GRAVETTE — I filled a wastebasket with futile attempts in writing a “Cuff” about this being the last issue of The Gravette News Herald. There is so much that could be written spanning more than a century of newspapers in Gravette. About how a man from Kansas, A. C. Veach, came to Gravette when it was little more than a year old, with a shirttail full of type and published that first issue of “The Gravett News” on a September day in 1894.
Many pages could be written about the many and varied owners and editors and employees of the newspaper in its 116 year history, about the town and its leaders, about the business community, about the churches, the school, the clubs and organizations. Especially about the thousands of citizens who during these many years have called Gravette home and have kept it alive.
The above paragraphs are all that I’m going to write about the newspaper. There is something that, to me, is much more important than all of the above. That is, “Where is Gravette today? And what is Gravette’s future?”
I have been around here a long time. You who know me probably know me better than I know myself. I just want to share a few thoughts in a final News Herald “Cuff” about where Gravette stands. Now. In a crossroads. And Gravette is not alone. The nation is struggling just as it has struggled many times in the past. Similarly there are challenges facing Gravette and, yes, challenges in our individual families. Where are we going and what will we be when we get there?
The past is important. Just as Gravette’s past has been chronicled in the columns of the News Herald so have the events of our nation, our state, our individual lives been recorded in the book of life. We are all a part of history. Important. Worth remembering. Worth learning from. Important? Yes. And so is today which is the most important subject.
What makes today so important to Gravette is how our actions affect our future, as a community, as families, as individuals.
Gravette is at a criticalcrossroads just as it has been many times since it was settled. . . Like when the business district was almost totally destroyed by fire three times. When a great world war followed by the great depression covered the town with despair and a feeling of helplessness. When the big war came and yes even now as wars continue and as the unsettling uncertainties of the economy grip us.
It’s today when decisions must be made that will determine where and what Gravette will be for years to come. Today when leaders are frustrated. When people are mad. When businesses struggle. When churches split. When money needed to do all the things that need to be done doesn’t seem to be there. When individual families and lives grapple with the frustrations of the unknown.
What to do. The answer is quite simple. Concise. I don’t know who said it but it is the trusim that has allowed us to reach the plateau we now occupy: “Just keep on keeping on.” Hard to do, you say.
Of course it is.
Today truly is a time for calm retrospection. For compromise. For realizing that answers may not satisfy everyone. In fact they may not satisfy anyone.
But daggum it, we’ll make it. Because we’re Americans. We’re Arkansawyers.
We’re Gravettians. And that can be enough.
-Dodie Evans
P. S. The final News Herald “Cuff”? Yes, but read that statement carefully.
I could be struck by a car as I cross Main Street. Or struck by a bolt of lightning while lying in the hammock in my back yard.
Or the old ticker might just quit ticking.
Those things could happen to any of us. At any time. So what today’s “Cuff” really is all about is to put self aside. Stop holding grudges. Temper tongues. Stop and listen.
Focus on tomorrows.
Above all have faith that as we all keep on keeping on the sun will continue to rise in the east. And America and Arkansas and Gravette and its families and individuals will be ready to bask in the warmth of those rays.
The Eagle soars!
Opinion, Pages 4 on 07/28/2010