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« December 2007 | Main | February 2008 »
Thursday, January 31, 2008 - 13:47:36
Some days I have fewer brain cells than others
I was reminded by an eagle-eye reader that the reason the Domestic Partnerships Registry in Eureka Springs never went to a public vote was because both petitions filed failed to have enough legal signatures needed to get it on the ballot.
I knew that, too, somewhere in the dark, dank recesses of my memory.
The same reader wrote that the minister behind the petition (and his attorney wife) couldn’t figure out how to draft a legal petition. Though when you think about it, should a simple matter of civil rights be put up to vote of the people? Imagine Mississippi is 1963, or Arkansas in 1954.
Thanks for catching my error.
Today Eureka Springs - tomorrow Fayetteville and Bentonville?
Last night Tracy and I watched a heart-warming little DVD, “They’re Coming to Your Town,” which reminded me of all those wonderful anti-Communist propaganda films put out in the 1950s. Only this time it’s not commies who are out to corrupt your young.
Well, it could be, I guess - that is, if they are part of the dreaded International Homosexual Conspiracy.
"They're Coming to Your Town" tells the story of this small Christian oriented community that was invaded - invaded, I say! - by hordes of godless folk in the 1960s and 1970s. Little by little, they stepped out of the closet and wrenched control of this sleepy burg out of the hands of the holy and into the hands of those who worship at the altar of “diversity.”
From the American Family Assivation website:
Residents of the small Arkansas town of Eureka Springs noticed the homosexual community was growing. But they felt no threat. They went about their business as usual. Then, one day, they woke up to discover that their beloved Eureka Springs, a community which was known far and wide as a center for Christian entertainment--had changed. The City Council had been taken over by a small group of homosexual activists.
The Eureka Springs they knew is gone. It is now a national hub for homosexuals. Eureka Springs is becoming the San Francisco of Arkansas. The story of how this happened is told in the new AFA DVD ““They’’re Coming To Your Town.””
One of the first actions of the homosexual controlled City Council was to offer a ““registry”” where homosexuals could register their unofficial ““marriage.”” City Council member Joyce Zeller said the city will now be promoted, not as a Christian resort, but a city ““selling peace, relaxation, history and sex.””
Gee, I dunno. People have been coming to ES and getting married there for years. What do they think people have been doing in those motels all this time?
All in all, “They’re Coming to Your Town” is the sort of one-sided hatchet job you might expect. No one who supports the Domestic Partnership Registry - the cause of all of this panic - gets to sit down and actually talk on camera.
Michael Walsh, the actual author of the Domestic Partnership Registry, is nowhere to be seen.
What are seen are scads of folk who would divide the world between gay and Christian, as if the two shall never meet. Oddly enough, I seem to have met many Christians who are also gay. Well, I guess these folks would shudder at the very notion.
And like the battle over Fayetteville’s Human Dignity Resolution some years ago, the forces of the godly all come across as stern and humorless, which is always good advertising for getting people to join your church.
A lot of attention is paid to the fact that the forces of goodness were able to force the issue to a vote of the people, after the council voted in favor of the Domestic Partnership Registry, but I must have missed the part where it was voted down. I guess that wasn’t considered newsworthy enough by the makers of the “documentary.”
In a way it reminds me of the heated council exchanges in Fayetteville at the height of the Human Dignity Resolution battle, when a member of the public got up and looked at Alderman Randy Zurcher (who had brought the resolution forward) and asked:
“Are you a Christian, Mr. Zurcher?”
It looked to be just that sort of war in Eureka.
The end of the documentary end with a warning that folks in Fayetteville and Bentonville are looking to see how well the Registry works in ES, before bringing it forward in their towns.
Well, maybe Fayetteville, though we seem to be even more conservative now than we were when the Human Dignity Resolution was voted down.
But Bentonville?
At this point I realized that if thing does ever show up on TV, the most appropriate venue for it would be the Sci Fi Channel.
Wednesday, January 30, 2008 - 10:03:39
A conversation with Doctor William Harrison
If only more folks had the integrity of Bill Harrison. I wrote this article in 2006.
Roe v Wade: The Never--Ending Debate?
Fayetteville physician discusses career, coming battles
Written by Richard S. Drake
Ever since his appearance on ABC's "Nightline" earlier this near, Fayetteville's Dr. William Harrison has been the subject of numerous letters to the editor, most condemning him for his decision to provide abortion services to his patients. "Baby Killer" seems to be the sobriquet
most often hurled in his direction by those who have never met him.
The sole abortion provider in Northwest Arkansas, Harrison takes issue with that accusation. A gray-haired man in his early 70's, Harrison has been practicing medicine for almost forty years. Despite the claims of many abortion foes, Harrison doesn't believe that women enter a decision to end a pregnancy lightly. While he acknowledges that abortion does, indeed, end a life, he does not believe that a fetus or a developing embryo has the same moral standing as a more fully-developed child.
"What makes a human being is the mind," he says. "The fetal mind doesn't begin to function in any great significant way like a human being until about the 27th or 28th week."
As he himself has written, "It is only those who stand outside and condemn the women and families who are faced with these dilemmas who take lightly the decisions made in these straits and trivialize the circumstances inwhich they are made."
He says that there is a lot of misinformation about abortion spread around. "If you look up ‘‘abortion' on Google, you'll find all sorts of shit. Just a tremendous amount of misinformation." In fact, there are a number of websites that attack Harrison personally.
He says that the decision to have an abortion is a difficult one for most women. He estimates that his office provides on average 800 abortions per year, though he feels that the number will go up this year, since the closing of a clinic in Springfield. Missouri.
Of course, now that the South Dakota legislature has banned abortion in most cases (including in cases of rape or incest), the long-standing debate over abortion - never far from the public's mind - will be argued even more intensely this year. "It's going to make for an interesting year," Harrison says. "I'm sure it will go before the Supreme Court pretty quickly."
He notes that a large number of right-wing judges have been appointed to the District Courts in the last few years. Harrison believes that if George Bush is able to appoint another supreme court justice, "Abortion will be gone. I think there is no doubt about that.
" I think there is a high probability that it will be so wounded, that it's going to be irrelevant anyway."
Harrison says that most American doctors have never seen a complication from an abortion, so they consider themselves to be "pro-life." But, he asks, "What will happen when they suddenly start seeing a lot of patients like we saw years and years ago?"
He goes on to say that, "A lot of them think that the women they will see will deserve that," meaning that the physicians will indulge in moralizing. He also says that he is amazed at how many young doctors today are fundamentalist Christians.
"Doctors used to be hell of a lot smarter than that, and I don't know what has happened to us."
In his essay, "Why I provide abortions" - which can be viewed online at www.fayettevilleclinic.com - Harrison writes about his first experience with abortion. In 1967, as a third year medical student, he found himself assigned to the case of a woman in her forties, who had a large abdominal mass.
Harrison soon determined that his patient was pregnant, a situation which did not please her. He described the situation in which he and another doctor, both highly-educated white men, were standing alongside a woman who could barely afford to take care of the children she already had. There was an entire world separating them from this woman.
Responding to the news that she was pregnant, she whispered, "Oh, God, Doctor, I was hoping it was cancer."
That encounter was enough to sew doubt in the mind of William Harrison, who might well have described himself at that time as "pro-life."
Harrison has been practicing medicine in Fayetteville since 1972, a yearbefore Roe v Wade. talking about that period, he says, "The abortion laws in Arkansas were liberalized in 1969. Most people don't have any idea that happened.
"It was not easy to get an abortion, but if you jumped through the hoops you could get an abortion and Medicaid covered it back then. So the people who were wise enough could get an abortion without much problem. The people who were smart or medically sophisticated didn't have any problems."
But the very poor still had little recourse when they found themselves with an unwanted pregnancy. He says that often women had "crazy things" done to them at that time. "There was a fellow in North Little Rock, a councilman, who used to put in a rubber catheter, like when you catheterize someone so that they can pee. He would put in this rubber catheter into their cervix, and tell them that when they started bleeding, they needed to go to the
hospital, to the emergency room.
"By the time they got there, they were infected. Usually we finished the job in the operating room, but eventually we started an area at the emergency room so that we could put the patients in there and watch them for 24 hours. " He says that on average, five women a night would fill the rooms. He says this continued until the United States Supreme Court issued
its Roe v Wade decision.
Many of the women suffered from high fevers, blood loss and uterine or pelvic infections, all as the result of self-induced or illegal abortions. And after Roe v Wade? "In this area, when I came into practice in Fayetteville, there were three doctors doing abortions."
But Harrison says that he didn't perform abortions for the first two years he was in practice, because he had joined with another doctor who didn't want anything to do with abortions. But later, a friend brought in his 13 year-old daughter who was pregnant.
At first, Harrison declined to perform an abortion, saying that he didn't want to become known as the "local abortionist."
His friend replied, "Well, you're just a coward, aren't you?"
Between 1967 and the time of this conversation, Harrison had come to view abortion in a different light. He especially came to see things from the perspective of those who were not white, who were not financially well off, and did not have the advantages of those who were.
"I thought about that all night, "Harrison says, "and I called him the next morning and I said, ‘‘Bring your daughter in.'"
It was at this point that Harrison began providing abortions for women in Northwest Arkansas. "We didn't do many abortions," he adds. "Parkhill did most of the abortions, but we did a few."
But when he and another doctor moved to the present location at 1101 North College in Fayetteville in 1979, they set up a room where abortions could be performed. At that time there were 13 physicians in Northwest Arkansas who provided abortions - a far cry from 2006, when Harrison is the onlyabortion provider in the area.
By 1980s, in the midst of the Regan years, most of the clinics found themselves under protest. It was during this period when most of the other abortion providers in Northwest Arkansas stopped providing abortions.
Around this time Harrison wrote an opinion piece about abortion for the Arkansas Gazette.
It was around this time that President Ronald Reagan indicated in a State of the Union address that he would consider giving a presidential pardon to anyone who was convicted of attacking an abortion clinic. "Suddenly this really stimulated a lot of activity, and in 1985 my column was published. I suddenly started having really heavy protesting. I was firebombed later that year."
Fortunately, not much damage occurred as result of the firebombing, though the building itself suffered smoke damage. The fire was in the basement of the offices, in one of the examining rooms. A neighbor was passing at the time, saw the smoke, and called the fire department.
Harrison estimates that it cost about $5000 to repair the damage caused by the bombing.
Other than the firebombing, protestors were basically non-violent during the 1980s - at least in Fayetteville. "Some of them were not bad, and some of them were militant and very aggressive."
There were also death threats. "We had a lot of people who called and said, ‘‘We're going to kill you." Harrison says that the calls were not justlimited to his office phone, but that he received them at home, as well.
Despite all of this, Harrison kept his home number in the telephone directory. The calls ceased in 1988.
These days, it is the rare day when protesters line the sidewalks outside his clinic. Occasionally small prayer groups meet on the sidewalk outside the building.
Due to the danger faced from protesters and death threats, many abortion providers retreated from offering abortions. Harrison found himself with an uncomfortable choice: to limit his practice to delivering babies, or to continue to his abortion services available to those in need.
Harrison concluded that it would be immoral to stop providing abortions, especially at a time when so many were abandoning the field.
Despite the claims that women are often seriously harmed by abortions, Harrison claims that he has only seen a handful of injuries due to abortions in the past 30 years.
Though his recent appearance on "Nightline" and a profile in the Arkansas-Democrat-Gazette have inspired many to pen letters condemning him, Harrison says that this is not a typical reaction his public stands. "I've had a lot of calls, and probably 20-1 are positive."
When women come to his clinic seeking an abortion, Harrison provides them with two booklets. One, entitled "Abortion: Making a Decision," is produced by the Arkansas Department of Health. The other is written by Harrison, andis entitled "Abortion! For me?"
Harrison says that there are "mistakes" in the book provided by the state of Arkansas. Referring to the two booklets, Harrison says, "I tell the patients that the state mandates that we offer this information, and that there are some errors in it. I think they are deliberate, because initially there was one error in the first one that came out.
"They asked me to help them with that, and I did. There was one error that was very minor, but when Huckabee became governor, we've had some significant ‘‘improvements' in this one, so I think it is deliberate."
Harrison informs his patients that there are errors in the booklet provided by the state, and if they do take it, they don't to read it, though it is required that he offer it to them. "If they do read it, to remember what I have written in my little booklet, and that my booklet is right."
Among the questions answered in the pamphlet written by Harrison include:
Is it dangerous to have an abortion?
Will I get Post Abortion Syndrome from having an abortion?
Am I killing a baby if I have an abortion?
He also addresses such issues as pain, and possible complications from the surgery, as well as how exactly the abortion is performed. In addition, the booklet discusses various birth control methods.
It's a dangerous time, not only for those who provide abortions but forthose who seek them. Some Internet sites have been known to post the photos of women who have sought abortions. And, of course, some sites have posted the names and addresses of abortion providers - some of whom have been killed.
There has also been rumblings from abortion opponents who openly fantasize about abortion providers being charged with murder, should abortion become illegal once again. This would not only apply to those who perform abortions after abortion was declared illegal, but also those who provided them when it was still legal.
He also realizes that Arkansas may well follow the example set by South Dakota. "That certainly may happen. The legislature is as crazy as a loon now."
(If Arkansas denies women the right to an abortion, he predicts that many women will seek the route of self-induced abortions. Harrison says that there have been many more self-induced abortions in recent years than there have been after the 1973 Supreme Court ruling.
Even though vilified, attacked and smeared, William Harrison intends to keep on offering his services to those in need.
Richard S. Drake is the author of a novel, "Freedom Run." and "Ozark Mosaic: Adventures in Arkansas Alternative Journalism, 1990-2002."
Little Rock Free Press - 2006
Tuesday, January 29, 2008 - 23:54:53
KFSM: We know our place, Wal-Mart!
Watching KFSM (Channel 5), and saw a report on the “Wal-Mart Stimulus Package,,” which was really nothing more than shameless plug for Wal-Mart’s slashing prices prior to Super Bowl Sunday.
Word for word, it seemed to mirror the press release sent out by Wally World - no rewriting required? It was even creepier than usual, watching the smiling faces telling us all about the “Wal-Mart Stimulus Package.”
Do the folks at KFSM have to draw straws to see who has to has to sell their soul to Wally World on any particular day?
Or have they no shame at all?
******
Escape from Hell
Looking through the movie schedule for the next few hours, I see that TBN (a religious channel) has listed “Escape from Hell,” which is described this way:
“A sadistic warden pursues scantily clad prison escapees.”
Whoa, I thought. Somebody is asleep at the wheel. No doubt they actually have scheduled another movie of the same name, which actually is more religiously themed.
Still, it’s fun to think about the emails that would flow in should the advertised movie (featuring America’s Sweetheart, Linda Blair) actually air in the time slot.
Environmental Conferences, musings on Fayetteville sidewalks, and good news about Eureka Springs
Early Bird Discount Registration Deadline February 1
Environmental Conference
Register now for the Caring for Creation Conference March 7-9, 2008 at Mount Sequoyah in Fayetteville, Arkansas. This conference is not only to make people aware of environmental issues and offer creative solutions, but it is also to help them recognize and fulfill their responsibility for stewardship as individuals in their communities and churches. Come to Mount
Sequoyah in March and make plans to involve your congregation, district or conference in stewardship of the planet. Early discounted registration deadline February 1.
For more information call 800-760-8126,email:
:rograms@mountsequoyah.org.
or go to
<http://www.mountsequoyah.org>www.mountsequoyah.org.
******
Fayetteville doesn't care about working-class residents
A friend of mine, DeLani Bartlette, has written an interesting piece on class issues and sidewalks, which is especially timely given the huge fanfare the news about fixing the sidewalks around the Fayetteville Square (!?) got this week.
Former Assistant Editor of the Ozark Gazette, DeLani has also written for the Fayetteville Free Weekly.
At the risk of attracting cyber-stalkers, I'm going to give away my location: I live on Arroyo, which runs off of Drake Street. Some of you who have been around Fayetteville long enough may remember that Drake was supposed to have been an east-west transportation corridor. The city
built about a half-mile of it here and then just stopped. The road just ends, with a pile of bulldozed deadfall at the end, and a small corridor of woods with heavy undergrowth (and a fair amount of illegally-dumped garbage).
I, and my neighbors, live within spitting distance to Gordon Long Park, along with the Scull Creek Trail. If we want to access this park, we have to get in our cars and drive all the way around to Gregg Street and fight through the construction.
But if we want to walk to the park - a distance of less than a quarter mile - we have to first climb around piles of deadfall, hack through the brambles and shrubs, then either go through a swamp of ankle-deep mud *or* climb up a hill and trespass on Lindsey property. For a normalfamily who wants to take their kid for a Sunday walk, this is not accessible; forget about anyone with even a mild disability.
To read more:
*****
And from one of our friends in Eureka Springs
And finally, Michael Walsh of Eureka Springs has written an excellent piece for www.gaynewsbureau.com. Here is a brief excerpt. As many know. Michael was one of those who helped push through the Domestic Partnerships registry in ES - much to the dismay of those who’d prefer that the town only cater to those with minds like steel traps:
closed and rusty.
Eureka Spring Perfectly Poised to Cater to Diverse Tourist Market
Every day Eureka Springs neglects to market its off-beat charms to gay travelers--as well as its traditional demographic--it falls farther behind in its quest for a thriving tourist economy.
Why? Because competition for the rainbow dollar is becoming downright intense. Now, Pittsburgh, of all places, has launched a campaign to get a piece of the $65 BILLION gay and lesbian travel pie.
““Statistics tell us there is a lot of money to be had . . . ,”” Beverly Morrow-Jones of Visit Pittsburgh told WTAE TV news yesterday. ““ . . . Just like everybody else, the gay and lesbian community wants to be welcomed,”” she said.
Monday, January 28, 2008 - 10:27:00
Four more radiation treatments: we really can see the light at the end of the tunnel
Four more radiation treatments to go.
This journey that Tracy and I began last April when we first learned of her breast cancer is almost over. Now we both feel the path to recovery can truly begin.
The radiation has been making her incredibly tired every night. And now we learn that she needs to visit a dentist, because it may affect your teeth. I didn’t read that in any of the books we were given to read.
Still, its not the death sentence it once was. For that, we are both more than grateful.
******
It couldn’t happen to a nicer bigot
As much as I am an advocate of free speech, this guy goes way over the line.
Michael Savage's Hate Speech Catches up with Him
By Sam Stein, Huffington Post. Posted January 28, 2008.
At least four major firms have pulled advertising from Michael Savage's nationally syndicated radio show following a campaign highlighting his inflammatory rhetoric. One other company, Geico insurance, is expected to follow suit. The campaign, launched recently by Brave New Films, generated thousands of calls urging advertisers on the Savage Nation show to sever financial ties to the widely popular (and frequently offensive) talk host.
In less than a week, four agreed to pull their ads from the show, including Union Bank of California (whose representative says they were advertisers on the Savage show by mistake and were glad to be taken off), Intuit, Chattem, ITT Technical Institute.
For more, go to:
http://www.alternet.org/mediaculture/75119/
Examples of the Savage wit and wisdom:
To "save the United States," lawmakers should institute "outright ban on Muslim immigration" and on "the construction of mosques."
"90 percent of the people on the Nobel Committee are into child pornography and molestation, according to the latest scientific studies."
The U.S. Senate is "more vicious and more histrionic than ever, specifically because women have been injected into" it.
*****
Well, maybe they should just live on in books,
A letter in the in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette today, bemoaning the fact that “Peanuts” wasn’t in the paper. As much as I like the adventures of Charlie Brown and his friends, I don’t think it is fair of newspapers to run old strips when there are plenty of new cartoonists out there just waiting for an opportunity.
****
Quote of the Day
“It is a peace weapon of the United States of America,” Dr. Kokintz replied. “The only peace weapon of its kind, far more effective than the atom bomb or any other peace weapon devised so far.”
“A peace weapon.” said Tully, in some surprise, turning the box over in his hand. He looked over at Will who was leaning on his broadsword. “Well,” he continued, “the sword Will there is leaning on is a peace weapon, only of course it’s not as good as this one because you can’t kill so many people with it.” - Leonard Wibberly, “The Mouse that Roared”
Of course, some are still upset that the UA (under John White) killed the Women's Festival
Now that John White will soon be riding off into the sunset, some are hoping that whoever the new UA chancellor is may bring about a Renaissance of interest in the humanities on campus.
Maybe a revitalized Dance Department, for starters?
******
When the daily newspaper just isn’t enough
One of the more interesting places to get online information in Arkansas is the invaluable service provided by the good folks at: www.arkansas.indymedia.org , which offers news both state and national. There is some great writing to be found there, so do yourself a favor and check it out.
Tell others about it, too.
*****
oops
Di! Ecce hora! Uxor mea me necabit!
How Barney got his Mojo back
Way to go, U.S. Post Office
Looking - in vain - for the Union label
Empty houses, all in a row
John White and the "delete" key
Chris Daniels: A Life in Music
WAC needs to stay in Fayetteville
No sense of history or of shame
Arkansas Music Pavilion bowing to economic reality?
And you thought the ruckus over "The Golden Compass" was silly . . .
Northwest Arkansas Times runs April Fool's edition early?
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