[From Arkansas Times ]
NLR rep is America’s highest ranking Green.
With his silver hair, sunglasses, and crisp black suit, Richard Carroll certainly looks the part of a state legislator. A resident of the Baring Cross neighborhood near Fort Roots in North Little Rock, Carroll was elected on the Green Party ticket to represent District 39 back in November, winning more than 80 percent of the vote. Currently, he’s the highest-ranking Green in the United States.
Though he cleans up well, his button-down work as a legislator is a far cry from what he really does for a living: a dirty, dangerous job as a boilermaker for the Union Pacific Railroad, Thanks to what he calls his very “civic minded” employer, Carroll has been allowed to work the night shift at the Union Pacific yards in North Little Rock part time so he can come to the legislature during the day. From 11 p.m. to around 3 in the morning, he helps rebuild locomotives that have been damaged in derailments and accidents. He catches a few catnaps before and after work, and sleeps a lot on weekends. “I get a couple hours sleep before I go in to the Capitol,” he said. “I may stay until 7 o’clock, go home, get a couple more hours sleep, then go to work.”
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