Digesting the news over the past week, some of the major headlines offered up a bit of the good, the bad, the ugly and the downright ridiculous.
THE GOOD
This past Wednesday, new laws went into effect in Arkansas that will strive to help women escape the reach of abusive partners.
The statistics surrounding domestic violence and abuse, which overwhelmingly paint a picture of terroristic suffering by women at the hands of men, are startling in their magnitude.
More than 38 million women have experienced some sort of physical violence at the hands of an intimate partner.
In cases of domestic homicide, 94 times out of 100 the victim is a woman and the killer is a man.
Many, many times the man has told the woman before he killed her that he was going to kill her.
Many, many times the police, the jail-keepers, the courts and other officials knew the man had threatened the woman's life.
Still, time after tragic time, homicidal men have ignored protective orders and the legal system has failed to protect women from a well-advertised and torturously feared fate.
The new legislation, specifically, provides for police to conduct a "lethality assessment" during domestic disputes to identify victims most at risk of being killed, and to intervene appropriately.
Data show that women who leave an abusive relationship face a risk of murder 70 times higher in the few weeks following their departure than at any other time.
Well-deserved kudos and praise to Arkansas lawmakers for strengthening domestic-abuse protections.
A good next step would be to put some real teeth into punishment for those who violate restraining orders, like mandatory jail time for anyone with a previous record.
Men with violent-crime convictions, particularly, should have any parole immediately revoked and be thrown back into prison--not jail--for disobeying court orders protecting women.
THE BAD
Gunfire randomly erupting in small-city neighborhoods was once exceedingly rare.
Recent news reports reveal just how common it's now become.
In Jonesboro shots were fired at police in the early hours of Saturday, and then on Sunday officers were called to a scene involving a man with a rifle shooting at a SUV.
On Tuesday night, a man was shot by a group of roaming males while leaving a convenience store.
A double-homicide shooting in Conway on Wednesday left that community shocked, and that same day yet another shooting in Blytheville left police with more questions than answers.
June was a bloody month in Blytheville with a spate of five separate shootings in five days, leaving two people dead and virtually no witnesses willing to cooperate with authorities. Even Wednesday's victim refused to talk about his injuries to police or hospital staff.
While the media is busy sensationalizing issues like the Confederate flag, criminals with guns are terrorizing society in what used to be considered safe places.
Genuine gun control--laws that target criminal acts involving guns--gets precious little airtime.
It might help to acknowledge some firearm realities. Criminals don't carry guns for protection, like law-abiding citizens do.
If I toss my gun into my glove box on a trip, I'm hoping no one will ever know it's there. It serves no purpose for me except in a worst-case scenario.
The primary purpose of a criminal's gun is to intimidate, harm and otherwise facilitate his crimes.
His very possession of a gun is rooted in malevolent illegality, which is why gun control laws requiring registration or banning certain weapons, etc., are utterly vacuous as attempts to reduce gun crime.
Even just 15 or 20 years ago, gunshots ringing out almost nightly around town in a place like Jonesboro would have been unheard of.
Somewhere along the way, criminals have become desensitized about gun violence. It seems pretty coincidental that the exponential rise in violent video games and violent television programs has occurred in roughly the same time period.
Arkansas has a bigger violent crime problem than other states. As it continues to spill into smaller municipalities, maybe it'll finally get the attention it deserves.
THE UGLY
Presidential campaign polls at this juncture will be meaningless this time next year, but the latest survey out this week was indisputably unattractive for Hillary Clinton.
In three key swing states, she lagged well behind three GOP front-runners (Jeb Bush, Marco Rubio and Scott Walker) in head-to-head matchup scenarios.
In Colorado and Iowa, Clinton's voter support percentages couldn't get out of the 30s. In Virginia, she managed 41 percent of sampled voters but still trailed all three Republicans.
The biggest survey negative for Clinton: her poor ratings on trust and honesty, deemed "abysmal" by one Quinnipiac University Poll official.
THE RIDICULOUS
Effective Tuesday, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services issued a policy alert watering down the Oath of Allegiance for new citizens.
Traditionally, among the declarations in the oath are promises to bear arms or perform noncombatant service in defense of the U.S. when required by law.
Now that's negotiable, if a new citizen expresses religious or other moral objections.
At least they're still required to affirm, "so help me God."
For now.
Dana D. Kelley is a freelance writer from Jonesboro.
Editorial on 07/24/2015