Page 4A • Friday, July 1, 2011
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The Daily Citizen
Yarnell’s leaves large void in community
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ife will be a little less sweet now that Yarnell’s Premium Ice Cream has closed its doors. After decades of creating unique flavors and being the center of summertime memories, the company let go 200 workers Thursday and stopped production of its ice cream. As the news surfaced, hundreds of people flooded the Internet and expressed sadness and disbelief, sharing fond memories of a company that has been headquartered in Searcy for the past 75 years. The brand flew off the shelves at stores everywhere in the area, as ice cream lovers snatched up what may have been their last carton of the iconic brand. We are saddened by the loss of a family-owned business in our community and for the workers who have lost their jobs. We hope they are all able to find work soon and overcome this obstacle that has been thrown at them. Lately, the news has been full of large and small companies closing down and of people across the country losing their jobs and homes. This news is often read with sympathy and then tossed aside. It is not until the closure and loss of jobs hits home that we truly realize, as the cliché goes, “You don’t know what you’ve got, until it’s gone.” We hope community leaders can soon get a new company to step into Yarnell’s position and that new jobs will be created. Perhaps another ice cream company, or another type of business altogether. Either way, we hope the building will be used once again to create something as magical as Yarnell’s Ice Cream. We know no other company will be able to weave such joy into the community like Yarnell’s. No other ice cream will taste as sweet when eaten outside on a hot summer day. No other ice cream will spark happy memories when served at a picnic. Farewell, Yarnell’s. Thank you for the decades of serving up scoops of quality ice cream and memories.
STATE VIEWS
The theory of Beebe’s evolution
M
ike Beebe did a headquarters one day that fall gay marriage either personthing not so admiand told me his position came ally or as policy, and that he rable in his first race about because of his own fre- did not think Arkansawyers for governor in 2006. The quently remarried mother. would be in favor anytime tricky question is whether the He said he knew firstsoon or maybe ever. state has been better for it. hand how hurtful mainstream If there is a tactical facAs he was leading school kids could be to those tor, I suspect it would be that Republican Asa Hutchinson stigmatized by difference. For Beebe does not want to risk in the polls four months that reason, he said, he didn’t losing political capital at a JOHN BRUMMETT before the election, Beebe think young children, espetime he needs it to solidify confronted a ruling by the cially, would be well-served his legacy of governmental maybe even imperiled if, at Arkansas Supreme Court by being adopted or extended accomplishment and to fend the outset of serious camdeclaring unconstitutional off the dangerously extreme paign season, he had opposed foster care by openly gay the state’s regulatory ban on persons. rightward lurches of the tea such a ban by legislation. It adoptive and foster parenting I could not decide then, party insurgence in the state clearly would have bestowed by gays. nor am I altogether sure now, Legislature. Hutchinson with a ripe The Stonewall Democrats, opportunity to cast Beebe as whether this was entirely a If he declares himself a relatively young assotactical contrivance on his supportive of gay marriage a cultural liberal out-of-touch ciation of gay and lesbian part or a seriously expressed or even civil unions, that with the prevailing religious special sensitivity. Indeed, might come to define him Democrats, had endorsed conservatism of Arkansas, in a marginalizing and even Beebe and sent him a conwhich holds homosexuality to kids either gay or suspected of gayness have been bullied overpowering way. He would tribution. They did so in part be not merely a sin, but one risk doing so for no attainbecause he had assured the requiring intolerance and dis- tragically in school. But we know two things able policy objective. Such group that he would resist crimination under the law. for certain. The first is that, in is Arkansas, lamentably, if I any efforts that might arise to The entire dynamic of rather short order as the elect- understand it. put the ban on gay foster and the race could have changed, ed governor, Beebe reversed But let’s close with a adoptive care into the form of with Beebe on the defensive himself and stood reasonably prediction. It’s that Beebe’s statutory law. and his lead in polls on the expressed views in this area Predictably, one of the wane. Such is Arkansas, lam- strong against bans on gay foster and adoptive care. The will continue to evolve, first and prevailing political entably, if I understand it. second is that he has been an whether tactically or honestly. reactions to the Supreme Beebe endorsed such a altogether effective governor It’s that someday, as a reflecCourt ruling was that the gay ban by legislation, if, he said, and a far more progressive tive old man, Beebe will lean adoption ban, having been research would show that one — The Daily Citizen on the steering wheel of a ruled illegal as a bureaucratic could be written constitution- one than the alternative would have been. golf cart, take a gulp of cold regulation, could be imposed ally. So he was, at once, disIt’s an age-old question, beer from the cooler and say, legislatively. The hard-right criminatory by desired policy the one about whether the end you know, gays ought to be Hutchinson endorsed that and so hedged by contingenable to get married or at least cy as to be nearly pointless in justifies the means. solution, of course. He began Today is Friday, July 1, the North America Act took So the other night Beebe engage in some equivalent. his pronouncement. to blame Beebe’s supposed 182nd day of 2011. There are effect. went before the Stonewall He sent back the check to failure or inaction as attorney 183 days left in the year. This In 1910, Chicago's origiJohn Brummett is a columnist the Stonewall Democrats and Democrats to speak. That in general for the demise of the is Canada Day. nal Comiskey Park held its for the Arkansas News Bureau got accused of dishonesty and itself was notable. regulatory ban. opening day under the name He said his position on in Little Rock. His e-mail adbetrayal by the gay and lesIt is easily conceivable Today's Highlights in White Sox Park. (The home bian group, which withdrew foster and adoptive care had dress is jbrummett@arkanthat Beebe’s triumphant History: On July 1, 1971, the team lost to the St. Louis “evolved.” But he said he was sasnews.com; his telephone march to election would have its endorsement. 26th Amendment to the U.S. Browns, 2-0.) Beebe sat in his campaign not in favor of civil unions or number is (501) 374-0699. been highly challenged and Constitution, which lowered In 1943, "pay-as-youthe minimum voting age from go" income tax withholding 21 to 18, was ratified. The began. State of Washington became In 1946, the United States the first state to ban sex exploded a 20-kiloton atomic discrimination. The United bomb near Bikini Atoll in the States Post Office Department Pacific. was replaced with the United In 1980, "O Canada" In his slim book on Winston fence, pink roses in the backyard.” States Postal Service. was proclaimed the national Churchill (“Churchill,” Penguin, 2010), The ex-Beatle, who was assassinated anthem of Canada. in 1980, might have become embarOn this date: In 1991, President George Paul Johnson reveals the secret of rassed by a radicalism the folk-bard of In 1861, the first issue H.W. Bush nominated federal Churchill’s strength as a wartime leader: He didn’t treat military brass as the the counterculture claims not to have of the Vatican newspaper appeals court judge Clarence Oracle at Delphi and Solomon comshared. But I wonder: If these cultural L'Osservatore Romano Thomas to the Supreme icons each really hankered after the tra(loh-sehr-vah-TOHR'-ay rohCourt, beginning an ultimate- bined. Churchill, Johnson notes, “benefited ditions they did so much to undermine, MAH'-noh) was published in ly successful confirmation from a change of national opinion did either of them ever regret the radical Rome. process marked by allegatoward the relative trustworthiness of sensibility they both profitably enshrined DIANA WEST In 1863, the Civil War tions of sexual harassment. politicians and service leaders — ‘frocks in every generation since their heyday? Battle of Gettysburg, resulting The Warsaw Pact formally But the larger point is that we are not and brass hats,’ to use the phrase of his Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao has an in a Union victory, began in disbanded. Actor Michael supposed to be a junta. Generals are falyouth. In the first World War, reverence image-reality disconnect problem. This Pennsylvania. Landon, 54, died in Calif. for brass hats and dislike of frocks made lible. The record of this current crop is, week, he trotted the globe to paste a In 1867, Canada became In 2004, actor Marlon charitably speaking, mixed. Depending it almost impossible for the government happy face over China. But the leering, solely on their counsel has short-cira self-governing dominion of Brando died in Los Angeles ... to conduct the war efficiently.” totalitarian monster showed through just cuited and shortchanged our duties as Great Britain as the British at age 80. In other words, it made it impossible the same. to sack generals, even when the war was citizens -- and prolonged two wasteful, “Tomorrow’s China will be a country bloody wars. going disastrously. As Churchill put it, that fully achieves democracy, the rule So, John Lennon was a Republican “The foolish doctrine was preached to of law, fairness and justice,” Wen said in the public through innumerable agencies wannabe who admired Ronald Reagan? London on Monday, as he prepared to That’s what Fred Seaman, Lennon’s that generals and admirals must be right ink multibillion-dollar trade deals across “last personal assistant,” says, reports on war matters and civilians of all kinds Europe. That same day, the Danish the Toronto Sun (June 28). “I also saw must be wrong.” newspaper Information began pubJohn embark in some really brutal arguDo you get where I’m going with lishing a series of blockbuster articles ments with my uncle, who’s an old-time based on 60 pages of secret documents this? Serving our readers since 1854 For years, the political right has taken communist,” Seaman says in yet another improbably leaked from the very highest Beatles documentary. “It was pretty its cues on war policy directly from levels of the Chinese government. These Contact us: obvious to me he had moved away from documents reveal what we already the Pentagon, often from Gen. David • Publisher Mike Murphy: his earlier radicalism.” Petraeus, and always from commanders know about, but rarely get to see in mmurphy@thedailycitizen.com Seaman continues: “He was a very Mike Murphy on the ground. For example, if the brass black-and-white: an outline of Chinese • Editor Jacob Brower: different person back in 1979 and doesn’t approve of big troop cuts in government plans for an intensified Publisher jbrower@thedailycitizen.com ‘80 than he’d been when he wrote Afghanistan, such cuts must be wrong. crackdown on speech and the Internet, • Managing Editor Warren Watkins: Jacob Brower ‘Imagine.’ By 1979 he looked back on This tendency to embrace everything and more controls on foreign media; warren@thedailycitizen.com that guy and was embarrassed by that the military tells us has been the rule for increased surveillance of the population; Editor • News Editor Wendy Jones: guy’s naivete.” civilian leadership for years. It seems and renewed internal and external propaeditor@thedailycitizen.com From “Imagine” to the unimaginable. ganda campaigns to ward off democratic less to represent political agreement than • Sports Editor Craig Woodson: This revelation, if true, is a curiosity outright deference to what is perceived influences. cwoodson@thedailycitizen.com on a par with Bob Dylan’s confession as a higher authority. Does “made in China” still look like that, as he put it in his 2004 memoir I think Obama’s decision regarding a good deal? The purpose of the Opinions page is to provide a forum “Chronicles,” he “had very little in comtroop cuts is wrong, but not because the of various viewpoints. We encourage letters to the editor, Pentagon says so. His cuts represent mon with and knew even less about a Diana West is the author of “The Death of but ask that submissions be 250 words or less. The opinions of columnists are not necessarily shared by our staff. no reversal or acknowledgement of the Grown-up: How America’s Arrested generation that I was supposed to be the If you have an opinion, send a letter to the cataclysmic Bush-Obama policy of voice of. ... What I was fantasizing about Development Is Bringing Down Western Editor, The Daily Citizen, 3000 East Race, Searcy, AR 72143 nation-building in the umma (the Islamic was a nine-to-five existence, a house on Civilization,” and blogs at dianawest.net. She or by e-mail to editor@thedailycitizen.com community) — and that’s the problem. can be contacted via dianawest@verizon.net. a tree-lined block with a white picket
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NATIONAL VIEWS
Churchill, Lennon, China