A Season of Loss

"To everything there is a season, and a time for every purpose under heaven."Ecclesiastes 3:1The last couple of years have amounted to one long season of loss. Frankly, it's wearing me down.I've been through this kind of thing before, although not quite as extensively as lately. It's been getting to the point where I'm almost hesitant to check my e–mail for fear there will be word that someone else I know has died.Let me backtrack a little here....

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Historical Inevitability

When I was young, I remember my father telling me that America had survived as a nation because it always seemed to get the kind of leadership it needed when it was needed.At the time, I guess it struck me as being his personal version of "Manifest Destiny" — i.e., it is America's destiny to get the kind of leadership it needs when it needs it.I don't remember how old I was when he made this observation to me. I might have been in high school ... might have been in junior high. I don't remember if there was a particular crisis going on when he...

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Oklahoma's First Lady

I used to live in Oklahoma. It's an interesting place — not nearly as backward or one–dimensional as some folks seem to think but, at the same time, most assuredly right wing in some of its political views.Oh, sure, Oklahoma may seem a little stagnant politically. It has voted Republican in presidential elections 14 of the last 15 times, and far too many Oklahomans seem to share the opinions of their senior senator, a political Neanderthal who was first elected to the Senate when I was living there — in a special election to choose the successor...

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There Must Be a Better Way

To this point, I have avoided jumping in to the Shirley Sherrod business.But an issue has been raised that I simply must address.Let me start by saying that, for 30 years, ever since its debut when I was a journalism student at the University of Arkansas, I have admired what Ted Turner wanted to do and sought to do when he created Cable News Network.It isn't an easy task, providing people with up–to–the–second information about news as it develops, but CNN has done an admirable job of trying to tell people about the events that have shaped their...

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A Postscript

Today, I located the cartoon by my ex–college classmate that I mentioned yesterday, and I thought it would be appropriate to post it.I discovered that my memory must have been playing tricks on me because it doesn't exactly call Bill Clinton the "Comeback Kid." What it actually says is, "Kid Comeback."Oh, well, it't still a darn good cartoon. If you lived in Arkansas in those days, you know how dead–on those caricatures of Clinton and Frank White...

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Life Influences

In every life, I suppose, there is a point when someone influences that life and nudges it in the direction that ultimately will define it for good or ill.Sometimes, people have several influences like that. I was one of those people. My mother really got the ball rolling, encouraging me to write from a young age. Her mother–in–law — who went to college at a time when that was not the sort of thing most young women did and had gone on to a career...

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The Way the Wind Blows

"You don't need a weather manTo know which way the wind blows."Bob DylanThe House joined the Senate today in supporting an extension of unemployment benefits.The unemployed will welcome the money. Rent must be paid. Food must be purchased. Clothes, too — and if you're unemployed and you've got minor children, you've got back–to–school items (clothing, notebooks, textbooks) to think about as well.Jobs are gone, but day–to–day expenses continue.But, in many households, even the basics have been put on hold for the last couple of months because Congress...

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The Conflict Between Perception and Reality

That's me on the left. I'm probably about 11 or 12.My grandmother is standing behind me.Yesterday was my grandmother's birthday.Actually, lately I've been wondering if a person's birthday can still be called a "birthday" after that person has died. I suppose it can because it will always be the anniversary of the day she was born, even after the last person who still remembers her has passed away.But the word "birthday" always conjures up images...

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Odds and Sods

It has been a broiling hot July afternoon in Dallas, Texas, and even though the actual temperatures have rarely exceeded the century mark this summer, the humidity (which I believe has been brought on by the unusual rain we got in late June and early July) has been sending the afternoon heat index well past 100° on a regular basis.Just before 3 this afternoon, the actual temperature here in Dallas was 96° (a high of 101° was predicted) and the heat...

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The Die Is Cast

"There are no second acts in American lives."F. Scott FitzgeraldBarack Obama and the Democrats had better hope that F. Scott Fitzgerald was wrong.But, for that to happen, something dramatic is going to have to happen to reverse an ominous trend. The wave of self–confident delusion that Democrats rode into complete power in 2009 has been morphing into a mood of panic and pessimism. White House press secretary Robert Gibbs' recent fretting about whether the Democrats could hold the House in November is merely the latest manifestation, as John Whitesides...

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Hot Enough For You?

They say a picture is worth a thousand words.But there's only one word that would be adequate for this — and it probably wouldn't be appropriate to post it here.I took this picture from the balcony outside my bedroom in Dallas, Texas, around 4:30 this afternoon. If it isn't clear to you, that black–and–white thing is a person dressed in a full–body cow costume. He/she is holding a sign that promotes the management's "m–o–o–o–o–ve in specials" with...

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What A Swell Party This Is

"[S]tyle is important in a president, and Americans react to it in unpredictable ways. ..."The mystery of the American presidency is why and how different occupants of the White House relate to Americans — and how they defy expectations and experience."David ShribmanPittsburgh Post–GazetteI must confess, I don't know much about Pittsburgh Post–Gazette columnist David Shribman's political philosophy.But I do know that I've been reading his stuff recently, and he seems very thoughtful.Anyway, over the weekend he addressed Barack Obama's slippage...

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What's Your Point?

"Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle."PlatoI won't pretend to represent every one of the millions of Americans who are unemployed or partially employed or underemployed.But I am one of those Americans who has been jobless for more than six months — which, at one time, seemed like a l–o–o–o–ng time to be between jobs but, with increasing numbers of Americans reporting being out of work for a year or more, that bar clearly has been adjusted.Anyway, as I say, I don't claim to represent everyone who is out of work. But I have a...

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