Liberal Arts Blog —Arkansas (Part One): A Little Geography (Five Rivers), A Little History (Little Rock Nine), A little Culture (Johnny Cash)
Liberal Arts Blog — Sunday is the Joy of Humor, Food, Travel, Practical Life Tips, and Random Stuff Day
Today’s Topic: Arkansas (Part One): a little geography (five rivers), a little history (Little Rock Nine), a little culture (Johnny Cash)
Are you from Arkansas? Have you ever been? Ever worked there? Any delights to share with the rest of us? Johnny Cash fan? Clinton fan? MacArthur fan? How about Sam Walton?
How about Senator William Fulbright?
This is the 40th post in a zigzagging cross-country tour of the United States. So far we’ve been to Biloxi, Mississippi, Mobile, Alabama, Asheville, North Carolina, St. Louis, Missouri, and Madison, Wisconsin. We’ve been to Kansas, Kentucky, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota, Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas. More recently we’ve been to Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Pennsylvania, Michigan, New York, Georgia, Tennessee, Maryland, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Colorado, Utah, Nevada, Alaska, Hawaii, Oklahoma, Virginia, Rhode Island, Montana, Oregon, Washington, and last time, Ohio. Let’s get back to Arkansas.
Have you been to the Clinton Presidential Center? The MacArthur Museum of Military History?
Walmart headquarters in Bentonville? Did you know that the worst maritime disaster in American history occurred in a landlocked state? Have you been to Little Rock Central High School to pay homage to the “Little Rock Nine” of 1957? How about the Crystal Bridges Museum of Art?
Experts — please chime in. Correct, elaborate, elucidate.
A LITTLE GEOGRAPHY: (East to West): 5 rivers: St. Francis, White, Arkansas, Ouachita, Red
1. Between Missouri to the north and Louisiana to the south, Arkansas has Tennessee and Mississippi and a tiny bit of Missouri to the east and Oklahoma and a little bit of Texas to the west.
2. The Arkansas River has its headwaters in Colorado, and at 1,469 miles long is the second longest tributary of the Mississippi-Missouri system although its discharge is much less than that of the Missouri or Ohio.
3. The Ouachita is 600 miles long . The name means “Big hunt” or “good hunting ground.”
NB: Hot Springs is a tourist town renowned for the healing powers of its hot waters. It was set up as a federal reservation by President Andrew Jackson in 1832 and thereby has a claim to be the oldest national park in the United States. “It is the only national park that protects a unique combination of lithology, geologic structure, and water sources that produce the only nonvolcanic geothermal springs of such high quality (temperature, taste, color, odorless) in the United States.” (from the National Park Service website).
A LITTLE HISTORY: acquired from France (1803) admitted to Union (1836), joined Confederacy (1861), readmitted (1868)
1. The most famous episode in Arkansas history is when President Dwight D. Eisenhower sent the 101st Airborne into Little Rock to desegregate Little Rock Central High School (1957) in accord with the Supreme Court decision Brown v Board (1954). (see above photograph of Elizabeth Eckford, one of the nine)
2. Walmart, one of the world’s largest companies is headquartered in
Bentonville, Arkansas. It was founded by Sam Walton (1918–1992) who was actually born in Kingfisher, Oklahoma.
3. General Douglas MacArthur, born in Little Rock Barracks, is revered as a hero in both the Philippines and Japan. “For his defense of the Philippines, MacArthur was awarded the Medal of Honor. He officially accepted the surrender of Japan on 2 September 1945 and oversaw the occupation of Japan from 1945 to 1951. As the effective ruler of Japan, he oversaw sweeping economic, political, and social changes.”
NB: Was Senator William Fulbright (1905–1995) a hero for his opposition to the Vietnam war? or a villain for his signing of the Southern manifesto? Should his statue have been taken down as a University of Arkansas panel voted or was the Board of Trustees right in keeping it up arguing that the decision should be up to the Arkansas General Assembly?
The greatest singer-songwriter to come out of Arkansas?
Johnny Cash, the country singer famous for his deep voice, “Folsom Prison Blues,” and for wearing all black outfits — hence his nickname (“The Man in Black”)
WILLIAM JEFFERSON CLINTON (1946 — ) — HERO OR VILLAIN? was the Clinton presidency America’s real “Camelot”? or a really bad movie?
1. In Pristina, the capital city of Kosovo, one of the main boulevards is named after President Clinton.
2. In 2013, President Barack Obama, bestowed on him the highest civilian honor — the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
3. He was President from 1992 to 2000 and Governor of Arkansas from 1979 to 1981, and then from 1983 to 1992.
NB: But his relationship with women has led many to take a rather more negative view. Any strong feelings one way or the other?
Excerpt from the White House website on Bill Clinton: “During the administration of William Jefferson Clinton, the US enjoyed more peace and economic well being than at any time in its history. He was the first Democratic president since Franklin D. Roosevelt to win a second term. He could point to the lowest unemployment rate in modern times, the lowest inflation in 30 years, the highest home ownership rate in the country’s history, dropping crime rates in many places, and reduced welfare rolls. He proposed the first balanced budget in decades and achieved a budget surplus.”
How much was coincidence? how much causation? how much credit does Clinton deserve? what is the net of the positives and the negatives of the White House’s best saxophone player ever?
Geography of Arkansas — Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Clinton
J. William Fulbright — Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johnny_Cash
Buffalo National River — Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johnny_Cash
Sultana (steamboat) — Wikipedia
Little Rock, Arkansas — Wikipedia
Civil Rights: The Little Rock School Integration Crisis | Eisenhower Presidential Library
The Story Behind the Famous Little Rock Nine ‘Scream Image’ | HISTORY
List of presidents of the United States by home state — Wikipedia
Arkansas Fun Facts: 15 Crazy Things You Didn’t Know About “The Natural State” |
Little Rock Central High School National Historic Site (U.S. National Park Service)
Ira Wilmer Counts Jr. — Wikipedia
The Problem We All Live With — Wikipedia
Johnny Cash Museum — Wikipedia
The Sultana Disaster Museum — Deadliest Maritime Disaster in Marion, AR, USA
Liberal Arts Blog — Arkansas Surprise — A World Class Museum of American Art
QUOTE OF THE MONTH
“Make your own Bible. Select and collect all the words and sentences that in all your readings have been to you like the blast of a trumpet.”
- Ralph Waldo Emerson
My spin — then periodically review, re-rank, and exchange your list with those you love. I call this the “Orion Exchange” because seven is about as many as any human can digest at a time. Game?
LAST FOUR YEARS OF POSTS ORGANIZED THEMATICALLY:
PDF with headlines — Google Drive
ATTACHMENTS BELOW:
#1 A graphic guide to justice (9 metaphors on one page).
#2 “39 Songs, Prayers, and Poems: the Keys to the Hearts of Seven Billion People” — Adams House Senior Common Room Presentation, (11/17/20)
NB: Palestine Orion (Decision) — let’s exchange Orions, let’s find Rumi’s field (“Beyond all ideas of right and wrong, there is a field. Meet me there” Rumi, 13 century Persian Sufi mystic)
YOUR TURN
Anything miscellaneous to share? Best trip you ever took in your life? Practical life tips? Random facts? Jokes?
Or, what is the best cartoon you have seen lately? or in the last 10 years? or the last 50?
Or what is your favorite holiday food? Main course? Dessert? Fondest food memories? Favorite foods to eat or prepare?
This is your chance to make someone else’s day. Or to cement in your mind a memory that might otherwise disappear. Or to think more deeply about something dear to your heart. Continuity is key to depth of thought.
