Still here

Riff Raff, by Michael Tilley
[email protected]

Wasn’t prepared to have an essay for this week.

The great Messianic recall of all good souls was to happen Saturday. It didn’t. Unless there were so few souls good enough that no one noticed. But that’s not the case, because on Sunday I got a call from Mom.

Or maybe the Lord didn’t get the memo. Or maybe the Lord is just picking off folks individually. After all, the Bible suggests a different concept of time between Heaven and Earth; probably not too dissimilar from what happens to time in the department of motor vehicles.

To wit, Randy “The Macho Man” Savage died in a car wreck. His vehicle suddenly swerved into oncoming traffic. Early reports suggest maybe a heart attack. No drugs or alcohol were in his system. Although the tragedy happened Friday, it’s possible the famous wrestler was part of an early exodus to Heaven.

Maybe the Lord has a thing for Slim Jims. “Welcome to Heaven. Here’s your processed stick of beef and sodium. And don’t worry, up here everything is kosher. The clothing warehouse is down the path and to the right next to the IRS office for those with a death tax obligation. But for you Hog fans, sorry, we weren’t able to get a license to carry Razorback gear.”

Judging by television evangelists, the Lord certainly likes folks with over-the-top showmanship and personalities. Also, professional rasslers and professional preachers both want you to believe is real what you can often easily see isn’t. Well, that’s not entirely fair. With rasslers, you at least get to see something by which to determine reality.

And judging from the above attention-deficit created sentences, it is clear the prep for this essay was minimal — although you, Kind Reader, would be correct to note that minimal prep is no stranger here.

What follows is a series of observations. They are mostly shallow, and feel free to blame the lack of substance on the Lord, who let us all down when he didn’t carry through on the rapture thing.

• The Arkansas GOP, convinced that Gov. Mike Beebe and Attorney General Dustin McDaniel are configuring legislative districts to make it difficult for Republicans to build on legislative gains made in 2010, will begin to frequently challenge the reapportionment process by nitpicking every action and word they make and utter, respectively, about the process.

• It’s Judgment Day, not Judgement Day.

• Arkansas Secretary of State Mark Martin is well on his way to making the late Bill McCuen — who, as Secretary of State, nailed shut a door to the Governor’s office during the chaotic transfer of gubernatorial power from Jim Guy Tucker to MIke Huckabee — look like a stellar statesman.

• Dierks Bentley? Really? That’s the big name for the new Fort Smith music festival designed to replace the previous fundraising efforts of the Fort Smith Classic and the Celebrity Classic? Never heard of The Fray, Mark O’Connor and Girl Talk. They are probably great acts, but am not sure a group will raise $250,000 for charities with those names. Because we need this new festival to succeed, let’s hope these early names are teasers and event organizers will announce a lineup that includes those Young brothers from Australia or at least an act or two that has been on the iTunes top 10 sometime within the past year.

• Arkansas’ unemployment rate (at 7.7% in April) will continue to improve, but is not likely to drop below 7% in 2011. And it’s doubtful the Fort Smith metro jobless rate (8.4% in March) will fall below 7% in 2011.

• All this goofiness going on in the Sebastian County Circuit Clerk office provides more than enough evidence of the need for reformation in Arkansas’ county government system.

• An interim Legislative committee will soon dive back into the issue of Arkansas tax policy, possibly conducting a study of the effect of tax changes on job and wealth creation. Sen. Jake Files, R-Fort Smith, co-chairs the interim committee.

• I miss Gary Elmore’s morning radio show.

• Parking lots at the Phoenix Expo Center were full Friday, with hundreds of folks being trained to work at the new Sykes call center and hundreds of folks prepping for the a trade show. Haven’t seen that many vehicles at that location in at least two decades. Let’s hope it becomes commonplace, again.

• It’s nice to see the Ozark Area Chamber of Commerce tourism committee working to welcome the more than 20,000 music lovers expected to attend the Wakarusa Music Festival at Mulberry Mountain Lodge north of Ozark. The committee is organizing a “Welcome Wagon” near Interstate 40 and an information booth at the lodge. Smart move. The more the Wakarusa attendees are made to feel welcome, the more time and money they will spend in the area.

• It also was nice to see the Fort Smith Regional Alliance pointing out the need to restart the Innovation and Entrepreneurship Center. The alliance report noted: “During the stakeholder interview process, many stakeholders recognized the importance of supporting entrepreneurial activities in the region. Numerous stakeholders also mentioned that there is a need to re-ignite or re-launch the Innovation and Entrepreneurship Center (IEC), housed at UAFS, to support such efforts.” Let’s hope talk from UAFS officials about renewing the IEC mission soon morphs into action.