Arkansas Blog

Although I am voting for Beebe, I have been amused at both candiidates trying to out-do one another on their meager beginnings. Enough already, tell us what you are going to do for Arkansas.

Perhaps the point is to manufacture the allure of the tar paper shack, as so many are headed in that direction. As real wages continue to fall and the foreclosure fraternity gets bigger vaults to store all their riches, the masses can decorate their tar paper shacks with Wal-Mart wallpaper--and grab a bottle of [select] antibiotics for a buck while they're there! Of course, the antibiotics won't do a damned thing for that virus. Nor will either of the two major gubernatorial candidates for anything even remotely affecting their lives for the better.

I was at the Holt Halter debate on Monday. Halter spanked him, just like he will on AETN. I wish it mattered. Holt is going around the state talking like a mild-mannered maverick with bi-partisan tendencies. His message resonates with rural folks.

WHEN IS HALTER GOING BACK ON T.V.? VOTERS NEED TO BE REMINDED THAT HE ONCE SACKED GROCERIES.

Clay, Clay! Best comment on the whole race! You rock.

I don't know Mike Beebe, I have spent a little time around Asa in the past. Because of that Beebe gets my vote. To know Asa is to love him less and less as time goes on.

I spent 3 days in Amagon, Arkansas in 1971 when I was a Republican and a Baptist. I went on a mission trip to bring Jesus to the Delta towns. We went from tiny town to tiny town fixing steps and painting shacks while talkin bout Jesus.

I grew up in Fort Smith and outside of my mother's relatives in Missouri, I had never seen such deprivation as I did in Eastern Arkansas. Of all, the worst was Amagon. If there was anything but tar paper shacks there, I don't remember seeing it. Lots of poor old whites and blacks past working age, sitting on falling down front porches of shacks with no running water, no indoor plumbing and in some cases no electricity, never had it. Old people waiting to die, without one word of complaint about their lives. You have to have seen the better side to know how far down you are, and fortunately these old people apparently had never left town.

Their young people were all gone. If there was work in Amagon, we never saw it. Just land that time forgot. I felt real sorry to leave Amagon when our time was up. Our group was the first new life anyone had seen in that tiny town in years, according to the way the residence acted. There was so much more to be done. But if we had painted up the whole town it wouldn't have changed their future.

So, though I don't know Mike Beebe, I know where he came from and points should be given for anyone who escaped Amagon, Arkansas. If I ever whip my constant depression I might travel over and see what's left of Amagon in 2006. I'm betting most if not all of the shacks have fallen down and been plowed under. I doubt the young of 1971 bothered to come back there to die.

I don't care if you were born with a silver spoon in your mouth or only wore your siblings outgrown, broken down shoes... what matters is how you behave now, what ideas you put forth now, how much compassion and wisdom and knowledge you have now.

Born rich, born poor, born in the middle - none of that matters. In fact, it insults the voter's intelligence to assume that it's a crucial element in a campaign.

"none of that matters. In fact, it insults the voter's intelligence to assume that it's a crucial element in a campaign."

Ok Rod, call this a race, or any race in Ark, a contest between tradition and intelligence. But your comments reveal a lack of understanding Arky Politics 101.
Folgers still reigns supreme over cafe latte, a majority still prefer burgers over designer sandwiches.
But the seeming irony is that we would have likely elected a silver- spoon Republican had he not passed away which means there are mulitple traditions at work. Holt carries on Justice Jim Johnson's demagoging tradition of redneck conservatism well basted with racism and he won't raise your liscene fees. I'm not sure that Asa had a tradition with which enough Arkies will align. As DBI added several days ago, people just don't like Asa. He's not a GOB, he is arrogant and self-righteous, lacks the warmth of Huckabee and he prosecuted some of the would-be Holt supporters several years ago.
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