As the Presidency of Barack Obama enters its final hours, I wax nostalgic and remember fondly the breath of hope his victory in 2008 gave many of us in the face of frightening national and world events. His impressive fifty state grassroots campaign for President of the United States bore the embodiment and inspiration of…
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Transitioning into resistance mode
One of my more caustic memories of the 2016 campaign involved an incident experienced by my local Democratic state house candidate. One of his campaign signs placed along side of a busy thoroughfare was vandalized. An obvious Trump supporter stapled a placard over both sides of the sign with the following message: THE SILENT MAJORITY…
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New year, new era, newspeak
Regular readers may have noted that I have on occasion made the statement “let it never be said we do not live in interesting times.” I will now add to that particular train thought to never let it be said that America is not unique among nations. The USA is indeed the occupant of a…
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Farewell 2016: Wrapping up Volume 42
As the year winds down, this is the time I tend to get introspective and wax philosophical on the record of the past twelve months which I have kept on a daily basis. When I key in my account of the final day of December 2016 this evening it will be the 366th entry of…
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Internalizing the new normal
Here we are facing the winter of our discontent in that ten week period between Election Day and Inauguration Day when the outgoing Presidential administration is wrapping up business and the incoming one is preparing for a successful run. Things have, with a few exceptions, cooled down. We Democrats are still licking our wounds and…
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I remember Pearl Harbor
I can never think about Pearl Harbor, the December 7th, 1941 attack, any book or movie about it or any story an old veteran ever told me regarding it without vividly remembering my time serving on or near that hallowed body of water and the ground surrounding it. Today, the 75th anniversary of the attack…
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Goodbye Leon
Last Sunday morning when I was still smarting from the election results with thoughts flashing through my head about things not being able to get any worse, I got jolted back to reality with more sobering news. When I read in my social media news feed that entertainer Leon Russell had died in his sleep,…
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Processing the results: Arriving at my fork in the road
As of 1:45 AM CST this past Wednesday morning all members of the Democratic majority throughout the nation and along this the most conservative stretch of Old Route 66 who care passionately about their country and its future have been working through the five stages of grief after Tuesday’s historically cataclysmic electoral loss. I, like…
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My take on the outcome of the 2016 General Election
As an Oklahoma Democrat, this is how I view the results of the 2016 General Election in my mind’s eye: I need to update the page on this blog to reflect yet another Presidential election where 77 out of 77 counties in Oklahoma were carried by the Republican ticket. Believe it or…
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What a wonderful rainy day for a poll dance
My dear brothers, sisters, readers of Reason Rest Stop and only friends, history is upon us today as General Election Day 2016 has arrived! I awoke early to a rainy, drizzly but at least not a cold morning. I got ready and dressed and made my way over to my voting precinct, which is literally…
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