LITTLE ROCK — The Lowell City Council has voted to join 41 other Arkansas communities by displaying the words, “In God We Trust,” inside City Hall.
To their credit, the aldermen apparently all believe that it’s important to pay public respect to the creator who gave our otherwise hamburger bodies the gift of higher consciousness for a brief period.
The one to thank for pushing this tribute is Alderman Kendell Stucki. The council didn’t even need much discussion.
“I think it’s a good idea,” Stucki told Springdale Morning News reporter Bob Caudle. “I think we’re losing touch with God. If we can do something as a city to help, we should.”
Stucki got the idea from the council’s usual packet of information. His folder included an e-mail from a group known as In God We Trust-America Inc., based in Bakersfield, Calif.
The council is thinking about posting the new sign in its meeting room alongside the city seal. If you’re wondering about the litigious-minded out there, Lowell’s city attorney, Tom Kieklak, says the sign is legal in a public building.
“They didn’t need to pass a resolution,” he was quoted as saying. “All they needed to do was pass a way to fund it.”
The sign’s likely to cost about $200.
Lowell’s mayor, Perry Long, seemed a bit more tentative.
“There’s always someone who might have a problem with it,” he said. “But that’s what the council chose to do and it’s my job to uphold it.”
Now that’s the spirit, mayor. Your city has done something honorable and justifiable here. Let the dogs bark and keep your focus on what you know in your heart is a good decision. This society is infested with self-proclaimed tolerant folks waiting to cast stones and smear anyone with a different view from their own. Which is what makes others “intolerant,” of course.
Besides, if a naysayer does arise, the Pacific Justice Institute, a nonprofit group based in Sacramento, says it’s ready to defend any government entity that faces legal challenges at no charge.
Now I’m waiting for cities like my hometown of Harrison to join the list of those that publicly place their trust in God.
Finally, I’d invite the Lowell council and the leaders of the 41 other cities that have embraced the phrase, places like Mountain Home, Searcy, El Dorado and Stuttgart, to also recall the words from our Declaration of Independence. The Framers proudly and publicly credited “nature’s God” with their determined effort to secure this nation rooted in freedom. It seems the least any city council can do.
Birthday
You shoulda been there. Tiny, fragile Blanche Kilker entered the Fayetteville Athletic Club stepping gingerly in her Nike tennis shoes behind her familiar red metal walker.
She had come to celebrate her 99th birthday with club members who knew and admired her. Before a mild stroke, she was a regular on the exercise track upstairs. It was common to see her methodically making her way around the one-10th-mile track for about an hour with a rest at half-time. She was always happy, even though she had difficulty seeing who was wishing her well as they zipped passed her. Afterward, she’d regularly head downstairs for a seniors workout class.
Today a covered table decorated in pink balloons held cookies and a strawberry cake with cranberry punch to greet her as she was returning for the first time after weeks in a rehabilitation center following a mild stroke and then back with her family in their Fayetteville home.
Taped to a window as a backdrop to the celebration was a sign that read, “Blanche is 99!”
Dean Richardson, who was standing in the crowd, said he was touched by her greeting.
“I can’t see any of you very well,” she had said in her soft voice and smiled. “But I know you are here!”
Folks in the crowd sang “Happy Birthday” to the silver-haired little woman as she blew out the candles with a single poof. She donned a pink tiara that matched her sweater and those helium-filled balloons. For a moment, she looked to me a bit like a miniature Queen Elizabeth II.
FAC trainers Virginia, Reuben and Stephen were there, as were Monroe, Dan the handyman, and Kilker’s grandaughter, Pamela Britt, a former full-time trainer at the club.
Britt sat beside her grandmother and held her hand as they whispered together.
“I’m so proud to have her as a grandmother,” she said later.
Most in the crowd praised Kilker for being such an inspiration, with her dedication to physical exercise and her strong will. Through her example, she has earned all the good words any of us could possibly say about her.
Before leaving, I told her how many had missed seeing her for all those weeks. I also asked if she was coming back to pick up where she’d left off during the summer.
“I do want to return and walk on the track again,” she replied with a big grin.
Somehow, I believe she will. That’s another thing about this self-reliant lady. She seems to always be smiling.
Mike Masterson is opinion editor of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette’s Northwest edition.
Editorial, Pages 15 on 09/28/2010