Fayetteville Community Columnist Wanted

As I grew up in Little Rock, Fayetteville seemed a far-away town I knew primarily as the place the Razorbacks came from on their regular visits to War Memorial Stadium.

My only visit came March 13, 1987, when the National Invitational Tournament paired the Razorbacks with a team then known as the Indians from Arkansas State University. I was an Arkansas State University graduate who grew up a Razorback. I wasn’t about to miss what was, and remains, their only meeting.

It wasn’t until 1996, after four of what I call my Lost Years living in Texas, that I got the opportunity to come home to Arkansas, but to a new home in Fayetteville. Driving a U-Haul with my car in tow, I crossed into Fayetteville for only the second time in my life. Within six months, I came to a conclusion: I could be happy living here for the rest of my life.

I found my beautiful bride here. I’m raising two outstanding boys here.

No place I’ve lived since leaving Little Rock for college has felt like home. Each place was a temporary stop toward some place permanent. I now know that place is Fayetteville.

Like everyone else who’s had that experience — in Fayetteville or some other hometown — I sense there’s something unique about the character of this city that makes it the place to live.

There is, as Dorothy said, no place like home.

Do you feel that way, too? Are you constantly aware of all the things that make Fayetteville such a special place to those who give their hearts to it?

Is it captured in the Farmers’ Market, the Botanical Garden or the university campus? Is it the great system of schools busy educating the next generation? Is it the wonderful mix of people who make up so many neighborhoods and give of their time to so many organizations?

Is it the cacophony of perspectives one can find, almost without effort? Liberal, conservative and everything between and beyond. A community centered on education and sometimes focused as much on the discussion about an issue as on the final outcome?

A place with imperfections but plenty of respect for anyone who wants to bring good ideas to the table?

This newspaper is looking for someone who knows how to capture the flavor of Fayetteville in their observations. We’re looking for someone who can weave a column from their experiences in this outstanding community.

Every Thursday, we have space on this page for a community columnist who can reflect Fayetteville’s past, celebrate its present and write hopefully about its future.

We don’t want another political columnist. We’re not looking for someone who will only see the town through rose-colored glasses or a writer who just wants to complain with no solutions.

What will work perfectly is someone who feels a connection to the community who can tell Fayetteville’s story in a different way, within about 800 words a week.

Have you got something to say about a great town with a fascinating past and promising future, a town that, warts and all, is the best place in the world for you to live?

Send us samples of your work along with your name and contact information. It’s got to be clean — this is a family newspaper — and politicians or people driven by single issues need not apply. If you’ve got an ax to grind or a political agenda to push, this isn’t the place for it.

The only agenda is to give readers a glimpse into what Fayetteville is and can be, and to describe from an individual perspective experiences with which readers can related, hopefully with a dash of humor and certainly with sincerity.

We’ll publish the best ones in this space and see where it goes. Eventually, we want to find a regular contributor or a small group of them who will get our readers talking about Fayetteville and its uniqueness.

Email submissions to me at [email protected]. All I need is one column per writer right now. We’ll let you know if we plan to use it and when.

So, write on, Fayetteville. We’re looking forward to hearing from you.

Greg Harton is the opinion page editor for NWA Media.

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