Opinion

“We don’t have a surplus when we have hungry children.” That’s a quote from Laura Kellams, Northwest Arkansas director of Arkansas Advocates for Children & Families, at a roundtable discussion last week in Berryville.

Today I’d like to talk about the celebration of Labor Day and the importance of our workforce. Barbecues, pool parties and parades are a common occurrence when Americans today celebrate Labor Day, but it wasn’t always about friends and families getting together for fun.

Editor’s Note: This column first appeared on March 16, 2021, a few short months after I moved to Berryville, at the one-year mark for the COVID-near pandemic. In it, I talk about my mother and her final days before she succumbed to complications from the novel coronavirus. Thursday, Sept. 1, would have been her 75th birthday. A month from now, it will be two years since I had to make the most difficult decision of my life. Even then, she guided me. Today, the pandemic continues and even as the number of active cases fall, the death toll continues to rise. Let’s all be mindful, cautious and considerate. Take care and be well.

Iripped my favorite shirt Friday night, but I did it while doing one of the things I love, so I guess we’ll call that a wash. I spent a couple hours in Green Forest on Friday evening, walking the sidelines at the Tigers’ football season opener, with camera — well, cameras — in hand, chasing that ever-elusive perfect shot.

Ijumped the gun in this space a couple of weeks ago, it seems. I only thought Eureka Springs city attorney Forrest Jacobi had come to his senses regarding the city’s attempts to overcharge me for responding to a Freedom of InformationAct request.

Today I’d like to talk about the steps we are taking to reduce violent crime in Arkansas. In 2017, there was a shooting at the Power Ultra Lounge in Little Rock.

My mother wanted me to go to law school. She was probably right. She was usually right. I like to think that I could have made a decent attorney. I certainly don’t mind a good, civil argument. But I’m not sure I could have figured out a way to pay for law school, and you have to have a college degree to get into law school. And you have to actually go to class (or at least you did in the late ’80s) to get a college degree. And I was drawn to a career in newspapers.Add that all up, and here I am.

Today I’d like to talk about a recent partnership with the state of Oklahoma. On Wednesday, Aug. 17, I joined Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt on the Oklahoma State University-Tulsa campus to sign a Memorandum of Understanding stating that we are working together to make the Arkansas- Oklahoma corridor a center of excellence in advanced mobility. This includes autonomous vehicles, drone deliveries and electric vehicles.

Chris Claybaker said he isn’t retiring. “[Berryville Mayor Tim McKinney] fired me,” Claybaker said Friday during a retirement reception at Berryville City Hall, adding some levity to the proceedings. “He said I was getting too ugly in my old age and there wasn’t enough room for both of us.”