Understanding the Governor’s Opposition to Housing Refugees in Arkansas

Current Events,

Yesterday Governor Asa Hutchinson joined many U.S. governors in opposing efforts to relocate Syrian refugees to the United States. Governor Hutchinson’s statement read,

“As governor, I oppose any facility or installation in Arkansas being used as a Syrian refugee center. Many of the Syrian refugees are fleeing violence in their own country but Europe, Asia or Africa are logically the best places for resettlement or for temporary asylum. Syria is a war torn country and the United States will support our European friends in fighting ISIL in Syria and elsewhere; however, this is not the right strategy for the United States to become a permanent place of relocation. Again, I will oppose Arkansas being used as such a relocation center.

“The hardships facing these refugees and their families are beyond most of our understanding, and my thoughts and prayers are with them, but I will not support a policy that is not the best solution and that poses risk to Arkansans.”

Altogether some twenty-seven states have made it clear they do not want Syrian refugees admitted; most of these states are located in the southern or midwestern U.S., and a few national pundits have speculated these governors’ decisions are somehow racially motivated.

There is another explanation, however: When the U.S. government takes in refugees, it has a habit of sending them to live in the South or Midwest, and Arkansas is no exception.

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Little Rock Port Authority Considers Memo of Understanding with Quapaw Tribe

Current Events, , ,

Skyline_of_Little_Rock,_Arkansas_-_20050319The Quapaw Tribe of Oklahoma is working to move property it owns just east of Little Rock into federal trust. Moving the land into federal trust would essentially turn the property into federal land held by the U.S. government in trust for the Quapaw Tribe.

There are provisions in federal law that might make it possible for the Quapaw to open gambling establishments on the property once it is moved into federal trust. Moreover, once the land goes into federal trust, the State of Arkansas, Pulaski County, and the City of Little Rock all lose most of their ability to tax or manage the property; how the property is developed or used becomes a matter that rests largely between the Bureau of Indian Affairs and the Quapaw Tribe.

Recently it was announced the Little Rock Port Authority–which is adjacent to the Quapaw Tribe’s property–is considering signing a memo of understanding with the tribe that, among other things, might effectively prevent the tribe from developing a casino on the property. However if the land is moved into federal trust, that memo arguably will not have any force of law.

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Living in an “Un-Serious” Culture

Current Events

daily_commentary_11_03_15Our friends at the Chuck Colson Center for Christian Worldview have produced an excellent commentary on the “unseriousness” of our culture.

John Stonestreet notes,

“At any given moment, what’s most likely to cause social media outlets like Twitter to explode isn’t a humanitarian crisis, a natural disaster, or a critical political issue—it’s a celebrity feud or some other pop culture story.

“Surveying our cultural landscape, it’s difficult to avoid the conclusion that the defining characteristic of modern Western culture, at least in the United States, is that it is unserious. Now, by ‘un-serious’ I don’t mean that we should walk around with a furrowed brow and only talk about Kierkegaard or nineteenth-century German Romanticism. What I’m referring to is the nihilism of what German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche called ‘last men,’ apathetic creatures without any great passions or commitments.”

You can read Stonestreet’s entire commentary here, or listen to it below.

[audio:http://www.breakpoint.org/images/content/breakpoint/audio/2015/110315_BP.mp3|titles=Caring About Small Things and Overlooking Big Things]

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