Arkansan of the year: Walter Hussman

By Steve Brawner, © 2019 by Steve Brawner Communications, Inc.

Let’s say you’re 72 years old and worth millions of dollars, and you own one of Arkansas’ most important and recognizable companies. However, your entire industry is in a state of upheaval based on economic, societal and technological factors you can’t control.

Do you:

  1. Sell your assets, retire, and live out your days in leisure and luxury?
  2. Embark on a bold, revolutionary plan that could save your company and light the way for others like it – or it could cost you millions while consuming a chunk of your remaining years?

If you are Walter Hussman, owner of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, you choose (B). And because of your sheer audacity and public-spiritedness, you are the Arkansan of the year. Continue reading →

Dear 36%: We’re on the wrong track

By Steve Brawner, © 2019 by Steve Brawner Communications, Inc.

A November poll by the Financial Times and the Peter G. Peterson Foundation found 64% of likely voters believe the country is on the wrong track in managing the national debt.

Which begs the question: What could the other 36% be thinking, if they are?

The poll found that 35% say the country is strongly on the wrong track while 30% say it’s somewhat wrong, which equals 65, not 64, because of rounding. Meanwhile, 24% say it’s somewhat on the right track, while 12% say it’s strongly on the right track.

It appears my columns on this subject have failed to reach all 330 million Americans.

So for the 36% who think we’re doing just fine, here are the numbers, according to the Treasury Department’s website. Continue reading →

Hogs’ Pittman wins the press conference

By Steve Brawner, © 2019 by Steve Brawner Communications, Inc.

If you ever are named a head football coach – or CEO or governor or president of the United States – learn from the University of Arkansas’ Sam Pittman to see how to act in your introductory press conference.

The new head football coach won the press conference, and surely the hearts of those watching, through his authenticity and sincerity Dec. 9. Clearly, the 58-year-old first-time head coach raised in nearby eastern Oklahoma – who fought back tears at times – really, really wanted this job.

Just as important as his sincerity was his proper setting of expectations. Pointedly avoiding slogans, he promised only that his “blue collar” Razorbacks would work hard, excel in the fundamentals and try to score more points than the other team.

The press conference came two years and two days after his predecessor’s introduction, which was markedly different. Continue reading →

Pastor: Churches must make green to avoid red ink

Mark DeYmaz is the pastor of Little Rock’s Mosaic Church.

By Steve Brawner, © 2019 by Steve Brawner Communications, Inc.

The pastor who started a church for white, black and brown people to worship together says churches must get serious about another color – green.

Mark DeYmaz started Mosaic Church in Little Rock in 2001 after deciding God was calling him to start a multiethnic congregation in a city with a segregationist history.

Now it’s a thriving inner city church. Its ministry arm, Vine and Village, monthly provides three or four days’ worth of groceries to residents of one of the city’s neediest areas. Operating partly through grants and partnerships, last year it fed 20,000 unique individuals in a zip code with 32,000 people.

Along the way, DeYmaz realized the typical church’s financial approach – more members equals more money for operations and ministries – wouldn’t work at Mosaic. Too many of his people are too poor. Continue reading →

Hutchinson sticks his neck out for highways

Democrats, Alabama, blue wave, school boards, Hixson, Breanne, red tide, judicial electionsBy Steve Brawner, © 2019 by Steve Brawner Communications, Inc.

Let’s say you’re headed into your second midterm election before being term-limited out of office, and you really don’t have much to campaign for. Your party controls Arkansas’ entire congressional delegation and three-fourths of the state Legislature now, which won’t change much regardless of what you do.

How do you spend your time? If you’re Gov. Asa Hutchinson, you try to persuade Arkansans to extend a half-cent sales tax to pay for highways.

Speaking last week to the Arkansas Good Roads Foundation, Hutchinson said, “This is my number one priority in terms of a state campaign here in Arkansas. Not anything gonna distract me from it. This is a focus because it is so critical to the future of our state.”

He later told a couple of reporters he might support the effort with money from his political action committee, ASA PAC. Continue reading →