Arkansasonline

A defender of natural Arkansas

By RICHARD MASON Special to the Democrat-Gazette

Posted: August 26, 2018 at 2 a.m.

My favorite Broadway play is Les Miserables, in which Jean Valjean sings "Who am I?... I'm Jean Valjean ... 24601!" It's his confession that he is the escaped prisoner.

After writing my column for several months, it seems I need to explain: Who am I?

For exercise, I walk and jog the 167 Bypass in El Dorado. It's around three and a half miles. During the summer I'm tired and sweaty when I finish. Since I do the same route four times a week, most folks know it's me, and I get a lot of waves.However, last week I was plodding along, and as I finished the access route toward Calion Road, I heard whining mud tires, and I knew a pickup was about to pass. I glanced over my shoulder and spotted a black pickup, which was slowing down as it approached. When he got right beside me, going less than 10 mph, I was nearly blasted off the road by an air horn. You bet it bothered me, and I'm glad I don't have heart problems. It was that loud.

But then I started thinking about the air horn blast. Does the guy pull up beside every walker or runner and blast away with his air horn? I don't think so, or he'd be arrested for harassment. So I guess the guy wanted to air honk Richard Mason. Was it because I am opposing the hog farm on the Buffalo, or maybe because I have tackled the bill to let forest companies have a free go at harvesting the national forests, or maybe because I oppose coal-fired plants that put mercury in Arkansas fish? I don't think so.

Maybe he's the writer who sent me an email calling me "a toad-licking liberal" or the guy who said I am the worst columnist of the sorry lot on the Perspective pages which, from his email, puts me to the left of Nancy Pelosi. But after spending six years as a member and one year as chairman and designated environmental member of the Arkansas Pollution Control and Ecology Commission where at times the meetings were one step away from having my arm tied to another member's and each being handed a knife, I can handle the air horn. So being called a toad-licking liberal just got a small grin. Actually, that would look good on a T-shirt.

Not all my emails are negative. I want to thank the other folks who have contacted me with positive responses. They outrank the negatives by 20 to 1. However, if you are going to stick a label on me, here are the details of my toad-licking liberal side.

I have spent thousands of hours in Arkansas' woods, paddling up Champagnolle Creek to fish around the big cypress trees, frog gigging, running a trap line, and heading out on several thousand squirrel hunts, all of which ingrained in me an appreciation of Arkansas' natural setting. I readily join or lead the fight when Arkansas' natural heritage or wildlife is threatened.

Does that make me a toad-licking liberal? Of course not; the majority of Arkansas folks aren't for letting the Buffalo National River be polluted by a hog farm, or seeing our national forests become company tree farms and the size of our national monuments reduced. So I don't believe the air-horn guy is anti-environmental. He and his mud tires probably spend a lot of time near the Ouachita River. He may have forgotten that I and a host of others fought the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and two very prominent Democrats to keep the Corps from making 28 river-killing bend cuts. That fight took months until our group of anti-bend cutters--Republicans and Democrats--finally prevailed.

On top of that, I'm a free-trade no-tariffs person, and the idea that we don't have a balanced budget and keep running up the national debt is horrible. Those traits are bedrock Republican, or at least they were. And I have voted for a Republican president and local Republicans. Does that make me a Republican? No, but it doesn't make me a Democrat either.

I'm opposing several Republicans because of their detrimental environmental policies, but I would be hounding a Democrat just as strongly. There are many things in politics that are wrong-headed short-term fixes for special interests, and the Democrats have had their share. However, today we have a party that is hell-bent on destroying the environmental progress made by a bipartisan Congress. Republicans have had a lot to do with all of the environmental bills that were passed, and many bills and regulations were Republican-initiated.

Calling someone a liberal because they oppose the destruction of our forests, wildlife, streams and rivers is just plain wrong. When a person does that they are saying you can't be a Republican if you support things like removing the hog farm from the Buffalo National River watershed. Or if you criticize a congressman for a wrong-headed bill that would gut the Endangered Species Act you can't be a Republican. And criticism of the administration makes you a liberal, and you are subject to degrading name calling and air-honks.

Of all the things in Arkansas that should be bipartisan, it's the Buffalo National River. But is it? Have we sunk so low that those who call themselves Republicans will stand back and ignore the destruction of our national river to keep from being called a toad-licking liberal? It will be a sad day for our state if the silence of thousands of Democrats and Republicans causes the demise of our river.

For the last several years, we have all but stopped talking about issues and have tried to label everyone running for office as either conservative or liberal. You can't be a conservative Democrat or a liberal Republican. What happened to bipartisan voting on issues?

Let's stop calling all Republicans conservatives and all Democrats liberals. Wouldn't it be great if we once again had campaigns where the best interests of our country are front and center instead of seeing who can trash the other candidate more? Let's stop the name-calling, and just call us Americans.

But if you still want to label me, tag me with what's in my heart, it's the love of a natural Arkansas and its wildlife. Am I a damn tree hugger? You bet I am.

Richard Mason is a registered professional geologist, downtown developer, former chairman of the Department of Environmental Quality Board of Commissioners, past president of the Arkansas Wildlife Federation, and syndicated columnist. Email richard@gibraltarenergy.com.

Editorial on 08/26/2018