As we approach the Christmas holidays and the New Year, I urge Arkansans to lay aside the bitter partisan politics of the last few months and focus on the real issue in our region of Northwest Arkansas, the state of Arkansas, and the Nation -- this raging pandemic.
Already I am hearing everyday people talk about being "fatigued" at all this pandemic talk.
No one, I suspect is more "fatigued" about this pandemic and its effect on Arkansans -- all Arkansans -- than Governor Asa Hutchinson.
While Americans have an outgoing president that has said very little about this pandemic over the past month while being focused on election issues he cannot resolve, the covid-19 realities and rising infection rates, deaths and the impending implementation of the vaccines to Americans have been put on the back burner -- but not down in Little Rock.
Again I say I do not know anyone in this state who has done more to help raise awareness and try, best as he can, to balance the human toll in illness, lives and disabilities to his fellow man than Gov. Asa Hutchinson.
He is, as the state's chief executive, also torn by seeing the robust Arkansas economy erode and that constant economic free-fall for small businesses during this pandemic.
Asa is, as he has stated time and time again, trying to ensure that in Arkansas we do what is best for our people to survive and, in doing so, not put dollars ahead of people.
This past week, as talks about a very limited number of initial doses of one of the three known brands of vaccines will soon be available in Arkansas, the Governor was asked if he "would step to the front of the line," to get a shot.
His answer to me speaks volumes.
The governor said he would certainly "take the inoculation" -- but not until those in the front lines -- the health care workers and the elderly and vulnerable in nursing care facilities -- received their injections first -- and before the governor of the state.
No doubt, the Governor passed up on a front-page photo op in the state's largest newspapers, all the major in-state television stations and the plethora of on-line news sources that would clamor for a photo of Asa with his shirt sleeve rolled up getting jabbed by a needle, getting the very first corona vaccine injection in Arkansas.
Thank goodness, Arkansas has a chief executive who can step back instead of step forward to get in line for a shot to allow others to go ahead of him and his family.
Is that just a symbolic gesture on Asa Hutchinson's part? No, I think not and will defend my answer against anyone offering an alternative.
What one may not readily see, but I certainly have seen it in the years Asa Hutchinson has served as Governor, is that Mineral Springs matters just as much as Mountain Home, that only distance separates Blytheville from Emmerson, that Lake Village and Lake Hamilton are different only due to their geographic location within the state.
People are living and dying in each part of our state -- some with more vulnerable populations are driving the statistics harder than other areas.
But Asa Hutchinson is a realist. He knows any death in Arkansas brought about by a disease we have never heard about, but in theory, a year ago, brings sadness and heartache to a state he has sworn to serve as the chief executive.
He may have wanted his legacy to be economic growth, lower taxes and business expansion, but it may be that of a governor who fought a terrible pandemic as best as anyone could in 2020.
-- Maylon Rice is a former journalist who worked for several northwest Arkansas publications. He can be reached via email at [email protected]. Opinions expressed are those of the author.