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Columns

We used to wear coats and ties in the Oklahoma heat

Tulsa Beacon

Twenty years ago, I wore a sport coat and tie to work every day even in the heat of the Oklahoma summer. When I got my first professional job – a sports reporter for the Bartlesville Examiner-Enterprise in 1977 – I wore a suit or sport coat to work every day regardless of the weather….

It is encouraging when a child becomes an ‘old schooler’

Tulsa Beacon

Titus the Honorable is just two months shy of 7 years old. Oh, how has the time has flown! Your children grow up fast, but your grandchildren zoom by faster than a small-town parade. During my 47 years of working with students, I have noticed different classes or groups of them, based largely based upon…

Seeing fireworks at Mount Rushmore would be special

Tulsa Beacon

President Donald Trump will attend the July Fourth fireworks display at Mount Rushmore in South Dakota. Two weeks ago, more than 125,000 tickets to the event were requested. That’s significant because there are only 800,000 residents of South Dakota and 180,000 of them live in Sioux Falls – by far the biggest city in that…

Bridging differences takes work but that’s what families do

Tulsa Beacon

One of the things I have missed most about being retired and now with COVID-19 limiting travel is engaging with unreached people groups. Even though I am no longer the head of a mission organization, I can still do mission work. Some of my best times on the mission fields have taken place while living…

I plan to go to ONEOK Field

Tulsa Beacon

It looks like we’re going to have a Major League Baseball season after all, even as COVID cases have increased in some states around the country. Major League Baseball announced last week that a 60-game season will begin on July 23, in MLB stadiums across the U.S. The league and players’ union have reached an…

Vacationing during the coronavirus scare is not normal

Tulsa Beacon

What’s it like to travel by air in the wake of the coronavirus? It’s different, awkward and inconvenient. Earlier this month, I flew to Sioux Falls, South Dakota, on my way to Mitchell, South Dakota, home of my daughter, son-in-law, and my only grandchildren – a grand daughter and a grandson. You can’t fly to…

Making change has changed since the time when I grew up

Tulsa Beacon

After taking thousands of students to the mission field, I noticed a pattern. In days gone by, most of the students could count change in their head. With the inventions of computers and cash registers, the average cashier lets the machine do the work. Growing up in the ’50s and ’60s, learning how to make…

Oklahomans should vote no on State Question 802 June 30

Tulsa Beacon

Proponents of State Question 802—ObamaCare’s Medicaid expansion provision—have kept much of their messaging quite simple: “More Oklahomans on Medicaid and more federal dollars.” But Medicaid expansion is little more than a house of cards, and one that will threaten to collapse on Oklahoma taxpayers, the truly needy, and the state’s rural hospitals. While it’s true…

The government should reconsider all energy subsidies

Tulsa Beacon

As governments struggle to recover from reduced revenue and increased costs caused by the coronavirus pandemic, they will be looking to eliminate non-essential expenditures. Energy subsidies that suck billions of dollars each year from the public purse should be a leading candidate for cancellation. According to Tim Gould, head of energy supply and investment at…

Trump used diplomacy to end the oil price war

Tulsa Beacon

The price for a barrel of West Texas Intermediate crude oil delivered in May recently dropped into negative territory.   Prices have cratered for some simple reasons. When the coronavirus began reducing demand for jet fuel and gasoline, Saudi Arabia and Russia ramped up crude production. They deliberately drove prices to lows not seen since…