Dipping into the fractious waters of current events

by Pat Laster

              I eschew writing columns/blogs—and making comments—about politics, but I sometimes click “like” on others’ Facebook pictures/ sayings/ opinions/ rants, etc.  It’s not that I don’t read about state, nationaI and international government happenings. I do. And I do read many editorials and columns and letters-to-the-editor.

 But I’m going to step out of my comfort zone and do some aping of folks like John Brummett sometimes does with his arrows.

 I doubt I can sling arrows, but the computer might allow plusses and minuses. Perhaps I could use smiley and un-smiley faces. Using entries in my journal as reminders, here goes.

+ - Bravos to Arkansas's Governor Beebe for vetoing the 20-week abortion bill. And the 12-week one.

–– - Boos to the Arkansas legislature for overriding the governor’s vetoes.

+ - Congratulations to Misao Okawa of Osaka, Japan, who was presented with the Guinness World Records certificate for being the world’s oldest woman at 114.

+ - Kudos to Steven Hanley for his feature in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, “Arkansas Postcard Past,” many of which end up taped into said journal. A Mansfield, AR combo gas station/café/ grocery/ truck-and-tourist stop somewhere around 1940 is one such item. The business sold Coca-Cola, Delaware Punch and Sinclair gasoline. During that time gas was 18 cents per gallon.

–– - Poor Land commissioner Rueben G. Dye, on February 24, 1913, put in a strenuous day. He had his office declared vacant by Attorney General Moose, being appointed to it by Governor Robinson and then seeing the house pass a bill to abolish the office––all in one day.  Also Mr. Dye enjoys the distinction of being the only state official in the history of Arkansas [politics] whose office was declared vacant after he had been elected to it. [Maybe that needs to happen in 2013. Just sayin'.]

+ - Willie Kavanaugh Hocker, who died in 1944, designed the Arkansas flag as a result of winning a contest around 1912, beating out 64 others. The flag was adopted February 18, 1913 and made law February 26 that year. The design was unchanged until 1923 when a fourth star was added for the Confederacy.

–– - There are 925 million hungry people in the world and US folks spend $51 billion a year on our pets, according to K. Horrigan, St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

–– - The US has five percent of the world’s population, yet consumes one-sixth of the world’s animal protein—8 ounces per person per day, and we pay less for it than anyone.

+ - Arkansas has 96 weekly newspapers and 28 dailies, according to Jack Weatherly.

+ - A joke going around, found in Terry Mattingly’s religion column earlier: Father James Martin, a Jesuit, tweeted, “Pope Benedict XVI is raising the bar when it comes to giving things up for Lent.”

–– - After the meteor hit Siberia, a nationalist leader in Russia was reported as saying, “It’s not meteors falling. It’s the test of a new weapon by the Americans.” [!?!?]

+ - Ash-Wednesday-on-the-go:  Episcopal and Ecumenical Catholic priests set up a drive/walk-up place for prayers and ashes in Little Rock.

–– - [Some news briefs beg me (!) to turn them into cinquains:] “Precious, /thirty-one, barged/ into a high school class, / helped daughter beat up another/ student.” [I can’t imagine; glad I’m retired from the classroom--except in occasional dreams.]

+ - “The gift of singing songs …” (title) “Children’s/ choir—Italian--/ sang to Pope Benedict/ in German, his native tongue. He/ thanked them.”  

+ - Long live Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI.