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January 22, 2004

Vol 2 • No 1

Small towns - It was rural Arkansans' year, finally

Census figures show that rural Arkansas has been dying for more than half a century. Urbanization prevails in this state as in the rest of America. But the little band of rural Arkansans left is a hardy lot. To save their tiny local schools, these men and women out-organized and outfought the governor, big corporations, the press, and what should have been a majority of the state legislature. For beating the odds and imposing their will on the state, Mr. and Mrs. Rural Arkansas are the Arkansas Times' Arkansans of the Year.

Other notables of 2003

Small-town Arkansas was by no means a clear choice to be this year's Arkansan of the Year.

Let voters fix the schools

Rep. Bill Stovall, the very bright 43-year-old legislator from Quitman who will be the next Speaker of the House, is asking the public to have patience with this legislature. He says the 84th Arkansas Legislature is made up of the most inexperienced lawmakers in state history (because of term-limits) trying to deal with the state's most complicated problem, its public schools.

The best times since Warren G. Harding

It is hard to say which of the evening television images was the more jarring, Howard Dean joyfully bellowing and leaping around the stage as the Iowa caucuses recorded his crushing defeat or President Bush grinning coyly for 55 minutes as he bragged about the peaks to which his policies had taken the United States.

'Trim them eyebrows, mister?'

Before we let another January escape unpinned, I'd like to explore this notion of New Year's resolving a little further. It's a very appealing ritual, making those resolutions. A hopeful, positive activity if you can bring any sincerity to it. Promising some of the lovely encouragements and consolations that the church does, that betterment organizations like AA do, that rehab does. Maybe the best thing it does is free you from your past, from the curse of being yourself, if only for a little while, and lets you do the designating of who the new alas-ephemeral you is going to be.

Left-handed complement

These are trying times for liberals.

Taxi troubles

Patrick Houston says it's a truism that "there's never a cab when you need one."

These lineups 'the best ever'

While Celebrity Attractions' Larry Payton on Monday was describing his company's 2004-2005 theatrical schedule here as "one of the best we've ever had," I thought about how that statement can be perceived. I particularly thought about how it's taken when I tell readers that each year the Arkansas Times Musicians Showcase has "the best line-up yet."

Kerrying Iowa: Dean in the tank

We knew by last weekend that the Iowa caucuses would do a little rewriting of the script in the Democratic presidential race. We did not know they would render moot all that had gone before.
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