Channeling Faubus

I watch the last days of the primaries in North Carolina and Indiana, following the Pennsylvania primary, and the pattern has clearly emerged: The Clinton camp has realized it has to scrape the bottom of the barrel to continue its campaign, and that means courting the “working-class whites,” i.e., “Reagan Democrats,” i.e., “white Americans who want to believe the civil rights movement, affirmative action  and the Peace Movement are quaint, dead relics of the 1960s.”

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Here’s the opportunity that was unquestionably lost: after Obama’s stunning streak of victories in February, Clinton could have seen that the Democrats had a chance to address, head on, the issues that faced all Democrats, across racial boundaries, and run a campaign based on a common cause. Instead, feeling entitled to her power, as evidenced by the Clintons’ Chihuahua, James Carville, going around and insulting Bill Richardson and Barack Obama in the press, Hillary Clinton acts like she already has her finger on the button and is ready to go after Iran.

Why is this happening? Well, it’s because it can. Bill Clinton is sharing with America the very best of Arkansas politics. And by Arkansas politics,  I’m referring to one of the most famous governors in American history: Orval Faubus.

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Faubus was the moderate governor of Arkansas who got into a showdown with then-President Eisenhower about the deployment of federal troops to Little Rock Central High School in 1957, to enforce Brown v. Board of Education. Most historians today agree that Gov. Faubus quite cynically used white supremacy to thwart integration, bolster his own standing among the majority of voters, and challenge federal power by bringing up states’ rights.  Bill Clinton was a little boy when Faubus did these things. And now, Bill Clinton is channeling Faubus’ ghost. He is trying to mobilize white voters as “white” voters. That kind of politics is unambiguously white supremacist. It has no place in the Democratic Party.

Louis Anthes

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Oakland, Calif.

Recommended reading

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I read David Koon’s story on Tracy Ingle (April 24) this evening, just two days after finishing “Blink, The Power of Thinking Without Thinking” by Malcolm Gladwell.

Chapter six of Gladwell’s national bestseller is titled “Seven Seconds in the Bronx: The Delicate Art of Mind Reading.” Here Gladwell examines a law enforcement tragedy of errors that began with good cops just doing their jobs, but ends in the death of a man out for a breath of fresh air.

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Frankly, the persons I should invite to read these pages are the North Little Rock officers themselves and more particularly, Chief Bradley.

George E. Baker

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Little Rock

He screams

From the article about the driver of an ice cream truck: “The music is playing; the bells are ringing. It’s an experience.” Unfortunately this high decibel experience can be heard over great distances and on a daily basis can ruin a quiet neighborhood’s tranquility. Everyone in the neighborhood should not be forced to listen to “Turkey in the Straw” blasting over and over and over as the ice cream truck drives around at a snail’s pace. How about some consideration for the residents and tone it down?

Monty Fein

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Little Rock

Shocked by ad

We were in Little Rock last Friday and my husband picked up a copy of the Arkansas Times. I was flipping through the pages and came across the advertisement on page 9. It is still shocking to see ads for places to go to have the unborn killed. What kind of planning is that? All I can say is, “Lord, have mercy.”

Gail Zanoff

Fairfield Bay

Vested interests

There are five to 10 vested groups of developers who are determined to take control of the Central Arkansas water supply. These people are heartless and are willing to make a profit regardless of the common good.

These same fine citizens hold vast land holdings on which they pay as little as 20 cents an acre on land valued at $20,000 to $30,000 an acre. I predict that within two years developers will attempt to acquire more land around Lake Maumelle that will require Central Arkansas Water to pay $15,000 to $30,000 an acre to protect the water supply. I also predict that the Central Arkansas Water Commission will do nothing about it.

Frank Lambright

Little Rock

Against lottery

No lottery, please! In our world of thought should we not try to devote our pattern of thinking to constructive, innovative and compassionate forms of meditation rather than to chance, lust, selfishness and false amusement?

Katherine Erwin

Little Rock

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