Stories by Fran Alexander
RSSDo The Math Most Don’t Want To Do
HUMANS CAN SEE THE DIFFERENCE 1 DEGREE OF TEMPERATURE CAN MAKE IN WEATHER CONDITIONS
“Adapting means hoping the flood arrives simultaneously with the fire, to put it out.” — Tom Toles There are times when issues come in spades, and this spring has been environmentally bountiful, but not in a good way. The hog farm looming in the watershed of the Buff alo National River in Newton County, the Exxon oil pipeline leak in Mayfl ower, the Arkansas Legislature’s willing degradation of the state’s water quality standards (Act 954), and the new global carbon dioxide milestone are just a few recent happenings continuing to lower our quality of life today and every day. And, these events are here now, not out in some distant future where many folks prefer to push all environmental unpleasantness. Continue reading...
COMMENTARY: Everyone Lives Downstream In The End
MASSIVE HOG FARM NEXT TO BUFFALO RIVER DEMONSTRATES LIMITS OF REGULATORY PROCESS
Water runs downhill, much to the disgruntlement of some civil engineers who are born, it seems, to the mission of making water behave as humans want it to. Supposedly engineering designs, along with construction and nutrient management plans, were involved in the decisionmaking and permitting process of putting 6,500 hogs on 630 acres of the hilly watershed near Arkansas’ beloved Buffalo River, the nation’s first national river. The Arkansas Department of Pollution Control and Ecology granted a permit for this massive concentrated animal feeding operation, as the state calls it, because it met their permitting requirements. Continue reading...
COMMENTARY: Communities That Branch Out Gain Benefits
WINTER IS RIGHT TIME TO PLANT TREES NEEDED TO EXPAND CANOPY
About this time of year, when the weather forgets periodically that it’s supposed to be cold and premature daffodil blooms brave the elements, I start to wonder if people remember it’s in winter when trees are supposed to be planted. Unfortunately humans tend to not get in a planting mood until spring, which is also when trees are waking up to the glories of warm weather. Continue reading...
Grandmother Wishes For Detoxed World
RESEARCHER QUESTIONS EFFECTS OF MANMADE CHEMICALS ON FETUSES, CHILDREN, ADULTS, ELDERLY
Since the movie “The Bucket List” was released a few years ago, the title has become very useful as a reference for all things we wish we could do before we “kick the bucket.” In our culture, choosing what is most important to us seems almost to have become a social imperative as we look toward our futures. Continue reading...
Generations: That Was Then, This Is Now
PARENTS OF THE PAST FACED FEARS OF POLIO, DRUG ABUSE; PRESENT WORRIES INCLUDE RISING OCEANS
When I was a child, my mom mostly worried about protecting me from the scourge of polio and from worries about my dad, who was overseas in World War II. Her mother’s apprehensions had been about childhood diseases, such as mumps, measles and whooping cough, which could turn deadly. In my great-grandmother’s day, infant and mother survival in childbirth was a paramount concern. When I had my children, it was not so much disease or childbirth that I feared, but the culture of alcohol and drugs they would be exposed to as teens. Of course, then HIV came along to terrify us all. Continue reading...
Voting’s Cherished, But Keep Close Watch
ELECTIONS POSE ISSUES FROM HANGING CHADS TO INVISIBLE MONEY TO EXCLUSION EFFORTS
Signs, signs everywhere. It will be a great relief when the visual pollution of signs is removed after the election is over and these reminders of our voting ignorance will be thrown away or stored until the next onslaught. Continue reading...
COMMENTARY: Nation Shrugs At Fossil Fuel Addiction
MAJOR CARBON-GENERATING COUNTRIES LIKE OURS MUST TAKE LEAD IN LOWER CARBON EMISSIONS
ARKANSAS — These are the times that try men’s souls,” said Thomas Paine during the early part of the American Revolution. Continue reading...
Environmentalist Made Big Difference
OZARKS SOCIETY CELEBRATES 50 YEARS; BUFFALO BECAME A NATIONAL RIVER 40 YEARS AGO
“If we care a great deal, we call it love. So it is love — love of the land, love of people and love for those who will come after us — that should guide our actions. Let it be love.” — Ken Smith “The Buffalo River Country” Two men from Bentonville, who were friends, neighbors and close in age, made changes to the world that probably neither had any notion or ambition to accomplish when they began what became their legacies. Continue reading...
Trees’ Suffering Is Tough On Us All
URBAN FORESTRY SACRIFICED AS ASPHALT BECOMES MORE PREVALENT IN FAYETTEVILLE AREA
More dead trees than usual became evident this spring when new leaves began to drape greenery across the landscape. Continue reading...
Nora And George Are Vanishing Breeds
WE CAN ONLY HOPE THEY ARE UP THERE GETTING ACQUAINTED, PLAYING HARPS, LAUGHING AT ETERNITY
In the grand scheme of things, Nora Ephron and Lonesome George should have had nothing in common, but now they do. Both died last week, and both were vanishing breeds. Continue reading...
Block Street Music Coming To End
NEW LOCATION SOUGHT FOR FAYETTEVILLE CONCERTS THAT HAVE ALWAYS BEEN ABOUT LOVING TUNES
Make a list,” I said to myself a few years ago, when locked in a struggle with the city over some issue or another (there have been several). Continue reading...
A Tax Most Arkansans Can Support
MAKE GAS COMPANIES PAY A REASONABLE AMOUNT FOR HARM THEY DO TO ROADS, ENVIRONMENT
Whew ! Now that the primary elections are over, let’s look ahead to the big battles in November. Continue reading...
Symposium Speakers Enlighten, Irritate
FRACKING INDUSTRY OFFICIAL DECLINES TO DISCUSS TOXINS, CLAIMS MISINFORMATION CAMPAIGN
In my ongoing effort to learn more about gas well fracking, it seemed logical to travel to Fort Smith for a two-day “Fayetteville Shale Symposium” last week. Continue reading...
Sex And The Single Dog (Or Cat)
SPAY ARKANSAS NEEDS SUPPORT
“Properly trained, a man can be dog’s best friend.” — Corey Ford Ben Franklin’s maxim, “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure,” never met a more perfect issue to prove its point than the problem of birth control, or the lack thereof. Continue reading...
We Can Do Better than Single Stream Recycling
LET YOUR MAYOR, CITY COUNCIL, OTHER OFFICIALS KNOW WHAT YOU THINK ABOUT PROCESS
Most parents have experienced that moment after telling their child to straighten his/her room when the little rebel looks you defiantly in the eye and kicks toys, game pieces, books, clothes, shoes, etc. all into a big pile. Continue reading...
Drive-By Shooting Reported
SPRINGDALE — Police are investigating a drive-by shooting reported on Braxton Drive on Friday night.
Continue reading...
Talking About Matters Nearby, Happening Now
PROBABLY THE OLDEST PLOY IN DEALING WITH OR CHANGING A SUBJECT IS USING A DISTRACTION
When deciding what to tell one’s fellow citizens about certain environmental problems, there are several things to consider. The first, from my perspective at least, is, “Does anyone care?” This is also the toughest question to answer because to a large degree, caring depends on proximity and timing of where and when people are impacted. Continue reading...
Santa Knows, Even When You Have Moved
THE MOST GRIEVOUS TOYS DURING THE CHRISTMAS SEASON ARE THE GUNS, TANKS AND BATTLESHIPS
As the season of merriment, brotherly love, charity and goodwill charges down upon us in our last weeks of 2011, and tradition pushes us into the gifting mode, please pause and think about what you are buying. Continue reading...
When Words From The Past Come Back To Us
TO BE RECORDED IN PRINT WITH WHAT WE WRITE IS CLOSEST THING TO IMMORTALITY FOR SOME
Since I do not get to look over the shoulders of other opinion writers who, like myself, expound and extrapolate in our columns about issues of our own particular interest, I do not know how much internal soul searching or external research the others engage in before writing their words. Continue reading...
It’s Time For Shameless Self-Promotion
COLUMNIST WILL PRESENT STORY OF ‘DADDY,’ WHO WAS ALSO KNOWN AS ‘THE ARKANSAS TRAVELER’
It has always been a bit tempting to begin one of my articles with, “Once upon a time,” and today I’ve got my best chance. So... Once upon a time, on Oct. 29, 1911, a baby boy was born to Ernest and Mabel Deane in the small south Arkansas town of Lewisville, located not far from both the Texas and Louisiana borders. Continue reading...
Learning Lessons From A Fig Tree
WANGARI MAATHAI’S LIFE TESTAMENT TO EMPOWERING WOMEN TOWARD SELF-SUFFICIENCY
“A great river always begins somewhere.” — Wangari Maathai In a small village in British Kenya, inside a dung and mudwalled house with no electricity or running water, and two weeks into the “season of long rains,” a midwife helped Wangari Muta enter this world. Continue reading...
PEOPLE & PLACES
Williams Marks 98th Birthday Continue reading...
Seeking Answers To Nagging Questions
PEACE FOUND IN SONG TITLE
“Be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves. Do not seek the answers, which cannot be given you because you would not be able to live them. And the point is to live everything. Live the questions.” — Ranier Maria Rilke Every so often, along comes a reality yank on the old consciousness and recurring questions rise up to niggle at me. Continue reading...
Process Not What It Seems
INDUSTRY QUESTIONS STILL LINGER FOR GOVERNMENT
Ah, the talented Mr. Ponzi. The financial scheme bearing his name is one built on first convincing a few investors there are substantial returns to be made on a product or process, and then cleverly setting the hook by paying them a large promised interest with money coming in from more and more investors. Continue reading...
Southern Girl Celebrates ‘Daddy’s Day’
AT AN EARLY AGE WE LEARN SOMETIMES WHAT’S IN A NAME IS AN ALLOWANCE OR DENIAL OF CLOSENESS
Since I’m a Southern girl, I always called my father, “Daddy.” I realize, however, that not all “girls raised in the south” (grits) were allowed that fond title for their fathers so I consider myself one of the lucky ones. Sometimes what’s in a name is an allowance or denial of closeness, and certainly we learn the lessons of relationship hierarchies when we are told at an early age how we are to address specific adults and peers. Continue reading...
Let’s Talk About Old Main’s Lawn
UA DECISIONS OFTEN ANNOUNCED AS DONE-DEALS
Whoa ! Wait a minute! Continue reading...
COMMENTARY Forever Severed
WHAT SELLING RESOURCES COSTS TAXPAYERS
For my money, there is nothing more boring or mindnumbing than the subject of taxes. But, also for my money, I know I need to understand as much as possible about this curse we humans have inflicted upon ourselves. Therefore, I’m trying to learn what the strangely named “severance tax” means to me (and you). Continue reading...
COMMENTARY: People Shoulder The Damage
CITIZENS END UP PAYING TAXES TO CLEAN CONTAMINATED WATER
FAYETTEVILLE — Contrary to popular belief, pitchforks and torches are rare in our society because it is very hard to get folks worked up into an action mode. Continue reading...
COMMENTARY Nothing Is Safe
THE LEGISLATURE IS IN SESSION
Let’s see... how to put this? “If you don’t act, your hair and teeth will all fall out!” No? Maybe, “Pay attention! Things are happening in Arkansas that are hurting a lot of people and destroying the air and water quality on which we and our economy depend.” As calmly as possible, I want to tell you that the old saying about nothing being safe while the legislature is in session is spot on. Constant vigilance is crucial. Continue reading...
From Education To Action
LEADERSHIP NEEDS TO DO WHAT’S NECESSARY FOR CITIZENS’ HEALTH
Shooting at sacred cows is a practice I try to avoid if possible, but there are times during discussions of environmental matters when certain words really set me off. Continue reading...
COMMENTARY T. Boone The Terrible
MAN TOUTS NATURAL GAS AS ANSWER TO ENERGY NEEDS
“When your cup runneth over, looketh out!” — Anonymous Many of us get our TV news from “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart” on Comedy Central. Shameful, perhaps, but it seems the time of intellectual guilt is past (Fox News proves that). Continue reading...
COMMENTARY: Drops To Drink
WE ALL LIVE DOWNSTREAM
FAYETTEVILLE — We have heard it before. “We all live downstream,” is an explanation that succinctly sums up why high water quality is in our own best self-interest. Continue reading...
COMMENTARY 2010’s Environmental Biggie
SANITY OF OPTIMISM QUESTIONED
At the end of 12 months of happenings, various new feelings about the world always tumble around inside my psyche, and every year my perspectives change. We environmentalists are generally a hopeful lot, ever ready to run our heads into walls of criticism and resistance because, well, we really are hopeful that things will turn around and be better. And, sometimes we are hopeful against all rhyme or reason for being so. This year has definitely been one in which to question the sanity of optimism. Continue reading...
COMMENTARY: Christmas Child’s Play Concerns
TOY CATALOG PROMPTS WORRY ABOUT GENDER-SPECIFIC ROLES
FAYETTEVILLE — The glossy thick Christmas ads and catalogs are now falling out of the mailbox, but before you recycle them, check out what these sociological tomes reveal about us. I recently examined a 52-page toy catalog from a global retailer and skimmed another. Both speak volumes about our culture. Continue reading...
COMMENTARY Managing Running Water
‘GREEN INFRASTRUCTURE’ WILL BE TOPIC OF CONFERENCE
The middle of an Arkansas summer hardly seems like a logical time to talk about ways to manage rain runoff, but like ants storing food for winter, it never hurts to think ahead and be prepared. Continue reading...
COMMENTARY - Examining Green Economics
SWEDISH TECHNOLOGY GETS LOOK IN FAYETTEVILLE
FAYETTEVILLE — For quite some time now, Green Valley Development, formerly the Fayetteville Economic Development Council, has been paying close attention to some of the high tech movers and shakers in Sweden. Continue reading...
COMMENTARY ‘Split Estate’ Film Coming To Fest
FAYETTEVILLE — We have a great many ideas about property ownership and rights in our country that keep us comfortable until there is a sudden yank on the carpet beneath our feet. Imagine, for example, a truck arriving in your driveway one day hauling people with huge equipment, who unload it onto your yard and begin erecting a drilling rig without your permission. I realize this sounds preposterous and many of you might stop reading right now, but before you do just answer one question. Do you own the mineral rights under your home and lot? Continue reading...
CROSS CURRENTS : Bricks, mortar, and Louise
Schaper’s efforts changed Fayetteville for the better
FAYETTEVILLE — When we retire from a job and/ or career there is a tendency to look behind to see if perhaps we left any prints in the sands of time. If we have had an inclination to “make a difference” (a mantra of the ‘60’s generation), sometimes we have to rationalize a bit to feel like what we’ve done in life was time well spent. Continue reading...
CROSS CURRENTS : From Russia with astonishment
A recent trip overseas informs more than most
FAYETTEVILLE — The haunting theme from the James Bond movie, "From Russia With Love," kept playing in my memory as background music when our plane touched down on the runway in St. Petersburg. Some countries hold gauzy images in our minds, and the old tune being dredged out of a brain wrinkle seemed well matched to my fuzzy ignorance of this place where I was about to become a typical tourist. Continue reading...
CROSS CURRENTS : The external question
Quarries ask us what we will tolerate
WASHINGTON COUNTY — An external cost, also known as an externality, arises when the social or economic activities of one group of persons have an impact on another group and when that impact is not fully accounted, or compensated for, by the first group. Continue reading...
CROSS CURRENTS The privacy of living
Who deserves space next to our buried veterans?
FAYETTEVILLE — My best friend never went to visit her father's grave after his burial because, she explained, she knew that nosy Mrs. Smith, whose home bordered on the small cemetery, would be watching to see who was grieving that day. Continue reading...
