"The
Fine Print", by M.H. Schrader
A
TALE OF TWO CITIES' MAYORS
(Published in the “Neighborhood Journal” 27 January 1999. Posted 03 October 2007.)
January 21, 1999, will be a day indelibly
etched in the memories of many Arkansans, for it was on this date that 38
tornadoes passed through the state and life, as it had been known up to that
point, changed irrevocable.
The storms and their aftermath have been a
time of reckoning--they have shown us the stuff we are made of, who we
are. Some have passed the test with
flying colors, while others, unfortunately, have failed. Beebe citizens should be proud knowing that
their mayor, Mayor Ward, has shown himself to be a man of courage and
integrity.
Mayor Ward rode out the storm huddled in a
bathtub with his wife, two sons, and dog.
His tale is one of true valor.
After discovering that the tornado is fast approaching, Mayor Ward
quickly hustled his family into the bathtub, and without regard for his own
safety, darts into another room in order to get a mattress to place over the
bathtub to protect his family. The wind
is ferociously blowing apart everything, including houses, projectiles are
flying through the air, the din of the storm is deafening, and here this man is
risking his life and limb worried about the details. Let me just say that I know many men who would have just huddled
in that bathtub and forgotten about the mattress, because it would not be worth
risking their life, yes, even to save their family. I am sorry to say, we have become that selfish and narcissistic. Ironically,
it was the attention to detail that in all probability saved Mayor Ward and his
family---after the tornado passed through, the Wards' bathtub ended up about 30
feet from where it was, with a variety of debris on top of that mattress. If the mattress had not been there, thanks
to Mayor Ward's attention to detail, it is very likely that he and his family
would probably have been killed due to being struck by flying debris.
Now move 30 miles to the south. Around 6:45 PM, the storm is cutting a
deadly swath through much of south and central Little Rock. It is about this time that Mrs. Schrader
tells the Little Schraders to stay in the dining room in the center of the
house, because the house is groaning rather loudly due to the wind. (We were not aware until later that the
tornado passed barely 2 miles away.) It
is about this time that Mayor Dailey, the mayor of Little Rock, is about to
begin a public meeting about raising taxes.
Being the mayor, of course, he has a good idea of what is going on and
is in constant (or should be, at least) contact with his staff. Fifteen minutes later, a grocery store lay
destroyed, along with countless homes.
But, the tax meeting goes on. In
fact, not only does it go on, but the ones planned for the following week are
not canceled. What's my point? It is this--I think it is rather callous to
go on with "life as usual" when many of your citizens cannot. Certain things have priority, and some
stupid tax proposal is not one of them.
Of course, Mayor Dailey has been in the media talking the nice eloquent
words that politicians use, but his actions speak the loudest.
I find it hard to believe in this day of
cellular phones that the mayor did not know that a big chunk of his city had
just been destroyed. But yet he held
his meeting while the people suffered. Got to get that tax increase, you know. Meanwhile, his colleague 30 miles away is huddling in a bathtub
with his family, hoping that the night will not be his last.
So what do we have? On one hand we have a mayor well aware of
the disaster unfolding around him; on the other, a mayor oblivious to the
disaster unfolding around him. Who
would you rather claim as your mayor?