Thumbs 11-20-09

Critter country. This Thumb is up instead of down because we enjoy wildlife even though it was a sad sight to see a dead bobcat the other day in the middle of the pavement on that new stretch of Salem Road as it crosses the ridge to meet U.S. Highway 64. What’s a bobcat doing in town? What is the town doing expanding into the bobcat’s home grounds? Bobcats are highly secretive animals and are rarely seen by most folks. If you ever hear one at night, you’ll never forget it.

Front and center. We agree with the course of action of Faulkner County public figures on this federal stimulus thing. They selected a key project and went with it. For the county, the long-discussed Vilonia bypass is the stimulus choice. While someone living in Greenbrier or Mayflower who does not travel U.S. 64 East may disagree with its priority, this new highway route is sorely needed and is the selection of the state highway people. Our same thinking applies to the Salem railroad voerpass in Conway.

Entirely uncalled for. By nature, we have a wait-and-see attitude when a story of “police brutality” comes forth. Not this time, though, not in the unpleasant incident of the cop at Ozark who used a Taser on a 10-year-old girl. As the officer told it, he was helping the girl’s mother get the balky and screaming child into a shower when the girl kicked him in the groin. Then he zapped her with the Taser, handcuffed her and took her to jail. No, no, no. “Following policy” or no other excuse can justify this one. 

Moving on up. Looky who is still standing among local high schools in the state football playoffs — Conway and Greenbrier. Both have been down in recent years, and the doldrums are much longer standing for Greenbrier. But they won their first round matches in impressive fashion, both coming from behind and Conway against a team favored by quite a margin. For the Wampus Cats and the Panthers, things are much better in football, and yes, we realize the challenges both face tonight are large indeed.

The printed word lives. About the time we feel overwhelmed by cries of doom for newspapers, traditional magazines and other forms of literature, here comes Allison Betancourt, a Greenbrier High School student who has published a book, “Perfectly Imperfect.” Texting and iPhones may be prevalent, but the ancient and appreciated art of words on paper still is with us, thank goodness.

“People wouldn’t imagine that you can make $50,000 a year farming on 40 acres. People don’t imagine being able to make a nice living in farming. Especially young people don’t see opportunities in agriculture. It’s been kind of exciting for us. In 2007, we were getting going. We didn’t have land, but we knew we had a good chance of leasing ... we didn’t have much capital, but we got a grant from a small, private nonprofit that supports eco-entrepreneurs. We didn’t have much experience. The odds were stacked against us. But it’s been a major success in just two and a half years. A lot of that is due to our efforts to help the local farmers market.” —Cody Hopkins, founder of Conway Locally Grown.