In light of the events of the past 72 hours across the country, I decided to resend this Letter from Hot Springs I wrote in 2016 while I was living in Arkansas writing The Vapors. This was written during a national debate over the display of the confederate flag, and before the election of Donald Trump. The musings on the confederacy and the flag debate seem almost quaint compared with the uprising that is currently happening in response to the most recent murders of unarmed black people at the hands of police. But the story of the little-known riot in Hot Springs in 1970 in response to a flag burning and shooting seemed like an important thing to revisit, particularly for readers of this newsletter who enjoy Hot Springs history and may not know that the city was once saw its own share of the kind of conflict now raging across America.
Old times there are not forgotten
Old times there are not forgotten
Old times there are not forgotten
In light of the events of the past 72 hours across the country, I decided to resend this Letter from Hot Springs I wrote in 2016 while I was living in Arkansas writing The Vapors. This was written during a national debate over the display of the confederate flag, and before the election of Donald Trump. The musings on the confederacy and the flag debate seem almost quaint compared with the uprising that is currently happening in response to the most recent murders of unarmed black people at the hands of police. But the story of the little-known riot in Hot Springs in 1970 in response to a flag burning and shooting seemed like an important thing to revisit, particularly for readers of this newsletter who enjoy Hot Springs history and may not know that the city was once saw its own share of the kind of conflict now raging across America.