Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

Huckabee Touts Red Ribbon Week

Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee was in town Monday touting Red Ribbon Week.

Flying in and landing the helicopter on the Prescott High School football field, Huckabee urged the student body filling the stands to avoid alcohol, drugs and tobacco.

"It's your life," he told the students. "You need to make sure you live it the way you want to and not how someone else wants you to live it."

No one, he said, starts out with the ambition of becoming a drug user and wanting to ruin their health. No one, Huckabee added, ever believes they will end up this way.

Still, many young people experiment with drugs and alcohol, he said, and don't end up any happier. "Decisions you make today," Huckabee told the students, "will follow you from now on. You need to promise yourselves you don't want a life of drugs, alcohol and tobacco. It can only hurt you, not help.

"You don't want to put something in your system that will make you forget what a good time you were supposed to be having."

He told the students as they think about the choices they have to make, they also need to be thinking about their government. "It doesn't belong to me," he said, "I'm just the governor. The people are the boss of Arkansas."

In our system of government, he said, those elected are the servants, while the voting public are the real bosses of the state. "All votes count,' Huckabee said.

He then turned to the topic of campaigning, saying negative campaigning isn't the way candidates should try to get elected.

Tearing someone down to make oneself look better in the eyes of the voters is improper, he said. Instead, candidates should work to see how good they can make the state and nation look. They should be saying things and doing things to make the situation better for everyone and let others do the same.

The easiest job in the world is that of a critic, he said. The critic only complains about things and tells how they should have been done, never having done them himself.

"If you can't do better than the person out there," he said, "it's best to encourage those who do. You need to be a constructive person and find good in everyone cheer them on."

Returning to the topic of Red Ribbon Week, currently underway, Huckabee reminded the students this is their lives and they need to make decisions to make it the best life they can possibly have.