Mike Beebe and Apologies for Slavery

Mike Beebe has shied away from the concept of The State of Arkansas apologizing for slavery. I must admit I was surprised by this stance since its a darn cheap and easy thing for Democrats to do to get African-American votes. A painless way to help African-Americans forget which party was in charge of Arkansas during the era of slavery and perhaps a thank-you for voting out Republican Jay Dickey despite his efforts to get justice for black farmers.

But I am not here to damn Mike Beebe with faint praise because of his party affiliation. I think Governor Beebe's decision to decline the opportunity to jump on the apology band-wagon was a good thing.....and somewhat brave. Declining to support the apology could come with a very real political cost and jumping on the band-wagon had no cost at all.

The real apology Arkansas can offer to its African-American citizens is to fix Eastern Arkansas. Look at the racial and economic statistics of that region and its obvious that state legislature needs to be doing something besides apologizing for 150 year old wrongs.

Now I admit that much of the problem in Eastern Arkansas is caused by the residents of that region failing to establish a two-party system. They have put themselves in a position where they vote 100% Democratic for 150 years and thus have zero power in either party. They are taken for granted by Democrats and dismissed as unreachable by Republicans. That is a major reason why they are unable to get any political traction. Sooner or later they have voted for one party for 150 years and are still treated as the lowest of the low.

But nonetheless, the region is part of our state and it shares the same future, and its statistics are added to those of central and northwest Arkansas dragging both down. For that reason alone those two powerful regions might want to join together and do some fixin' for purely selfish reasons.

I would propose that for one season we put aside basketball arenas, new baseball fields, funding of Presidential Libraries, and fighting over whether Arkansans can buy wine over the internet and spend that season repairing the most destitute portion of our state. Mississippi spent $100,000,000 to steal a factory site from us....Trent Lott dragged the interstate back to his side of the river.....and Marion has been second choice for Toyota how many times now? Perhaps its time to put up some money for east Arkansas.

Getting jobs and infrastructure into our poorest region no matter what it takes is a novel concept. Its more costly than just words on a piece of legislative paper....but it would be a REAL apology. Mike Beebe's decision indicates he may care about that.