December 2024

LITTLE ROCK – The state Senate held its traditional organizational meeting to name its leaders and choose committee assignments.

This past week, I found myself doing a balancing act-navigating my time between Pocahontas and Corning, something I feel pretty honored to be doing. Both towns hold a special place in my heart, each with its unique flavor and charm.

I could not help remembering that passage, in light of recent happenings. You will be reading this December 1lth. The passage of the seasons in the northern hemispheres as well as the southern has great benefits to mankind and the flora and fauna that surround us. We here in America find ourselves this time of the year approaching our coldest season, with ice and snow on the outside hopefully, but warm feelings and cheer with our families inside. It can be a time for hardship as well. Merle Haggard wrote as song titled If We Make It Through December” back in 1974. The lyrics go on to say “Every things gonna be alright I know. It’s the coldest time of winter, and I shiver when I see the falling snow.” But these things have been apart of our lives and the lives of countless generations back to the beginnings, so we accept them without question, and we take steps to protect us and our families during the hard times. What I have come to realize in my 85 years is the fact that the things that are not a constant set, we don’t always safeguard ourselves against. We live in the teenage and formative years of a new century, that unfolds itself quick as a spring thunderstorm, but we see that coming and quickly get indoors. We, or at least most of us, don’t always do that with new problems or occurrences in our lives. Hence we sometimes suffer being caught in the downpour of results from the thunderstorms of life. I have watch politics all my life, I remember riding with my parents in our little ‘36 Ford, when the news came over the radio that FDR had died. I remember Truman’s decision to unleash the power of the atom upon Japan. I remember ‘I like Ike’, and young John Kennedy. I stood not 10 feet from him in military formation in late ‘61, and felt the energy from what I considered a hero. He was the last that I voted for until Bill Clinton. I am at a loss right now as to where our country is headed. I won’t be a doomsday prophet and say it is over. But I feel deep concern, when I hear men who will lead us, threaten all that are not white and conservative. I worked in the fields in Arizona with Latinos and Latinas in 1963 after coming home from Viet Nam. No finer people ever treated me like family. I see auto accidents that are direct results of people not caring for their fellow man, but instead, strive to illustrate their egos by carelessness and aggression when at the wheel of their vehicle. It has reached such proportions that I have had a state trooper here in Texas remark that people he stops are hateful and disrespectful in their remarks to him. The conditions are far from domestic, with things like the atrocities in Syria and Lebanon, and Israel and Palestine. As well as Ukraine and Russia and elsewhere in the world. My question is, is it because our hearts have changed? Is it because we no longer feel that we are our brother’s keeper? We are raising a new generation of youngsters that are very perceptive, and they are just like every generation since the first one, some are positive and creative and others not so much. But we are not setting a good example for them, simply by the way we collectively “thinketh in our hearts.” We are so very divided now. I try to look at the media, and I see nothing but avarice and disrespect toward the very ones they are supposed to serve, and in the same breath allegiance to the gods of money and power that will support them. In my life I have always been a sort of historian, it began with a study of genealogy and my forebears. Newspapers need to stand as sentinels against inequality and injustice. And they should never have to fear in doing so. Newspapers have been doing this as long as we have been a country. The great Benjamin Franklin was that type of newspaperman, should we try to wear a smaller set of shoes than that. I will miss your kind and inspirational words Pam Lowe, and “Thank You for your service to your community.” Thank you.

Never too cold for basketball