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It’s a challenge trying to be a long-distance Grandpa

Tulsa Beacon

I never met one set of my grandparents, my mother’s parents, the late Amos Whitten Rogers and Elizabeth Mae Rogers of West Virginia. Believe it or not, they were both born in 1875 – 144 years ago! They had 11 children, who were born from 1895 through 1917. My mother was born in 1911. She…

The Memorial Day ceremonies still make me proud of America

Tulsa Beacon

Although it is two months since Memorial Day, it was so meaningful this year that it moved me to tell about it now.  The delay is because while the main media story was the next day, my copier machines are all on the “disabled list” and it was only until mid-July that copies were able…

God-given humor is comforting in my battle with cancer

Tulsa Beacon

Humor is a gift from God – at least I hope so. If not, I’m not sure where my sense of humor came from. Humor produces laughter, and laughter is good medicine for the heart and soul. Ecclesiastes 3:4 tells us there is a time to laugh, “a time to weep and a time to…

Covering the police department can be quite a challenge

Tulsa Beacon

Early in my career as a journalist, I was assigned as a “late night police reporter.” I worked for a big daily newspaper that came out in the mornings. That shift typically was from 3 p.m. to midnight. The newspaper had three staggered editions and the last one – the one that went to people…

Enforcing the laws on the books would cut down on violent crime

Tulsa Beacon

Having been critical, in my opinion, of the misconduct of certain members of the Congress, it seems to be proper to offer some suggestion on how to first stop the progression of violence before more are killed than in the terror shooting in Las Vegas. And then what could be done to reverse this trend…

Petra, Jordan, is one of the seven wonders of the world

Tulsa Beacon

Before I have my cancer surgery, I have taken a couple of weeks to travel to the Middle East with my oldest son, Jeremiah. He teaches high school history and geography and injects insights from his travel experiences into his classes. Besides that, he and I both have an unsatisfied curiosity for knowing what lies…

Some college courses make you want to scratch your head

Tulsa Beacon

When I was at The University of Oklahoma, I took Theory of Basketball, Theory of Baseball, Theory of Wrestling, Theory of Track and Field and, of course, Theory of Football. I was a journalism major and I thought I wanted to be a sportswriter, so I took these courses. All but Theory of Wrestling were…

New Green Deal Democrats are looking for a piggy bank

Tulsa Beacon

Washington governor and Democratic presidential candidate Jay Inslee plans to make climate change the primary focus of his campaign. When asked if transitioning to all renewable energy would require raising taxes, Inslee replied “not necessarily.” He claims one source of funding is to “remove the giant subsidies from the oil and gas companies.” The oil…

Democrat hopefuls racing to get as far left as possible

Tulsa Beacon

Just when you thought national politics couldn’t get any worse, it does. The Democrat debates are a series of desperate candidates trying to outdo each other in making promises that they can’t keep. They are overtly trying to buy votes and the sad fact is – it might just work. One Democrat wants the federal…