thenorphletpaperboy: By Their Fruits Ye Shall Know Them

thenorphletpaperboy: By Their Fruits Ye Shall Know Them:      “By Their Fruits Ye Shall Know Them” Dear Congressman Hill: Thanks so much for the tiny environmental bone you tossed us by s...

By Their Fruits Ye Shall Know Them

     “By Their Fruits Ye Shall Know Them”

Dear Congressman Hill: Thanks so much for the tiny environmental bone you tossed us by sponsoring the Flatside Wilderness Enhancement Act. Of course, as you know, the inclusion of that acreage had already been recommend, and it became a wilderness protected area when it was recommended. So, I guess I’m saying “thanks for nothing,” because I don’t think you give a damn about the environment. Your splashy promotion announcing the Flatside Wilderness increase rang a hollow note, because in the same week you touted the increase in the Flatside Wilderness Area, you and the rest of the Arkansas Congressional House members voted to put the endangered gray wolf back on the path to extinction by removing it from the Endangered Species List. It take a lot of gall to wave the environmental flag, and then vote to exterminate the last remaining gray wolves. That’s right, by taking the gray wolf off the Endangered Species List you created an environment that will give the Alaska helicopter wolf hunting boys and the Montana folks with the moto of “The only good wolf is a dead wolf,” open season to eliminate the gray wolf from the United States. Removing the gray wolf from the protected list will let individuals shoot any wolf they see on their property even if it poses no threat to livestock or humans.  It’s inconceivable that you would vote to remove the few remaining gray wolves from the Endangered Species List knowing you were voting to make the gray wolf extinct. I can imagine what will happen in the next few years as ranchers and farmers start a full scale push to eliminate the gray wolf from the United State. The only reason the gray wolf exists now is because it is on the Endangered Species List. Before it was put on the list the gray wolf was facing extinction. Even today, after a partial recovery, it occupies only 5% of its former range, and I guess your goal is to cut that range down to zoos or stuffed wolves in a museum. Congressman, how do you sleep at night knowing that you will be part of exterminating a species?

So don’t fake carrying about Arkansas’s environment, when you are part of the group who are actively destroying the state and nation’s wildlife and forests. When you stay silent on environmental issues as you did when our National River, the Buffalo, was threatened or when you gave tact support to Congressman’s Westerman’s “Company Tree Farm Bill”, (Yes, I know it is called the Sustainable Forest Act---more double talk). This bill, if enacted, would allow the clearcutting of as much as 10,000 acres of a national forest without public input. You are no friend of Arkansas’s environment if you don’t oppose this bill. But maybe that bill is what we might expect from Congressman Westerman, who, when asked about the factory hog farm polluting the Buffalo River said, “I believe canoers peeing in the river will create more pollution than the hog farm.” Congressman, do you know that hog farm puts out as much waste per year as a city of 20,000? Did you pass sixth grade math?

Yes,   I’m so mad at our Congressional Delegation that I could bite nails, and I have good reason. This is it in a nutshell: they are in lockstep with the anti-environmental folks who are doing their best to destroy the wildlife and forests of our country in order to make a quick buck. Of course, when our National Parks are being opened for mineral development and the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge is welcoming drilling rigs, it’s just being publically correct to delist the gray wolf.

 It seems not a day passes without some regulation being discarded, and I certainly believe in getting rid of cumbersome and generally worthless hindrances to doing business, but when political reasons override good science, such as the President’s pulling or of the Paris Climate Accord, or when he issues a Presidential directive, based primarily on the promise he made to coal miners or other special interest groups, or when the Energy Secretary tries to salvage the closing of coal-fired generator plants, which are being replace by natural gas, all for political reasons, you have to ask: Are the votes of these coal dependent states so important that the health of the planet is ignored? Evidently it must be to the administration in Washington, and as our National Forests and the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge are opened for exploration and clearcutting timber harvesting, it seems the goal is to make money at any cost, and America’s wildlife and forests are expendable, if they are in the way of making a dollar. 

To our Congressional Delegation: You know many of these actions are ill thought out and most of them are patently wrong. Then why have you not spoken out against the most flagrant disregard for our forest, wildlife, and environment? Are you being politically correct? Of course, you are, and you are also missing a backbone. Being politically correct is spelling doom for not only the gray wolf, but hundreds of other species that are on the brink of extinction.

Thank goodness the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality has denied the operation permit for the factory hog farm. Being politically correct almost caused our National River to be polluted. To have a governor, two senators and four congressmen who wouldn’t stand up and support the conversation groups who were opposing the hog farm permit is a disgrace. But the fight to stop the factory hog farm from polluting the Buffalo may not be over. The hog farm can appeal the denial of the permit and who knows, they may prevail and the fight to protect the river may not be over. Of all things in this state that should be non-partisan, the Buffalo National River should top any list. In case you missed the reasons for the denial let me, as an expert witness, give you the reason:

This is my conclusion: I believe it is almost a certainty, if the hog farm is not re-sited off the Boone Limestone and away from Big Creek, the river will be polluted. This is why: the water that doesn't run off percolates into the Swiss Cheese Boone Limestone, and that water becomes part of the groundwater, which ultimately flows into the Buffalo. The remaining surface water runoff, from 11 fields where the hog lagoon materials is dumped, will wash into Big Creek and ultimately into the Buffalo. If we're to save the river the factory hog farm must be closed and sited on a more suitable terrain. Only then will the river be saved.

 .         

 If you are one of those politically correct persons who is remaining silent in the face of an unprecedented attract on our National Forests, wildlife, and the environment, remember this, and I quote, “When good men remain silent, evil triumphs.” And don’t worry. If you speak out. I promise people won’t think you’re a Democrat..

thenorphletpaperboy: A New Hampshire Journey

thenorphletpaperboy: A New Hampshire Journey: A New Hampshire Journey Early February, 1992, New Hampshire Cheryl, my secretary, has just buzzed me: “Richard, Ken Smith is on th...

A New Hampshire Journey

A New Hampshire Journey

Early February, 1992, New Hampshire

Cheryl, my secretary, has just buzzed me: “Richard, Ken Smith is on the phone.”

I’m wondering about the Clinton campaign as I answer the phone.

“Richard, Ken Smith here.”

            Ken is a good friend and Gov. Clinton’s environmental liaison. He sounds nervous, and he, blurts out, “Could you get free for a few days to help the campaign?”

            ”Well, yeah, I can. What do you need me to do?”

            “Richard, the governor is losing ground in New Hampshire, and Jerry Brown is giving him hell on his environmental record. The campaign is throwing everything we have into the primary. If Bill finishes fourth or fifth, it might be all over for him. The primary is in less than two weeks away, and there is a big meeting with the League of Conservation Voters coming up. They represent every environmental group in the state. We have scheduled Hillary to speak for the governor, but she has a conflict. We want you to take her place. You’re the President of the Arkansas Wildlife Federation and chairman of P. C. & E., which will give you some credibility. ”

            “Ken, I could fly up Wednesday morning and stay until Sunday afternoon. Would that work?”

            “Yes, the League meets Friday night, and we can get you some radio and newspaper interviews on the days before you meet with the League.”  

                                               *                               *                             *

            I arrive in Manchester and as I struggle through the snow to my hotel room, I have never been so cold. Before I settle down for the night, I call the campaign for my schedule.

            After a restless night's sleep, I start my campaign work going from small town to town talking to reporters from the local radio stations and newspapers about Gov. Clinton. That goes okay, but what concerns me is my toughest test. It’s when I go before the New Hampshire Environmental Coalition—The League of Conservation Voters— Some of those guys have really bought into Gov. Brown’s campaign because of his outstanding environmental record. They can smell blood—my blood.

            It’s Friday night and one of the Clinton for President Campaign staff has just picked me up, and he’s talking nonstop about what questions I might have to field. It sounds as if a rough road is ahead.

            “...and they are not happy at all that Hillary is not coming.”

            As we arrive at the Dartmouth campus for a meeting of the League, I begin to dread it. I’m substituting for Hillary, and Gov. Jerry Brown has already talked with the group, and a lot of the group is sold on him.

            It’s 7 o’clock. I walk into the room where some 40 or so presidents of the various environmental groups are waiting. A campaign worker introduces me, but there is no applause, just silence. I walk to the front of the room through a stony glare, which could have cut a brick, looking out at a bunch of frowning, crossed-arm individuals.  It’s a group of environmentalists facing someone, not just from the South, but from Arkansas, and they think I’m certainly less than them. I have to become credible, or it’s all over, so I skip the “glad to be here” stuff:

            “Has anyone here ever stood on one of the 100-foot bluffs overlooking the nation's First National River, the Buffalo, and watched an Eagle swoop down to take a smallmouth bass?”

            Of course, I know no one had, so I’m saying very deliberately, “Well, I have. The Buffalo River is a national treasure. It is the last free-flowing, major river in our state, and it winds its way through some of the most scenic vistas in America. What I’m going to tell you is hard to believe, but three years ago we faced one of the most critical challenges to the purity of the river. A company filed a permit to construct a huge landfill—a damn garbage dump—so close to the river that it was a direct threat to pollute the river. I lead the Arkansas Wildlife Federation as president, and as a commissioner on the Department of Pollution Control and Ecology to defeat that permit. If I don’t ever accomplish anything else, I will go to my grave thanking God, that by working with our governor, Bill Clinton, we were able to stop this landfill from being built."

 I can tell the group is beginning to relax, but I’m not through.

            “By the way, I noticed in my driving around your state, you have some great rivers. I especially liked the Upper Merrimack. I wonder what you would think if the Corps of Engineers put forth a plan to make 28 bend cuts in the river—for barge traffic? You know, make it a ditch.”

            Well, that gets some attention, and I’m letting it sink in for a few extra seconds.

            “Well, let me tell you about a bend-cut fight that took place on a beautiful Southern river, the Ouachita. Believe it or not, the Corp proposed 28 bend cuts on the Ouachita, and they were supported by our congressman and local state representative. The fight lasted nearly two years, and we marshaled every environmental group in Arkansas and Louisiana to fight the bend-cuts. When Governor Bill Clinton came out in opposition to the bend-cuts, it turned the tide. Today the Ouachita River would be a ditch, if the people of Arkansas, led by our governor, hadn’t stopped the Corp.”

            Now, there is some nodding of heads, and they seem more receptive to hear the rest of my speech as I tell them Bill Clinton has the heart of an environmentalist.

            “....but—this is important—he is not from Vermont or California—he is from Arkansas. And his record, supporting the environment should be considered based on the person, not on what he has accomplished in an environmentally friendly state.” I can tell the audience is receptive. I’ve just told them a colorful squirrel-hunting story, and they are laughing. I’m finishing with this:

            “Governor Clinton, if elected President, will bring more resolve to protect and enhance the environment than any—and I mean ANY previous President.” I pause and then I continue, “and I’ll assure you he’ll use this resolve to make a huge difference.” Then I pause again, and as an afterthought, I say, ”I know our primary interest is in the environment, but we also want to be sure our President is mentally capable of handling the job as President of our Country. In that regard, let me assure you, that without any doubt, he is more intellectually qualified—by far—than any other candidate. And in closing, I would be amiss if I didn’t mention Hillary, the governor’s wife. I regret her schedule prevented her from being here tonight. Governor Clinton is certainly an intellectual giant, but the only person I have ever met who is his equal is Hillary. If you elect Governor Clinton President, you will be getting two for the price of one.”

             Finally, applause. They know I’m one of them, and my endorsement of Gov. Bill Clinton carries some weight. The Clinton staff members are all smiles.

thenorphletpaperboy: On to Ouarzazate

thenorphletpaperboy: On to Ouarzazate:                        On to Ouarzazate Morocco Part Two The French couple is driving off on the road that we have named “The Road...

On to Ouarzazate

                       On to Ouarzazate

Morocco Part Two

The French couple is driving off on the road that we have named “The Road to Hell” toward their doom in the Atlas Mountains, we think, as we head on to Ouarzazate. In twenty minutes we’re driving into town on a road lined with tall eucalyptus trees planted by the French, and a little later we’re checking into a nice hotel in the center of town. We note a group of what looks like Americans having drinks in the bar, and after a short conversation, we find out a movie is being shot in town with Tommy Lee Jones as the feature actor.  

It’s the next morning, and we’re driving to the edge of the Atlas Mountains to visit the ancient casaba of Ait Benhaddou, a World Heritage Site. It’s a walled village that has been used many times as a movie background. Several of the Jesus themed movies have been shot here, and it’s like a step back in time as we wander through the streets. The old village has been preserved without any changes, and it is truly a breathtaking sight. We’re only staying a few days in Ouarzazate, and we’re spending them just nosing about the old city, going to the souk, and in general just enjoying our vacation. The hotel is good, and the food is much the same as we’ve had everywhere in Morocco. It’s called Tagine, which is similar to a southern pot roast with potatoes and carrots.

            It’s the next day and we’re heading to Zagora, an old caravan jumping off town right on the edge of the Sahara Desert. I’m pulling into town, when I see a sign, ‘Road to Timbuktu, 52 days by camel.” Zagora, a town of around 35,000, sits between the desert and the mountains. It’s getting dark and since there are no streets lights, I’m easing down the main street, trying not to run over anyone.  Our hotel doesn’t look that bad, but as we settle in, we realize it is the worst hotel any of us have ever stayed in. The beds are awful and the food is about as good as the beds. However, we aren’t going to spend a lot of time in town. We have arranged a camel riding tour into the desert, and we’re going to camp out under the Sahara Desert skies.

 I’ve been riding this camel for nearly four hours, and I’m aching. The best way I can describe it is to think of strapped to an erratic rocking chair without any padding for several hours. I don’t have much fat on me, and my bottom is just bone on hard saddle. Finally, we ride into camp and about that time the Camel Tour folks drive up in a Land Rover to fix dinner.

            Actually, the dinner is pretty good, and of course it’s Tagine again and the meat, I’ve just found out, is camel, but they did say it was young camel. Well, I’ve been hot all day, but as it gets dark it’s much colder. The Tour folks who prepared dinner have built a large bonfire and a rather plump belly dancer, who could use a trip to the dentist, has just appeared. A couple of our bunch---who I suspect have had a drink or two---are dancing with the belly dancer, but I’m ready to lie down, and Vertis and I are heading to our tent where we have a backpack of clothes and some necessities. I’m tired, and I know it won’t take me long to drift off to sleep.

            I guess I’ve slept several hours, but I’m awake and about to freeze to death. My gosh the temperature drops like a rock at night in the desert, and I’ve got to put on some more clothes. Where are they? Okay, found something. I’m putting on everything in the backpack, and it’s enough to warm me up and let me go back to sleep.

            It’s daylight and I need a cup of coffee in the worst way, and I’m about to leave the tent when Vertis looks at me. “For God’s sake, Richard! You have on my clothes.” Yeah, I’m a little embarrassed, but I’m thinking at least I was warm.

            Breakfast is mostly hard rolls and jam, but it’s filling, and I’m ready to head back to Zagora, and I hope it’s not on the back of a camel…but I think that is wishful thinking ‘cause I see our camels being saddled up, and I know it will be another four hours on the back of one, and my bottom is already sore.

Finally, we’re back in Zagora, and I can’t believe how good this sorry bed feels. Tomorrow, we’re driving from Zagora to Taroudant a larger city that still has its old city walls. It is an ancient city and its history is pretty amazing. During the inter-tribal wars centuries ago all 30,000 occupants of the city were killed when the city fell. It’s the easiest drives we’ll make. I’m looking at some scraggly trees along the road, but not at the trees. The trees are full of goats, and not on just the low limbs. Heck there are goats grazing thirty feet off the ground.

            We’re staying at a well-known hunting resort on the edge of town and the room, restaurant, and hotel itself are first class. Well, this is the end of the together part of the trip and one couple will leave in a couple of days, and then we’ll leave a day after that.

            It’s the next day, and one of our group made the mistake of drinking tap water. He has diarrhea.  “I thought this was such a nice place that the water would be okay.” He broke the cardinal rule of “Never drink the tap water in a third world country.”

            Vertis and I are driving to the airport in Marrakech to fly out and connect with our flight home, and we’ll be crossing the Atlas Mountains further west, but the road is paved and certainly not anything like the Road to Hell shortcut.

            I’ve been driving about two hours with two hours to go, and we’re into the mountains when a red light flashes on the dashboard of our Renault rent car. It’s not just a warning. It say Emergency! Service at once! Well, when you are half way through the mountains that causes a panic, and I’m pulling over to check the oil. I’m thinking oil pan was damaged on The Road to Hell and is leaking oil. It’s thirty minutes later, and I can’t figure out how to raise the hood.

I’m driving on with the emergency light flashing and in a small mountain town, I manage to find a garage service station. Twenty minutes later and the mechanic can’t figure out how to raise the hood, so it’s cross your fingers and head for the airport.

            I’m breathing a sigh of relieve as I pull up to the rent-a-car place in our somewhat beat-up Renault with its flashing emergency light, turn in parking slot, drop off my keys, and head to check in for our flight home.

thenorphletpaperboy: Dear-tree Mail

thenorphletpaperboy: Dear-tree Mail:                                   Dead-Tree Mail             My first class home and office mail is slowly drying up, and that’s beca...

Dear-tree Mail

                                  Dead-Tree Mail

            My first class home and office mail is slowly drying up, and that’s because dead tree mail is an out-of-date method of communicating.  If your dead-tree (paper mail) is not being reduced, you’re living in the past. A lot of us have already dropped our hardline phone, and our utilities, car payment, and other expenses are being handled without a paper trail.  Welcome to the Digital Age, and I can guarantee you, there is no turning back. Going forward means a steady reduction in first class mail and the use of paper. In the near future, all but a few dead-tree legal notices will be digital. I know that sounds a little off the wall, but five years ago when someone said telephone hardlines would be phased out, nobody thought they would disappear so quickly.

We have a 35 bed executive inn in El Dorado, Union Square Guest Quarters, and over the past six months, we’ve removed all of our hardline phones. Just two years ago we wouldn’t have dared to make such a move, but today----not one complaint. Let’s face reality, and reality is digital, Bluetooth, and the Internet all of which together have made hardline phones and a lot of dead-tree-mail obsolete. Of course, there are several overriding reasons. Basically the products they produce are cheaper and of better quality.

            The future of digital communication is becoming easier to see every day as more and more advertisers, utility companies, and newspapers are switching to digital.  Of course they just call it “going paperless” but what they are saying is stop using dead-tree-mail to pay your bills, and even stop using dead-tree money to make your purchases. Do it digitally. Of course the reasons are varied, but it boils down to saving money and making the obvious daily tasks easier and more efficient.

            I’m certainly not leading the charge to get rid of dead-tree mail. Actually I’m just being swept along with the changes to digital, but I’m getting there. I haven’t read a hard copy of this newspapers for a long time, and as strange as that may sound to some of my readers who are reading my column holding a dead-tree newspaper, I probably won’t ever read the Democrat-Gazette any other way. Actually, getting used to having the paper on your iPad is so easy and convenient that once you start doing it, you wouldn’t even think of picking up a hard copy of the paper. But the daily newspaper is just the tip of the iceberg, if we consider the overwhelming potential economic advantage of digital transmission of data, money, and news has over the traditional dead-tree mail.

            The next digital step is to get ready to lose your checkbook. Yes, I know that seems so unlikely that you could easily dismiss that possibility, but let me give you an example of a no-check society. My early 20s grandson borrowed a $100 from me recently---sound familiar? Yes? But he paid it back, and I know you’re shaking your head, but this is the way it happened.

            “Hey, I’ve got enough in my bank account to pay you back that hundred you loaned me?”

            “Great! Write me a check.”

            “Uh, well I don’t have any checks.”

            “You mean you’re out of checks?”

            “No, I don’t use checks.”

            “Well, how…?”

            “I have a debit card, and I use it for everything. Just give me your bank account number, and I’ll transfer a hundred into it.”

            Yes, I was shocked until I thought about the loan payment. It wasn’t just a young person who hadn’t bothered to get a checking account, it was an exclamation point to where this digital world is going. Then I remembered that I receive several other money transfers to my bank account each month; something I hadn’t paid much attention to.

Well, the question is, should we embrace the digital change in the way we do business, get paid, and get entertained, or stick with our crinkly, old dead-tree newspapers and checks?  To answer that we must consider why companies and individuals are going digital. Yes, the reason is a very simple one. It increases productivity. Yes, it all boils down to making us more productive, and when we are more productive the companies we work for produce more goods for less cost, and they make more money so they can pay their investors more money, their workers higher pay, and the consumer gets their products cheaper. It all boils down to a higher standard of living for everybody concerned.

If we look back at our country and visualize how this country became an economic powerhouse, increasing productivity is a big part of our success. Our economic growth is a factor of the amount of goods each person produces, and that translates into striving to find ways to produce more during the same number of working hours. Embracing digital will not only make you more productive, but it serves as a way to increase your income indirectly, and thus give you a better quality of life.

A quick look around the world will tell you that the countries who have a horrible quality of life are the ones whose people are the least productive. Of course, many of those countries leave women out of the workforce, and the loss of 50% of a counties ability to produce goods equals a lower standard of living for the whole county. Gender equality would make not only those countries more productive, but it would do the same thing for our country.

            Well, what does the future look like? Take a look at new stores and restaurants in New York City or California, and you can see it coming. Restaurants that take only debit or credit cards and stores that are stocked with goods but without a cashier. In those stores, when you remove an item from the shelf your debit or credit card is automatically charged. All of that translate into allowing a company or an individual to produce more products or services at less cost and therefore create more value.

Of course, we already have some digital streaming entertainment options, but that is just a trickle of what’s to come. Would you like to watch the Metropolitan Opera live---at home? Maybe you won’t this year, but it will come and not only will you have your entertainment venues increased, and of course your quality of life ticked up, but the Met will have millions of new customers, the performers will get paid more, and your digital ticket to the Met will be less.

As you can imagine, by going digital, goods will drop in price, entertainment will be more varied, businesses will make more money, and workers will make a higher salary. Look at the difference between our grandparent’s lives and our quality of life today. The big difference between then and now is the amount of value produced per hour worked.

            Yes, the digital age is upon us, and the faster we join the rush to become more digital, the better quality of life we will have.