Names make news

Who says all the news is bad news?

At 92, George Herbert Walker Bush, the former president and skydiver, has just made his getaway from a Houston hospital where he was being treated for a pneumonia and chronic bronchitis. Bless you sir, may you face the indignities of old age as well as you faced down tyrants like Saddam Hussein when you chased him out of Kuwait, a faithful and grateful American ally to this day.

By now Colette Honorable, who was Arkansas’ gift to the FERC, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, has lived up to her name on both the state and federal levels. And she’s no penny-ante player. As she explained to Arkansas’ Newspaper, “Our job at FERC . . . is to make sure that when everyday people across the country or in companies or in mom-and-pop stores flip the light switch, that the lights come on. Our work not only is to ensure reliability but also security and safety and most certainly affordability.”

She needn’t tell any of us who have had to deal with the multiple effects of a power shortage how important her work is. When all goes well, public servants like her are scarcely noticed—which may be the highest of compliments to the Colette Honorables who serve all of us so honorably—but when disaster strikes, or just high outrageously high utility rates, Alert Reader can be sure she’ll make the papers, including this one.

How strange, or maybe not so strange, that our impetuous president is leaving seats on the FERC, including Ms. Honorable’s unfilled, imperiling the agency’s vital function. Her appointment drew bipartisan support, as it should have, and she seems just as unaffected now by the possibility that she’ll be caught up in partisan maneuvering as she was then. What, her worry about her job? Colette Honorable explained: “When you work as an appointee at either the state or the federal level, you know that at some point your time will end. You have to hit the ground running and work as hard as you can while you can. So that’s what I come here each and every day to do.” And does.

Let’s not overlook public servants who take an oath and live up to it like His Honor Lavenski Smith, who’s proved a role model not just for young black men but for all aspiring youth regardless of color, creed or national origin. He’s now chief judge of the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals and dignitaries from throughout the American judiciary gathered the other day to celebrate his service—and demeanor. During his opening prayer, U.S. District Judge Leon Holmes referred to the guest of honor as “a gentle and humble man.”

Thanking his wife of more than three decades now, the chief judge noted: “She loved me when I was a janitor, she loved me through any number of other positions and roles, and she still does.” Chief Judge Smith would seem not just a modest man but a lucky one. And what some call luck, as sage old Branch Rickey pointed out, may be just the residue of design.

Hank Klein’s is another name that alert readers will recognize as that of a trailblazer for justice, though he’s a private citizen rather than a public official. But he doesn’t need a title on his door or a rug on the floor to be a public servant. He’s headed Arkansans Against Abusive Payday Lending, and thanks to the Legislature is finally able to celebrate the demise of a shady operation like CashMax in central Arkansas—although such outfits seem to have more lives than a black cat prowling through a ghetto neighborhood.

This year’s Act 944 was sponsored by state Senator Jason Rapert, demonstrating once again that even a blind hog can come up with an acorn now and then. (This time our sincere thanks go to Senator Rapert.) After this year’s legislative session, CashMax could no longer claim it was only collecting fees for services rendered instead of collecting interest at a rate explicitly outlawed by the state’s constitution. Much as this state may need economic development, here’s one business the people of Arkansas should be glad to see go under.

Richard Dunsworth is the president of one of this state’s small but invaluable schools, the University of the Ozarks in Clarksville. And he’s just kicked off a $55-million fundraising campaign for the institution he heads. Here’s wishing him and the school more than good luck. Here’s wishing all concerned many donations and, down the road, many happy returns. Many a state may have an abundance of overpaid college administrators, but no state can afford a shortage of administrators who not only have skill but heart. “We’ve set a pretty lofty goal,” says Richard Dunsworth, “to make private, faith-based higher education as affordable as possible.” And it’s succeeding thanks to big donors like the Walton Family Foundation and the whole Walton Family, another of this state’s great assets. Big or small, there should be a lot of checks in the mail to the University of the Ozarks, Clarksville, Ark., USA.

Arkansas is still a state on the grow—not just in any way but the best way.