OPINION | GWEN FORD FAULKENBERRY: Why public schools matter |
Democrat-Gazette online
Last week I had the opportunity to connect with Justin McCormick, a wildly talented young man who grew up on a farm in the Altus area, was raised Catholic at St. Mary's, and graduated from Johnson County Westside School in a class of about 30. He got his undergraduate degree at the University of Arkansas and a master's in Missouri, living there, then in northwest Arkansas and Austin, Texas, before moving back home recently to head up Main Street Ozark and open an old-fashioned mercantile on the square in Ozark called Howdy Co.
He showed up at the set of our vodcast with mud on his boots, having been at a rodeo. In his honor, I wore pathetically pristine cowboy boots I got on sale at a boutique in Little Rock. I am more hillbilly than howdy, I suppose, although we realize there is a lot of overlap between the two.
I hope readers will listen to the vodcast, linked in my bio at the end of this column. Rex Nelson has written extensively about revitalizing our rural areas and what small downtowns need to do to thrive. Justin is a genius at this, and his plans for Ozark are thrilling to me. I can hardly believe we are able to get a person of his caliber on board such a project at a time when Arkansas is bleeding out its best young minds.
I interviewed another creative Arkansan that same day, a former teacher with a Ph.D. from the University of Central Arkansas who moved to New York and became a viral Internet content creator. He loves Arkansas but could no longer tolerate the........