Here are excerpts from recent editorials in Arkansas newspapers:
Southwest Times Record. May 7, 2017.
No doubt to his dying day, Tony Alamo continued to proclaim he never did anything wrong.
But the evangelist’s history, including many years in our area, says otherwise. Whether it’s the conviction on charges that he took underage girls across state lines for sex or accusations of child abuse at his compound, Alamo left a trail of damage throughout his life.
Alamo, born Bernie Lazar Hoffman, who died May 2 in a North Carolina federal prison at 82, was known for his ministry but also for his businesses, including his company that designed decorated jackets that were worn by celebrities. He was also a convicted sex offender who was sentenced in 2009 to 175 years in prison for his crimes and ordered to pay millions in civil judgments to children allegedly abused under his watch.
Letters to the Times Record editor before, during and after Alamo’s 2009 trial show the kind of support he had, and possibly still has, among those who followed his ministries. The letters state that Alamo was being railroaded, that coverage of his activities was unfair, that Satan himself was behind the accusations. Alamo himself said he was framed, at least according to the leaflets his ministry left throughout the area.
But comments like “consent is puberty,” which Alamo told The Associated Press during an interview in 2008, put Alamo in a special category of heinous. He advocated for polygamy and took multiple wives, according to reports from witnesses, many of whom were young girls. The worst part is that he used his position of power to influence so many.
“There’s no telling how many little girls’ lives he destroyed,” Fouke Mayor Terry Purvis told AP following Alamo’s death. “I wouldn’t want to be in his shoes right now.”
His 2009 conviction came after he spent four years in prison in the 1990s for tax evasion. That conviction failed to slow down the ministry, and after he left prison, he and his followers began a new ministry compound in Fouke. It was that compound that was raided, which led to his eventual arrest and conviction on the sex-abuse charges.
In 2009, as Alamo was taken to a waiting U.S. marshal’s vehicle following his conviction, he yelled to reporters: “I’m just another of the prophets that went to jail for the Gospel,” according to an Associated Press story.
No prophets we ever knew of advocated for the abuse of children.
The prosecution at that time showed that Alamo ran his compound through fear and intimidation - every aspect of a person’s life was dictated by him - even to the point that men were sent away from the facility so that Alamo could have sex with their wives. They believed him to be a prophet who had a direct line to God, and they feared him because he could withhold food from them and beat them and otherwise make their lives miserable.
The federal attorney stated before Alamo’s sentencing that “We believe he will face the rest of his natural life in prison.”
He did, indeed. Now, we can only hope that the children he abused, underage girls he married, former followers and anyone else whose life he negatively impacted get the peace they deserve.
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Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. May 7, 2017.
Poor John Boozman. This state’s low-key and senior U.S. senator, a man of conservative values and background, an eye doctor and quiet gentleman who maybe could only be forced to anger by a Ted Cruz type, didn’t make the cut. The American Conservative Union - whatever that is - honored five of this state’s six members of Congress as being conservative enough - whatever that is - and John Boozman was left out.
All four representatives and both senators from Arkansas are Republican just now. And John Boozman’s conservative “score” was above the average for Republicans in the U.S. Senate. But he didn’t quite get to 80 on a 100 scale. And so was deemed unfit for a Washington, D.C., award by this ACU outfit. (NB, don’t put an “L’’ in there, especially between the “C’’ and the “U.” That’s a different outfit with a slightly different agenda.)
What does the American Conservative Union know about conservatism? Why, it knows how to add. The group went over roll call votes, picking out a couple dozen it deemed important enough to measure. And it based its scores on whether the politician voted right. And we mean right. Opposition to Merrick Garland on the U.S. Supreme court was counted, too, although the Senate never voted on that nomination. We suppose that senators who don’t usually knock over old ladies to get to the TV cameras were penalized for not opposing Merrick Garland loudly enough. Shame on those with, well, conservative demeanors.
Did said congressional member vote for the resolution disapproving of the government-expanding Waters of the United States rule? Check!
Did he or she oppose John King as secretary of Education during the latter part of the last administration? Check!
Did he or she vote for wind energy subsidies? Yes?!? Shame! Deduct a point.
If this is how we’re going to label conservative politicians, we might as well go to a paint-by-the-numbers poster. How simple. And simplistic. This isn’t conservatism, this is a grocery list.
Senior types at National Review favor legalizing certain drugs. The Wall Street Journal’s editorial board would be aghast. Which speaks for true conservatives? Many farmers and business owners who claim to be conservative want and need cheap labor that might be in this country legally, illegally or somewhere in between. Others chant “Build That Wall!” at Trump rallies. Who’s the real conservative?
Conservatism isn’t a party platform. And it hasn’t always been Republican. Remember when there were liberal Republicans in the land, and conservative Democrats? A. Lincoln, the first Republican president, was as liberal as they come. Free the slaves? How radical! And only recently did the blue dog Democrat go extinct among the elected ranks.
A conservative friend once said conservatism is an attitude, a disposition - an approach to the world marked by a respect for the past. If you’re going to be ideologically reliable, how conservative can you be?
Being opposed to change isn’t conservative. What about all those who want to reform Social Security and Medicaid and government in general to make it work better (and for Social Security, longer). They’re called conservatives. It’s the liberals who want nothing to change on entitlements.
Is the person who Chooses Life - when it comes to opposing abortion and opposing the death penalty - conservative or a raging liberal?
What is this American Conservative Union to be the final arbitrators of all things conservative? According to dispatches, if John Boozman would’ve voted the other way on a catfish inspection program he would have increased his score on the ACU website.
A catfish inspection program. What, exactly, did Edmund Burke say about catfish inspections?
If a conservative is somebody who holds to tradition, and is cautious about leaping before he looks, and values the lessons of real life and experience over Bold Theories and guesswork, then wouldn’t John Boozman be the poster boy?
But he didn’t vote to eliminate a catfish inspection program pushed by the aquaculture industry. Deduct a point.
A wise man once said the past isn’t dead, it’s not even past. And there are many things in the past that are worth conserving. As conservatives do. Yes, even our shared history should be conserved, whether it be in the form of monuments that are being taken down across the nation or in the form of books that are being re-written to make sure Columbus is slandered. Yes, the stereotypes remain, because they prove to be true often enough. Conservatives should be conservative, and well-mannered, with forgettable ties. And prepared. Well-read. And respectful. With the awareness that the other side might be proved right. (Was it H.L. Mencken who sent postcards to critics saying, “Dear sir, you may be right, sincerely … .”?)
If conservatism is indeed an attitude, how sum it up with a score card?
Answer: You can’t. To try to is the height of silliness.
And this we should all agree on: Silliness isn’t very conservative.
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Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. May 9, 2017.
Of how many things can be said “We didn’t really appreciate it until it was gone?”
The sentiment unquestionably applies to time, which passes in measured segments the same today as 50 or 100 years ago. Yet it is perhaps only when we realize there’s less of it ahead of us than behind us that we long to slow its incessant march.
Similar statements apply to relationships. Humans have been known to strain them to the breaking point only to realize too late what’s been lost. Or we fail to prioritize time with someone we care about, then wish longingly for a restoration of an opportunity that’s now irretrievable.
And freedom? How many warnings have we heard through the ages about its erosion by the constant drip of smaller-scale oppression (can there be such a thing?) rather than a tsunami of enslavement? We wouldn’t suggest embracing a lot of lessons from the late Russian President Boris Yeltsin, but he said something worth hearing about today’s subject: “We don’t appreciate what we have until it’s gone. Freedom is like that. It’s like air. When you have it, you don’t notice it.”
History falls constantly under the heading of the unappreciated, particularly when it comes to structures and monuments that are no longer in vogue. We maintain there’s an often clear difference between a place that’s just old and one that’s truly historic, but in either case, when they’re gone, they’re gone. When their historic significance can be established, many sites are worth preserving in ways that put them to good use while helping to connect us to our past.
But there’s other history worth preserving, and it’s often the kind people just assume will always be around. We’re talking about oral history, the kind that’s experienced firsthand or the stories passed down from one generation to the next around front porches and kitchen tables.
Unfortunately, the best recollections often die when their tellers do. But with today’s technology, it doesn’t have to be that way.
And so it was with great appreciation we read the other day about efforts in the small Washington County community of Cane Hill to ensure those spoken stories don’t disappear. With the volunteer work of former newspaperman Scott Davis, the nonprofit Historic Cane Hill Inc. is recording video interviews with older people who grew up in the community.
“It’s not just about saving buildings,” said the organization’s executive director, Bobby Braly. “It’s also about saving memories.”
Like many of us, Davis and Braly appreciated those stories from older generations but had not acted to preserve them. According to Davis, they were jarred into action when one of the great storytellers of the area passed away. They regretted missing their opportunity with her and decided not to miss it with others.
So the work continues in Cane Hill to document the past as remembered by those who lived through those times.
Nobody’s going to make a fortune - or much of anything - doing the work involved with the Cane Hill project, but the preservation of those recollections will serve the community for years to come.
Fayetteville is home to the David and Barbara Pryor Center for Arkansas Oral and Visual History, a project of the University of Arkansas that, on a grander scale, seeks to collect, preserve and connect the stories of Arkansans to those who have not heard them. The effort is an impressive one.
And so is the effort in Cane Hill, where the interviews perhaps serve a smaller audience, but the same purpose of incomparable value.
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