Democratic Rep. Lindsley Smith, noted below for her advocacy of the ERA, will also be renewing her push to establish a “Thomas Paine Day” in Arkansas during the ’09 session, says the Arkansas News Bureau’s ace reporter John Lyon.
Lawmakers voted down the Paine Day proposal in the ’07 session after GOP Rep. Sid Rosenbaum took issue with Paine’s critical writings on Christianity.
Which means this is as good a time as any for an Arkansas Project flashback from August 2008: Mac Campbell, an attorney and former Democratic candidate for Arkansas treasurer, published here a spirited defense of the legislature’s move in striking down the Paine Day observance. Check it out.
(Also check out the debate in the comments section on the post, which is intelligent and informed. This makes it completely unlike the typical debate in the Arkansas Project comments section, which isn’t so much “debate” as it is me, Br549, Bill from Sheridan, DumbArkie, Cameron Bluff and Fourche River Rex making asses of ourselves.)
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