For literally the first half of my living and breathing existence, the specter of war between the United States and the nation once known as the Soviet Union was never far down my list of worst fears in this life. What made that particular nightmare so petrifyingly frightening was the potential likelihood of a nuclear…
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The State and the Union
In the two years since a lethal contagion forced us all into lockdown, much has happened in the World and the USA. Much has also happened along this the most conservative stretch of Old Route 66. We all who have survived a global pandemic thus far have demonstrated the ability to do what needed to…
Continue ReadingFinding joy in the divided house
All democracy is a work in progress. Despite its flaws and pitfalls, democratic governance remains the best thing going as a means to unify culturally diverse people and affording all with an array of available options to grow and thrive. In a country that guarantees so many freedoms, it is the responsibility of every person…
Continue ReadingRoe v Wade at 49
The Supreme Court decision that ultimately granted female citizens the privacy to assume control over their own reproductive health has been the law for less than half a century. In spite of this, there are more people living now who have never known America without Roe v Wade than who remember the illegality of pregancy…
Continue ReadingVolume 47: A cataloged first-person account of 2021 CE
Measurement of time in terms of days, months and years is a manmade metric, a means of identifying intangible benchmarks relative to and relevant only to the existence of the human species. These arbitrary milestones have long since become living universal fixtures in the lives of the descendants of those who invented them. The ceremonial…
Continue ReadingPandemic verse two: Covid still in charge
Here we are a year and a half removed from our initial universal lockdown and the old saying holds true: the more things change the more they stay the same. Also too, if nothing changes, nothing changes. Even though myself and many of my friends and associates are fully vaccinated, this whole World seems like…
Continue ReadingThe end of our turn
Afghanistan: The graveyard of empires is busy shoveling dirt on the latest burial. As they cover the final resting place of U.S. military adventurism with Taliban occupied Afghan soil, a continent-sized stage version of the old adage “failing to plan is planning to fail” is playing out before all eyes on the planet. Could the…
Continue Reading50 years of desegregation: Tulsa edition
One claim any American born in the 1940s, 50s and 60s can make that can never be refuted is that we have lived in not only interesting but changing times. While it may be true the technology and wherewithal required to live day to day as a fully engaged citizen in 2021 is a great…
Continue ReadingA move southeast
Many major life-changing decisions present with little if any warning and are often made with a minimum of deliberation and sometimes in outright haste. Some of the most lifestyle-altering selections are made by parties far removed and above and beyond control of most of those affected by them. Some choices may seem impromtu on their…
Continue ReadingThe American legacy of an Oklahoma atrocity
It can be fairly stated that all humanity like all democracy is, in every sense, a work in progress. From its very beginnings the American experiment in self-governance was thought by many to be the World’s best hope for all mankind. This glowing praise was extended even as a sound and seemingly thriving nation eventually…
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