April 2023

If you read this column even occasionally, you’re likely familiar with my thoughts on the Arkansas Freedom of Information Act. Arkansas’ public-records law is one of the strongest in the nation and it’s an important tool not just for journalists but also for citizens who want to know what their government is doing.

It was our best spring break ever. No classes, but we learned so much. The oldest grand, a ripe old 25 and newly (and thus far happily) married and master’s-degreed magna cum laude, enjoyed her last spring break a couple years ago. Except not; she now spends those precious days helping people younger than she, most of them female, assess what they plan to do after the respite ends; that is, what they plan to do with the rest of their lives. Counseling, after a fashion, while using a golf course as a chalkboard and a putter as a pointer. Adulthood: It’s closer than they think, she tells them; she, who is in the first third of her wonderful life. And, Heaven Bless, she made time for her grandparents, stopping off to share with them the advice she was passing along to her charges, which amounted to a refresher course for her elders. She was telling them that education was paramount, that they could learn about some things in life, as she had, on the fairway, but that other lessons could only be learned in the classroom. So they absolutely had to put their textbook education first.