blacks to whom I owe favors: for the hospitalityrnof a home-cooked meal, counsel,rna job, my life. Insisting that the chargesrndon’t apply to them will not impress myrnbenefactors and will not change theirrnfeelings of having been betrayed. Manyrnof them truly were victims of whiternracism. Their displeasure is a bitter pricernI’m forced to pay in a world in which Irnfind myself increasingly alienated fromrnblack people.rnAll my adult life I have stood for integration.rnAs a 17-year-old token white inrna black youth program, I wrote a paperrnon the need for integration. I rememberrnit well. In the intervening 17 years,rnphilosophically nothing has changed. Inrnpractice, everything has changed. Irnwon’t tell you that “some of my bestrnfriends are black.” I have no blackrnfriends, and do not see any in my immediaternfuture.rnA social world in which black peoplerndo not exist, or exist only as trouble, mayrnbe normal for most white people. It’srnnot normal for me. Nevertheless, I amrnnot bucking for martyrdom, and I amrnnot in this world to be abused. Hence, Irnam ceding the playing field to the racists.rnYou’ve won, guys. To the degree possiblernin New York, I’ll try to avoid work placesrnand social situations where no whiternmales or dogs are welcome.rnNicholas Stix is editor and publisher of ArnDifferent Drummer: The Magazine ofrnLiterature, Art & Ideas.rnLetter FromrnArkansasrnby Joseph Pappin IIIrnPardon the PardonsrnIt is reported that “faithful adherence tornlegal principle sometimes [takes] a backrnseat to the more compelling demands ofrnpolitics.” This appears to be a pointedrnassessment of a little-publicized controversyrnsurrounding the pardon of fourrnconvicts by last year’s Acting Governor ofrnArkansas, dentist Jerry Jewell. As presidentrnpro tempore of the state senate,rnJewell became the acting governor—andrnofficially the state’s first black governorrn—when Governor Jim Guy Tuckerrnleft Arkansas for four days to attend BillrnClinton’s inauguration. But back to thernassessment.rnThough the “compelling demands ofrnpolitics” refers to a pardoning of fourrnArkansas prisoners, in that instance thernpardon came from King Louis XV inrn1756. The prisoners were deserters fromrnthe Arkansas garrison, one of whom hadrnmurdered a soldier on the way out ofrnthe fort. Captured by the Quapaws, theyrnfound an advocate in Quapaw ChiefrnGuedetonguay. The chief, in fact, traveledrnto New Orleans and reminded thernFrench Governor Kerlerec of the manyrnways in which the Quapaws had befriendedrnthe French and fought on theirrnbehalf. Failure to grant the pardonsrnrisked a Quapaw revolt. Governor Kerlerecrneventually relented and forwardedrnhis decision to the appropriate Frenchrnminister at Versailles, who gained KingrnLouis’ reluctant sanction. Kerlerec wasrnthen admonished to be careful of lettingrnthe “savages… set a tone that accordsrnneither with the King’s authorityrnnor with the good of the colony.” ThernKing’s ministers proved to be both principledrnand, above all, politic in dealingrnwith the complexities of crime andrnpolitics on the Arkansas frontier. Morernthan two centuries later, Arkansasrnpolitics—and crime—are still complicated.rnArkansas life is nothing if not interpersonalrnand interconnected. Mountainrnfolk run a different course: independent,rnrugged, survivalistic. Still, the oldest ofrnArkie jokes asks, “If my wife and I get divorcedrnwill we still be cousins?” Everyonernwill ultimately, by the very nature ofrnliving in Arkansas, encounter or intersectrnwith the life of everyone else. Afterrnall, who in Little Rock hasn’t found himselfrneither jogging with Clinton or in linernfor coffee with him at the downtownrnMcDonald’s? I’ve even waited behindrnhim in the McDonald’s drive-throughrnlane while he tried to get his LincolnrnContinental unstuck from the circlerndrive. Only last year, in fact.rnOn the day of the presidential inaugurationrnJewell granted executivernclemency to four convicts—actuallyrntwo were already out on parole. ThernArkansas Democrat Gazette, the dailyrnnewspaper in Little Rock, reported in itsrnlead article that Acting Governor Jewell,rnwhen questioned on the day of the pardons,rncouldn’t recall either the firstrnnames of the convicts or the nature ofrntheir crimes.rnActually, Jewell’s choice of men tornpardon reflected a cross-section ofrnArkansas criminality: Joe Wesley, age 54,rnmanslaughter; Gary Bryant, 39, burglaryrnand forgery; Billy Ray Davis, 40, murder;rnand, oh yes. Tommy Mcintosh, 29,rncocaine possession. I say “oh yes” becausernMr, Mcintosh’s father, Robertrn”Say” Mcintosh, is the most outspokenrnand most colorful black activist in thernstate.rnSay Mcintosh has mastered thernHegelian art of Arkansas politics. (Don’trnsell us short down here; after all we—rnyou?—put a Rhodes scholar in thernWhite House.) For Hegel, negation wasrnthe driving force of reality, right? Irnmean, being was static until injectedrnwith a healthy dose of nothingness,rnwhich resulted in becoming—hence therndynamism of existence, history, and politics.rnWell, Arkansas politics is injectedrnwith big doses of Hegelian negations andrnnothingness. The biggest thing aroundrnhere in the past three years was probablyrnwhat Say Mcintosh didn’t do one day.rnHe declared, shortly after the green lightrnwas given by the Supreme Court, that hernwas going to burn the American flag onrnthe steps of the state capitol. He gave usrnabout two weeks’ warning. Why, everyrnpickup from the hills of Arkansas rolledrninto town that day just to see if Sayrnwould do it.rnHundreds gathered; scores of policernand state highway troopers. Hey, wernmight even have a riot. Say pulled outrnthe flag, started to light the fire, thenrngave a speech, announcing that for therncommon good, to which he was devoutlyrndedicated, he was not going to burnrnthe flag. Pictures all over the front pagesrnof newspapers; lead story on the sixrno’clock TV news. Not doing somethingrnat just the right time is big news and bigrnpolitics in Arkansas.rnWhen I served as manager of humanrnresources for my brother-in-law’s oilrncompany four years back. Say came to usrnwanting to lease one of our Shell stations.rnWe had dealt with Say before,rnand we were woefully aware of his ownrnunique schedule of rental payments:rnstaggered intervals. To press Say on anythingrnis to risk having a civil rights suitrnfiled against you. Say even had a suitrnagainst Clinton until recently for backrnpayment of services he claimed he renderedrnduring Clinton’s campaign forrngovernor in 1990, the same year thatrn42/CHRONICLESrnrnrn