With Arkansas leading the nation per capita in new coronavirus cases, blamed on the spread of the especially vicious delta variant and the state’s low vaccination rate, I spoke with state Epidemiologist Dr. Jennifer Dillaha on Arkansas PBS about the situation.
“This variant of the virus that causes COVID-19 is highly infectious. It causes more severe disease, it’s more quick to put people in the hospital and at younger ages,” Dillaha said. “For these reasons, we are experiencing a large number of new cases because the younger people are not the ones who’ve been getting the vaccine. It’s been the older adults who are now protected.”
She said health officials are “trying to communicate the urgency of the situation” and that people who are not vaccinated need to do it as quickly as possible since it takes five or six weeks to develop full immunity.
Over the last week, Gov. Asa Hutchinson held a series of town hall meetings around the state in Cabot, Batesville, Blytheville and Texarkana. These are smaller towns and cities where people are less likely to be vaccinated. Participating in these meetings have been community leaders, including church pastors, with the governor specifically calling on them to encourage their congregations to get vaccinated.
Dr. Dillaha praised Hutchinson for going into areas where people are less likely to be vaccinated. She said for many people, the decision on whether to get a vaccine largely depends on their social network.
“If there are a lot of people in a rural area that are not vaccinated, it’s harder for individuals to go against what their community is doing. It takes a lot of courage for people to do that. And so, by addressing this at a community level in the smaller rural areas, that enables the community to get vaccinated together,” Dillaha said.
“I think that’s an important strategy because we are influenced by who we associate with and those are the people we trust. So, if we can get good information into those communities so that they can make informed decisions, I think more people will get vaccinated.”
A mug shot of Si-Fu Frankie Parker on May 22, 1996.
The BBC World Service podcast Witness History recently looked back at the 1996 Arkansas execution of Si-Fu Frankie Parker. I was surprised to learn about his case getting renewed attention when I received a request to use audio from an interview I had recorded with Parker two weeks before his execution. I had also spoken exclusively with then-Gov. Mike Huckabee, whose first official act as governor was scheduling Parker’s execution date. The interviews were used in a half-hour program I produced for KUAR which aired August 8, 1996 in the hours before his execution.
The BBC program, which you can find on this link or listen to below, also features a recent interview with Anna Cox, a Buddhist leader who had gotten to know Parker when he expressed interest in Buddhism after 30 days in solitary confinement on death row. She acknowledged that Parker had been a mean person who did horrible things.
In 1984, Parker kidnapped his estranged wife, killed her parents, and shot and wounded a Rogers, Ark. police officer. He was convicted of capital murder and sentenced to death. While in solitary confinement, or what was known as “the hole” for committing infractions, the only reading material inmates were allowed was a Bible. Parker said after becoming restless and requesting a Bible, a guard instead threw a copy of the Dhammapada into the cell, which is a book of Buddhist teachings. After initially being even angrier, Cox said Parker eventually read the book and by the time he emerged from isolation had memorized the verses and was a changed man.
Cox would eventually meet Parker, and they became close friends. It also led to her becoming a spiritual advisor, not just for Parker, but also other inmates. On the day of his execution, Cox and other Buddhists set up a tent outside the gates of Cummins Prison. She described the scene for reporter Ibby Caputo 25 years later, which was eloquently told for the BBC feature.
AUDIO: My original half-hour program for KUAR that aired on August 8, 1996 in the hours before Si-Fu Frankie Parker’s execution. It includes parts of my interviews with Parker and then-Gov. Mike Huckabee. The program would win a first place award from the Arkansas Associated Press for Best Enterprise/ Investigative Reporting.
The experience of interviewing Parker in the weeks before his death and meeting many of his friends had a big impact on me. I had covered many executions by that point, but never had any contact with the inmates or served as a media witness. This was also the only time I had spoken with a governor about an execution. Most governors would sign the orders without comment to the press.
The Baring Cross Bridge over the Arkansas River linking Little Rock and North Little Rock has a fascinating history going back nearly 150 years. I was happy to be invited to talk about the history of the railroad bridge for the Division of Arkansas Heritage’s program Sandwiching in History. The series had been in-person events held at places being discussed until the pandemic arrived in Arkansas last year, which led to the program now being produced videos available online. The episode on the Baring Cross Bridge was released last Friday and can be viewed below.
The Cairo and Fulton Railroad announced plans to construct the bridge in 1872, but didn’t have money to complete the project. So the Baring Cross Bridge Company was formed, which completed the bridge the following year, opening on Dec. 21, 1873. Within a few years a highway deck was added, charging tolls for carriages and pedestrians. Dr. Bill Pollard shared several images of toll booth passes and vintage photos of the bridge from his collection, which I was able to include in the presentation.
During historic flooding of the Arkansas River in April 1927, the bridge was washed away by the swift-moving, rising current. An attempt to anchor the bridge down with loaded coal cars had failed. The Missouri Pacific Railroad, which had acquired this stretch of track by then, rebuilt the bridge to more modern standards, making it a double track bridge for the busy mainline that cuts from the southwest corner of Arkansas to the northeast corner. The only major modification since then was replacing the swing span with a lift span, which was done to all three railroad bridges over the river at Little Rock, as part of the McClellan-Kerr Arkansas River Navigation System.
This is the online home of broadcasting news veteran Michael Hibblen. I've worked for newspapers, radio and TV stations around the country, with this website telling the story of my career, including audio, photos and videos. Also featured are various interests I've researched, primarily about radio and railroads. Today I'm Director of Public Affairs at Arkansas PBS, overseeing production of Arkansas Week and the streaming of events on the Arkansas Citizens Access Network. The posts on this site are my own and do not necessarily reflect the views of Arkansas PBS or my former employers.
My Book
Released by Arcadia Publishing in 2017, Rock Island Railroad in Arkansas delves into the history of the railroad which once had a huge footprint in Arkansas, as well as other states in the middle of the U.S. The book features historic photos and tells the story of the Rock Island, which was shut down in March 1980. READ MORE
For 13 years, from May 2009 to December 2022, I worked for NPR station KUAR-FM 89.1 at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. That included 10 years as News Director while continuing to anchor and report. You can read and hear reports from that time on Little Rock Public Radio's website.
