Page 3 - Arkansas 811 Magazine 2019 Issue 4

Publisher's Perspective
avtrl Allan Coe’~ fzlend tltought he'd written tlte perfect ,’
D country and western song unttl Davtd pointed out to htm
ll lacked several exlllcal references. The song, Davld sald,

marle no mentton of momma, getttng drunk, ram, trucks, prison or

lraln~. So, David's fnend crammed all those elements lnlo Lhe last

verse and then lte knew for rertatn l\c’d wntten the perteet eottntry ‘

and western song well, naturally tt can't compare to George Jones

dotng ”He stopperl Lovtng Her Tuday," but muoh of the periectiun ‘

there has to du wtth George and not the song.

rm bound to share this perspeettve wttlt you for the iollnwlng reason lt has been my prtvtlege to speak
to groups across tlte muntry about ereattng effcellve damage pmvenllon ertorts for several years Often
the dtseusstons autstrle tlte meettng rooms are tlte most enltghtentng, and I'll rearltly admtt tn part
because I'm ltstentng tnstearl of talktng.

Almost wtthout tatl anrl wtthout geographtral ltmttatton tlte perspecttves shared follow an tndustry
ltne. whtle all of them are partly rtght, all of them are partly tn the wrong whtle we eertatnly neerl
measurable standards, enforceable leglolallon and clearer contracts, we wlll be unable to resolve the real
tssues of shared responstbtltty by worktng wtthtn our own eompantes or tndustnes alone we must be
wtlltng to ltsten to other perspecttves and connect wtth them so tltat we can understanrl what tt's ltke to

‘ be them.

crammtng all the t-tght words tnto the law, contracts or rlocuments due~n'l necessanly mean that the
contract ts pertert or better or even more eflenlve. surely what we've leamerl from the largest to the
smallest ts that we are going to have to work togetlter ti tt works at all. Taking responstbtltty for our
aettons, worktng to help one another be suceesstul and rlotng the rtght tlttng are not for the ~queam|sll
or faint of heart. lonee rearl "tear ts the darkroom where negattve attttudes are develuped." Many find
themselves opposed to goorl tdeas or dtreetton for no other reason than they are afrald of what mtght
happen that most ltkely never comes to pass

l applaud the ettorts of those who are looktng for ways to work together Bnngtng all the stakeholders
togetlter to discuss the impact of proposed legtslatton or business praettces ts not only good poltttcs; tt
ts the t-tght tlttng to do. The tdea that any one of tts (organtzattonally or personally) ran resolve complex
tssues surh as damage pmvenllon all by ourselves ts sell-rleteattng lI’~ going to take worktng wtth one
another, even worktng wttlt people we rlon't understand, we don't agree wtth and posstbly we don't
ltke to change the culture

If you belleve that we must develop more etteetwe ways to work together and want to help make that a
realtty, mark your calendar for Apt-tl lsl — 16, 2020 and attend the Arkansas Damage Prevcntlun summtt
tn sprtngdale at the l—loltday lnn & Convention center Let's see tt we ran begtn a rltseusston that
centers on damage preventton soluttons tnstearl of fotusing put on the problems.

And that la a cunvenallnn we all need to have.

Merry chnstmas and Happy New Year to you all: Rug” CM

Presidettf
ACTS Now, Int.
2019 Issued Ari<.!rlsl!s811Mt!gt!1lne -1