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It was said, more out of hope than reality back during the election, that Joe Biden was a centrist not a radical. Sounded good. But about what? Being a centrist. He would pay less attention to the extreme right wing. And is Biden “one of them?” Did we at last elect a Truman Democrat? And what did the “warmers” really want? After day one we found out. The Keystone. The pipeline that passed just east of Allen and attracted so much attention from the metro press. How? Because a small band of protesters met the pipeline workers at every convenient highway crossing. They chained themselves to bulldozers, ditch digging machines after calling the TV stations. Hmm.
Read moreSome health advisors are fearing that our current pandemic of COVID-19 could continue on for several more years. That is if we keep on blundering in our fight against this virus like we have been. The hope has been for a combination of factors such as this new vaccine against the virus and hope this would get us to the point of no more COVID-19. Not so. Early results show a big flaw in our plans.
Read moreLast week was when a big political rally for Trump went awry. Or was that Trump that went awry? Sedition? Coup? Who did this? Blame who you want, it looks like it is time to pay the bill. I do not know how much damage was done to our Capitol building but it was significant. But even more so was the damage to our reputation as a stable democracy. You can forget that “light on a hill” stuff for now. Maybe we can relight that beam again. Sometime or other. But do not hold your breath.
Read moreIt was on April 12, 1944 when the radio announcer alerted us to an upcoming and important news bulletin we paused and listened. Yes, Franklin Roosevelt had just died and the new man taking his place was a guy named Harry Truman. Who? We worshiped FDR and this Truman, a nondescript Senator from Missouri, did not look like a president.
Read moreChristmas is the greatest time of the year. In 1938 my parents moved us (Mom, Dad, Gerald, and me) from Allen to a town called Centrahoma. There I met Letha Mae. It was there I started paying attention to Christmas. But like some other materialistic folk my age over there, I was really concerned with the season for Christmas gifts. Santa Claus became a big mysterious person of interest.
Read moreChristmas is the greatest time of the year. In 1938 my parents moved us (Mom, Dad, Gerald, and me) from Allen to a town called Centrahoma. There I met Letha Mae. It was there I started paying attention to Christmas. But like some other materialistic folk my age over there, I was really concerned with the season for Christmas gifts. Santa Claus became a big mysterious person of interest.
Read moreBurl Ives can sing his little heart out about having a merry-little Christmas this year but how merry can it be with Covid-19 dictating the way we live and what we do. Never been a Christmas like this one. After struggling through an awfully hard year, many Americans are just now discovering that this Pandemic is affecting them in another personal way. Tens of thousands of survivors have severely damaged lungs and will never recover to their old healthy ways. Sadder still are the thousands who had loved ones die. In many cases they died and were buried without funerals. Such is our state of fear.
Read moreThanksgiving is a kickoff date for the holiday season. So much to be thankful for. God and country and pure clean cold water as near as our tap. Back in 1964 I moved to Allen. I had checked the town out fairly good, I thought. I even asked about the town’s water. “Lots of it, and it is cheap,” came the Chamber of Commerce reply. However, right after we moved from Ada customers down at the Pharmacy started bringing us empty 1-gallon jugs. “To haul water from the springs,” they told us. “You’ll need these jugs.”
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