Heard on the local (Omaha) radio broadcast

Other than the Clintons I didn't have any reason to dislike anyone from Arkansas until you posted. Hope it does not reflect the general conduct of the fan base. If so, it's going to be a long three or four days. I could go on and on about the negative stereotypes of people from Arkansas, but they likely are not accurate and unfair.

color me stupid but I thought in Arkansas you could marry family?

hawgballin said:
I dont mind 2nd chances in a lot of life. Lord knows ive had my fair share. However, that rapist deserves a 2nd chance only when that girl no longer has to deal with the nightmares of what he did to her. One of the few rules from the south, dont mess with women or children. Lucky for him he is up with yall. He would have already had his **** cut off down here!

I thought it was ok in your parts if they were kin?

Unless ya al is rich familee is al ya can merry

This thread alone made my go from the casual guest on this forum to wanting to actually say something.

First, I understand as an opposing fan, that the Luke story is low hanging fruit and easy to rush to judgement. Maybe our fans would do the same if Luke was on your team. I hope we never know. And I know the temptation is there to respond with further ignorance.

I'll respond with my own experience in hopes of my perspective influencing yours in a favorable way.

I was in my mid twenties and got a call from a detective following up on a report of my 3 year old step-son being physically abused (not sexual). He told me that if I came in and took a polygraph, it would basically exonerate me or implicate me further. Evidently, the boy had some welts and bruising on his butt, and had been coerced into a story that I had beat him with a wooden spoon. I've spanked my children on occasion, but never with anything other than my hand. So, the day comes and it was a very intimidating process. You are in this small room alone with a detective and you have so much stuff connected to you, that it's almost like being in a hospital. They monitor your heart beat, your breathing, blood pressure. And so the questioning begins... They start off easy to get a baseline of how stressed you are answering obvious questions, and then the tough questions start coming. Are you responsible for the marks to the boy? Did you hit this child with a wooden spoon? Each question, I answered honestly. The detective finishes his questioning and begins to analyze the results with me. Deceptive on the last 2 questions. I don't remember the percentage of likely deception, but based on the wooden spoon question being less deceptive of the more general one, the detective knew I was being honest. It's been over 20 years, and I might be wrong on specific details, but not the overall assertion. He knew that I had given it thought about the possibility that I had spanked him and somehow had caused it even though I didn't believe it. That second guessing, no matter how minuscule was enough for me to be stressed when he asked me about it. The case was dropped, and I returned to my normal life.

I cannot imagine a 15 year old passing this test numerous times if he had even the slightest shred of guilt. Yes, he pled guilty to a unimaginable crime. But, if you can for a moment, take the same amount of time that it took you to post this, to ponder the idea that just maybe Luke is telling the truth. Imagine what it would feel like to have people treat you as if you were a monster when you've maintained your innocence throughout the entire ordeal. I dunno.

For our fans, I hope we can take the high road. Arkansas is great place to visit with great people. Don't let the few ruin it for the many. And I hope you don't ruin it for the rest of us about what Beaver Nation is about.

Go Beavs!