ljplicease | sgmrt: arkansas (Reply)

My first stop in Arkansas is at a Wendy's for lunch. The establishment is filled with army guys in camouflage. I will find out when I am leaving that they drove here in their Humvees. I am startled that people are speaking with a more obviously southern accent, though I should not be. My first real stop is the Clinton Presidential Library in Little Rock.

I think that Optimus Prime would make a terrific president. He is like a cross between George Washington and Abe Lincoln, only without the character flaws. Failing that, the 90s were pretty good. The Clinton Library is modern looking, along the river in an area that looks a little industrial and just a little run down, but only enough to make it interesting.

Naturally of course the innards of the library advocate for the goodness of the Clinton years, especially their handling of the economy. One statistic in particular grabs my attention: the decline in crime over the Clinton years. Advocates of Rudy Giuliani like to point out how crime in New York City went down under his administration, while his detractors point out that crime declined in all large cities in the United States over the same period. Both men are taking some credit for the same good times. I think politicians take credit and blame for crime and the economy often undeserved.

“My fellow Americans, tonight we can say with gratitude and humility; we built our bridge to the 21st century. We crossed that bridge together. And we’re not going back. To those who say the progress of those last eight years was just some sort of accident, that we just kind of coasted along, let me be clear: America’s success was not a matter of chance; it was a matter of choice.”

—Bill Clinton

A couple of times the displays paint the picture of young forward looking Democrats running against old war hero Republicans that form a bridge to the past. I like the displays inside for the most part. My only complaint is that there are too many videos playing and overlapping audio. This is a library damn it! Shhhhh! On one side of the displays they have copies of the President’s daily agenda in three ring binders for the eight years he was President. On the other side they have touch screens with all the same information. I plug in my birthday in 1995 to see what the President was up to. Most of it is there, but several chunks are redacted.

There are lots of artifacts. This one, a chunk from a Russian ballistic missile destroyed in disarmament was compelling and had some Russian writing thrown in too.

In the upstairs they had gifts given to the “American People” during the Clinton administration. They also have a reproduction of the oval office as it appeared during the Clinton administration. It’s okay, but it would be more compelling if at least some of the stuff weren’t reproductions.

Now I am interested in visiting the Richard Nixon and Jimmy Carter Libraries. Nixon’s is in California which I go to frequently as it is on the way to Australia, and Carter’s is in Atlanta, which I plan on visiting on my road trip of the deep south!

On my way out of Little Rock an unmarked police car zooms up right behind me and tail gates me for several miles, making me very nervous. Fortunately I am not speeding, so I guess he was just an obnoxious driver in addition to being a cop.