Administrator

The Dope on Voting

Politics Ain’t Beanbag. Beanbag Ain’t Even Beanbag: It’s Cornhole.

An Editor’s Note by Ben Pollock

When someone says they support the U.S. form of government, representative democracy, the Constitution, three branches, checks and balances, and even the Arkansas state motto “regnat populus” (Latin for “the people rule”), these give me a set of assumptions. Unless a petition for an initiated act or amendment is abhorent, I and what I expected to be nearly everyone else would sign the clipboard to give everyone a chance to render a black-and-white yay or nay on Election Day.

In past years, some proposals, say on casinos or intoxicants, went a little far for me. But I signed those petitions, let’s give everyone a chance to rule. We don’t seem to do things that way anymore. Now the petition phase is more the larval stage, where it’s easier to squash the worm than swat the sly fly later at the polls or in court. Slam petition gatherers with vandalism or threats, how sick. So much for dope.

That was as far as I got in writing a column for the July newsletter. After lunch Sunday, July 21, the 2024 campaign year flipped another 180. Again.

Make that a 120, with the Trump assassination attempt perhaps the first 120. Let’s leave room for a third 120, to round the circle with 360 total.

What strikes me as useful for today’s UA employee newsletter is not considering the whys and wherefores of President Biden stepping away from a re-election campaign. Nor to guess who Vice President Kamala Harris’s running mate might be. Nor the chances of a disruptive Democratic National Convention.

Instead, look to November and close to home. Each of our votes here counts more than ever. Voting for neither party’s presidential candidate nor a third-party hopeful is to surrender the tiny BUT REAL power that any of us have.

Even if the presidential election looks like it won’t go our way, we can exert more voter power “down ballot.” Note: No race in 2024 is down— they all count more than before.

We have state legislators and county justices of the peace to choose. Plus mayoral and other municipal candidates. Vote tallies at this level do come down to near ties in the low hundreds or even to the 10s. You cannot say your vote won’t count in these. Do you have a problem with road conditions, tenants’ rights, law enforcement or other issues? Area incumbents or fledglings in the 2010s and ’20s in their comments and actions reflect the national agenda setters — they model themselves along either Trump or the Clinton/Biden/Harris ideologies. (What about bland candidates who say they just want to make things better? They’re annoying, make you work to find out what “better” means to them.)

Pick a side. Candidates sure do. Your vote can make a difference in local elections.

Then where to begin? Local 965 answers many voting or election questions with a list of resources. Top of the list is voter registration. You’ve got till Monday, Oct. 7. Does that sound like a lot of time, here in mid-summer? Consider that the current Arkansas government does not care for online registration. You’re going to need more than a few days to order, receive, complete and postal-mail back that paper form, then to confirm you are officially registered.

While you’re in the poll booth, go ahead, choose your president. Power adds up.

On Aug. 28, 1968, President Lyndon B. Johnson is watching TV coverage from Chicago of the Democratic National Convention from his bedroom at the LBJ Ranch in Texas with Luci Johnson Nugent, Tom Johnson, unidentified, Lynda Johnson Robb, President Johnson, Lady Bird Johnson. — President Lyndon B. Johnson declined to run for re-election in 1968. On Aug. 28, 1968, he is watching TV coverage from Chicago of the Democratic National Convention from his bedroom at the LBJ Ranch in Texas. From left: Luci Johnson Nugent, Tom Johnson, unidentified, Lynda Johnson Robb, President Johnson, Lady Bird Johnson. Public domain / Wikimedia Commons

About the photo: I’d never before seen this picture of the Johnson family. It can be a counterpoint to what we think we know about 1968 and 2024.

Announcement of endorsement: “National Education Association Recommends Vice President Kamala Harris for President: Nation’s Students and Educators Need Tireless Advocate in the Oval Office”

Ben Pollock is vice president of UA-Fayetteville Education Association / Local 965.

This column was published first in the July 2024 edition of the Local 965 newsletter.

Conference Features 965 Pair

Two leaders of UA-Fayetteville Education Association / Local 965 were invited to deliver lectures at the Arkansas Education Association’s 2024 Summer Leadership Conference. It was held on Zoom on Friday, June 14.

Local 965 Executive Board member Michael Pierce gave a two-hour lecture on “The Rise and Fall of Labor Liberalism in Arkansas,” then 965 Vice President Ben Pollock presented an hour on “Media Strategy: Today’s Best Tools.”

AEA allowed qualified participants on the call live to receive professional Continuing Education Units on these talks. CEUs won’t be granted to people viewing these recordings. Nonetheless, these are interesting and helpful!

Michael C. Pierce, Ph.D., traces the role of organized labor in Arkansas’s political arena from the start of World War II through Bill Clinton’s election to the presidency more than 50 years later. He argues that a coalition of trade unionists, civil rights activists and urban liberals remade the state in the 1950s and 1960s by opening up the state’s political system to working class voters. These voters, in turn, ushered in the most progressive era of reform in the state’s history — protecting consumers, empowering African Americans, making the wealthy pay their fare share of taxes, enacting a minimum wage, increasing government transparency and protecting worker safety. This brief period of reform came to an end by the late 1970s as the men whom the labor-black-liberal coalition put into office cozied up to the state’s economic elite. (Note: This recording begins a few minutes into the lecture.) Michael Pierce is associate professor of history at the University of Arkansas. He received his A.B. from Kenyon College and his Ph.D. from Ohio State University. He is author of “Striking with the Ballot: Ohio Labor and the Populist Party” and co-editor of two volumes, the most recent being “Race, Labor, and Violence in the Delta: Essays to Mark the Centennial of the Elaine Massacre.” His essays have appeared in “Journal of Southern History,” “Labor History,” “Agricultural History” and several edited volumes. Pierce has won multiple teaching awards, including the John E. King Award for Outstanding Service, Outstanding Faculty Member Award, Fulbright College Justice and Ecology Award, Connor Endowed Faculty Fellowship, Fulbright College Master Teacher and the OMNI Center for Peace Fulbright Justice and Ecology Award. He serves on the Executive Board of UA-Fayetteville Education Association / Local 965

In lots of ways, we’ve had digital media at our full disposal for a good 3 decades. But we’ve gotten smarter as have the apps – they’re easier and even cheaper, too. Ben Pollock takes a 2024 look at websites, social media, mass emails and engaging local news media through the lens of how the University of Arkansas AEA chapter organized opposition earlier this year to an administration plan to privatize some 200 custodial and groundskeeping employees. These employees got to keep their seniority and benefits. Ben Pollock, a former career journalist, has been website manager since 2016 for the University of Arkansas College of Education and Health Professions. He is vice president of UA-Fayetteville Education Association/Local 965. A graduate of Stanford University and a native of Fort Smith, Ben has a 2003 master’s in Journalism from the UA. He was the 2010-2012 president of the National Society of Newspaper Columnists and remains an officer of its Education Foundation. Ben lives in Fayetteville.

The 965 Joins Throng of Thousands in Pride Parade

Members and supporters of UA-Fayetteville Education Association / Local 965 walked with and behind our “Organize, agitate, educate” banner down Dickson Street on Saturday, June 29, 2024, for the 20th annual NWA Pride Parade.

Local 965 walked as part of the “Students, Staff, and Faculty from the University of Arkansas Community” contingent of employee or student groups.

Local 965 President Hershal Hartford hands out flyers to UA employees June 29 while waiting for the 2024 Pride Parade to start. Photo by Bret Schulte.

Local 965 Vice President Ben Pollock, Fayetteville Mayor Lioneld Jordan and 965 President Hershel Hartford catch up in conversation before the 2024 Pride Parade June 29. — Local 965 President Hershal Hartford hands out flyers to UA employees June 29 while waiting for the 2024 Pride Parade to start. Photo by Bret Schulte.

Local 965 supports LGBTQ causes and as THE official labor organization of all UA staff and faculty (since 1962), we fight for human rights and civil rights. We represent our members, while we advocate for all UA employees.

Members of Local 965 savor the shade before the 2024 NWA Pride Parade June 29. Photo by Hershel Hartford

The 2024 NWA Pride Parade pauses June 29, 2024. — Members of Local 965 savor the shade before the 2024 NWA Pride Parade June 29. Photo by Hershel Hartford

The parade has been the highlight of the NWA Pride Weekend, organized by NWA Pride, a subsidiary of Northwest Arkansas Equality, a nonprofit advocacy organization for the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer community. NWA Pride Director Richard Gathright predicted days earlier to the Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette (or alternate link) that more than 35,000 would attend or participate. No authorities have announced their estimates of how many were there Saturday.

Broadcast news coverage included a nearly 18-minute video from very early in the parade from KHBS-TV/KHOG-TV, a preview aired June 28 by KNWA-TV/KFTA-TV, and a spot-news parade report from KFSM-TV. The Democrat-Gazette published a long caption but no link on the parade June 30, and the Fayetteville Flyer published an article and dozens of photographs.

The NWA Pride Weekend had vendors on sides streets and parking lots through the day Saturday with entertainment that night, social activities June 30, yet began June 28 with an evening March for trans rights followed by a rally and festival. Local 965 as in previous years also participated in Friday’s trans march.

Local 965 Vice President Ben Pollock courses down Block Avenue June 28, 2024, in the NWA Trans March. Photo by Rep. Denise Firmin Garner

Screen grab of KFSM-TV story on the NWA Trans March on June 28, 2024 — Local 965 Vice President Ben Pollock courses down Block Avenue June 28, 2024, in the NWA Trans March. Photo by Rep. Denise Firmin Garner

The crowded events of Fayetteville’s Pride Weekend were safe and orderly due to the skilled and friendly work of local law enforcement. We salute them.

Local 965 President Hershel Hartford leads members of the University of Arkansas's labor organization June 29, 2024, in the 20th annual Northwest Arkansas Pride Paraded down Fayetteville's Dickson Street. — Local 965 President Hershel Hartford leads members of the University of Arkansas’s labor organization June 29, 2024, in the 20th annual Northwest Arkansas Pride Paraded down Fayetteville’s Dickson Street. Photo by Ben Pollock

UA Staffers Stop by Local’s Booth at Campus Picnic

Once again, officers of the UA-Fayetteville Education Association / Local 965 and the Arkansas Education Association ran a popular table at the annual Staff Appreciation Picnic on May 15, 2024.

The University of Arkansas Staff Senate hosted the spring tradition for hundreds of education support professionals at the 1021 Food Hall on the Fayetteville campus.

Sharing information about the 62-year-old campus labor organization were 965 President Hershel Hartford and board members Michael Pierce and Bret Schulte as well as AEA UniServ Director Renee Johnson and ESP and Aspiring Educator Organizer Kelly Givens.

Local 965 board member Bret Schulte talks with a UA staff employee.

Local 965 board members Bret Schulte and Michael Pierce and President Hershel Hartford talk with UA employees.

Local 965 board members Bret Schulte and Michael Pierce and President Hershel Hartford take a question from a UA staffer.

AEA ESP and Aspiring Educator Organizer Kelly Givens and UniServ Director Renee Johnson talk with a UA staff employee.

Local 965 board member Michael Pierce talks with UA education support professionals.

Picnickers Celebrate the 2024 Workers Day

Members of UA-Fayetteville Education Association / Local 965, along with their families and UA faculty and staff interested in the union, enjoyed burgers, sides and fixins on May 1, 2024, International Workers Day.

In brief remarks two Democratic Arkansas House candidates address the diners, Caitlin Oxford running for the District 25 seat and Billy Cook running for the District 19 seat.

This was the union’s third consecutive May Day cookout in recent years, all held at the large pavilion of Fayetteville’s Veterans Memorial Park.

Billy Cook speaks at Local 965's 2024 Workers Day Cookout. Cook is the Democratic candidate for District 19 in the Arkansas House. — Billy Cook speaks at Local 965’s 2024 Workers Day Cookout. Cook is the Democratic candidate for District 19 in the Arkansas House.

Local 965 President Hershel Hartford (blue shirt) and to his right Vice President Ben Pollock welcome guests to the union's 2024 Workers Day Cookout. — Billy Cook speaks at Local 965’s 2024 Workers Day Cookout. Cook is the Democratic candidate for District 19 in the Arkansas House.

Featured were beef and vegan hamburgers with potato salad and baked beans. Platters of fruit, cheese and vegetable crudites and strawberry shortcake were generously donated by a local restaurant.