YES, I AM STILL HERE peeking out my window on Main Street and I want to ask our readers to please come by our office and sign the Freedom of Information petitions. You must be a bona fide registered voter.
The purpose of the petitions is to get certain items on the ballot. I want to emphasize that the FOI Act is not something for the media. It is for citizens’ open access to information.
One petition would make open government a part of the state constitution. One protects it from being ‘gutted’ by any official who wants to keep YOU from knowing what the government is doing behind closed doors. This protects the integrity of both local and state offices.
Open government is never easy, but it is far better than anything conducted in the dark. If you can’t see something you might be suspicious. And isn’t trust a lot better?
There is an article about the petitions in this week’s paper. Take a few minutes to read the article and then mosey on down to give us your signature. There’s an approaching deadline.
=—-= — =
DO AS I SAY, not like I do. A reliable reader reports that she witnessed a state trooper make a J-turn on Main Street, one day last week.
Having a law about J-turns is not nearly as good as catching someone who shouldn’t be doing what they got caught at.
Of course, if I were the town’s authorized and Official J-Turn Enforcement Officer I would extend every courtesy to this state police officer in return for his/her written promise to issue a warning ticket to me or the hottie of my choice anytime in the next six months.
That’s about as good as it gets.
ATTENTION OFFICERS. Main Street citizens are alert and most have cell phones with cameras. If one of them catches you in an illegal J-turn you can expect to see it pop up on Facebook or Tik Tok.
I sincerely hope this is not the officer who is preventing me from getting my concealed automatic weapon permit.
=—-= — =
ANCHORS AWEIGH. By the time this issue of the newspaper hits your mailbox I will have been celebrating a special anniversary for several hours.
On June 19, 1962, on this very day I was sworn in the US Navy.
For any young man or woman who is in a quandry over what to do with their lives for the next four years, let me suggest military service. And of course I am partial to the US Navy..
During my hitch I got to see a large part of the world and make some of the greatest friends anyone ever had. In fact, today I got emails from at least a dozen of them. We maintain that link. Only a few of them made the Navy a career.
And I sincerely suggest that my own military experiences have prepared me well in case our City Council decides to get off their backsides and make me the town’s authorized and Official J-Turn Enforcement Officer.
=—-= — =
OUR TOWN is a better place because of Cindy Petty who will be conducting the Elberta Arts Center’s annual Kids Art Camp next week from Monday, June 24, through Friday, June 28.
The camp is from 10 a.m. until noon each day at the arts center located at 109 S. Main, Nashville. Each participant will ‘do’ a painting and a craft, and take them home when camp’s over. There’s a modest fee to cover supplies and refreshments.
Cindy has singlehandedly saved the arts center and this event.
If you’re interested for your child, call Cindy at 870-557-3512 to pre-register.
=—-= — =
BASEBALL. Permit me to whine just a bit because the Razorbacks are not among the last teams still playing college baseball.
It’s very hard for me to root for the Volunteers, Gators, Wildcats and the doggone Aggies in the College World Series.
But I’ll do it anyway.
But I will promise you this: I will not get my hopes up for the Razorbacks in the coming football season. I have been burned by high hopes too many times.
I refuse to get caught up in the hype of the coming season.
But maybe this is the year: Undefeated National Champs, baby!
=—-= — =
THINGS I LEARNED from opening email: “Exercise helps you with decision-making. It’s true. I went for a run this morning and decided I’m never going again.”
=—-= — =
WORD GAMES. The triplets: Hook, Line and Sinker. Totally believable.
=—-= — =
HE SAID: “Little League baseball is a very good thing because it keeps the parents off the streets.” Yogi Berra, NY Yankees catcher
=—-= — =
SHE SAID: “When you get into a tight place and everything goes against you, till it seems as though you could not hang on a minute longer, never give up then, for that is just the place and time that the tide will turn.” Harriet Beecher Stowe, author and abolitionist
=—-= — =
SWEET DREAMS, Baby
