If Arkansas was a nation

Size matters

With the Olympics in full swing last week, I found myself wondering where Arkansas would rank in overall size as a country rather than a state.

Our 53,178 square miles place us as the 21st smallest of the United States. In other words, we fall fairly close to the middle.

What I discovered made my scalp itch and jaw twitch.

Turns out, the website Selfstorage.com recently conducted just such a study by imagining which countries would fit inside states like fitting inside a storage building. The website's spokesperson, Nicasio Gonzales, forwarded a copy. Taking account of only its area, the findings show Arkansas would rank as the planet's 95th largest country. Greece, at 50,960 square miles, is ranked as the world's 95th largest country. But Arkansas as a nation would claim that designation with over 2,000 square miles to spare.

Explaining how they reached these results, Gonzales said Selfstorage.com used a tool called thetruessize.com that he says runs "on top of Google Maps and accounts for distortions, allowing accurate size comparisons."

The countries of Switzerland, Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg and Slovenia would fit within the Arkansas borders all at the same time. Nicaragua, the 96th largest country, fits inside Arkansas with 2,841 square miles to spare. North Korea could fit inside our state with 6,638 square miles left over. South Korea's land mass fits into Arkansas' border 1.3 times.

Even more surprising, two Irelands could almost wedge inside Arkansas. Portugal and Austria each would fit within our borders about one and a half times. You could insert Israel inside Arkansas' borders 6.6 times, and Costa Rica 2.6 times.

Suddenly, this big ol' spinning blue marble doesn't seem quite as large as it did before I had my geographical perspectives reshaped. How about you?

Satan after school?

What a sadly declining nation we continue to create. The latest legitimate source of outrage over mainstreaming perversion and assaulting Christian faith comes with a band of Satanists contacting nine elementary school districts across America in hopes of initiating after-school programs.

The so-called Satanic Temple based in Salem, Mass., contacted the districts seeking to open chapters in elementary schools which, except for one of the districts, have religious clubs operated by the Child Evangelism Fellowship's Good News Clubs.

Those are Christian clubs where students can study the Bible and pray, according to the Temple's co-founder, Lucien Greaves. The school districts are in Missouri, California, Georgia, Washington state, Florida, Utah, the District of Columbia, Maryland and Arizona.

A news story last week said Mat Staver, founder of a Christian legal aid group that has represented the Child Evangelism Fellowship, said Greaves' organization was illegitimate and an "atheist group masquerading" as religious.

Greaves, in turn, described satanism as an atheist philosophy whose believers "feel it provides everything a religion provides to be legitimized as such."

I've seen The Exorcist and that foul satanic demon looked nothing like the love and compassion I'd want my grade-school children involved with after school.

News accounts say the Satanic Temple sponsors chapters in several states. It openly seeks to "counter well-funded fundamentalist Christian organizations that it believes are eroding the separation of church and state in public schools," one story said.

Greaves said the after-school program would show "that people can be of different religious opinions and still be moral, upright people."

The U.S. Supreme Court in 2001 said schools districts can't discriminate against religious groups. And, as I'd expect of those who choose to name their group after Satan, Greaves and his legion have threatened litigation if districts deny them.

There doesn't seem to be much the schools can do to deny the Satanic Temple from holding its monthly meetings. Springfield, Mo., Public Schools was reviewing the group's request the other day, noting that granting requests to use taxpayer-funded facilities "does not constitute the district's endorsement."

Sounds to me like administrators are saying that while they don't embrace or condone hosting the Satanic Temple, the high court says they have the same right as a Christian group to use classrooms for after-school meetings and it'll be the devil to pay if they don't comply.

Soul-searching

Election short and sweet: The next two months will be endless media-promoted muck, slime, stench, castigation, accusations and hate rhetoric which, for the most part, will amount to nothing by the time most Americans are alone in the voting booth with their consciences. They'll pull the lever for whichever presidential candidate their hearts honestly tells them can help create the best possible free and prosperous nation for their children and grandchildren.

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Mike Masterson's column appears regularly in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. Email him at [email protected].

Editorial on 08/14/2016

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