May 2023

It wasn’t the “nimrod” business that flashed into my mind at word that former U.S. Rep. Marion Berry had died. Nor the Gillett coon supper, the annual January evening assembly in Arkansas County, a scholarship fundraiser held just across the way from Berry’s farm, that every politician regarded as mandatory. And not his “aw-shucks” demeanor and molasses drawl.

Drug overdoses are rising in Northwest Arkansas. In 2021, more than twothirds of overdose deaths in the United States involved fentanyl. In Washington County alone, overdose deaths involving fentanyl were four times higher in 2022 than in 2020. According to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), nearly 85 percent of the overdose deaths among adolescents in the United States involved fentanyl.

I’m going to preface today’s column by acknowledging that I’m no expert on the sport of soccer. I’m sure many of you who read this are far more knowledgeable about the game.