Help inmates get well. Reduce cost of Prisons. By David Palmer It is a shocking fact that one out of a hundred Americans is in prison. Some of these inmates, regrettably, are truly bad people and should stay in prison. For the rest, we can, first, do a better job dealing with the drug addictions implicated in 80% of the cases, second, prepare them better to find work on the outside and, third, overcome the bureaucratic confusion on sentencing. On Christmas Day, under the headline, … [Read more...]

By David Palmer Early this summer, Paul Chapman, a former Alltel executive and now pastor at Little Rock’s Fellowship Bible Church, launched the “First Principles of Entrepreneurship” class for prison inmates at the inner city’s Scott Ford Center for Entrepeurship at Arkansas Baptist College. The program addresses on a local level the national problem of housing the nation’s more than three million prison inmates in an expensive, life wasting and predominantly bureaucratic system with a … [Read more...]

How I did it in Little Rock, Arkansas By David Palmer The movie musical, “Gentlemen Prefer Blondes” featuring Marilyn Monroe and Jane Russell opened worldwide in 1953 and gave Little Rock, Arkansas a boost with the hit song that begins, “We're just two little girls from Little Rock.” I saw the movie, a delightful romp, while stationed with a naval detachment in Izmir, Turkey never dreaming that I would one day live in Little Rock. The details of my arrival in Arkansas in 1972 and departure … [Read more...]

By David Palmer Put the “neighbor” back in the “hood.” That’s the rallying cry of Dr. Fitzgerald “Fitz” Hill, president of Little Rock’s Arkansas Baptist College. It’s a timely message as we reflect on the recent rioting in Ferguson, Missouri and other communities. Ten years ago, Fitz resigned his collegiate head-coaching job at California’s St. Jose State University in search of a higher calling, and on February 1, 2006, he found what he was after in Little Rock, AR.  On that date, he was … [Read more...]

Pastor Joe Focht, never one to tiptoe around an issue, recently took on alcohol abuse from the podium of his Philadelphia Calvary Chapel church. He is not in favor of it. Here are a few excerpts from a sermon last spring: “Alcoholism is not a disease. It’s an illness. And if it’s an illness why do breweries sell it? It’s like selling the flu.” “2.5 million people a year die of alcoholism. It’s the number one threat. It ain’t slick, cool or savvy” “50% of teen driving deaths are alcohol … [Read more...]