appointed Frank Johnson (a long time favorite of the local media and reporters) as the new man-in-charge.
8. OK – I’m reaching here; our mild weather this summer (which wasn’t such a bad story after all, but will the other shoe drop and will we get whacked during the winter?)
9. The death of the “SuperSize.” OK, the movie about the guy who lived on McDonald’s food for 30 days was interesting, and it hit DVD this fall. Did it actually lead to the death of the “supersize” when many fast-food joints got rid of that option for customers? And, as long as we’re doing movies, how can we ignore the emergence of Michael Moore as either a hero or an annoyance? So, you could add the entire “Fahrenheit 9-11” dust up to the list, i.e., which theaters played it, did you watch it, what did you think? Also, add the final episodes of both Friends and Cheers. Consider this the “entertainment” portion of our list.
10. Everything else big that happened before about, say, August. Because every year when we journalist types sit down to try and remember the year’s biggest stories, we seem to have a hard time remembering what happened more than a couple of months back. That job, we leave to historians.
Finally, just a word of thanks to those of you who cast ballots in this year’s “best of” poll. I appreciate the encouragement you’ve lent me to keep tilting at windmills and to keep writing. I consider that my holiday gift. Hope you get what you want this season.
LOOKING BACK AT '04
--Don Elkins, Citiscapes Magazine
The election has come and gone, and 2004 has just about expired, for better or worse (some say better, some say worse.) That means the time has come to take stock of the year behind, and to remember some of the more interesting moments we experienced in Northwest Arkansas. This list is by no means exhaustive, just a collection of a few moments that stick in my mind, and maybe yours.
Finally, just a word of thanks to those of you who cast ballots in this year’s “best of” poll. I appreciate the encouragement you’ve lent me to keep tilting at windmills and to keep writing. I consider that my holiday gift. Hope you get what you want this season.
--Don Elkins, Citiscapes Magazine
The election has come and gone, and 2004 has just about expired, for better or worse (some say better, some say worse.) That means the time has come to take stock of the year behind, and to remember some of the more interesting moments we experienced in Northwest Arkansas. This list is by no means exhaustive, just a collection of a few moments that stick in my mind, and maybe yours.
1. The General Election. One of the most expensive, divisive and hard-fought pieces of American electoral combat the country has seen since about the civil war. Republicans delivered the state for the President, but we saw November 2nd turn out as the “night of the incumbent” in the natural state, with pundits and voters turning their attention to the mid-term elections in 2006 and the next general election in 2008. Already, the questions have started: will Hillary run for the White House, and would her past as Arkansas’ First Lady help win her the Natural State’s six electoral votes in a race with an unnamed Republican opponent?No, please, really!!! You’re making me blush…
2. The “surprise attack” in NWA. OK, perhaps this one didn’t make anyone else’s top ten list, but it sure surprised some of us who watch politics. When the U.S. Chamber of Commerce broke with long tradition and endorsed incumbent Senator Blanche Lincoln, a Democrat, for re-election, her Republican opponent Jim Holt showed up with supporters to protest, and to ask pointed questions of the Senator. She gave as good as she got, but it was a surprise mugging to say the least, and one that didn’t seem to have much of a long-term effect.
3. The vote count from the Senate race. Mr. Holt, out-fundraised, not endorsed by the state’s relatively conservative Democrat Gazette editorial board (which in fact criticized him relentlessly as he criticized the media, Democrats and pretty much everyone else) and only half-heartedly supported by the state’s party apparatus, still managed to surprise most people by grabbing more than 40 percent of the vote statewide. Some say that was on the “coattails” of the Amendment Three issue (gay marriage) on which he campaigned so heavily, and which passed with some two-thirds approval statewide.
4. This one is from the “strange file.” Last month, Governor Huckabee and his wife, Janet, went on a statewide tour to promote an event happening Valentines Day. The folks at Little Rock’s Arkansas Times described that event as “moonie-like” and a couple of other people also made the connection between the 1970’s Unification Church mass-weddings in football stadiums and this upcoming Valentine Day’s “mass covenant wedding” happening at Alltel Arena in Little Rock. OK, not earthshattering, but interesting nonetheless.
5. Another personal favorite, from the summer and from the campaign trail. While interviewing two of the three candidates for the Third District Congressional seat, yours truly decided to take another approach. The question for hard-charging candidates Jan Judy and John Boozman? A twist on the old Rod Stewart tune – “Do you think you’re sexy?” Both essentially demurred, but did come back with responses. The Congressman, at an ice-cream social, gracefully replied that if he was, it wouldn’t be in the traditional sense, but more a Dick Cheney kind of get-the-job-done sexy. Jan Judy said she didn’t know, but that at the Democratic National Convention, she did run into some unusually admiring and friendly teamsters who, if asked, may have given an honest answer. Seems like a resounding yes from both humble contestants!
6. Bikes, Blues and Barbeque. OK, it isn’t strictly political, but it was one of the year’s most interesting events. Why so interesting? I still haven’t seen the final count, but some wags suggest a quarter million people jammed Dickson Street for the annual Biker festival. I spent a little bit of time downtown on the final day, really the Saturday, and have really only seen that man people packed into one civic space while in Chicago for the Independence Day fireworks in Lincoln Park.
7. Changing of the Guard. Washington County Sheriff Steve Whitmill resigned his post to grab a better-paying one with Tyson Foods. That set off a small-scale, single-party battle for the Sheriff’s office, which ended with Lee Owen and Tim Helder splitting things – Owen holds on to the top spot until a new term begins, then Mr. Helder puts on the top badge. Also, in Fayetteville, PD Chief Rick Hoyt retired to spend more time with family, and the city appointed Frank Johnson (a long time favorite of the local media and reporters) as the new man-in-charge.
8. OK – I’m reaching here; our mild weather this summer (which wasn’t such a bad story after all, but will the other shoe drop and will we get whacked during the winter?)
9. The death of the “SuperSize.” OK, the movie about the guy who lived on McDonald’s food for 30 days was interesting, and it hit DVD this fall. Did it actually lead to the death of the “supersize” when many fast-food joints got rid of that option for customers? And, as long as we’re doing movies, how can we ignore the emergence of Michael Moore as either a hero or an annoyance? So, you could add the entire “Fahrenheit 9-11” dust up to the list, i.e., which theaters played it, did you watch it, what did you think? Also, add the final episodes of both Friends and Cheers. Consider this the “entertainment” portion of our list.
10. Everything else big that happened before about, say, August. Because every year when we journalist types sit down to try and remember the year’s biggest stories, we seem to have a hard time remembering what happened more than a couple of months back. That job, we leave to historians.
Finally, just a word of thanks to those of you who cast ballots in this year’s “best of” poll. I appreciate the encouragement you’ve lent me to keep tilting at windmills and to keep writing. I consider that my holiday gift. Hope you get what you want this season.
Monday, December 13, 2004
NEW ONLINE RADIO STATION
So, that was quite a long break! Been very busy trying to get some end of the year projects finished but will return to our fantastic website now. I've got about a month's worth of copy to post here and I've just started a new 24-7 online radio station at Live365.
If you visit Live365 you'll be able to listen to our programs for the past 2 months anytime of the day or night, with a quality better than you'll hear on radio and better than you'll hear on this site. When you visit, you'll have to download the Live365 player for free -- quick and easy -- and then enter "arkansas tonight" in the search window. Simply click on the little yellow speaker button by our name, and yes, you'll have to wade through some commercial content, but it'll be there. It's also an easy way for us to both stream the show live to a larger audience and post all our old shows. I'll put a button on this page for quick linking.
Try it out -- Live365 is probably the oldest and most established internet radio source and I've even thrown in a music block to break things up. Yes, I'll take requests, but most of what I'll play is old punk stuff I enjoy, liberally sprinkled with some folk and JOhnny Cash tunes.
Hell, maybe I could even resurrect our morning radio news headlines there! OK, maybe that's going too far.
So, that was quite a long break! Been very busy trying to get some end of the year projects finished but will return to our fantastic website now. I've got about a month's worth of copy to post here and I've just started a new 24-7 online radio station at Live365.
If you visit Live365 you'll be able to listen to our programs for the past 2 months anytime of the day or night, with a quality better than you'll hear on radio and better than you'll hear on this site. When you visit, you'll have to download the Live365 player for free -- quick and easy -- and then enter "arkansas tonight" in the search window. Simply click on the little yellow speaker button by our name, and yes, you'll have to wade through some commercial content, but it'll be there. It's also an easy way for us to both stream the show live to a larger audience and post all our old shows. I'll put a button on this page for quick linking.
Try it out -- Live365 is probably the oldest and most established internet radio source and I've even thrown in a music block to break things up. Yes, I'll take requests, but most of what I'll play is old punk stuff I enjoy, liberally sprinkled with some folk and JOhnny Cash tunes.
Hell, maybe I could even resurrect our morning radio news headlines there! OK, maybe that's going too far.