News-blues, highway news, with other projects on the side

A couple of weeks ago I decided it was time to do a little critique of the cable TV news networks, just listen to all of them a bit, just long enough to let their prognosticators have enough time to convince me they are the real experts who have all the answers to solve our nation's problems. What a challenge. There are hundreds of those know-it-all experts who always seem to preface what they say with, "the fact is...." and then drift off into never-never land.

Wow, was I in for a surprise! I took about 15 minutes several times a day for several days with the terrible three: CNN, FOX and MSNBC. Believe me, had I been subject to headaches, I would have developed the all-time greatest head splitter.

It's ridiculous. Every talking head who opens his or her mouth (note, politically correct) to shout with appropriate gestures, upper lip snarls, eye rolls, as well as shrugs, head shakes, finger pointing and arm waving and, if the camera was in close-up focus, saliva dripping from between clenched teeth would have been discernible. What an awful experience!

Regular newscasts on the major networks too often are very similar. Every statement issued by a person is inevitably followed by counter statements by opposing spokespersons who inevitably call the other side bigots or some other inappropriate name.

Intermingled are the usual disasters, police shootings with appropriate blame calling and doses of sports controversies and, of course, reports on various musical, film and entertainment personalities. Oh, for the good old days when a Walter Cronkite or Howard K. Smith or ... what were the names of those well-known newscasters in years gone by? ... when they delivered succinct reports of the day's happenings coupled with a few brief film clips thrown in to give the casters a chance to breathe! Oh, for those good old days when the cameras were not focused on some mad person threatening to sue somebody for something, or calling someone such a disparaging name that aptly fits the caller with the same moniker without batting an eye! Surely a person who calls another a bigot is aptly one by default. Whew!

Let me ask a simple question: Does anyone out there in no-no land sometimes have a similar opinion of our over-saturated so-called news market? Don't get me wrong. I'm a great believer of freedom of the press, of free speech, of normal, conversational statements. But I wonder if our founding fathers had been subjected to the overblown gobbledygook everyone is fed 24/7, would they have ever achieved any type of consensus? Would our great constitutional federal republic ever have been formed?

Now that my negativism has been exposed, let's drift into a positive item: The opening of a new segment of the Bella Vista/Hiwasse/Gravette bypass which occurred several days ago. Now, the long wait for completion of the final couple of miles to the Missouri line and, of course, widening the present two-lane structure to four lanes. Give it another 10 years and it will be the climax of a half-century project as Arkansas enters the century-old interstate highway that began by then-president Ike Eisenhower. The greatest challenge facing us today is finding a method to fund the required upkeep and maintenance of our nationwide and statewide systems. And don't forget upkeep of area and local streets and roads.

I'm anxious to take that new six mile drive from the east side of Hiwasse/Gravette to the unfamiliar roundabout at the outskirts of Bentonville and Bella Vista. I understand the six miles, without a stop sign, can be completed at a pretty fast clip.

Another project beginning is the repair of the historic War Eagle bridge, a project that has been an expensive challenge for many years. Hopefully, this will fix the bridge, make it safe and allow our county to give full attention to the new courts building, a project that also has been cussed and discussed for many years. With a site finally settled upon, it's time to move on and face whatever consequences, pro or con, that evolve from the site choice, say 50 years from now -- sort of like the new Gravette Main Street project, that somehow looks a little different in concrete and asphalt from how it appeared on paper.

Main Street merchants have been patient, as have local citizens, as the project progresses. Such patience speaks well of the community spirit that forms the heart of every town or community -- such is the Heart of Hometown America.

Dodie Evans is the former owner and longtime editor of the Gravette News Herald. Opinions expressed are those of the author.

Editorial on 05/24/2017