State, Gov?s Humanity Shines Through (Editorial)

Gov. Mike Beebe looks tired, but he doesn’t sound it.

Making 18 on-site visits to communities hard hit by floods, storms and tornadoes since February has made an impact on the governor. Even more so than any visible effect, the impressions made on his heart are clear.

Speaking in Springdale at the 3rd Annual Jones Center for Families Thank You Celebration – a recent breakfast for the philanthropic Friends of Bernice, Corporate Friends of Harvey and JCF sponsors – Beebe’s speech about the “quality of place” enjoyed by all Arkansans swelled with humanity.

More than $27 million in infrastructure damage was done from Feb. 5 to April 3 by water and wind. That doesn’t even count private damages suffered by families and individuals, or another round of tornadoes in May. There’s obviously little Beebe can do personally to help disaster victims.

But his swift, boots-on approach to cleanup and rebuilding has instilled confidence in people that the state is there for them. It also appears to have had another affect on Beebe himself.

We average Arkansans have little idea about the real duties of a governor. It’s not all banquets and kissing babies. It’s looking families who just lost everything in the eye and trying to give them hope.

Coming through those situations first-hand would give anyone new perspective, particularly someone who believes that “quality of place starts with quality of people.”

What we heard from Beebe in Springdale wasn’t just polished charisma. It was renewed conviction.

Through the rest of 2008 and into next year, Beebe is going to need the kind of passion and clarity that can come out of crisis. Across the state, victims of foul weather and fickle markets are looking for leadership like no other time in recent history.

Already, a state budgetary shortfall of $107 million is projected for 2009. Thanks to Beebe’s conservative budgeting, however, we’re enjoying a current 2008 surplus. We must work together to keep our economic engines pumping for the long haul with more of the same fiscally responsible approach.

It’s also going to take action on highways and green- and gold-collar jobs, and rededicating the state’s leadership to help build conduits for entrepreneurial ventures.

Given what Beebe is made of, we expect him to use his experiences to ensure we’re doing all we can as a state to move forward together. Challenges reground us in who we are and what we’re about.