Baxter Bulletin from Mountain Home, Arkansas • 4

Page 4A Mountain Home, Ark. Saturday, November 22, 2003 tThc Baxter bulletin jpnimfidDim A 9-year-old watches history in the making Fly fishers conclave successful From Pat Smith, Federation of Fly Fishers Southern Council 2603 managing director Mountain Home: The Federation of Fly Fishers Southern Council concluded its annual conclave in Mountain Home. It proved to be one of our most successful conclaves. I must extend an apology to several citizens of the area. On Saturday I had, in an article in Tie Baxter Bulletin, offered a reduced rate to local folks to attend our conclave after 2 p.m.

Through miscommunication between the registration desk and myself, some folks were turned away. I apologize most sincerely. In the hussle and bussle of activities, I simply failed to let them know what we had offered in the article written by Mr. Wallis. We do invite you to visit us again next year, same time, same place, and I guarantee you will not be turned away.

Everyone is welcome either as a fully-paid participant for the entire conclave or as an attendee during that two-hour segment. We only learned this past weekend it was not our 30th conclave in Mountain Home. It was actually the 32nd. For all these years, members have been coming to Mountain Home to celebrate fly fishing and to, of course, fish. This year, we had approximately 800 registered participants.

Several years ago, we did a survey and came up with a figure that this conclave contributes (in one form or another) to the economy of Baxter and surrounding counties to the tune of more than a half a million dollars during the two weeks surrounding the conclave. After all these years, we are finally getting some support from the community. Kenny Crawford and the Ramada Inn have been in our corner for many years and have contributed greatly to the conclaves' success. Also this year, the city of Mountain Home and Baxter County came forth and gave support. Betty Barker Smith at The Baxter Bulletin was a tremendous help.

Richard Sheid of Sheids Furniture Village was most generous in providing equipment. Wapsi Inc. always has been a big supporter of our council and conclave. There are other businesses and individuals who I may not have mentioned (they know who they are) that also have been a great support, and we do appreciate their efforts. 1 Our council covers eight states and this area, as our home base, has received a lion's share of our conservation dollars.

Over the years, FFF Southern Council has put back into the community tens of thousands of dollars in conservation funds for projects on the White and Norfork rivers as well as projects on the Little Red and the Strawberry rivers We feel strongly that our fisheries must be preserved, not only for this generation, but for future generations. That's why we encourage children to participate in our conclave. A kid that is out fishing is not out getting into trouble. Please, if you want to know what we are all about and to learn a little about fly fishing, come see us at conclave next year (Oct. 1-2) or check out the Federation's local club affiliate, North Arkansas Fly Fishers.

'Quilters play impressive From Jack Farrow Cassville, j.i While in Mountain Home recently visiting relatives, I was lucky enough to attend the Sunday afternoon production of the play "The Quilters" performed by your local community theatre group, Twin Lakes Playhouse, at its little playhouse on Sixth Street I can't tell you how impressed I was. The play was remarkable in its nature, the performances by the women in the cast were wonderful and the dramatic and musical direction had to be extremely professional. The hours these people put in on the musical portion of the production alone must have been far above and beyond the normal effort put into an amateur production. What a wonderful afternoon. Mountain Home is very lucky to have a community theatre group of this caliber, and I have no doubt that the lucky residents who attend this play will be discussing and sharing the experience for years to come.

Street crew deserves thanks From: Mr. and Mrs. William Klemm, Mountain Home: We would like to say what a wonderful street department Mountain Home has and their two foremen, Scott Manchester and Jeff Whit ehouse. Tearing up a street, putting curbs and sidewalks in can be a very stressful job working around people wanting to get in and out of their driveways. These men and their crews made it easier with their helpful ways.

Thank you, fellows, for being such nice people. Arkansas Avenue will be wonderful when it is done. We are in the upper part and can see how it will look by looking at the lower level We personally had a drainage problem that had to be resolved, and they did it so easily and professionally. The mayor of Mountain Home can be very proud to have such a crew. Odds Ends Sonny Garrett around.

I thought the scrawny guy was trying to get away. Then somebody on TV said he'd been shot. A little bit later they loaded him into an ambulance and took him away. He had been, shot, and he didn't make it. I didn't go to school Monday, or the rest of that week School was supposed to have been off Thursday and Friday for Thanksgiving anyway, but they closed school for the other three days for something called mourning.

We kept watching TV. I remember seeing President Kennedy's funeral, with the big, black horse with a pair of boots in the stirrups backwards, that one of the announcers said symbolized a fallen leader. There was a casket with the American flag on it being hauled on a horse-drawn wagon (9ryear-old boys don't know what caissons are), Mrs. Kennedy wearing a black veil, their little boy standing on the street and saluting. Thanksgiving finally came, but everybody seemed quiet, and almost all they talked about was the assassination.

Man, what a big word that was for a 9-year-old boy. What a horrible word it was for the country. And what a dark time for America, a time that still has an impact on us 40 years later. Sonny Garrett is city editor of The Baxter Bulletin. He may be reached at When you're 9 years old, you don't really keep up with national news a lot.

You might catch a snippet or two while your parents are watching it, but on the whole you'd just as soon watch cartoons or maybe a Western. At least that's the way I was when I was 9. That was when there were three television networks and the only colors on our TV were black and white. Along with Westerns, cartoons and comedy shows, I remember seeing a few events of the day, although I wasn't sure what it all meant. My mom and I had watched a couple of Mercury space launches, and I remember seeing the year before, when I was 8, the president and other guys in suits talking seriously about places called Cuba and Russia and missiles.

I remember Mom and I came home one afternoon, turned on the TV and heard those tones from the Emergency Broadcast System Mom looked scared, but relaxed when an announcer said it was a test, only a test. Other than things like that, I hadn't really paid a lot of attention to the news. That changed one Friday afternoon. I was at school, and we'd just come in from the playground. We were a noisy bunch, but as we settled in at our desks we were asked to be quiet.

We'd been asked to quiet down before, but there was some-' thing different in Mrs. Wool-ridge's voice this time. She was talking to someone just outside the classroom door, then a soft there was Frank Reynolds, I think, talking about it on Channel 3. Another turn of the dial, and there was Chet Huntley on Channel 6, and he was talking on the phone with somebody. We kept watching, changing the channel every once in a while to see if one of the other networks had anything new.

Dad came home from work, and we kept watching. Into the night. There was nothing else on TV. They kept showing things about the president and his family. They kept talking about him and )iow tragic this was and what a sad day for, America.

When we went out Saturday, it was clear and cold and quiet. Everywhere. It was almost like a Sunday, or even Christmas when there's not a lot going on. But it was too quiet, people were subdued, and there weren't too many of them out and about. Then, on Sunday, I was lying in the living room floor watching TV.

They were talking about this guy named Lee Harvey Oswald who was supposed to have shot the president, and how the police were going to move him somewhere. On the screen was this big crowd of people, all gathered around some cars. Then these police officers came on screen and guys with suits. One was a big guy with a big cowboy hat next to a scrawny guy in a sweater. All of a sudden, somebody jumped out of the crowd, and the guy in the big cowboy hat looked surprised, and everybody started scrambling murmur began working its way back down the rows of desks.

One of the kids next to me said, "Kennedy's been shot." Why would anyone want to shoot Kenneth Kennedy, I wondered. Kenneth was another third-grader in a different classroom. But it wasn't Kenneth Kennedy who had been shot. It was President Kennedy. And he was in Dallas, just a couple hundred miles away from DeKalb.

We got to go home early that day. A lot of the teachers seemed stunned. Some even looked as if they'd been crying. Things were quiet in the car line as we waited for our rides. When Mom picked me up, instead of Uncle Benny's radio show on KCMC, there was some guy talking about the president being dead.

When we got home, Mom turned on the TV. There was Walter Cronkite on Channel 12 in shirtsleeves, looking quite grim and speaking even more somberly than he usually did. He was talking on the telephone to somebody in Dallas about the president being shot. Then they were talking about the governor having been shot, too. Mom changed stations, and Democrat's Bush-bashing could bite them LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Letters to the editor must include the writer's name, address and daytime phone number for verification.

Letters are subject to editing and should be 500 words or less. Handwritten letters must be legible. The Bulletin does not publish anonymous letters or those using pseudonyms. Letters considered potentially libelous, of questionable taste, or which contain personal attacks on private citizens or businesses will not be published. Any claims must be verifiable.

Letters that have appeared in other publications may be rejected. Letters to the editor, opinion and editorial columns, and articles submitted to The Baxter Bulletin may be published or distributed in print, electronic or other forms. Send letters to Letters to the Editor, The Baxter Bulletin, P.O. Box 1750, Mountain Home, AR 72654, faxed (870-508-8020) or e-mailed (lettersbaxterbulletin.com) Richard Benedetto ML pronouncing the Bush administration "a miserable failure on foreign policy and the economy." From and Reed noted that one Democratic debate on foreign policy evoked so much hammering of the president that a New York Times headline the next day captured the flavor. "The Bad News Is Good News For Democrats," it said.

To that end, reporters covering the campaign are flooded with daily e-mails from the candidates that are headed by rough attacks on the president. A sampling: "Today's poverty numbers are a scandal. They are further proof that' George W. Bush's economic policies aren't compassionate, they're callous." Connecticut Sen. Joe Lieberman.

"With a record like this, (Bush) shouldn't be running for president, he should be running for the hills." Retired Gea Wesley Clark. "Today's (United Nations) speech was another example of George Bush's petulant foreign policy." Former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean. "The economic policies of WASHINGTON The nine Democrats running for president have been offered a bit of interesting advice from the leaders of the moderate wing of their party. In sum, it is this: Cut down on the shrill and caustic Bush-bashing and present voters with solid reasons to vote for you.

Democratic Leadership Council founder Al From and president Bruce Reed have written an open letter to the candidates that says there are plenty of reasons why President Bush, in their view, does not deserve re-election: "Bush has given us a bigger deficit, divisive politics, huge job losses and a squandered international victory," they said. But they quickly added that Democrats running against him still "must offer a positive vision that gives Americans hope" if they want to win. It is shortsighted for Democrats to believe that "you don't have to offer ways to solve the nation's problems if you're good enough at blaming them on the other guy," wrote From, who helped engineer Bill Clin- George W. Bush are the worst in the nation's history." Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry.

But the Bush-bashing is not limited to the campaign trail Some candidates have used it as a fund-raising tooL At Halloween, the Dean campaign offered buttons that read "Bush Frightens Me" in return for a $31 donation. And with Thanksgiving approaching, the campaign of North Carolina Sen. John Edwards will send supporters a T-shirt featuring Bush's head on the body of a turkey for a $35 gift. "Show the world who is the biggest turkey," the Edwards promo reads. And so it goes.

Make no mistake, harshly criticizing the record and even the personality of the other guy has been a staple of American politics since the campaign of 1800 when Thomas Jefferson and John Adams got downright nasty with one another. But as From and Reed warn in their letter, "We don't care what the Atkins Diet says, too much red meat is still bad for you." ton's centrist-Democrat campaign victories in 1992 and 1996, and Reed, a former Clinton adviser. They are worried the candidates are leaning too far to the liberal left and have been so harsh in their criticism of Bush that the attacks get more media play than their plans for problem-solving. To be sure, the attacks have a way of energizing a base of Democratic activists who detest Bush and everything he stands for. At the many debates the candidates have held around the country so far this year, the biggest applause from the crowds and the biggest headlines the next day come from the attacks on Bush.

Like the forum in New Mexico last September when Missouri Rep. Dick Gephardt warmed the partisan crowd by Established 1901 tlhcBaxtcrBuUctfn www.baxterbulletin.com Mountain Home, Baxter County, Arkansas 72653 Betty Barker Smith President and Publisher Sheila K. Boggea K.v fr.spniog Managing editor Advertising Director Thomos Garrett Dan Greer City editor Online Manaaer The Baxr Bulletin USPS O45-520 ISSN 0745-7707) is publ eST Monday through Saturday, by Baxter County Newspapers. Inc. 16 West 6th Street.

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