Has anyone checked on the statue of Bass Reeves that sits at the foot of Garrison Avenue lately?
Because given the high horse that United States Marshal Foundation, six figure income director Jim Dunn is riding around on, I kind of feel like someone has drug Marshal Reeves from the saddle in order to secure a mount worthy of the hypocrisy of Big Jim.
I bet they shot his dog, too.
We get it, Jimmy. You don't want a public debate against Joey McCutchen (or anyone else for that matter) concerning the pros and cons of the proposed one-percent sales tax that the elite and "enlightened" have attempted to foist on the public.
Here's the letter detailing their excuses for their cowardice. Read it yourself and see if you don't agree.
The bottom line? You and your greedy cohorts know that under the glare of a one-on-one showdown you can't hang, because you would be hosted on the petard of your own words from the past. Despite your claims to the contrary, there are countless examples of declarations to the fact that the USMM, as a non-profit entity, was meant to be built on donations alone.
You can revise history all you want rhetorically, but that doesn't change the facts.
And here's a fact. There have already been millions of taxpayer dollars funneled into your bank accounts and all we have to show for it are some well paid USMM employees, egregious spending on "fundraising" and unanswered questions and a lack of specifics about some of that spending. Oh...and some construction that seems to be humming right long despite the fact that some of the funding you seek is kind of up in the air right now.
So you declined a one-on-one with McCutchen and you suggested a "panel discussion", to which the opposition agreed. Then you came back with a "no live audience" clause because the uncouth hillbillies that won't acquiesce to your demands can't be trusted in a public setting to behave rationally. Forgetting that the only people that have displayed irrational behavior in a public setting in all this are two soft-shell goons that you sent to disrupt a meeting called by the anti-tax proponents.
You remember, don't you? Your representatives showed up at the library with pro-tax literature, accosted people in the parking lot and even verbally told some people they were "at the wrong meeting" in an effort to dissuade the "sunshine" you seem to now embrace, at least publicly. And I'm going to be honest. The only think that probably kept that puk clown with the bad toupee from an ass whoopin' when he verbally assaulted an elderly woman at the gathering was that cooler heads prevailed.
So the "aginners" agreed to your panel discussion, but now the condition becomes that the soiree will be a Facebook Live only event with no audience where one assumes your side wants to pick the moderator, the format and the questions asked. In other words, you control the narrative and only swing at the softballs tossed your way.
We get it. Someone cooped your little "vote yes" logo (was that designed in Dallas, Little Rock or Fayetteville, Jimmy? That's where the bulk of your "donations" seem to wind up.) by replacing the word "yes" with the word "no".
Damn people and their Photoshop programs. I don't know if pilfering your "intellectual property" rises to the level of lying about the source of money used to build and furnish the USMM for past twelve years, but maybe you could convince the National Parks Service to let you hang someone on the gallows for their affront to your highly paid graphic designer.
So here we are. No public debate, no panel discussion and no transparency on the part of your side. You have a twenty person Board off Directors that encompasses individuals who either will or has ties to those who stand to benefit financially from the whole process (don't forget property values, the Kelley Highway proposed extension and other "projects" being planned to augment the "experience".)
You and your ilk has every source of "media" breathlessly hanging on every word you put out about the benefits to the community of giving you seventeen million dollars of other people's money. The "vote yes" signs are located in the lawns of a lot of the same people who have become accustomed to getting their way in municipal elections come hell or high water.
In fact, there is even some discussion that the Fort Smith BOD bypassed the usual process for setting a special election may have been illegal. Be a shame to ramrod through a tax and have that $17 million tied up in litigation.
But...like I said before...we get it. All us steadfast taxpayers, who are thinking $17 million might be better used to fix our sewers or roads, support our police and firefighters or used to enhance the everyday quality of life in this town that history has left behind, are the real enemy here.
My grandmother used to say that "people ought to be ashamed of themselves and just ask Jesus for forgiveness rather than compound their sins by refusing to recognize them."
Someone check on Bass. He may be on foot by now.
