Wednesday, July 13, 2011
Arkansas Culture and Characters Gould Council bans citizens group
Posted by Max Brantley on Wed, Jul 13, 2011 at 9:48 AM
But it's really gotten crazy. The City Council, unhappy about a civic betterment group, the Gould Citizens Advisory Council, apparently has adopted an ordinance "disallowing" the organization from existing and further declaring "no new organization" can be formed in Gould without council approval. Shades of the bad old days when Southern politicians tried to root out the NAACP and similar dangerous organizations. According to the PR source who provided documents on the dispute, the mayor vetoed the ordinance, but the council overrode the veto.
It goes without saying that the Constitution takes a dim group of governments that "disallow" an organization's existence.
This bears some more followup, which we hope to do. But, in the meanwhile, following is a news release that rounds up the controversy from the civic group's point of view. It includes missed tax payments, a leaky sewer system, a fight over a community building donated by a bank and lots of government discord.
City of Gould Threatened by City Council Action
(Gould, ARK, July 13, 2011) — Members of the Gould Citizens Advisory Council (GCAC) believe the City of Gould is under threat. Last night Gould City Council members voted four to one to override the veto of an unconstitutional City ordinance passed June 28 that disallows the Gould Citizens Advisory Council from existing within the city limits of Gould and another that requires all organizations to get city permission before using facilities for their meetings.
“The Gould City Council has banned our group from meeting or existing within the city and declared it an emergency to stop the people from voicing their opinion and holding the public officials accountable for their actions,” said Curtis Mangrum, GCAC Chair. “We believe that action is in direct conflict with that the right of citizens to assemble in their communities as protected by the U.S Constitution’s First Amendment and Arkansas Constitution, Article 2, Section 4.”
For many years, Gould citizens believed their elected officials practiced good government and made the right decisions for the whole community, according to Mangrum. However, because of a sizable IRS debt, bankruptcy and many years of legal problems for the City, Gould citizens felt it was time to get more involved.
GCAC has been a force for positive change in Gould for the past eight years. It is a grassroots organization made up of citizens who want the City of Gould to thrive through unity and progress. The organization was formed to ensure that citizens provide a voice in the decision- making process at all levels of government and hold their public officials accountable. Working together, GCAC members:
* Identified and helped elect candidates who wanted to move the city forward.
* Sponsored City Council retreats to develop a strategic planning process for Gould.
* Preserved the Gould School District archives when it was consolidated and made sure Gould’s trophies were displayed at the students’ new school.
* Identified abandoned housing and submitted a list to City officials for action.
* Sponsored a youth summit attended by 50 young citizens.
* Produced a documentary on the history of Gould.
* Hosted citywide cleanup campaigns.
* Helped raise $11,000 earlier this summer through the Gould Tax Relief Fund to keep the IRS from seizing and liquidating City property.
Last year Simmons Bank donated its building to the City of Gould in partnership with GCAC to be used as a Community Resource Center. Programs planned include a computer lab, workforce center, youth cultural activities and Neighborhood Watch. In addition, the Public Library, Tobacco Coalition and a quilting club would be housed in the building.
In other action last night, the City Council members voted four to one to evict GCAC from the Resource Center and stated they would change the locks on the doors. Their justification is that the City cannot afford to pay the utilities.
“The problem with this explanation is that they did not have a prior discussion with the tenants of the building to try to make an honest effort to work with them,” said Norvell Dixon, GCAC Vice-Chair. “This same group raised $11,000 to pay back taxes for the City, surely they could raise enough money to pay the utilities for the building. This is just an excuse to stifle the voice of the people.”
The City Council also argued that the group would not release the lease and the deed. The City Council has not officially requested a copy of the lease and deed from the group. “In addition, it is our understanding that the City has a copy of these documents and this should be taken up with the Mayor, not the tenants,” Dixon said.
GCAC is also concerned about three City Council members voting against accepting an $800,000 grant to repair the city’s leaking sewer system at a June City Council meeting. “We don’t understand why our City Council members would vote to disallow this money to come into our city to help replace and upgrade our sewer system. We are worried about City Council actions like this,” said Dixon. “Gould is my home and I want it to be a forward-moving city. The council’s actions seem to be having the opposite effect.”
GCAC supports the right of the citizens to participate in government through peaceful, organized assembly of concerned citizens. Dixon said GCAC members want to work with public officials who practice good government by making decisions based on analysis, citizen input and sound fiscal management. “We want public officials who are working constructively to solve our city’s problems and build a better future for our children,” he said.
“GCAC will continue to fight for the rights of the citizens to assemble, provide input into our government and insist that our public officials do the right thing for the whole community — not just for a chosen few,” said Mangrum.
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Comments (43)
Showing 1-43 of 43
Max, if would be helpful for your readers need to know that the Gould Citizens Advisory Council is made up exclusively or almost exclusively of African-Americans.
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Too bad the widening of U.S. 65 won’t skirt around Gould as it does equally-depressing Grady. It’s a sad sight to see — poor old, largely vacated Gould, Ark. The years since the Holthoff clan died or moved away have not been kind.
Sound, since wiki reports the population is 78% black and 20% white, it would be interesting to know the make up of the City Council.
Sure sounds poorly written.
What is their definition of an organization?
If you Google "Gould organizations" mostly churches pops up.
Do existing organizations such as churches get to exist?
Sounds like no one on the City Council had any civics classes while in school.
I am not nor have I ever been a lawyer but this sure seems like an easy rule/ordinance to overrule.
I did have a date with a lawyer back in the 80's but it didn't work out. Every other lawyer I ever dealt with screwed me, but that one did not.
Wel-l-l-l, with dis-ability, you have been dissing us for a long, long time.....
While the organization is likely all or largely black, I'm not sure I see why you think this is pertinent, Sound Policy.
Doigotta, I was wondering if their was an old white power structure that dominated the city council. Sounds like the advisory council has done some pretty good things. I don't know any details other than what I read above.
Doigotta, those who think the views of 1957 died 54 years ago just need to visit modern day south Arkansas to learn otherwise. It would truly shock most people.
What is the affliction that is so prevalent in these eastern/southern Arkansas city governments?
Hey, Cato, too many small towns that are dying because of no industrial base and their kids have left, have a lot of the same attitudes.
Max, anything on that same power structure battle in Belle Vista where the council actually voted an elected official off the city council?
Gould has no tourism, no newspaper, no industry (except for farming and the nearby ADC trio of prisons: Cummins, Varner, and SuperMax), no local school system, no bars, no grocery stores, nothing but years of infighting between a aging white planter class and the larger underclass. During the 1960's-early 1980's the police chief of the town was a illiterate racist whom was finally forced to resign after some unseemly allegations in the city jail (since closed). The white families abandoned the former Gould School District after integration and was finally consolidated with nearby Dumas in recent years.
Gould IMHO is FUBAR'd and the best thing would be for the city to dis-incorporate and start over fresh.
BTW, neither of the local rags, the Lincoln Ledger, nor the Country Village mouthpiece the Lincoln American had any column space in this week's issue (published today) about the Gould Council's action.
Just me.
But I would LOVE to see Mara Leveritt focus her considerable investigative and literary talents to an appraisal of the Dying South in small rural towns like Gould, et al.
These are heartbreaking stories fraught with larger, invaluable implications and insights for America's future (and similar locales like Arkansas around the world).
Ms. Leveritt is one of the best writers and journalists on the planet.
Maybe the topic doesn't capture her heart and commitment, and that's fine.
But GOD would I love to read her take on what's happening to these communities and lives as the world moves on.
Maybe Gould needs a Wal Mart. Employment, low prices, indoor work during heat and cold spells, and a contributor to worthy community endeavors. Hey, MAYOR............
"What is the affliction that is so prevalent in these eastern/southern Arkansas city governments?"
We love our home-schooling, our 5,000-year-old world and our religious zealotry. We also have a god-given right to be as ignorant as is necessary...which usually requires some sort of government interference in thinking, gathering, protesting and all that other 'liberal' stuff.
Zelda, I think you might enjoy John Cole's rant today about the crazies amongst us. I say "preach it brother".
http://www.balloon-juice.com/2011/07/13/of…
Here's the best of it.
"Of course they are crazy. Ross Douthat is just a hack who does his best to run cover for his dumber compadres, but they are all crazy. There is really no reason to debate this anymore. They deny evolution, many of them think the earth is only several thousand years old, they don’t believe in global climate change and adamantly don’t believe humans have anything to do with it, they think being gay is a choice and I guaran-god-damned-tee that at least half of them think you can pray it away, they think stem cells are tiny babies, they think Saddam Hussein had a role in 9/11, they think you can cut taxes indefinitely and government revenues will always increase, they think Sarah Palin is qualified to be President and Joe the Plumber has keen political insights, they think Obama may be a Muslim and might not be a citizen, they think the solution to gun violence is more guns, and that dijon mustard and arugula are elitist, that the President who appointed half of Goldman Sachs to his administration is a socialist, and so on. And I’m not attributing to the GOP made up stuff, these are things in their fucking platform or that they state regularly on camera and in print. Michelle Bachmann was just on tv all wild-eyed asserting that even if we default, seniors will still get their social security checks and that Obama is a big meanie for suggesting otherwise. How will we pay them? Who the fuck knows? They aren’t dealing with reality and haven’t been for a long, long time."
Reckon the NLR city council would follow the Gould example and ban the group conducting the late August getmotivated business seminar in NLR that features Laura Bush, Lou Holtz, Rudy Giuliani, Terry Bradshaw, Steve Forbes and other Repubs? *grin*
the gould citizens advisory council is made up of citizens iof gould.......we stand up for what is right and fight for our town...we have an education committee....youth.....political awareness.... and a few more...we particcipate in citizen first congress, which we help make laws to take to the legislators........we are a group of citizens that love our town and want to make it better....the council is all black but you have 4 of them out of 6 that refuse to work or the better of the ciry....they try to break everyrhing down that is good including our great mayor....our mayor has worked his butt off to do what is right for the city and each and every citizen......he has to go through being slandered......under paid......and down right disrespected his wife and kids have to go through things that they should not have to endure......it is a very stressfull time but with GOD all things are possible and i truly believe that GOD will pull us through on top......i believe that if that those few council members don't get on track, they need to leave...why stay in a town that you don't like......let us work together to continue all the progess that our great mayor is trying to accomplish......and KEEP PROGRESS MOVING FORWARD.........!!!!!!
It's sad to hear the ignorance going on in my old hometown. The issue is- individuals who have not really accomplished much have decided to become big shots in the small area. I don't know who the members are that make up the council but I'm sure they can't have much knowledge of the law and government. Their recent ordinance proves that. We are not living in the Wild, Wild, West era so wake up people.
I don't know.
I read posts like Concerned Citizen 2420's, from a town of 1,300 in Arkansas. It sounds like a heartfelt, hopeful, desperate plea for recognition, compassion, help.
I'm from a town of 13+ million, where it's easy to ignore the plight of flyover hamlets like Gould, and generations of lives and roots and dreams and loss in those places.
It's easy to forget them, dismiss them, ignore them and their national importance, in the excitement and hurly-burly of "sophisticated" megalopolises.
I know Ms. Leveritt and her friends read this blog.
Which is why I say, again, I wish somebody with Leveritt's brilliance would take up these stories, the denouements of small-town American towns and lives, in a comprehensive work.
Time passes. Things change. Change MEANS something.
I know of no other writer in America as talented, involved, dedicated, thoughtful and insightful as she on non-fiction topics as layered and complex and historic as these.
One can wait around and hope.
"SP- You are assuming the Gould City Council is white?"
Posted by mudturtle
No, cause it isn't.
Norma, it is indeed "a heartfelt, hopeful, desperate plea for recognition, compassion, help".
What's going in in small town Gould, Arkansas, challenges the centuries old power structure in such communities, and it is feared by certain powerful interests might spread to other similar communities. We can't have that, no ma'am.
That's what is going on.
Agreed, Sound.
That's but ONE layer, I think.
What's happening in Gould is happening across America in similar small towns.
I don't know Mara Leveritt, except through her writings.
I'm fascinated with and want to better-understand those various historic layers: racism, slavery, provencialism, religionism, conformism, fear and resentment of "outsiders," persecution complexes, "Good-Ol'-Boy-ism," anti-intellectualism, anti-education-ism, sexism, the endless and often violent -isms that have long-tolled the death-knells for such communities and, I suspect, the "Southern way of life" -- including the political sway the "Southern strategy" has held over America since Nixon.
I guess there are American analysts as penetrating as Mara Leveritt, but I can't name one.
If I sound like I'm begging her to tackle this subject, it's because I am.
Well, Outlier, here is Chris Matthews on "Hardball" ostensibly talking about same-sex issues, but it veers into a hard-hitting spotlight on Republicans constructing their own "parallel reality" and trying to force that agenda and dogma on America at large.
http://gay.americablog.com/2011/07/truth-w…
Norma, if the situation were not so serious, I would be laughing at the Masters of the Universe who courted this fringe because they couldn't win elections without them. They have created a Frankenstein's monster minus the humanity of Shelley's fictional character. I really believe that we are nearing the point that Repubs can't win with them.
It's going to take a long time for them to get their evil genie back in the bottle, but at least in parts of the country, this fringe is more liability than asset. We can take heart in their demographics. It does go back to the Southern Strategy. I won't say Reagan honed Nixon's strategy---more like he beat it into a club on the anvil of peace and justice. Chaney, Goodman, Schwerner---all names seared in my heart as they should be in everyone's. Yet Reagan chose to open his 1980 campaign in the town where they were murdered. St. Ronnie was not very subtle with his dog whistles but got away with it because of his perceived affable nature. Things got dialed back for a while but all the old habits of mind were always there for some.
The MOTUs never have to face the consequences of the social milieu they have created. Daughter pregnant and not by a suitable boy? No problem, jet off to Switzerland for an abortion. No dying in back alleys as the undeserving sluts will. At the risk of getting Sister on my back, I believe that the GLBT children of the rich have an easier ride through life because of the more "civilized" environment most of them have. Trust me, it's much "easier" to be gay in Beverly Hills than Berryville.
One hopes that the insanity we are seeing is really the death throes of a discredited and no longer viable way of life. The beast is caged and cornered. Things won't be pretty for a while, but we'll win in the end. I truly believe it.
Additional proof of what I said above from commenter Montysano at BJ regarding the latest pearl clutching based on Cantor's lie about what happened in a meeting with President Obama.
"Driving home from an out-of-town trip, I was listening to a bit of Mark Levin, and yeah, I’m told that the “arrogant” Prez stomped out. Levin must have dog-whistled “uppity” at least 2 dozen times in an hour. I must have “job creators” a dozen times in an hour. They’re flailing."
Perhaps Ernest Dumas could enlighten us on this subject. Among the people at the Freedom Riders symposium were several people from Gould. Did he speak with any of them?
It is interesting to read Norma talk about small towns but here's something I bet most of you didn't know. According to census, every third Arkansan - 33% - does not live in a "place". A place is defined as either an incorporated city or town (that includes Gould) or a population concentration that while unincorporated is significant enough to be designated a CDP ("Census Designated Place") by the census bureau. 33% live in no place at all, in the middle of nowhere, far from the closest neighbor.
And no, this is not strictly a rural-urban (13 million vs. 1300 souls) issue. I myself have grown up in a small rural village but still recognizable as a place. I wonder what effect it has on culture and society when one third of the population live scattered over the countryside.
I sure hope the Gould City Council remembers it is bound by the U.S. Constitution and that it heeds the 1st Amendment right to Freedom of Association and the right to petition the government for a redress of grievances before a court steps in.
What a sad day in America, and what a good reason for us all to remember that tyranny is just a thought away... that the desire to squelch others who make us work hard to defend our actions, who say things that make us uncomfortable or just plain annoy us, is part of human nature. And that it is a part that can take hold of an organization or a political entity just as easily as the desire to do good. One day the group could decide to build a playground in a poor neighborhood, and the next, decide to bar the pro-playground builders from the building. that whether that power hungry, anti-democratic side of humanity takes hold depends solely on the will of the people, not on some magical American gene that will prevent "us" from ever becoming like "them" (whoever "they" happen to be at the moment).
Of course, in this country, in the end, whatever those seeking to stifle free speech want, the Constitution and the courts have the final say.
Why then do some people resent it when the protection of the court is sought to, in their minds, thwart the will of the people? Because, in the words of someone great philosopher somewhere, some of "the people" are knuckleheads.
Will it sort itself out? Will the citizens be able to remind the City Council of the First Amendment and force it to reverse its action, or will it take a call from the ACLU? I'm betting on the better angels of the citizens' nature. But I'm not ruling out a tussle, either.
Rita Sklar
Executive Director
ACLU of Arkansas
501.374.2660
John A Arkansawyer> to answer your question the one vote on the City Counsel that refused to go along with these ordenances was one of the panelist from the Freedom Riders symposium. She refuses to give up her own civil rights or violate any of the citizens rights. I've been attending many meetings in the community and part of some of the organizations involved in this fight. I can tell you from first hand experience the GCAC is educating the citizens about the political system, the education system and various other areas to provide them with the understanding to stand up, speak up and fight for their rights as citizens of the community, state and country. The Gould Tax Relief Fund is a group of citizens and supporters of Gould that want to save the city. This group is not governed or run by GCAC, the Mayor or the City Counsel. Many members of this group attend GCAC and are members of that organization. They have taken the enpowerment of knowledge to stand up and step in to help the community. $10,000 in this community is a lot. Also realize it is only coming from about half of the community and supporters. I want to know what the real agenda is of the four counsel members that are fighting the civil rights of citizens and the improvements and progress that has been happening in Gould.
This is bullying, plain and simple, and the only way this kind of nonsense will ever stop is when 'bystanders' get involved... but as long as those in neighboring communities (who are not directly effected) stand idyl (in the good name of minding one's own business), this type of bigoted prejudice (which has nothing to do with race, but only to do with arrogance) shall prevail around the globe. It has become so indemic that 'we the people' have become completely desensitized to it. We 'accept' it as 'normal' and (essentially) ignore it. Shame on us...
Are the city leaders of Gould, Arkansas just plain stupid, or what? Have any of you idiots ever heard of the First Amendment, or maybe even the right to peacefully assemble? I guess not. On the positive side, the N.A.A.C.P. and the A.C.L.U. love this kind of moronic, idiotic, imbecilic, small town communism.
Hahaha. You're going to prosecute me if I talk about your ignorant ass at the dinner table? What about out here in cyber space? The last thing any small town group of wannabe politicians needs is for someone to come along and open up the eyes of the public.
In order to have standing and capacity to file a HUGE class action lawsuit, the GCAC needs to hold a meeting ASAP. Let those morons have you arrested, then sue the pants off their dumb ass for unlawful detainment, kidnapping, civil rights intimidation, and civil rights conspiracy.
I needed a good laugh and nearly fell off the chair for laughing so hard. You elected and appointed morons over thar in Gould, Arkansas just succeeded in proving to the entire viewing world what a bunch of ignorant jackasses you truly are.
You citizens can't figure out the agenda of the Ivory Tower? That is a no brainer. Those MORONS want to continue to maintain control over your town. I give it a few weeks and those MORONS will be hosting a book burning to prevent you from educating yourself to what a bunch bumbling of IDIOTS they truly are.
If you are an official in the podunk town of Gould, Arkansas email me and voice your opposition and I PROMISE you I'll come to your backwoods town and make a complete ass out of you and that entire board.
It is good to see that in 2011, the information age, a small group of small town politicians, who obviously can't distinguish between asphalt and rectal disease, want to control the masses through the use of tyranny and stupidity.
Well done Gould! You got your name in the news.
"I'm from a town of 13+ million, where it's easy to ignore the plight of flyover hamlets like Gould, and generations of lives and roots and dreams and loss in those places.
It's easy to forget them, dismiss them, ignore them and their national importance, in the excitement and hurly-burly of "sophisticated" megalopolises."
This to me displays astounding arrogance. Most of "flyover" land is quietly and peacefully plugging along as we always have thankyouverymuch.
It may surprise you that your 13 million member megalopolis where dreams die, roots disappear, and hope fades is barely a blip on our collective radar and the only time it concerns us is when you decide to export your special brand of social control to the hinterlands.
To Big Al:
Just now you used the word "arrogance" in reference to a comment made by Norma Bates when she wrote about "flyover hamlets." But, Big Al, you DO realize (at least I hope you realize) she is trying to DEFEND America's "flyover hamlets" don't you? She's trying to stick up for them. She's trying to point out that "flyover hamlets" are too easilly ignored BY THE PEOPLE IN THIS NATION WHO HOLD THE MOST POWER.
The thing she is trying to point out about the kind of folks who constantly fly back and forth between East Coast and the West Coast --and who thus obliviously "fly over" all the little Hamlets of Small Town USA which lie in between-- is that the East Coast/West Coast crowd collectively holds a significant amount of money, power, and influence in all the key arenas of the American socio-political machinery. She's trying to say that a "higher authority" likely needs to be brought into Gould to sort this whole mess out, but that the majority of the people in this nation who hail from the ranks of "higher authority" (the East Coast/West Coast people) probably aren't even aware that Gould even exists, let alone what's going on there. So the East Coast/West Coast crowd very much need to be made aware (thus her plea to the journalist who wrote this piece to keep expanding the scope of her investigation).
As for your reference to some sort of "special band of social control," being dispensed by the East Coast/West Coast crowd into the unwilling "flyover hamlets," Norma is simply trying to assert that ALL of the citizens of the USA --no matter where they live-- have Constitutional rights which need to be protected. Surely, Big Al, surely you have no qualms about the need for Constitutional rights to be protected. There is nothing "special" nor even "controlling" about protecting the Constitution --it's suposed to be normal, Standard Operating Procedure to protect the Constitution. And it's not "control" when a higher power (or a higher court, or SOMEONE from the very powerful East Coast/West Coast crowd) walks up to the governmental officials of a local small town government, calls them on the carpet for messing with the Constitution and then orders that small town government to knock it off.
The Constitution was designed primarilly to LIMIT the powers of government as much as possible. And it seems to me that the government in Gould needs to undergo some limiting. That wouldn't in any way be a "special brand of social control." Instead that would be the Constitutional brand of how a (local) government run amok can and should get rightfully restricted.
When the two sides to this Gould argument get weighed in the balancing scales, it's A) the right of the City Council to do whatever they want that gets pitted against B) the right of the citizens of Gould to peacefully assemble. Guess which right the United States Constitution says is supposed to be given the higher prioroty? (ANSWER: "B" the Right to Peacuful Assembly.) And after you have given the answer, please explain how such a ruling would qualify as a "special brand of social control?"
Has anyone of the news outlets bothered to talk to anyone oehter than the Mayor on this issue? There aew always two sides to every story. There is here also.
Instead of assumming the council is a bunch of idiots why don't some of you use your time researching this issue. The FOI laws in Arkansas are very good. For instance, the Gould Mayor. Go throug the District Court system in Gould, Star City and Lincoln county, Dumas, McGhee and Deshea county, and FOI the Mayors records for citations. Find out who the people are who make up this Advisory Council and do the same. I bet several will come back with shady records. The council made a mistake, they know it and will recind these ordinances. Just don't assume the Mayor and his Advisory Council are right. They are using this mistake to take advantage of the situation and take the heat off them. Also keep in mind that many of the Advisory Coouncil members are NOT from Gould. What makes them so anxious to help Gould instead of their own towns? You have to understand that the Mayor will discuss things with the Advisory Council that he will not address with the other elected officials. Is this tryiing to cooperate? As this situation goes on I believe the truth will come out. The politics in Gould are complicated and go way back. Gould's debts are enormous for a town their size and they are broke. These huge debts didn't just pop up overnight and the Mayor was the previous Recorder/Treasurer. The Advisory Council says they hellp select and elect good candidates for office-obviously those who have been in office are the ones who llet this debt get out of hand. Not paying payroll taxes for years? That's basic bookeeping. Instead of finding QUALIFIED candidates they vote for your friends or relatives. No one is trying to take anyone's individual rights away. Oh by the way-did I mention that the Mayor is furnishing the Advisory Council free office space-supposedly for 50 years and at city expense? The city is broke, can barely make payroll and pay the taxes but they are giving free space away. Oh well, just remember, there are always two sides!!
I wonder if any council member has raised the concern of taking "these people" and separating them from the rest of the city, thereby protecting the "real citizens" from contamination. Who are these board members bent on improving the city by trampling on the U. S. Consitution?
They simply cannot enforce the ordinance:
“All laws which are repugnant to the Constitution are null and void” (Marbury vs. Madison. 5 US (2 Cranch) 137,174,176, (1803)
“Where rights secured by the Constitution are involved, there can be no rule making or legislation which would abrogate them.” (Miranda vs. Arizona, 384 US 436 p.491.)
Being against the constitution on it's face makes it nothing.
to gould city council, if you love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude better than the animated contest of freedom, go home from us in peace, we ask not your councels or arms. crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. may your chains rest lightly upon you and may postearity forget that ye were our countrymen.
This has now been picked up by the New York Times, Fox News, and a dozen other huge news outlets.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/20/us/20ark…
http://nation.foxnews.com/first-amendment/…
The Gould City Council is scrambling to cover their butts now.
Part of what really smeared egg onto the faces of the Gould City Council is the STOOOO-PID wording of the ordinance banning the existence of this one group. So not only was this an unabashed snubbing of the US Constitution, but the wording was sophmoric. Put those two liabilities together and the press jumped all over it with glee.
Here's a transcription of that inane ordinance:
http://www.arktimes.com/images/blogimages/…
CITY OF GOULD
ORDINANCE NO.062011-5
BE IT ENACTED BY THE CITY OF GOULD AND THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE COUNTY OF LINCOLN, STATE OF ARKANSAS, AN ORDINANCE TO BE ENTITLED:
AN ORDINANCE TO DISALLOW THE GOULD CITIZENS ADVISORY COUNCIL FROM EXISTING WITHIN THE CITY LIMITS OF GOULD
BE IT ORDAINED by the City of Gould City Council:
SECTION 1: GOULD CITIZENS ADVISORY COUNCILS ABILITY TO OPERATE WITHIN THE CITY OF GOULD. The Gould Citizens Advisory Council by passage of this ordinance is hereby banned from doing business in the City of Gould.
Section 2: That the said Council is, in effect, causing confusion and discourse among the citizens of Gould and as a result is contributing to the friction not only between the Mayor and the Council but also among the citizens who deserve a cooperative government. Also no new organiztions shall be allowed to exist in the City of Gould without approval from a majority of the City Council.
SECTION 3: Therefore, an emergency is hereby declared to exist and this ordinance being necessary for the immediate preservation of the public peace, health and safety shall be in full force and effect from and after passage and approval.
This town sounds alot like Blytheville, Arkansas, everything from the poor infastructure to the non-payment of taxes to the I.R.S. and the state. The city of Gould Arkansas like Blytheville has been the victim of bad leadership and too many back door deals between a select few. The city of Gould may have gotten $300,000 dollars in tax debt forgiven but they will be under tighter scrutiny from local, state and federal entities.
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Re: Two LR cops busted in federal marijuana sting
Funny. Seems I recall just such a scenario being played out before -- traffickers needing…
- on May 24, 2012
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Police close the Occupy Little Rock camp, perhaps the last Occupy encampment on public land.
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