http://www.arktimes.com/ArkansasBlog/archives/2012/12/13/jason-baldwin-mara-leveritt-talk-cameras-in-court-at-clinton-center Comments On: Jason Baldwin, Mara Leveritt talk cameras in court by David Koon en-us Copyright 2013 Arkansas Times. All rights reserved. This RSS file is offered to individuals, Arkansas Times readers, and non-commercial organizations only. Any commercial websites wishing to use this RSS file, please contact Arkansas Times. robert@arktimes.com (Arkansas Times Webmaster) Mon, 20 May 2013 00:00:01 -0500 Mon, 20 May 2013 21:45:00 -0500 Foundation http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss
A few years earlier, I watched with great interest the news coverage of desegregation in the Boston-area schools. The resistance and the violence matched--and arguably surpassed--what happened at Central High in 1957. The 1954 Brown decision was directed towards the heinous education system so prevalent in the South at the time, but what I and many others saw in Massachusetts was a type of "what goes around comes around".

Even during Reconstruction, there was widespread opposition to any mass migration of freed slaves from the South, a mindset that looked with similar distaste at Irish Catholic immigrants, and which arguably led to Jim Crow-type laws in quite a few places in the North, well before the Civil War.

Before anyone comments I defend the South and Arkansas too much, I will balance this with my memories of TV coverage of the 1965 Voting Rights march in Alabama. Seeing the brutal handling of the marchers as they came across the Pettus Bridge, I for the first time felt ashamed to be a part of such a system, and such a region. I did benefit from a moral cliche, that a person can and should learn right from wrong. Knowing what was, and is, right and wrong became more complex, often more problematic, as I grew to adulthood, but there are occasions when something so right becomes unmistakable.

What was said at the panel discussion last night needed to be said; even more, the hopes for having cameras in all the courtooms must become a reality. If enough people will question, complain, and urge, the policymakers must listen. If they listen and act as we hope, Arkansas can be in the vanguard of legal reform, and arguably show that progress is not limited to, say, the North and the West. I've heard some people argue that having an "Arkie", Bill Clinton, elected President, was just a "fluke". Acting positively on the issue of cameras in the courts I believe will give the lie to this misconception.

Are any of our legislators listening?
Posted by donemewrong1]]> Fri, 14 Dec 2012 14:32:24 -0600 Arkansas Times
A complex indicates the way in which we think of ourselves as something below average, but if we are in fact below average...re. inferior...then I contend it's not a complex after all.

Don't you see? We've been right all along!
Posted by HolyGuano]]> Fri, 14 Dec 2012 13:16:10 -0600 Arkansas Times
Define "we."

"Inferior" is an evaluative term: compared to whom; in what respects?

If you fall below the 50th percentile, you are "inferior"--to those who are at or above the 50th percentile.

But being so doesn't necessarily entail a "complex."

There's a world of difference between "inferior" and "complex."

But if you choose to have an inferiority complex just because you're inferior, that's your privilege. Go right ahead--and enjoy the trip!

Just don't try to take the rest of us down with you.

"I don't say I'm better than anybody else, but I'll be damned if I ain't just as good."
Posted by SkyPilot]]> Fri, 14 Dec 2012 11:48:53 -0600 Arkansas Times
If you disagree, tell me where we are superior. Education? Economy? Culture? Upward mobility? Health care? Life span? Women's and minority rights? Quality of life?

And please don't trot out the environment here in the land of fracking and watershed ruining.

Or cost of living. Juarez is cheap, too.

Most people live here because they were born here and have families here. Nothing wrong with that. Just don't make as though there was some type of data-driven, logical analysis behind the decision.

The plural of "anecdote" is not "data."
Posted by I_AM_THE_NRA]]> Fri, 14 Dec 2012 11:38:40 -0600 Arkansas Times Posted by santhony]]> Fri, 14 Dec 2012 11:15:05 -0600 Arkansas Times Posted by HolyGuano]]> Fri, 14 Dec 2012 10:48:01 -0600 Arkansas Times
“Failure is the key to success; each mistake teaches us something.”
Morihei Ueshiba
Posted by Zatharus]]> Fri, 14 Dec 2012 10:44:37 -0600 Arkansas Times Posted by santhony]]> Fri, 14 Dec 2012 10:05:13 -0600 Arkansas Times
What does one actually ACCOMPLISH by criticizing, especially about conditions over which one has no influence/control.

What good does it do me to criticize conditions in Los Angeles, Seattle, Chicago, or New York--or even Little Rock, for that matter? I don't live in Little Rock--which is the reason I don't epress any opinions about what's going on in Little Rock, unless it has an effect on the rest of us in some way.

Carnegie's point was that criticizing, condemning, and complaining is negative and fosters negative attitudes and emotions. Those are destructive activities. The constructive thing to do is take action--work--to improve unsatisfactory conditions.

And the first place to start is with one's own attitudes and emotions.

I tend to agree with Carnegie.
Posted by SkyPilot]]> Fri, 14 Dec 2012 09:09:19 -0600 Arkansas Times
Just because I no longer live in CA or NM or TX or MT or KS or any of the other states where I have lived doesn't mean I no longer have the right to criticize those places.

Norma's criticisms are coming from a place of love---and exasperation.
Posted by the outlier]]> Fri, 14 Dec 2012 08:53:03 -0600 Arkansas Times Posted by scrapper72]]> Fri, 14 Dec 2012 08:50:21 -0600 Arkansas Times
IMHO

And even Dale Carnegie didn't have a very high opinion of criticizing, condemning, and complaining.
Posted by SkyPilot]]> Fri, 14 Dec 2012 08:49:19 -0600 Arkansas Times
As a girl from everywhere and nowhere at the same time, I agree with Mud and Mecca that bigotry and intolerance exists all over.

Saying there is anti-Semitism and racism in Boston and L.A. does not negate any of the hard truths you wrote.

They are using the "both sides do it" argument that the MSM is so fond of. Yes, it exists everywhere, but it is not the same everywhere.
Posted by the outlier]]> Fri, 14 Dec 2012 08:39:54 -0600 Arkansas Times
With the possible execption of her constant reminders to those of us who have stayed here to make whatever positive contribution we can how short we've fallen and how much more work we have to do.

I hope we all appreciate the improvement Arkansas has experienced by Norma's wisdom--and absence.
Posted by SkyPilot]]> Fri, 14 Dec 2012 06:58:52 -0600 Arkansas Times
I wanted to leave them all with a copy of Randy Newman's "Redneck's" http://www.lyricsdepot.com/randy-newman/re…
Posted by mudturtle]]> Fri, 14 Dec 2012 06:57:17 -0600 Arkansas Times Thanks David and Brian for working late and delivering such a wonderful report.
Posted by eLwood]]> Fri, 14 Dec 2012 00:39:08 -0600 Arkansas Times Posted by Mecca]]> Thu, 13 Dec 2012 23:11:42 -0600 Arkansas Times Posted by Carl]]> Thu, 13 Dec 2012 22:45:15 -0600 Arkansas Times Posted by Carl]]> Thu, 13 Dec 2012 22:42:15 -0600 Arkansas Times Posted by HillcrestArky]]> Thu, 13 Dec 2012 22:02:48 -0600 Arkansas Times
There are many, many good people in Arkansas. Tragically, they are in the minority.

There are many, many more appallingly bad people there, and in positions of power. But beyond those, there is a general level of horrific ignorance and ugliness among the general population, often disguised with a pseudo Southern charm and Praise-the-Lord religiosity that's barely skin deep and easily pricked.

A general widespread HATRED of intelligence, education, science, ambition, accomplishment. A vicious fear and resentment of non-conformity, creativity, innovation, "outsiders" and The Other. An ugly hatred and resentment hiding behind a cult of fundamentalist Christianity that sees Satan everywhere (goths, heavy metal, rock and roll in the case of the WM3 youths; marijuana; sex; blacks; gays; on and on, ad infinitum).

And above all, a political and law enforcement infrastructure that's been (since day one) and still is unimaginably corrupt and constantly covering up its own incompetence and repellant willingness to lie, rob, cheat, steal and murder to retain power.

Natural Staters who've never lived anywhere else have no idea how bad things there really are, or how Arkansas (and the rest of the South) looks to everybody else. It's too painful to admit. The unbridled irrationality (HATING a President and wishing him dead because he's black?) is pervasive and embodies the lowest of human nature.

Arkansas still lives with the ugliness of Faubus and integration over 50 years ago. The WM3 case is equally horrific on all levels, and should never be forgotten.

Arkansans should be GLAD that case has blown wide open. But instead of facing facts and trying to learn better, the powers-that-be are still stonewalling and saving face.

Though it's easy to love some, even many of the people I know there, it's impossible to feel anything but revulsion and rejection for the state as a whole.

Still, the rest of America is grateful for intelligent, courageous individuals like Mara Leveritt, and the editors and staff of the Arkansas Times, among others, who stay and fight.

But behind every Crystal Bridges there is a Walmart, relentlessly keeping its workers subservient and dependent on Federal help instead of paying a respectable living wage while its executives and the Waltons rake it in.

Arkansas values indeed.

On with that Tech Park. On with that Creative Corridor on Main Street. On with the UAMS / St. Vincent secrecy. On with football. On and on and on, apparently, to the bottom.

Forever.

Say your voters, the people of Arkansas.
Posted by Norma Bates]]> Thu, 13 Dec 2012 20:51:06 -0600 Arkansas Times