‘Arkansas Comes First’ (Editorial)

Sen. David Pryor in 1985 (Andrew Kilgore)

“It was a different time,” a colleague said in discussing the death April 20 of Arkansas’ David Pryor, former U.S. senator and governor. He was referring to the ability of Pryor, a Democrat, to reach across the aisle and to his astonishing popularity and ability to make friends of foes.

“David Pryor’s nearly 35-year career in the state and national capitols was marked by passionate and sometimes lonely efforts for better and affordable medical care for the elderly and poor, peace, public safety in the nuclear age, the direct election of American presidents, reform of Arkansas’s ancient constitution and, perhaps most markedly, collaboration among political foes and parties,” journalist Ernie Dumas wrote in his moving and comprehensive obituary of Pryor for the Arkansas Times.

We can’t sum up Pryor’s career any better so we won’t try. But we’d also like to cite Frank E. Lockwood’s obituary of Pryor for the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, which noted that Pryor kept a sign on his desk “featuring his decades-long personal mantra: ‘Arkansas Comes First.’”

David Pryor, born naturally gregarious and into a political family, was a phenomenon. Few of us have his gifts. And yes, he occupied a different time. But some things are worth preserving and restoring. The example of Pryor’s dedication to Arkansas and Arkansans, whatever their political views, is among them.