Yes, you can go home again

There is a saying taken from a book title which says, “You can’t go home again.” Well, actually you can.

My name is Jamie Hammack and I am the new general manager of Ouachita Broadcasting and this publication, the free weekly newspaper, The Polk County Pulse.

I couldn’t be more excited to be here. In large part because Polk County, and more specifically Mena, is home. Like many, I wasn’t born here. That would be Texas. Before my time here in Polk County my Mamaw’s (grandmother’s) family had lived in the Posey Hollow area around 1915 and left during WW1 and returned to Louisiana. My father believed it had something to do with the two combined sides of his mother’s family and their accents being Cajun and German and folks in the area being leery of them during a time of war against Germany. Flash forward 60 some odd years and I at 15 moved with my sister and parents to Potter from Missouri City, Texas.

I lived here through my teen years and beyond until I left the area to work on drilling rigs in Louisiana, Texas and offshore in the Gulf. I was a roughneck for many years before changing careers to radio. Over 20 years in radio sales, on-air and as general manager had me living in Shreveport/Bossier City, Dallas and most recently Fayetteville.

Each stop has been on a road leading back home. I have been blessed with great experiences in many places, but Mena has been my refuge and some of the closest friends I have in life are here and to me are more like brothers.

My position here as GM is to continue and expand what has been done by outgoing manager, Ashley Moore. To have radio stations and a newspaper under one roof, let alone be connected in any business way, is a rare thing. In fact, I know of no other radio/newspaper pairings anywhere else in the country. This unique business model brings many different challenges that Ashley has done an outstanding job with here. Our team and I look to keep that positive momentum moving in the right direction.

Speaking of the team. We have a top-notch staff. They put in long hours doing multiple jobs. A typical radio station is at times semi-organized chaos. Throw in a newspaper with a hard deadline each week and you can turn the volume on the chaos up to a Spinal Tap level of 11. The staff here, which works in our two buildings, are a plus to the community.

Every manager has their passion projects. Ashley and I share one in common — a love for the Ouachita Mountains. I will work to tell its stories and promote our area to the visitors who come here for the various activities on offer. I will work with the cities, towns, county, businesses, organizations and others to accentuate the positives of Polk County. We will tell the news of the day, entertain and inform readers and listeners and help our advertisers reach more customers.

104.1 KENA-FM, Classic Hits

KQOR 105.3-FM, KENA 1450-AM and The Polk County Pulse are the most powerful ways to reach the people of Polk County. It’s my honor to represent this business. It is my privilege to live in this county and mountain town.

I’m proud to be back home.

1168 Hwy 71S

Mena, AR 71953

Phone: 479-243-9600

Fax: 479-243-9603

Email: news@mypulsenews.com

KENA 104.1 - KQOR 105.3

MyPulseNews.com

Jamie Hammack - General Manager

Ethan Nahté - Production Manager/Editor

Patrick Massey - Contributing Reporter

John Russell - Graphic Design

Josh Barker - Account Executive

Alexis James - Account Executive

Curt Teasdale - Programmer / On-Air Personality

Ariel Varner - Receptionist/On-Air Personality

Distribution & Insertion Staff: Danielle Stewart, Chaz Welch & Brittany Doyal

The Polk County Pulse is the area’s premiere and fastest growing news publication. The Polk County Pulse is FREE and published weekly on Wednesdays, with a distribution of 8,000 and an estimated readership of 10,000. MyPulseNews.com has hundreds of visitors daily and KENA and KQOR have thousands of listeners hourly.

POLICY: The publisher reserves the right to reject or cancel any advertisement at any time. All property rights, including any copyright interest, in any advertisement produced by Pulse Multi-Media and/or The Polk County Pulse using art work and/or typography furnished or arranged by Pulse Multi-Media and/or The Polk County Pulse shall be the property of Pulse Multi-Media and/or The Polk County Pulse. No such advertisement or any part thereof may be reproduced without the prior written consent of Pulse Multi-Media and The Polk County Pulse.

POLITICAL ADVERTISEMENTS: Advertisements of a political nature must be prepaid and must also include the name of the entity paying for the advertisement. If an entity other than the candidate the advertisement is endorsing is paying for the ad, a statement must be signed by the candidate verifying the candidate has seen and approved the advertisement.

Recently, I saw a headline that said what is going on in many of our bastions of socalled “higher learning.” The headline said that 673 professors at the University of North Carolina signed a letter opposing courses on the founding of America and the U.S. Constitution. This kind of prejudice and hostility to history is almost universal on the college campuses of America. We have abandoned our roots, and we have established an environment that is opposed to the free sharing and discussing of ideas. America’s universities used to be places in which people could disagree and discuss their disagreements, but now they have become factories of inculcation that repudiate disagreement and discussion. Our universities are ruled by legalism dressed up as scholarship.

I have been a college professor for 50 years. I loved disagreement and discussion in my classes. When divisive questions arose, it gave all of us—student and faculty alike—opportunities to learn and to teach. When students asked questions that were against what was being taught, these questioned fostered more insight and clarity. “Agreeing to disagree agreeably” is part of the growth of the mind. We were encouraged to chase down all the rabbit trails that happened to come up. We had no “set pattern of absolutes.” There are absolutes, but each person has to arrive at them by their own reasoning, rather than forcing cookie-cutter ideology down students’ throats.

Today Marxist professors can force their ideas on unsuspecting students; they mock and show contempt for any disagreement. Today humanist professors dominate classrooms of students, humiliating those who disagree, and refusing to brook any questioning of their ideologies. Students who enter college with vast ignorance and many questions are forced into the strictures of a professor’s philosophy, without any chance of open debate or discussion.

Here is an example: Professor Phillip E. Johnson, a professor of law at Berkeley University, wrote a book on the logic of evolution (“Darwin on Trial” and other books). As he studied the writers of evolutionism, he said, “Something about the Darwinists’ rhetorical style made me think they had something to hide.” As a law professor, he knew how liars thought and spoke. The scientific community did not ignore this. But his professor colleagues never read the book; rather they attacked and contemned him and tried to drive him from the university. Because his book showed the lie of what many of them believed—and did so in a purely logical way—their faith in evolutionism caused them to revolt strongly against him. But he retained the title “professor” to his death. A festschrift in honor of Johnson was written, entitled “Darwin’s Nemesis.”

What can we do to change this legalism in our universities? I have no idea. The only thing I can think of is the Intelligent Design (Michael Behe and others) movement gaining momentum. I only wish these professors would rethink their aprioris, re-examine their own thinking—and try to determine why they think as they do. Going back fifty years, universities were clearing houses of information, discussion, debate, and dissention. Today there is no chance of dissention, no chance of any real discussion. Orwell’s “thought-control police” run the universities of America!

Dr. Mark D. Berrier Minister Christ’s Church at Mountain Fork KiamichiMission.org Minister at Large

The Polk County Pulse welcomes letters to the Editor addressing any topic of interest to our readers. To be published, letters must not contain obscene or libelous language. Letters do not reflect the viewpoints or opinions of Pulse Multi-Media.

The letter must include a signature to be considered for publication. Signatures will NOT be held out by request. Letters will be restricted to 500 words. Any letters longer than 500 words will require purchase of advertising space.

The following contact information is required when the letter is submitted: NAME, AGE, ADDRESS, PHONE NUMBER.

Letters are published at the discretion of the Editor and Publisher.

Letters may be submitted by e-mail to news@mypulsenews.com; mailed to P.O. Box 1450, Mena, AR 71953 or dropped off at 1168 Hwy. 71 South, Mena, AR. A drop-box is provided by the front door for after-hour convenience. TO