By Blair Jackson

At his home in Elkins, Cody Renegar describes plans for his wedding.

“Here’s where the chairs will be,” he says, gesturing to a grassy area between the side of the house and the duck pond.

He describes the decorations. Wine bottles will hang from the chairs, lining the aisle with wildflowers. There are plans for an arbor, under which he will be married, that will be made from two antique doors and a wooden ladder.

He and the wedding planner have decided to weave honeysuckle through the rungs of the ladder, so it will hang over the couple’s heads during the ceremony. The reception will be held in the backyard, between the back porch and the pine trees, where guests will dance barefoot beneath a tent. Italian lanterns will hang from the trees.

He is considering dressing the groomsmen and women in white linen — a deviation from the traditional wedding etiquette that demands only the bride dress in white.

Because Renegar’s marriage won’t involve a bride, new traditions are in order.

The two grooms haven’t decided what type of suits they will wear, or how they will differentiate one suit from the other, but in addition to the ivory palette, Renegar is considering blue — to match the color of his fiancé’s eyes.

Renegar met Thomas Staed in December 2009.

“For the record,” says Staed, “he approached me.”

Renegar says he noticed Staed on that first night when he saw him laugh. “He was laughing like no one cared, just cracking up.”

“Cody was one of the first people who caught my eye. He was wearing a red v-neck sweater,” Staed remembers.

Staed was new in town, and was surrounded by a group of people. Renegar introduced himself and after a few minutes of conversation, he left Thomas and sat down at the bar. Sitting five seats away, Renegar sent Staed a Facebook message.

“Hey, it was nice to meet you … ” began the message. Now, two years later, the couple still continues the thread of that first message when they have something special to tell one another, such as “Happy Anniversary!”

The couple had their first date at Wasabi on Dickson Street, where the couple bonded over the movie “Steel Magnolias” — an allusion that will make an appearance in their wedding as the bleeding armadillo groom’s cake.

“We went on our second date, and he never really left,” says Renegar. “We were talking about all the things we were looking for in love. He needed excitement, and I needed stability.”
Renegar is a hair stylist who travels to L.A. and D.C. to work on high-profile clients, while Staed is a bank analyst.

“He’s all math, and I’m all creative,” says Renegar. “We compliment each other very well.”
The couple purchased a home together last January, which they refer to as the T.L.C. Farm. T.L.C. stands for the three men of the house, Cody, Thomas and Levi, who is Cody’s 15-year-old son.

On the side of the house, a basketball goal is mounted against green siding. Two ATVs are parked in the backyard, and a photo of the family sits on a table in the living room. It is a photo from the national No H8 Campaign, where each is mimicking one of the “See, Hear and Speak No Evil” actions.

Renegar says his son has been very supportive and positive of his two fathers. “He loves it and thinks it’s a great thing,” says Renegar, who describes their home life as very normal — full of chores and camping and fishing and laughter.

Courtesy Photo: Cody Renegar proposed to Thomas Staed through a painted message on the side of their home.

Over the past year, Renegar and Staed began improvements on their new home. One day, Staed was painting over the beige siding on their house, while Renegar was holding the ladder.
Renegar offered to take over, and instead of completing the job, he painted his proposal. “Will u marry me?” in green paint.

Staed agreed, and the two began planning for their wedding, which is scheduled for June 16.

*****

In November, when Renegar called to inquire about submitting his wedding announcement to the Northwest Arkansas Times, he was told that it was the company’s policy to print legally recognized marriages in Arkansas, which would not include his marriage.

Renegar said he was not aware of the paper’s policy at the time. “I was just calling to ask where I could find the application and pricing. I did not expect a controversy.”

After being denied the opportunity to print his wedding announcement, Renegar and Staed submitted their wedding announcement to Yahoo.com and contacted their friend and activist Laura Phillips. After making the decision to go public with their story, the couple admitted to feeling “a little vulnerable at first.”

Their announcement was published online on Jan. 22, and by the following morning, their story had been shared with a variety of social media outlets, calling attention to the newspaper policy. Laura and her husband, Jay, asked local media outlets to publish same-sex announcements.

In a television interview with KNWA, Renegar expressed his opinion on being denied the opportunity to have his wedding announced in the local newspaper. “You want to be represented, as a human being, as a person of love. It’s not that complicated to put a picture of two people in love,” he said.

That initial feeling of vulnerability was lost in a flood of support from the local and national gay community and activists. The couple received hundreds of friend requests on Facebook, so many that they had to create a fan page to manage the traffic. Dozens of articles have been posted on the controversy and the couple has received publicity and support from GLAAD and the HRC.

“It felt amazing to have that much support behind us,” said Renegar.

On the local front, Jay and Laura Phillips also created a petition on the website change.org. In the “About this Petition” section, Phillips writes, “… Laura and I have been working with Cody and many others to help change this discriminatory policy by the newspaper and its publisher, Rusty Turner.”

Phillips continues, writing, “After discussing the matter with Mr. Turner, I am convinced this policy will only be changed when the people let him know how much it matters to them.”
Turner, publisher for NWA Media’s local daily newspapers that includes the NWA Times, said the online petition will not influence the policy, as it is not a reliable representation of the Northwest Arkansas community.

“An online position is in no way a scientific measurement of customers, readers or the community,” Turner said. The publisher also expressed appreciation for the feedback the newspaper has received, both in support and disappointment of the policy, but said that the core issue is the state’s stance on same-sex marriage.

“Energy being expended in this situation might be better directed to the state Legislature and the government and those who set the policies on the state,” Turner suggests.

The Northwest Arkansas Times expressed its position in a written response: “As a mass public forum for news, politics, sports and events, we set guidelines on a variety of reader submitted information. Often we use legal standards for what we’ll accept. In this way, we attempt to keep our own opinions out of the objective process of reporting and newsgathering.”

Turner said these guidelines have been used in situations other than same-sex marriage. Using the state’s policies as a guideline for publication, the NWA Times did not publish information on charity raffles until the lottery bill applied to state laws in 2007. Now that such raffles are legal, they are included in announcements.

Though the newspaper’s wedding announcement policy mirrors the state’s stance on same-sex marriage, Turner said part of the newspaper’s job is to facilitate the discussion surrounding same-sex rights. Six years ago, working as the editor of The Morning News edition, Turner encountered a similar outcry from the community when The Morning News edition printed profiles on same-sex couples with children as part of a report on adoption laws in the state. The backlash, however, was from the opposite direction: those opposed to same-sex partnerships.

The NWA Times’ response to the current controversy also mentions the paper’s discussion of same-sex rights, reading, “If one were to look through our archives, he or she would find numerous articles that share the stories of same-sex couples and editorials defending the rights of gay Arkansans to legally adopt children in this state. There is more to our newspaper than the wedding announcements.”

“In print, we offer the opportunity for readers to voice their opinions through the letters to the editor and guest columns,” said Turner.

Since the controversy developed, readers have been actively commenting on the www.nwaonline.com website and interacting through Facebook to voice a variety of opinions, both in support and in rejection of the newspaper’s current policy.

The paper identifies the opportunity for change as follows: “Should the state of Arkansas change its laws regarding civil unions or same-sex marriages, we would adjust our practices accordingly. We encourage those with opinions in this matter to contact their legislators and to be active in shaping the laws that govern our state and country.”

Jason Rogers, a member of NWA Center for Equality, believes change should begin in the opposite direction. “Start with a small thing like a wedding announcement and then move up to the Legislature,” he said. “No one is asking Arkansas to change the laws. They just want to print their announcement. Is that so much to ask? It’s a simple ad in the newspaper to announce to their friends, family and community that they are in love and they want to celebrate it.”

“The newspaper should be at the heart of freedom of expression and belief, and to say ‘No, we’re not going to show two women or two men who are in love because it’s not our policy’ — that’s a blow to someone’s humanity.”

Rogers questions the measures taken to uphold its current policy among heterosexual couples, asking “Does the newspaper personally verify all heterosexual marriages that it publishes?”

The answer is no.

No proof of marriage is needed in order to announce a heterosexual wedding in the NWA Times, but Turner stated that if the paper felt it was receiving false information, it would investigate further.

The Southwest Times Record, a daily newspaper based in Fort Smith, said they also do not ask for verifications for legality of wedding announcements. “We don’t ask anyone to show us a marriage license. If you say you are getting married, then you are,” said editor Judith Hansen. “Our policy is that we don’t have a separate policy for same-sex (announcements).”

Hansen said that the paper does not publish announcements for commitment ceremonies, but would be willing to publish marriages conducted out-of-state. She said the paper has no plans to change the policy, but said “If we felt as though we were receiving information that was not given in good faith, we would have to explore it.”

Because Renegar and Staed will be married in Arkansas, their union will not be recognized by any state as legal, which would make them ineligible for an announcement in the Southwest Times Record. However, the couple said, “We’ve already had our announcement, we just want to do whatever we can to make sure everyone else can get theirs.”

Renegar explained the importance of a wedding announcement: “The validation that comes with the public acknowledgement means that there is hope. That people are actually evolving, learning and growing. And treating us as equals and not second-class citizens.”

Though unable to secure a newspaper announcement, Renegar said the controversy has created a vibrant discussion surrounding same-sex rights in Arkansas and has brought new attention to an issue that is rarely at the forefront of Arkansas politics or current events.

“That’s the only way you bring about change, is to get people talking about it. (Gay marriage) is not even discussed in Arkansas.”

“Change begins with each and every one of us truly communicating, keeping our fears at bay and truly listening to people.” For those who cite tradition as a reason to oppose same-sex equality, Renegar posed this question:
“What would you believe, if you had never been told what to believe?”

By Blair Jackson
TFW Editor

Jack and Mary White live in a modest house in Hartford, a small community of about 650. An herb

Staff Photo by Blair Jackson: Jack and Mary White lost their farm to water contamination after a natural gas well was drilled a mere 250 feet from their home.

garden flanks the east of the house, and rows of kale line the west. A wooden sign, painted white, reads “Makedo Farms.” Making do is exactly what Jack and Mary have been doing for the past eight years, since a natural gas well was drilled a mere 250 feet from their property.

When Jack White retired from the oil and gas industry in 1985, he and his wife decided to pursue their passion of gardening. It had been Mary’s lifelong dream to live in a place “with lots of flowers,” so the two began a business in which they sold flowers and plants.
Photos from those days show Mary and Jack standing in their garden. Mary stands in front of pink and red roses. A bird house hangs from a tree branch. “They call this the Hartford Rose,” says Jack, pointing to the pink roses in the photo. “I’ve never seen it anywhere else.” When their garden was destroyed in a fly ash disaster, the Whites moved to a plot of family land four miles away to start fresh.

After 20 years of experimenting with hoop houses, vegetation and gardening, the couple felt confident they could start a small organic farm. Jack and Mary, who were then 74 and 68, spent a year clearing the land, buying supplies and beginning construction. They drilled a water well and had the water tested and flow rated. One day a representative of the natural gas industry came to tell the Whites that drilling would begin in the area.

“The man told me where they were going to drill the well,” Jack said. “I told him that it didn’t matter where he drilled it, if he drilled it the way he was going to, it would ruin the water. I asked him, ‘Who made the decision to put this right here by my well and my home?’”

According to Jack, the representative replied, “I’ve just decided I’m going to drill it right here.”

The seemingly arbitrary decision of that single individual brought drastic consequences to the White family. A former drilling superintendent, Jack recounts times when drill sites were moved in order to avoid cow barns, chicken houses and water supplies. “Nowadays they won’t move a foot for nobody,” he said.

Staff Photo by Blair Jackson: The basin that once attracted blue birds and wrens now lies in the yard, tipped over and unused, a testament to the White's unreliable water supply, eight long years after that first day of drilling.

In the beginning stages of the drilling process, Jack turned on the gardening hose with plans to fill the bird bath with water. Foam poured from the hose instead, completely covering the structure with suds. “You couldn’t even see the bird bath,” recounted Jack. “It was just foam.”

Because of his background in the oil and gas industry, Jack was able to identify the foam as the product of rust inhibitors, chemicals used on the pipes in the wells.

The basin that once attracted blue birds and wrens now lies in the yard, tipped over and unused, a testament to the White’s unreliable water supply, eight long years after that first day of drilling.

“Our well has hydrogen sulfide. When it rains, it bubbles through the ground,” Jack said. He said the smell of rotten eggs is the indicator. Without a viable irrigation system, the Whites were forced to forego their plans to raise and sell organic produce. They have one hoop house now, but try to use fresh water as often as possible, using gutters to collect rain water. “If I have to use a little [well] water, I put it around the roots,” said Jack. “If I spray it on the leaves, it kills them. The leaves wilt up … [and turn] yellow and black.”
Jack said although the tainted water supply has erased any hopes for producing something of commercial value, he and Mary are still able to live from the land. “As long as I’m half way healthy, I can produce enough food for us.” Jack and Mary make do, but they say it is unfair for the younger generations — those with children, and those who want to settle down or build a farm.

The water in the Hartford community has supported its people and their livelihood for almost two

Staff Photo by Blair Jackson: Staff Photo by Blair Jackson: The water in the Hartford community has supported its people and their livelihood for almost two centuries. Jack walks through a cemetery, the final resting place of Arkansans from as far back as 1837. Parked beyond the cemetery and guarded by a chain link fence, sit five white tanker trucks. These are the trucks that carry the waste from the wells to the dump sites such as Sugar Loaf Creek.

centuries. Jack walks through a cemetery, the final resting place of Arkansans from as far back as 1837. Parked beyond the cemetery and guarded by a chain link fence, sit five white tanker trucks. These are the trucks that carry the waste from the wells to the dump sites such as Sugar Loaf Creek. Towering in the distance is Sugar Loaf Mountain. The bare earth of a treeless patch looks like a brown scar from a distance. This is where a botched drill site caused 88 acres worth of erosion from improper leveling procedures. Boulders now fall from the loose earth, roots of trees become unanchored, causing landslides.

“Nobody’s ever really done anything about it. They’ve done about as much damage as they can do,” said Jack, one of a few residents who has gone public with his opinion and experiences concerning the natural gas industry. When he and Mary noticed the tankers were disposing of chemicals directly into Sugar Loaf Creek, they took photos from their front porch. They even hopped the fence to take photos of the hoses that ran from the tankers to the creek and released chemicals into the water.

Photos show the water carrying a red, rusty orange tint; and, in a separate pool, a neon purple color glows in an unnatural light. They showed their evidence to the ADEQ, but until the Sebastian County judge got involved, no agents were sent to investigate the dumping sites. Even after a dumping was ordered to discontinue at the site, the dumping continued as before; and though it has slowed considerably over the years, Jack said he hopes to see a time when the wells stop pumping and dump sites are no longer needed.
“The earth will heal itself if they will stop pumping,” he said.

The Bluff is a water hole that used to be a social gathering place. Here teenagers went swimming and played on rope swings. Preachers used the water for baptisms. Jack says the last time he was there, the rope was still hanging from the branches, but has since been torn down. A compressor station hums a few hundred yards away, and in the dusk one can see trash littering the side of the road. Once crystal clear, the murky water reflects the skyline at dusk.

During the actual drilling process, the noise, vibrations and lights from the well forced Jack and Mary from their home. They sought refuge on the quieter gravel roads, miles away from the drilling site, but were unable to sleep in the car. After a few sleepless nights, the Whites, who had no income other than social security, purchased a hotel room.

It was after the drilling had stopped that the Whites were faced with the biggest tragedy. As the natural gas wells were allowed to blow clean, a cloud of methane gas fell over the house. Mary was alone in the house, washing dishes.

Jack said the day had begun like any other. They had eaten breakfast, and he had left to cut briars in the meadow behind the house.

Staff Photo by Blair Jackson: Only a few hundred feet from his property, sits the well that has brought tragedy to Jack White and his wife.

“For some reason, I thought, I need to talk to Mary. I threw my tools down, which I don’t usually do, and came straight into the house and yelled, ‘Mary!’ Her face was dark. She wouldn’t respond, and I had enough first aid classes around rigs to know what was wrong.” Jack rushed Mary to the hospital, where the doctor confirmed symptoms of overexposure to methane gas.

In a 2009 Letter to the Editor, sent to “The Mansfield Citizen”, Mary recounted her memory of that day.

“I … cannot remember anything until I was well on the way to the hospital in Fort Smith. After a 40-mile ride and checking into the emergency service, my blood pressure was well over 200. I remained in the emergency [room] until the blood pressure reached a safe level. The doctor said all of this was normal with methane gas exposure and that another 10 minutes might have been too late. What we did not know was that excessive high blood pressure could damage the eye retinas, and a few months later, I had a compete separation of one retina and damage to the other, followed by a loss of hearing.”

The Whites were given $3,000 by the natural gas industry to cover the hospital bills associated with Mary’s initial symptoms, but the couple was responsible for half of the $25,000 that went toward the five surgeries needed to save the sight in her left eye.

“We never did pursue (legal action) because we didn’t think we could afford it. We consulted with attorneys, and they all had the same thing to say. We would have to sit down and write down what we lost. ‘How many turnips did you lose?’ they asked, but it wasn’t what we lost, it was what we couldn’t develop. We thought Mary was going to be OK. We didn’t know about the long term affects of this. We thought, ‘Leave them alone, and they will leave us alone.’”

Legal recourse against the natural gas industry is complicated because the weight of providing evidence falls upon the citizen, and the Whites have no proof that the natural gas well contaminated their water supply or dumped hazardous waste inappropriately.
“They don’t have any worry,” Jack said of the natural gas industry. But for the Whites, each day carries uncertainty. “We don’t have any idea what kind of chemicals they are using, so we don’t know what to watch for. Every so often, they come out and treat the well. Acidize it, or clean it, and I don’t know what chemicals they are pumping in there.
“Sometimes we get to the point where we say, ‘What difference does it make?’ and we just let it go.”

At the end of her letter to the editor, Mary wrote, “Each night we worry about our well exploding as we now have gas in our well next to our bedroom. Add this to financial loss, agriculture income loss, health loss and security.”

Jack echoed her sentiment. “It leave us awful unsure,” he said. “All we can do is try to live here, hoping that don’t take all the water nor blow us up.”

For the Whites, there is no choice but to make do.

By Blair Jackson

Two months ago, the Fayetteville faction of Occupy Wall Street disbanded from their camp on the town square, but the group found new momentum in the national, one-day Occupy the Courts protest last Friday. In a march leading from the Fayetteville town center to the United States District Court, citizens rallied against the 2010 Supreme Court decision that deemed it legal for corporations and labor unions to donate unlimited amounts of money to political campaigns.

Their signs declare their messages.

Staff Photo by Blair Jackson: Mark Prime and Bobby Melton carry the logo-spangled banner in protest of corporate influence in American politics.

“End corporate personhood” reads a poster that resembles an American flag. There is one key difference. This is not the star spangled banner. Where the 50 stars should be, there are instead logos of corporations: McDonald’s, Nike, Apple and CNN to name a few. The symbolism is subtle, but striking. Corporations now stand where the people once stood.
Corporate personhood is a legal concept that has existed since 1886, but the Supreme Court decision in 2010 defined campaign donations as the equivalent of free speech, ruling that it is unconstitutional to place a cap on corporate funding for politicians.

Fayetteville citizen Kelly Eubanks, a mother who works two jobs and attends the University of Arkansas, believes the influence of corporations overshadows public interest and impedes democracy.

“Any issue — the environment, ending wars, jobs, education — it all comes down to politicians. If they’re listening to the corporations, they’re not listening to us,” she says.
Eubanks explains the next message: “Corporations are not people. Money is not speech” by referring to the preamble of the U.S. Constitution. “‘We the people’ refers to natural persons. We reject the idea that corporations are people.”

Explicit examples of direct corporate influence are hard to find. If politicians wore logo-stamped uniforms instead of suits, President Obama would have McDonald’s golden arches stitched on his shirt — along with Walmart, Levi’s, Dell and Starbucks, just to name a few. To some citizens, this “corporate sponsorship” paired with intense corporate lobbying, opens the door for abuse and uncomfortably blurs the line between political supporters and agenda pushers.

In a Free Weekly column earlier this month, Abel Tomlinson wrote, “Thanks to the U.S. Supreme Court, corporations can now spend unlimited sums of money to buy candidates, elections, laws and the government …” Similar suspicions are being voiced across the country, and there is evidence of a growing resistance to corporate personhood and the subsequent unlimited campaign financing.

In the past few months, support to end corporate personhood has swept the nation in a radical shift from the streets of Occupy Wall Street to city council chambers. Los Angeles was the first major city to pass a resolution in support of an amendment to the U.S. Constitution that would eliminate corporate personhood. Next month, Fayetteville could be the first city in Arkansas to support this “movement to amend.”

Fayetteville councilman Matthew Petty is drafting a resolution that would support the repeal of the Citizens United decision through a constitutional amendment. Petty says that approving the resolution would not make any immediate changes. However, the resolution would serve as a symbolic first step on the dance floor of change.

Petty explains that passing a resolution of support at a city level is the next step of the movement. “Representatives have to listen to what cities want,” he says.

If other communities in Arkansas pass similar resolutions and pressure is placed on state representatives to make an amendment, public pressure will serve as the democratic domino that creates a chain reaction of corresponding public policy.

Petty says he is “optimistic” that the resolution will pass because “limits on public campaign financing are important.”

Others argue that the rights of corporations and other entities are important.

Staff Photo by Blair Jackson: The Occupy the Courts protest was held on the anniversary of the Jan. 20, 2010 Supreme Court decision of Citizens United vs. The Federal Election Commission. The decision deemed it constitutional for corporations to make unlimited contributions to political campaigns.

The logo-spangled banner of the protest is displayed on a supporting website: movetoamend.org. The website offers a proposed amendment that reads “Artificial entities, such as corporations, limited liability companies, and other entities, established by the laws of any State, the United States, or any foreign state shall have no rights under this Constitution and are subject to regulation by the People, through Federal, State, or local law.”

Bradley A. Smith of “The Wall Street Journal” responded to this proposed amendment in an opinion piece entitled “The War on Political Free Speech”. He writes:

“These amendments are based on the leftist cry that ‘corporations aren’t people,’ but the Supreme Court has never said that they are. ‘Corporate personhood’ is a legal fiction that allows natural people to sue and to be sued, to own and transfer property, and to carry on their affairs as a group. Corporations have rights because the people who own them have rights.”

Smith makes the point that corporate personhood is not synonymous with international conglomerates or billion-dollar businesses. He argues that by completely eliminating the “legal fiction” of corporate personhood, the rights of nonprofit groups and special interest groups would be at stake. “Incorporated churches would have no right of worship,” he writes.

The reality of eliminating corporate personhood is still far from fruition, but the continued momentum of the Occupy Wall Street movement brings to light questions about the unlimited campaign financing that can serve to protect the interest of corporations at the negligence of the majority’s welfare. According to Mark Prime, a long-standing member of the Occupy movement, spreading awareness is the main goal of the protests, hoping to encourage citizens to “interject their will and promote democracy.”