Who does a fire department call when its own station is burning?
That's the question the government of much-beleaguered Tontitown is pondering today after its fire chief resigned last week, citing his exhaustion with politics and an immoral vendetta.
The council members will decide whether to retain the city fire department they created in the face of much resistance last year or return to the volunteer department that previously served the town for more than 30 years. A movement in the town has been pushing for the return to that volunteer system that served it well since 1979.
Of course, the fire department's woes fall on the heels of a scandal within Tontitown's equally dysfunctional police department that, because of political intrigue and an impressive example of mismanagement also was limping along last week without a chief.
I realize I have quite a lot to say about the sadly comical government in this community of basically fine folks. I just can't help myself when these cronyistic (my word) examples of how not to properly manage a town reappear as predictably as weeds in the springtime.
Joy of anticipation
One aspect of life we all share is the pleasurable nature of anticipating an event or experience.
I'd argue more often than not that it's the anticipation that proves more potent and enjoyable than the actual event. We humans often tend to inflate something in our emotionally fueled expectations beyond reality.
That being the case, I'd say the act of anticipation is one of life's greatly underrated pleasures. Rather than enjoying the feelings that arise from anticipating anything (from the release of dopamine into our bloodstream), we tend to want to hurry to the experience itself.
One reason for this is our ability to blow whatever it is we're anticipating out of proportion.
I remember greatly anticipating the annual weekend fishing getaway with high school buddies on Bull Shoals Lake a few years back. I enjoyed but pretty much overlooked the anticipation. And, sure enough, we arrived to a wall-to-wall weekend of rain and wind.
That's one example. You have a lifetime of your own. After all, these anticipations run the gamut from personal relationships to our careers.
The publication Nature Neuroscience says there is bona fide chemistry behind the way we look forward to whatever it is that excites us. "The anticipation of an abstract reward can result in dopamine release in an anatomical pathway distinct from that associated with the peak pleasure itself," the journal explained.
So I write today in hopes we might recognize what a gift it is that we can enjoy the capacity to anticipate and perhaps learn to enjoy those moments as much (or more) than we do the experience itself.
Voting their promise
Regardless of how one feels about preserving the so-called private-option plan in Arkansas, I have to admire freshmen senators Scott Flippo of Bull Shoals and Linda Collins-Smith of Pocahontas for living up to campaign promises and the desires of their constituents by being the only two senators to recently vote against extending funding for the much-disputed plan.
While I know a number of the 29 senators who voted to extend the private option through next year also worked on behalf of both senators who openly opposed it during their campaigns, in the end, Flippo and Collins-Smith nonetheless stood alone behind their convictions and promises.
Yeah, I know, I know, it's all about politics and related manipulations and behind-the-scenes tactics. Believe me, we've all witnessed big ol' belly-fulls of political advantage by ignoring or subverting truth in recent years.
I'm simply saying here that I appreciate elected officials who do what they say and say what they do when the moment to stand up and be counted arrives. That kind of forthright honesty of one's convictions for me is downright refreshing.
A wise settlement
The Benton County Quorum Court and County Judge Bob Clinard exhibited wisdom and discretion in settling the lawsuit filed by the family of female prisoner Faith Whitcomb, who died in 2012 of pancreatic cancer in the county jail.
She died during the tenure of former Sheriff Keith Ferguson. I sure can't see anything like this occurring under his successor, Kelley Cradduck. It appeared last week that the Whitcomb estate will receive $652,000 as a result of the 52-year-old being left to die in the jail without adequate treatment despite numerous complaints related to the cancer that finally killed her.
The county most assuredly is better served not having this dirty laundry aired before its residents. I shudder to imagine what that testimony would have been like. I suspect just reading the depositions is bad enough.
------------v------------
Mike Masterson's column appears regularly in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. Email him at [email protected].
Editorial on 02/08/2015