"I wasted time and now time doth waste me."
-- William Shakespeare
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[DROPCAP] Time is of the essence. Time is money. Time waits for no one. If I could put time in a bottle ...
Throughout the ages, the attention paid to time and its fleeting quality has captured the imagination of poets and playwrights, of songwriters and sages.
In a sense, history is the study of time, or at least the way in which humankind has made use of it. It is astounding to ponder just how far we've come in a relatively short period of time, especially given the evidence that we all have a high capacity to waste so much of it.
It seems Sebastian County Prosecuting Attorney Daniel Shue didn't care to waste his time on attorney Joey McCutchen's demand that city administrator, Carl Geffken, be charged with a crime over the removal of some flags from a Fort Smith monument.
Since McCutchen is involved, it won't shock anyone that one of the flags at issue represents the Confederate States of America or that his target is Fort Smith.
This is a drama that started two years ago, when Fort Smith decided to remove flags from a monument at Riverfront Park. The flags had flown in recognition of the standards that have flown over Fort Smith since 1699. Those include the French Fleur-De-Lis, the Spanish Cross of Burgundy, the French Tri-Color Flag, the U.S. 15-, 20- and 24-star flags and the Confederate flag.
Geffken had the flags removed due to their poor condition, he's said. Then, the plan became installation of flags representing six branches of the military. But state lawmakers bothered by a nationwide movement to take down Confederate statues and monuments adopted a law preventing similar changes within Arkansas. That helped inspire McCutchen's legal action disputing the flags' removal.
So far, the Arkansas History Commission has not required the return of the flags, but said if they go back up, the display would have to include the Confederate flag. Not long after that, McCutchen was demanding misdemeanor criminal charges against the city administrator.
Shue recently rejected that request, recognizing that Fort Smith's actions have to be viewed in the context of the new law and the city's efforts to seek guidance from the Arkansas History Commission, the body empowered in the new state law with determining whether changes can be made to historical monuments.
This dispute is a legitimate one, according to the state's lawmakers. But just because they've embraced a desire to protect physical odes to the Confederacy doesn't mean a criminal pursuit would be a wise use of prosecutorial resources.