The 2023 wish list

Another year of traveling across and writing about Arkansas has come to a close. On this New Year’s Day, here are some of the things I would like to see happen in our state in 2023.

• I would like to see our new governor realize there’s a huge difference in running for office and serving in office. Following the dark, divisive campaign she ran, the time has come for Sarah Huckabee Sanders to forget national politics.

The culture wars fought in Washington, D.C., have little to do with creating a better Arkansas. If our governor-elect wants to be back in Washington one day, the best path is to be a successful Arkansas governor. The state has tremendous potential. From an economic development standpoint — with the continued business boom in Northwest Arkansas, the steel boom in northeast Arkansas, the defense industry growth and lithium potential in south Arkansas — we’re on the verge of an economic golden era. Unite us, rather than further divide us. That’s the path to positive national media attention if that’s indeed what Sanders seeks.

• I would like to see reasonable members of the Arkansas Legislature show some courage and shut down the Know Nothings in this year’s legislative session, something they failed to do during the disastrous 2021 regular session.

Fortunately, a few of the nuttiest of the Know Nothings are gone.

They unsuccessfully sought higher office, decided not to run again, or were defeated in the Republican primary.

But the Legislature still has clownish characters such as Sen.

Alan Clark of Lonsdale and Sen. Dan Sullivan of Jonesboro. It’s time for their legislative colleagues to speak loudly the words Joseph N. Welch spoke to U.S. Sen. Joe McCarthy in 1954: “You’ve done enough. Have you no sense of decency, sir?”

• I would like to see the mayor of the state’s largest city show that he has the maturity to work with other members of the Little Rock Board of Directors even though he dislikes some of them. The crippling dysfunction at Little Rock City Hall comes at a time when central Arkansas is doing well economically.

Mayor Frank Scott Jr. must be the bigger man and choose to work with board members for the common good. It will have to be a team approach for Little Rock to achieve its potential. Scott also will have to be the one leading the way when it comes to a policy of total transparency at City Hall.

There was a stench coming from that building in recent months as folks tried to hide embarrassing information from taxpayers. Scott, who’s young, was poorly served by aides and advisers in his first term. Now, it’s time for him to be the adult in the room. Stamp out the stench, mayor.

• There are three things that can unite people in all 75 counties of what’s otherwise a highly disparate state: a pragmatic governor who understands all parts of Arkansas; a strong statewide newspaper; and the athletic program at the University of Arkansas.

I selfishly hope more Arkansans will get subscriptions to this newspaper. We’re about the last man standing nationally when it comes to statewide newspapers trying to cover news and sports in every county of a state.

I also would like to see Hunter Yurachek, the UA athletic director, come to the realization that the Razorback football team needs to play at least one game in Little Rock every season, something that didn’t happen during the disappointing 2022 season.

In his years as athletic director, the walking disaster named Jeff Long destroyed the statewide support it had taken Frank Broyles four decades to build. Annual Little Rock games are important. They’re about far more than sports. They’re about uniting a state.

• Meanwhile, I would like to see members of the UA and Arkansas State University boards of trustees realize that an annual Razorback-Red Wolf football game at War Memorial Stadium should be the centerpiece of a weekend festival featuring all things Arkansas. There can be an associated food and wine festival and concerts by Arkansas musicians.

This will provide Arkansans something to look forward to each year and also help the two university systems promote their various institutions at a time when we need more people obtaining degrees.

• I would like to see additional landowners become partners in the quail restoration efforts being undertaken by Quail Forever and the Arkansas Game & Fish Commission. Quail hunting was once an integral part of this state’s culture. Current efforts not only will result in the return of the bobwhite but also will help songbirds and pollinators.

We’re either serious about this being the Natural State, or it’s simply an advertising slogan. God has blessed us with abundant natural resources. It’s time we do a better job protecting and restoring those resources.

• Along those same lines, I would like to see us keep this state’s streams (one of our greatest selling points when it comes to attracting high-income residents) clean. We’ve ignored these national treasures too long. It’s time for a permanent moratorium on commercial hog operations in the Buffalo River watershed to be approved by the Legislature.

AGFC has a program called Stream Teams that can create an army of volunteers who will adopt creeks, rivers and bayous. Legislators should make a special appropriation above and beyond AGFC’s regular budget to transform the Stream Teams program into the best of its type in the country. A massive budget surplus gives legislators the luxury of doing just that.

• I would like to see business and civic leaders across the state quit viewing economic development as landing manufacturing plants (you’ve been stuck in that mode since the 1950s, and it’s no longer working) and instead focus on things that attract talented people to Arkansas — revitalized downtowns, improved parks, hiking and biking trails, quality restaurants and craft breweries, historic preservation.

Economic development has changed. Unfortunately, there are still plenty of chamber of commerce types in rural Arkansas who haven’t gotten the message.

• I would like to see the Keep Arkansas Beautiful program be the best of its type in the country. We have a gorgeous place to call home, but we sure do like to trash it up. There should be dozens of new Keep Arkansas Beautiful chapters across the state with thousands of volunteers picking up trash, planting wildflowers and doing other things to improve quality of life for Arkansans.

The things that strike me most as I travel Arkansas are the junk in yards and trash along the highways. Some days I just want to pull over to the side of the road and cry.

• I would like to see our new governor and the 135 legislators understand there’s more to education than K-12. We’ve starved higher education for too long. In the knowledge-based economy of the 21st century, we must have far more people with either an associate’s degree from one of the state’s 22 two-year schools or a bachelor’s degree, master’s degree or doctorate from one of its four-year colleges or universities.

We’re not going to make a serious move when it comes to increasing per capita income in Arkansas until that happens. It’s that simple. Legislators still don’t get it.

• I would like to see the remaining daily and weekly newspapers across the state, along with the handful of radio stations that still focus on local news and information, thrive. And good luck to a number of startup online news sources. Democracy in Arkansas will suffer without media watchdogs in all 75 counties.

These are the people who keep an eye on school boards, city councils and county quorum courts. Those of us at the statewide newspaper can’t cover it all. It’s time for more Arkansans to support local news coverage with their subscriptions and for Arkansas businesses to support these outlets with advertising dollars.

Trust me. You’ll miss your local news outlets when they’re gone.