{"id":128,"date":"2012-12-30T18:32:09","date_gmt":"2012-12-30T18:32:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.arkansasfreedom.net\/?p=128"},"modified":"2012-12-30T18:32:09","modified_gmt":"2012-12-30T18:32:09","slug":"editorial-attacking-rep-altes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/arkansasfreedom.net\/?p=128","title":{"rendered":"Editorial attacking Rep. Altes"},"content":{"rendered":"

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EDITORIALS\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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On to the Bad Old Days<\/h1>\n
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A legislator embarrasses himself-again<\/h3>\n

\nBy
\nThe Arkansas Democrat-Gazette<\/a>\n<\/p>\n

\nThis article was published today at 2:21 a.m.\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

LITTLE ROCK<\/span> \u00e2\u20ac\u201d NO SESSION of
\nthe Arkansas legislature would be complete without some damfool piece of
\nlegislation being disinterred from the historical woodwork. Next year\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s
\noh so-solemn proceedings haven\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t even officially begun and already
\nEmbarrassment No. 1 is in the hopper. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a bill that would require
\nfederal agencies to get the local sheriff\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s approval-in writing-before
\ndaring to conduct any kind of search-and-seizure mission here in the
\n(once) Sovereign State of Arkansas.<\/p>\n

Why do we have this slightly dizzying sensation of Deja Vu? Probably
\nbecause this proposal from state Senator Denny Altes of Ft. Smith and
\nLost Causes brings back the Bad Old Days-specifically the Furious
\nFifties and Seggish Sixties. Which is when demagogues of every
\nreactionary tendency roamed these latitudes from ever-calculating Orval
\nFaubus, our own nigh-Eternal Incumbent in the Governor\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Mansion, to
\ncrude Lester (Ax Handle) Maddox of Atlanta, Ga. And every variety of the
\nspecies in between.<\/p>\n

Together they left Southern history littered with their
\nleavings-Massive Resistance, the Southern Manifesto, Interposition and
\nNullification and other such futilities and delusions. They were all
\nhollow at the core, though the styles of their proponents might differ.
\nArkansas\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 own J. William Fulbright with his intellectual pretensions
\nargued the case for segism with his characteristic high popalorum while
\nagitators like Asa Carter, George Wallace\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s speechwriter, contributed
\nthe low popahirum. (\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Segregation today, segregation tomorrow,
\nsegregation forever!\u00e2\u20ac\u009d)<\/p>\n

Nowadays one encounters such holdovers from those unsettled times
\nonly rarely-a defeated candidate for the Legislature here, an
\nunreconstructed Confederate there. They may be the last vestiges of what
\nwere called the Secesh during The War. They still materialize now and
\nthen-like Marley\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Ghost clanking up Scrooge\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s steps bearing the chain
\nhe forged in life, link by link, yard by yard, dead weight by dead
\nweight. Which is what all those grand manifestoes amount to now, dead
\nweight, not that they made much sense then. Jim Johnson\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s body lies
\na-buried in his grave, but his spirit goes slouching on in proposals
\nlike Denny Altes\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 latest brainstorm, which is really more of a
\nfast-fading drizzle.<\/p>\n

However diverse their rhetorical level, the glorified snake-oil
\nsalesmen of the Bad Old Days used the good name of States\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 Rights to
\ncover a multitude of sins, including defiance of the Constitution. They
\nmight have loved a law that required the FBI to check with the local
\nsheriff\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s office-say, the one in Neshoba County, Mississippi, where
\nthose three civil rights workers were killed-before investigating a
\nfederal crime.<\/p>\n

Thank you, Denny Altes, for bringing to mind that whole ghastly
\naffair-indeed, that whole sad era. For we forget our history at our own
\nperil. Michael Schwermer, Andrew Goodman and James Chaney are names that
\nneed to be remembered, indeed engraved in the Southern memory, and
\ntheir murder never forgotten. Or its lessons.<\/p>\n

It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s hard to conceive of any American with an historical
\nconsciousness, or conscience, who wouldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t recognize what a bad idea Mr.
\nAltes\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 latest proposal is. Even if he assures us that, should his bill
\nbecame law, federal lawmen could still stop a crime in progress
\n(whew!),and that, if the local sheriff himself was the one under federal
\ninvestigation, the FBI could get the needed permission from the state\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s
\nattorney general. Like, say, Bruce Bennett, who was Arkansas\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 attorney
\ngeneral in 1964? Don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t make us laugh-wryly. Because \u00e2\u20ac\u2122tain\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t nothin\u00e2\u20ac\u2122
\nfunny about it. It was said of General Bennett, who made a cause and
\nobsession of harassing the NAACP, that he knew more people and less law
\nthan anybody in the state. Maybe the senator from Fort Smith could call
\nhis bill the Bruce Bennett Memorial Act.<\/p>\n

BY NOW even Senator Altes must realize what an embarrassment his bill
\nis, since he says he probably shouldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t have filed it this year, just
\nas he filed a separate but equally nutty proposal for the 2011
\nlegislative session. Some folks never learn. If he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s sincere when he
\nsays he shouldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t have filed this bill, the senator should waste no time
\nwithdrawing it, and so spare both himself and the state further
\nembarrassment.<\/p>\n

Other than making trouble where none now exists (between the federal
\ngovernment and local law enforcement in Arkansas), it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s hard to see any
\npurpose in such a provocation in the guise of legislation. In the
\nunlikely event the Legislature actually passed Senator Altes\u00e2\u20ac\u2122
\nmisbegotten proposal, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s even more unlikely the thing would hold up in
\ncourt, the Constitution and laws of the United States being the supreme
\nlaw of the land.<\/p>\n

This kind of embarrassing thing should have happily ended with the
\nBad Old Days, or even with the Confederate States of America. But some
\nof us seem stuck in an historical time warp. And while it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s easy enough
\nto have a little fun with their delusions, it is important, it is
\nimperative, that we all remember just how poisonous nostalgic little
\ngames like Senator Altes\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 can prove. They may not deserve to be taken
\nseriously, but they should be. We ignore them at our peril.<\/p>\n

The best critique of recurrent delusions like Denny Altes\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 may have
\nbeen delivered by George Santayana: \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Those who cannot remember the past
\nare condemned to repeat it.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a reason Professor Santayana\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s observation has become clich\u00c3\u00a9.
\nIt remains relevant. Especially whenever the Arkansas legislature
\nprepares to begin its regular, biennial session, and some legislator
\nintroduces the by now almost mandatory damfool bill. This year it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s
\nDenny Altes. Who says the Ledge doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t have its traditions? This one it
\nwould do well to skip.<\/p>\n

Editorial, Pages 72 on 12\/30\/2012<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

EDITORIALS On to the Bad Old Days A legislator embarrasses himself-again By The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette This article was published today at 2:21 a.m. LITTLE ROCK \u00e2\u20ac\u201d NO SESSION of the Arkansas legislature would be complete without some damfool piece of legislation being disinterred from the historical woodwork. Next year\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s oh so-solemn proceedings haven\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t even officially … Continue reading Editorial attacking Rep. Altes<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[45,28,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-128","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-attacks-on-anti-illegal-immigration-proponents","category-immigration-law","category-police-state"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/arkansasfreedom.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/128","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/arkansasfreedom.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/arkansasfreedom.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arkansasfreedom.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arkansasfreedom.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=128"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/arkansasfreedom.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/128\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/arkansasfreedom.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=128"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arkansasfreedom.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=128"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arkansasfreedom.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=128"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}