Get what? Well, I'm going to list a number of things that "they"--our politicians and yes, a lot of just regular folks--don't get.
I'll start with the huge hog farm in the Buffalo River National watershed. It is inconceivable to me that we are even having to protest this lame decision made by the Department of Environmental Quality. Has anyone even looked at what a hog farm waste-holding pool looks like? Obviously not, or we wouldn't be arguing about whether to let such a facility be built on a Swiss cheese watershed.
Now, program in a flash 4- to 6-inch rain on that holding pond and consider the consequences if the pond levee breaks. Our national river would never be the same. I was a commissioner for six years, and led the opposition to the Pindall Landfill proposed on the same watershed. We defeated it by one vote. The commissioners and the governor should stop what easily could be the environmental disaster of the century from happening. But they don't get it!
Recently I noted the tree stumps along Main Street in downtown Little Rock, and it reminded me of our current sidewalk work on Main Street in downtown El Dorado. Both cities are involved in a sidewalk renovation plan, and they have something in common. The contractor was given instructions to clear-cut every tree along Main Street in both cities. Thank God they were stopped after only a couple of blocks were cut. If they had continued, it would have reduced property values by hundreds of thousands of dollars, raised utility costs, and made a once beautifully landscaped street an immediate eyesore. You're right; they don't get it!
Now let's consider the lock-step opposition by Mike Ross and Asa Hutchinson to the new EPA standards to reduce carbon dioxide emissions from coal-fired power plants. Well, the problem is very simple: We're just being penalized for stupidity. That's right; constructing coal-fired plants with global warming staring you in the face is right up there with scheduling Auburn as your season opening patsy. But here's the difference: Those guys do get it. Those politicians are just pandering to the lowest rung of voters, and that's even worse than just being stupid.
Since we mentioned global warming, let's look a little deeper into the finger-pointing. In my opinion, the naysayers are getting right up there with evolution and not that far away from the Flat Earth Society. Yes, Bubba, 98 percent of the scientists now say global warming is a certainty. And the dolts who knock global warming when we get a cool day in July and the rest of the world is slowly getting hotter by the day are so backward that they will never get it, and the sorry politicians who pander to them are even worse.
I don't believe I've ticked off that lame Legislature of ours, so here goes. Every legislative session we see some of those Jaybirds introduce bills that my black Lab would find unconstitutional, and lo and behold, they whip through the Legislature like a hot knife through butter. And, sure enough, the first federal judge that even glances at one of these bills finds them unconstitutional. But to top it off, the goofball of an attorney general appeals it, and yes, yes, yes, they are all found unconstitutional.
Okay, now who pays the bill? Uh, huh, you got it, we do! Now, that's not fair because the Jaybirds who got this bill, or as usually the case, bills, passed have gotten off free, and they aren't dumb enough to not get it. I'm sure they know their lame bills are going to be unconstitutional, but to pander to some group of voters they pass them anyway. We need a constitutional amendment that would mandate that the legal expenses for any bill passed by the Legislature that is ruled unconstitutional would be paid by the sponsoring House or Senate members. Then they would get it!--the $ bill.
And now I'm going to attempt to tick off the entire state; so here goes: Ever wonder why we're holding down the bottom rung of the worst of everything? No, you probably haven't given it a thought, and that's a big part of the problem. We are a state that buries its head in the sand or says, "Thank God for Mississippi," when we should be appalled at the conditions that show up in comparison with other states. This is my solution--tick some people off! That's right! Can't expect conditions to get any better unless we confront those morons who put on that stupid grin and say dumb stuff like, "Sure am enjoying this global warming," when we get a cool day in July.
Yes, from my time as president of the Arkansas Wildlife Federation and as a commissioner on the board of the Department of Environmental Quality, I have a well-earned reputation as being someone who has possibly single-handedly ticked off more people in the state than any living Arkansawyer. What we really need in this state is that when someone says something like, "Mercury in our fish is a naturally occurring part of nature," you should say, "That is pure bull put out by the folks who own the coal-fired utility plants." The mercury in our fish comes as a byproduct of burning coal. And they get it, but they don't want you to get it--they don't want to stop burning coal.
Tick someone off today, and help our state become a better place to live.
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Richard Mason of El Dorado is president of Gibraltar Energy Co., and a former president of the Arkansas Wildlife Federation.
Editorial on 09/29/2014