By Roy Ockert Jr.
March 11, 2104
(For The Daily Record)
After my father, Roy Sr., died about five years ago at his home in Salem, Ore., I was asked to say a few words during a memorial service.
“My dad could best be described as a flaming liberal,” I said. “My mother was so conservative that she now spends most of her days watching Fox News. I rebelled against both and became a moderate.”
That’s how I would introduce myself in this column, which is being published here for the first time. I’d like to tell you a little more about my roots so you’ll have a better idea of where I’m coming from. After that, I won’t write much about myself.
My mother and father met while he was stationed at the Army-Navy Hospital in Hot Springs near the end of World War II. They got married, and I came along about a year later. The next year my sister Linda was born. But the marriage didn’t survive long after we moved to California, and Mother brought us back to Arkansas.
Except for a year in Oklahoma for graduate school, I’ve lived in Arkansas since then.
I grew up in Hot Springs, graduated from the old high school now named after Bill Clinton. He was just a junior when the Class of 1963 walked. We didn’t get an invitation to his class reunion at the White House, and we didn’t invite him to our 50-year reunion last year.
I went to work at The Sentinel-Record and New Era, Hot Springs’ daily newspapers, in the summer after my junior year. By then I had already been involved in student publications work for more than four years.
My job was mainly to cover local sports and put out the sports pages, but I got to do a lot of other things, like cover the police beat, take pictures and write headlines. I worked nearly full-time through my senior year, which didn’t allow for much of a social life, but it was quite an education. One of my mentors was the late, great reporter, Maurice Moore, once of the Arkansas Democrat.
After high school Arkansas State College in Jonesboro offered me a scholarship so that’s where I went. I also became a sports writer for The Jonesboro Sun but worked for the Hot Springs newspapers during summer, spring and Christmas breaks.
In my senior year at A-State I covered the college’s achievement of university status for the student newspaper, and I fell in love with my co-editor. We graduated one day, got married the next, and I soon enrolled in graduate school at the University of Oklahoma, where I earned a master’s degree.
During my career I’ve been the editor of three daily newspapers — the Batesville Daily Guard, The Courier at Russellville and The Jonesboro Sun — a total of about 30 years. I also had two stints as a college teacher — first at what was then Southern State College and ASU, then later at what is now Lyon College. I loved teaching, but I loved being an editor more.
I started writing “Behind the News” in 1975 at Batesville, and it has appeared weekly for almost 39 years. The name of the column came from the fact that the Guard’s opinion pieces appeared on page 2, behind the main news page.
I retired as editor of The Sun on Feb. 1, 2012, but continued writing the column for the Arkansas News Bureau. With its recent downsizing I’m now “self-syndicating,” and my other “clients” include The Sun, The Courier, the Searcy Citizen, The Morning News at Springdale and the Pine Bluff Commercial.
The column keeps me active in public affairs and writing, while giving me just one deadline a week. Moderate voices need to be heard. Politics and media in our state and nation have come to be dominated by those with the most extreme views on both ends of the political spectrum.
As a result, we have gridlock in Washington, D.C., and we’re beginning to see the same thing in Little Rock. The extremists won’t listen to each other so they can’t work together in the halls of government, and they do nothing or serve monied interests.
Government of, by and for the people has become an empty phrase.
Therefore, I use this column to remind our public officials that they work for us and must be transparent. I’ll also try to help you stay informed on the issues of the day that will affect us. I don’t endorse candidates for public office, focusing instead on what they say and do.
A democracy depends on informed citizens, and that’s what newspapers do best.
Finally, a few more personal words: I live in Jonesboro with the girl I married in 1967. We have two daughters — one a teacher in Bentonville, the other a family violence prevention specialist for the State of Virginia — and three grandchildren. My sister was murdered in 1976, and her killer has never been brought to justice. My mother is still alive but in poor health.
I’m a Methodist, a Kiwanian, a fan of the St. Louis Cardinals and the ASU Red Wolves and treasurer of the Arkansas Newspaper Foundation and Lambda Chi Alpha at ASU Inc. Since retiring, I’ve tried to learn to play golf better, with only modest results. I have a dog named Bear who loves me, no matter what I write.
I love my community, state and nation and hope to leave them a little better than I found them.
Roy Ockert is editor emeritus of The Jonesboro Sun. He may be reached by e-mail at royo@suddenlink.net.