Stories by Fran Alexander
RSSA 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...
