What we’re known for
VIEWPOINT
By RALPH HARDIN
Evening Times Editor
You ever Google yourself? You know, type your own name into the Google search bar…
While Ralph isn’t an especially common name, there are a surprisingly abundant number of “Ralph Hardins” running around out there. Well, sadly, actually the first three results on Google are all obituaries for dead guys with my name. It’s a little unsettling, not gonna lie. I’m not even the first guy with my name who is still alive to come up. There’s a guy who is a dentist just to confuse the issue, he’s Ralph Hardin III, DDS. And I actually have a “II” at the end of my name. It’s alittle weird, in that I’m actually named after my uncle who was killed in the Vietnam War and my Dad, and I guess one-plus-one equals two… or “II” in my case. It’s admittedly strange..
But I am there, about halfway down the Google search results.
See VIEWPOINT, page A5 VIEWPOINT
From page A5
I can chalk it up to being the editor of a newspaper. I’m otherwise not very Googleworthy. Try ityourself sometime if you ever get bored.
Places are something people Google as well. Unfortunately, if you Google West Memphis, you’re going to get the “West Memphis 3” murder case (especially these days) and the 2010 West Memphis police shootings before you get to anything positive. Marion is a little bit of a different story. The very first hit under “Marion, Arkansas” is a little pull-down menu where the first question asked is, “Is Marion, Arkansas safe?” How would you answer that question? The site (areavibes.com) doesn’t paint a great picture, saying that “Marion is safer than 23% of cities in Arkansas and 15% of cities across the United States.” Yikes! That can’t be right, right? RIGHT?
If you Google Earle, all you really get is Wikipedia data and some statistics from the state. Sadly (again) the first hit of any significance is the Earle Race Riot of 1970 from the Encyclopedia of Arkansas website.
Not the best look for Crittenden County. That’s not to say it’s all bad here. It’s just that we’re not really known for anything outside of this area.
It’s time we changed that.
Let’s put our best foot forward. and get “on the map” for something good in the neighborhood in 2025.
