United we stand, divided we fall.
Old-timers can almost hear the strains of an anthem of the civil-rights movement still resounding as it becomes newly relevant in this different but distinctly familiar time:
We shall overcome, we shall overcome, we shall overcome some day. Here in my heart, I do believe, we shall overcome some day . . . .
But for now Arkansas has a governor who proposes to divide rather than unite us. Shades of the nigh-eternal governor of Arkansas, the peerless O. E. Faubus, for the state seems to have found another governor who seems to think visitors to its Capitol are told to choose between honoring a black hero or a white one. The governor says that the state's concurrent holiday for Dr. Martin Luther King and General Robert E. Lee gives the impression that the visitor "can take one or [the] other." But not both.
Now a couple of legislators--Dave Wallace of Leachville and Grant Hodges of Rogers--not only seem to misunderstand the problem but seek to extend it with a bill that makes MLK Day, celebrated on the third Monday of January, a stand-alone state holiday. It offers the governor the privilege of proclaiming the second Saturday in October as Robert E. Lee Day, a state memorial day. "Some said they would not [sponsor the bill]," the governor commented, "because it's a controversial piece [of legislation]." But for Messrs. Wallace and Hodges it's never too late to do the wrong thing.
Our governor praised both legislators for trying to re-segregate the holiday. He's consulted with leaders of the Legislative Black Caucus, too, in order to get its advice and consent. The chairwoman of that caucus, state Representative Vivian Flowers of Pine Bluff, says she hasn't found any "general opposition" to the idea of observing separate holidays. But the voter won't be allowed to go with both in this new-old regime. She adds that her caucus is still studying the exact wording of the proposal. "We're just trying to get it nailed down," she says. Like the image of God on the cross.
Come, let us reason together. That's the biblical phrase a long-time county judge of Jefferson County, Earl Chadick, used to have posted above his desk in the old courthouse. It is still not a bad motto for a state that realizes the best way to stay together is to pray together. As for non-believers, bless their hearts, the best of them will stand by respectfully while those of us who seek Him give it our best shot. For all of us would do well not only to respect each other's beliefs but non-beliefs as well. We're all in this together. Even if not all of us yet realize it.
By now any number of other ethnic, religious and sexual categories have been added to the simple old black-and-white divisions, but none of them matter any more than the old ones did so long as we all remember that united we stand, divided we fall. As the founding fathers (and mothers) learned when they cobbled together this United States of America, long may she live. But for the fleeting present, come one, come all to celebrate different King and Lee Days in Arkansas. Or is it different Lee and King Days? Who gets top billing? Or are we going to squabble over that question, too?
It's never easy, being a self-governing republic. As many a generation before this one learned and, please God, many a generation after it shall learn. But some of us still believe we shall overcome some day. And we are not afraid.
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Paul Greenberg is the Pulitzer Prize-winning editorial writer and columnist for the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.
Editorial on 03/08/2017