Don't forget to send in your After Action report like the good Forward Observer you are, noting the good, bad and ugly:
No wonder Donald Trump is taking the Republican presidential nomination by storm. Because now and then, if only by chance, he's right on the mark. The other day he noted that illegal immigrants are treated better than our own veterans, who are left to the tender mercies of the Veterans Administration, Lord help them.
The state's highway department has announced that its latest plan to destroy Little Rock and North Little Rock's downtowns for a mere $631.7 million will also cost the city 335 parking spaces. It seems there's no end of ways to ruin old neighborhoods, and our certified experts at city planning will not rest until they've exhausted every one of them.
Did you notice the picture of Kevin Kresse putting the finishing touches on his monumental likeness of William O. Darby, the legendary head of Darby's Rangers? It came complete with a likeness of his beloved Harley-Davidson motorcycle. Just as no equestrian statue of another general, Robert E. Lee, would be complete without Traveler.
This governor's easy-come, easy-go administration is already spending its Rainy Day Fund to avoid any tax increase. The old principle of Pay As You Go seems to have gone off and left. To follow it would be unspeakably responsible in this irresponsible era. That's why the Hutchinson administration needs to be following the example of the Arts Center of the Ozarks, which is working its way out of its deficit instead of creating into another one.
Flags, flags everywhere. You'd think it was Sept. 11, 2001, all over again when Old Glory could be seen wherever you looked. For example, over the Memorial Day weekend volunteers were planting little American flags on veterans' tombstones at storied Mount Holly Cemetery in Little Rock, which had been vandalized not long ago by the usual, yes, vandals.
School boards throughout the state are still holding special elections to choose their members and pass bond issues on any day but Election Day, the better to get the teachers' unions and other vested interests to dominate the vote. The rest of us may not even know there's an election going on at the time. (Happily, a couple of the state's more enlightened school boards are now moving to hold elections on, get this, Election Day.)
Memorial Day drew the usual crowds that gather at the usual memorials. But some new ones sprouted up, too. The little post office at Perryville, Ark., for example is now to be named the Harold George Bennett Post Office for an Army staff sergeant who was executed by the Viet Cong after his series of escape attempts were foiled one after the other. The sergeant would never give up. He died as he had lived: with honor. Where does the country get such men? Why, from places like Arkansas.
This year even the Forgotten War, the one in Korea, was not forgotten. Consider the saga of Corporal Charles L. Gilliland of Yellville, Ark., who who earned the Medal of Honor when he stayed on to cover the retreat of the rest of his outfit despite having suffered a near-fatal head wound. But he never stopped firing his automatic weapon. He was an American fighting man. All honor to his memory.
Now add 400 yards and fire for effect. Not by luck but by design, the whole Artillery Division should join in at this point. If you're firing a nuclear missile instead of massed howitzers and cannons, there shouldn't be any need to adjust fire. Just one command should more than suffice.
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Paul Greenberg is the Pulitzer Prize-winning editorial writer and columnist for the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.
Editorial on 06/08/2016