Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Thursday’s thumbs
Artwork on car wash draws reader’s praise
NWA DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE People with green thumbs are gearing up for their heavy load of springtime activities that, if done well and with a little help from Mother Nature, produce great results later. We can’t claim to have the talents necessary to grow a great garden. Our thumbs are usually of the more ink-stained variety. But we’ll put them to use this spring, as well, as we do below with this week’s thumbs, starting with an offering one from one of our many valued readers.
Reader Toni Carter offers a thumbs up to the people who operate the All-American Car Wash at Woods Lane and Hudson Road in Rogers for the “fabulous mural” on the wall of the business (see photo). The airbrush-style mural features cars and trucks painted in a graffiti style that, in this case, makes the wall into an eye-catching piece of public art. It’s “young and fresh,” Carter said, and far better than a plain, brick wall on the corner.
It wasn’t unheard of back in the old West days for a lawman to collect a reward, maybe $500, when he brought a fugitive in to face justice. Imagine how he would react to learn one family in 2018 donated $350,000 to construction of a museum in Fort Smith that will celebrate U.S. Marshals and their exploits. The museum recently announced the late Lt. Gov. Winthrop Paul Rockefeller’s family had ponied up in support of the $58.6 million facility scheduled to open in the fall of 2019. It’s not their first contribution. Their generosity and that of other donors are helping to bring a topnotch tourism draw to Fort Smith. We can’t wait for the doors to open.
It’s probably just the first taste of smear-based political influence-peddling in the 2018 election, which is a sad state of affairs. Someone has been calling potential voters with a so-called poll that asks questions about two of three Supreme Court candidates. The questions aren’t legitimate polling questions, but seek voter reactions to assertions that smear two candidates. A third candidate comes out smelling like roses, but he denies involvement in the phone survey. It is particularly disgusting to see these kinds of political tactics involved in the Supreme Court campaigns, which really ought to be focused on candidates’ legal qualification, temperament and capacity for legal analysis. Our concern is the tactics will just get more aggressive as the year goes on, and they will undermine voter efforts to fairly evaluate the people running for this important office. Deception-based campaigning is deplorable.
Wednesday’s business section had a story detailing how major credit card companies are finally making it official that signatures will no longer be required for credit card purchases. Anyone who signs on the dotted line has had to suspect for years that signatures have been rendered fairly meaningless by other security measures. One man discussed in the story had been signing his credit card charges with a doodle of a dog wagging its tail, yet he had experienced no problems with acceptance of his charges. It seems for years, we’ve all been signing our names with little purpose, so why not jettison the practice? Paying cash is smarter, anyway.
Benton County officials are discussing a potential policy change to give inmates in the county jail credit for “good time” when their behaviors avoid the need for disciplinary action. It’s the first time we think we’ve ever heard the term “good time” used in conjunction with time in the Benton County jail, but the change in policy seems to have some merit. It will be one more tool jailers can use to manage the sometimes hefty population in the jail. And it’s hard to argue that low-maintenance inmates deserve a little bit of break when compared to inmates who cause problems. People need to serve enough time to maintain the deterrent effects of jail, but rewarding well-behaved inmates makes sense.
The federal trial involving allegations of kickbacks to former state Sen. Jon Woods got underway this week. We’ll leave the commentary about the case for later, but let’s take a moment to commend people who serve as jurors in this and so many other trials at the federal and state levels. We hear comments from time to time about people angling to get out of jury duty, and some no doubt do whatever they can to avoid it. But we appreciate those who step up to fulfill one of the most important responsibilities of U.S. citizenship. Access to a hearing before a jury of one’s peers is one of the rights we Americans should fully appreciate. It couldn’t happen without people who embrace the responsibility and take it seriously.