“The Fine Print”, by Michael Schrader

WILL THE REAL CABOT PLEASE STAND UP?

(Written 29 July 1998. Published in the Neighborhood Journal. Posted 06 July 2009.)

Some will tell you that reputation doesn't matter. You know, we shouldn't judge a book by the cover. And while I agree that reputation shouldn't matter, it does matter. That is just the way it is.

It is amazing to me how much destruction a rumor can do to a life. Take, for example, that prosecutor in New York, the one that was wrongfully accused of assaulting Tawana Brawley several years ago. Although Ms. Brawley admitted that she made the whole thing up, this man had to pursue years of legal action to get some kind of financial restitution for the loss of his livelihood caused by Ms. Brawley's wrongful accusations.

Cities are very similar to people in that respect. Rumors can so affect a city's reputation that it may never recover. Little Rock will always be remembered for Central High. It doesn't matter that things have changed in the Rock since 1957; people from outside Arkansas still think of it as a bigoted, racist city.

I am afraid that unless things start changing soon, Cabot may join the Rock as a city with a tarnished reputation. This is a tragedy for all of those people in Cabot who are working outside of the spotlight to truly make Cabot a better community. In talking to people throughout Arkansas, most of what I have heard about Cabot has been negative. Rednecks. Racists. White trash. "Good ole boys." Liars. Hypocrites. The list goes on and on.

I know that what is said is not true of the majority of the people in Cabot. However, the majority do not hog the spotlight. It's the minority in the spotlight who are tarnishing the city's name.

For example, when prominent city "V.I.P.s" brag about the lack of minorities, then attribute this to quality of life, just how do you suppose someone else is going to view this? Not positively. Or how about bragging about how your kids are somehow better than, you know, those "other" kids when, in reality, your kids are exposed to the same kind of influences, from promiscuity to alcohol to drugs, as the "other" bad kids? I have talked to enough kids in Cabot to know that, behind the veneer of sainthood, the kids in Cabot aren't any different than kids in any other place in the country. After all, a teenager is a teenager, period, whether from Cabot, Arkansas, or Nome, Alaska. And a teenager is going to do teenager things. I don't have a problem with that; I do have a problem with the rife hypocrisy of touting the youth of Cabot as somehow more holy than everyone else.

When the top official of a city has nothing better to do than harass a developer who has followed the law, how does that make the city look? Throw in the fact that this development is outside the city, and thus outside the jurisdiction of the city of Cabot, and it makes Cabot look rather petty.

How about a top city official who admitted to the newspaper that he violated the city's own personnel policy in terminating a city employee, but that it did not matter because he had the right to fire "at will"? Oh, did I mention that the employee heard from the newspaper that he had been canned before he heard it from the city? How does this make Cabot look?

How about a city who tells a builder building on a hill that he is in a flood plain and cannot build, but yet allows other builders to fill in flood plains and low spots at will? And, on top of that, told the builder that, in order to build, he has to guarantee that no house will ever flood? Gee, did the builders of Diamond Creek have to make such a promise? Ask the homeowners who had to sandbag and were callously ignored by the city.

It is not too late. There is still time to show the world that this is not Cabot. Or is it?

Back to “The Fine Print” Index