Editorial

The Isle of Reason

It grows slowly, but it does grow

It's hard to perceive it in the rough-and-tumble of this riotous presidential campaign, but somewhere out there reason awaits. We need only to exercise it ourselves to feel its power of persuasion.

There used to be a county judge in this state named Earl Chadick who had a simple reminder posted over his desk: "Come, let us reason together." Some folks who came to see him mad as hornets didn't pay much attention to it, either, but a saving few did. And left aware that passion may rule for the moment, or even an entire campaign season, but it does ebb, and the voice of reason should be and will be heard in the land once again.

There are only a few things in this world worth losing one's temper over, but it turns out those are just the things that a display of temper will not improve. A presidential candidate by the name of Adlai Stevenson, who was the soul of reason back in 1952, compared the accumulation of reason in a society to the growth of a sandbar in midstream. First it is barely visible, then it rises and rises till it becomes an island. And finally a great mountain range. He offered the American public his own test of how to tell whether that little sandbar is growing or shrinking: "To act coolly, intelligently and prudently in perilous circumstances is the test of a man--and also a nation."

It was also Governor and later Ambassador Stevenson who offered his own test of whether a candidate is worth supporting: "I'm not an old, experienced hand at politics. But I'm now seasoned enough to have learned that the hardest thing about any political campaign is how to win without proving that you are unworthy of winning." Which is something to keep in mind as this presidential campaign proceeds onward and downward, with candidates like Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton competing to see who can strike bottom first. The bottom-feeders may be many, but the topwater types will, yes, rise to the top.

Adlai Stevenson was a mine of observations that become more, not less, apropos with the passing of the years. For example:

"An editor is someone who separates the wheat from the chaff and then prints the chaff." That definition has only become more apropos as the age of tabloid journalism is succeeded by that of the website and (anti) social media. It's still not popularity that counts but conviction--and the courage to stand by one's own. Or as Adlai Stevenson also knew, and said: "All progress has resulted from people who took unpopular positions."

Adlai Stevenson's thoughts are worth preserving, especially in a thoughtless age. He was a clever man, but not nearly so clever as wise. And if the usual Confederacy of Dunces still materializes whenever wisdom dares show itself, so do the few who know and understand the difference between data and information, information and understanding, a great man and the lesser ones who neither respect nor comprehend their true betters. For there is still quality and not only quantity in this mad, mad, mad, mad world. And despite all odds, the Isle of Reason shall and will continue to grow.

Happily, the news of the day is full of people who are meeting that test. Take, for always shining example, the Walton Family Foundation, which just announced a $2.4 million grant (another multi-million-dollar grant!) this time to support a new summer program for incoming freshmen at the UofA. The grant will be focused to give kids from the Delta and eastern regions of Arkansas a head start on their academic careers. Have we said thank you to the Walton Foundation lately? Even if so, thank you all, once again.

The good folks at Our House, who have been a font not just of reason but of good deeds, are expanding their career center fourfold. Which means there will be that much more job training in the very heart of the state.

A well-intentioned city attorney in Little Rock, Tom Carpenter, kept fiddling with a way to overcome a ban on solicitation in roadways enacted last summer. He proposed--and got approval for--a six-week pilot program that would require those participating in it to be 19 years old, wear bright protective clothing, solicit between one hour after sunrise and one hour before sunset, and register with the Police Department.

The Isle of Reason should, shall and will continue to grow despite all the dams and breakwaters, barriers and barricades, embankments and other obstructions men can raise to contain it. The tide of reason will not be turned back despite all our best, or rather worst, efforts. It rises and may it ever continue to rise.

Editorial on 05/24/2016

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