Sunday 17 March 2024 18:24:02 1710717842
Guess what the Jonestown has on the front page. Yep, some of them pics are a week more old. Otherwise more of same, couple new articles among the
old stuff. The telly station does change their content regular-like, several times a day something gets moved or removed or goes somewhere. Both
outlets covered
the shooting the other day, in a
manner of speaking. Or in the usual manner. The NEA Report had about the same as the other local 'news' outfits. No pictures though. There are people
getting arrested in Jonestown, Paragould, small towns around the area for rape, robbery and murder (and child molestation and porn) and they have pics.
Okey-dokey. I get it.
While the TV folks didn't have much more info even after the perp (who seems to have offed himself) the newspaper did have
an article about a prayer event.
Pretty big deal apparently, some local churches, local NAACP, the mayor and police chief, quite a gathering. Now praying is something we should
all be doing a lot of all the time - especially in these times - and I don't know of some special public display of praying is going to do much good if
it's just people who generally mind their own business and don't hurt other people have some special praying that the bad people will stop doing bad stuff.
That make any sense? Maybe it doesn't, but some of the stuff they had to say doesn't make much sense either.
The mayor was quoted by the newspaper as saying (being careful here)
"It's important to include these in bringing the community together," he said. "We have to lift up those who struggle. We have to follow through with our promises.
"You don't lift your community up at one time, you have to do it one person and a time."
What the everlovin'... nevermind. Maybe his
communications director
wrote it, if he has a new one. Whatever, why bother to show up and spout meaningless drivel?
Because you're a politician and your handlers told you to. Who's struggling anyway? People that work for a living give up over half their earnings to useless
(and mostly malevolent) governments from the nation's capital to the county seat and everywhere in between. Is he suggesting that some people got lit up at a
party and started shooting their fellow partiers because they're struggling? I've been lifting myself up (is there another direction I can lift?) for over sixty
years and I'm a little short on sympathy for people that not only didn't have to work as hard as I did but in many cases never worked a day in their life. I can
translate the code Mr. Mayor.
Not that Jonesboro has had a good mayor in a long time,[1] but in recent years the bad element has been growing and ignoring it is no longer an option. Well, for some
people maybe it is.
The police pointed out the obvious:
"What we're facing today... are our fentanyl crises... mental health issues... these are all problematic," he said. "People are not resolving conflicts without using guns. Our
country has turned away from God.
"It's time to bring this community to a revival (of faith). Getting people back to church and with Bibles in their hands. We cannot arrest our way out of the community's problems."
The chief got all the right words for the occasion, mentions the Almighty and the Bible, because that's what you do at these affairs. One little problem there Chief. If you put
people in jail when they commit crimes and send them off to prison when convicted [2] they don't cause problems for a while. So stop it already.
Church people talked some, the NAACP fellow wasn't quoted.
Warren, pastor of the New Mount Zion Missionary Baptist Church and a Wynne police officer, said the issue is not a black or white issue, but a community issue. He said
churches play an instrumental role in combatting violence.
There are some people who wouldn't agree. People who see everything as a black and white issue. They're called Democrats. And they to to churches and pontificate about
social injustice.
The only one I can confirm party affiliation for is the mayor. Democrat. As one
brilliant political commentator and constitutional scholar observed "there are a lot of bad
Republicans but there are no good Democrats". Whether a president or member of Congress or a governor or may of a small town a Democrat is a servant the party first and
nothing else matters. That Arkansas is a solid red state, one of the reddest, it has cities that are not, run by Democrats. The new governor - preceded by a bad Republican - is
doing an excellent job and is meeting resistance from the usual suspects but the state is in good shape outside of these trouble spots. Jonesboro is on the way to becoming a
little Memphis. Paragould, once even quieter than Jonesboro, is going the same way.
Democrats are the problem. I wonder who the church people vote for. I believe them when they say they want peace and harmony and
all that, but that isn't what they're voting for, from the local mayors to congressional representatives and presidents. If you vote for a Democrat, any Democrat you are voting for
things to get worse.
[1] Some years and a few mayors back (vague enough for you?) the Jonesboro Police department protested low pay at city council meetings. The mayor hired a consultant
to investigate. Some time and a few bucks of taxpayer funds the report was ready and guess what? The JPD was being paid just fine. Some cop found that the conslutant
had a sealed criminal conviction and somehow got hold of the details. Seems the consultant had been prosecuted for theft, theft as in stealing a house. No, not what
you're thinking I suspect. He worked for a lumber company and was building a house. So he just stole all the materials he needed, most of them anyway. The mayo then
made noises about prosecuting the cop for exposing his chicanery.
