Opinion

MOBILE BAY, Ala. — Not long ago a reporter on assignment for one of his state’s largest newspapers was breaking bread and sipping suds with some fellow journalists at Little Rock, and absorbing with remarkable grace their pot-calling-the-kettle- black gibes about his birthplace.

In a small chapel, a handful of men with clear eyes and wise souls gathered to honor one more of their fallen brothers. These are the Air Force Navigators, a brotherhood bound by their passion for thrilling flights, dangerous missions and the reward of a mission accomplished.

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.

Editor’s Note: This column was originally published on May 30, 2017. It is one of my favorites, and its message is more important than ever.

Anna Steed doesn’t look much older than her students, but she is a practitioner of behavioral and motivational science, an aficionado of oration, a shoulder to cry on, and the high school debate coach.

Asa Hutchinson, Janet Daley and Gerard Baker probably have never met, but should meet. Their sensibilities, trans-Atlantic, appear quite compatible.