Dear Editor, What's worse; an economy that crashes completely or a higher Covid-19 death rate as people go back to work and increasing the spread of the virus. I think the answer is simple: If we don't go back to work our economy will bottom out and it will take us decades to recover...

By the time you read this, I’ll have taken up residence in Russellville, Arkansas. Things have just become too much for me to deal with them alone in McCook and so I’m moving to where I have a support system in the personages of my two sons, Michael and Will, and my ex-wife Linda. ...

I was born on October 7, 1945 at St. Vincent’s Infirmary in Little Rock, Arkansas. That makes me an age I never thought in a million years I would see and quite frankly I don’t know what to do with it. That’s because my life has been pretty structured up until my retirement and now it’s not structured at all...

I’m sure many of you have already heard this story but if you have, it’s almost a requirement that you hear it again and if you haven’t, you need to hear it and not forget it. Last week, in a youth football league where the maximum age to play is seven, there is a rule that no team can score more than 30 points. ...

Two or three times a year, I make a trip south, always for dual purposes. The main reason is to go see my boys who are living in Arkansas and Oklahoma. Michael teaches a 5th grade history class at Waymon Tisdale performing arts elementary school in Tulsa and Will is job searching after retiring from Bank of American after 10 years. ...

While channel surfing DirecTV the other night, I came upon a show I used to watch in my weaker moments called Dog, The Bounty Hunter. It fell out of favor with me after a few episodes and I had not thought anything about it until the news broke that his wife had final stage cancer. So I decided to watch the particular episode I had found...

I’ve written before about growing up in a society that was essentially politics-free. I was an adolescent during the Eisenhower years and a teenager during the Kennedy years. It was a period of compromise in order to get things done for the people rather than visions of grandeur for the individual politician. And that made for a culture that didn’t argue too much about politics; in fact a culture that didn’t even talk about politics that much...

As legalized casino and sports gambling gets the okay from states across the union, the never-ending question always arises again. Is legalized gambling good or bad; both for people and the states the gambling takes place in? We’ll look at both sides of the issue in my column today...

For those of us who lived then, the ’60s were the greatest, scariest, most productive, most violent decade in the history of the world. During that decade we were engaged in a war in Vietnam that millions of Americans opposed and because of that, things were happening that shocked the sensibilities of most Americans. ...

The newest addiction involves an act or behavior I’m sure most of you have never thought about but, according to the scientific experts, it is just as real and deadly as being addicted to meth or cocaine. It’s an addiction to video games. Most of us have known about obsessive-compulsive behavior for a long time and, consequently, we’re no stranger to it or its qualities. ...

Gene and I were good friends. Not the kind of friends that hung out together or socialized together but good friends nevertheless. Perhaps the impetus for that friendship was the fact we were both Democrats in an area of the country where there aren’t many. But I know we connected soon after I moved here in 1995 and stayed connected until his death...

Sociologists have a phrase they like to use when explaining human behavior. It’s called front stage and back stage behavior. Front stage behavior means the behavior and attitude we show to others and back stage behavior is the behavior and attitude we either keep to ourselves or is shown to a very select group of people. ...

For centuries, parents raised their children essentially the same way. This was accomplished because change in society occurred so slowly. Parents knew their children were going to grow up and experience the same kind of world the parents had so it was easy to give instruction on how to do that. ...

The thing I miss most about living in Nebraska with my boys in Arkansas and Oklahoma is that I don’t get to see them often enough. I’ve never been one of those people who act and believe like we’re going to live forever and we have plenty of time to do whatever we want to do. ...

I suspect Gretna, Nebraska is very similar to McCook, Nebraska and the other towns around us. We’re separated by distance (Gretna is 268 miles from McCook) but because our population size is similar (Gretna has about three thousand people less than McCook) one would conclude that culturally and socially we are much more alike than different...

Sometimes I find myself ahead of the news with my columns instead of behind it and that has happened again in regards to my column about UFO’s and the like. The lead story in this week’s edition of “The Week” is all about taking UFO’s seriously. In a nutshell, here’s what the story had to say...

I was finishing my first year as a police officer in Tulsa and had recently gotten married when I received my letter from Uncle Sam. It was the summer of 1968, one of the most active and violent years of the Vietnam War and he thought it was my time to serve. ...

When I was a kid growing up in Atkins, Arkansas, there were two state newspapers operating daily, both from Little Rock. The Arkansas Gazette ran in the morning and the Arkansas Democrat ran in the afternoon. We only subscribed to the morning paper and I remember reading it was the first thing I did after I got up in the morning. ...

There has been a long standing debate among the experts (psychologists, psychiatrists, sociologists, social workers, etc.) as to the difference between addiction and dependence. Many within the same field even disagree on the meaning but the meanings have always had a clear difference to me. Simply put, addiction is a physical craving for something that has addictive qualities whereas dependence is a psychological need for something that doesn’t possess addictive qualities...

My boys and I have always loved the horse races. Me because I grew up with them living in Arkansas and them because I loved them. But we hadn’t been to a live horse race in a long time so back in February, we decided to attend historic Oaklawn Park in Hot Springs, one of the premier thoroughbred horse tracks in America. ...

Work in society has been pretty much the same since the Industrial Revolution when we moved from an agrarian society to a machine society. That was a time when people who had worked at the same jobs their entire lifetimes as their parents and grandparents did had to learn a new line of work that had been completely foreign to them up until then...

Twenty years or so ago, Mike O’Dell was putting together a weekly paper in McCook to compete with the Gazette and asked me to write a weekly column for it. In his introduction of me and my column, he described me as being “irascible.” That word is defined as having or showing a tendency to be easily angered which I disagreed with because that has never been my nature. But I do sometimes fit a secondary characterization of the word as being “edgy.”...

The Washington Post has determined that up through 801 days of being President, Donald Trump made false or misleading statements or claims 9,451 times. That’s 11.8 a day, every day. That would be absolutely shocking and unforgiveable if the rest of us weren’t doing it too but we are. We’ve become a dishonest nation and I remember when we weren’t...

Human beings are born essentially tabula rasa or a “blank slate.” That simply means we have to learn how to do everything through living and replicating the behaviors we see in others because we aren’t born with any a priori knowledge. Scientists generally agree that some people are born with certain skills or abilities but even those have to be nurtured through interactions with others. ...

I’m currently reading a new release by Joan Biskupic called The Chief The Life and Turbulent Times of Chief Justice John Roberts. It has always been my practice to know the opposite side as well as they know themselves because you can’t argue effectively against them unless you know who they are and what they stand for. ...

I’ve been retired from teaching at the college for three years now and that’s enough time to give me perspective on the profession I chose for myself and the way I’m handling life without it. I didn’t fall in love with teaching right away. I kind of sleep-walked through my first experience as a college student which ended without a college degree and joining the police department in Tulsa. ...

This is always a strange week, at least for the Hendricks family. My youngest son Will and his wife Erica celebrated their ninth wedding anniversary on March 13, which is also the birthday of my oldest son Brandon, who died in San Diego while serving in the Navy eighteen years ago. Will decided to get married on Brandon’s birthday as an honor and remembrance of him but it also brings back those tragic memories to everyone in the family...

The Las Vegas odds have been posted for the 2020 Presidential Election and they’re pretty interesting. I’m sure many if not most of you weren’t even aware that Vegas posts odds on elections but they have for some time. For the Presidential election that occurs every four years, they post their first set of odds in November, two full years before the election and then update them as the election grows closer. ...

I’ve lived in McCook since 1995 and this is the worst winter I can remember, at least in terms of cold temperatures, and the worst part of winter is bearing down on us this weekend. Snow is due to start falling sometime today and continue through Sunday with moderate to heavy snow falling Saturday night and Sunday morning which will count for more accumulating snow. ...

I grew up in the solidly segregationist South in the 1940s, ’50s and ’60s. It was not unusual for everyone to have a little racial prejudice in them and most people had a lot. I was born in Little Rock, Arkansas, and then taken to the small town of Atkins, Arkansas, where I spent the next 17 years. ...

Last Monday at lunch, the proprietor of one of the busiest restaurants in McCook came out to where I was sitting to congratulate me on my even-handed approach to understanding the airline service we have in McCook and the consequences of such. He told me that I did a masterful job of explaining the dilemmas we sometimes face when dealing with a small airline without putting the blame on anyone except maybe Boutique personnel in Denver. ...

Everybody has an idea for what they believe whether it’s a good idea or not. And there are bad ideas. Ideas based on rumor, bias, prejudice, discrimination, gossip, or indirect knowledge are bad ideas. Ideas based on facts or direct observation are usually good ideas but even those are not good ideas all the time. ...

In the movie “Wall Street,” Michael Douglas who was playing Gordon Gecko uttered a line during a stockholder’s meeting that became not only the lynchpin for the movie but also the primary rule of entrepreneurship back then when he said “Greed is Good.” Since that movie was released, greed has become the guiding principle for most business transactions done in this country. The theory surrounding a deal used to be “What’s good for the most people.” Today it’s “what’s good for me.”...

The person Republicans hate more than any other Democrat, Nancy Pelosi, was elected House Majority Leader by her Democratic colleagues the other day and Mitch McConnell, who Democrats hate more than any other Republican maintained his position of Senate Majority Leader. ...

All of our celebrations, including Christmas, begin way too early anymore. When I was a kid, there was a two-week window, now it’s a month and sometimes longer. In fact, when one holiday is over, we begin to celebrate the next one. This is fueled primarily by business interests who have products to sell and they want to sell as many as possible. ...

My good friend and fellow columnist Dick Trail flies and I fly but boy, do we fly differently. I’m not a pilot and he is so he almost always flies private with him piloting the plane most of the time and I always fly commercial. Obviously, our experiences are going to be different and sometimes drastically so...

RUSSELLVILLE, Ark. — The climate experts agree that the earth underwent a cooling down period from the 1940s through the 1970s. Part of that period was when I was in public schools in Atkins, Ark., and during that time, I remember several snowfalls each winter with some of them being significant. The kids always loved those because not only was school canceled, we got to play in the snow all day long as well as having snow ice cream to eat during our breaks...

Well, it’s time to go to Arkansas again to see my boys. I go several times a year but I always go around Christmas time because that’s when both their birthdays are. In fact, when Linda and I were married, December was a month we both looked forward to and dreaded at the same time because of all the special days in it...

Ever since I was old enough to remember, I’ve always loved the holiday season. For a month or so, from Thanksgiving to Christmas, things just seem to change. People are friendlier, more socially engaging, and more likely to help a friend in need. Salutations of Happy Thanksgiving and Merry Christmas abound wherever you go and wherever you are. ...

Depending on where you look, you’ll find different definitions for habits and addictions because there is no one definition for either that everyone agrees on. As a Sociology professor, I had to arrive at a definition for each that I could use without fail because it was a definition I believed in and I managed to do that early in my teaching career...

Many people are saying the Democrats didn’t get the blue wave on Tuesday they were hoping for but I disagree. Before the election, most Democrats and a lot of Republicans agreed that the Democrats had a good chance of taking back the House of Representatives and the Republicans would most likely hold on to the Senate. ...

It was on September 11, 1970 when Vice-President Spiro Agnew, speaking at the California Republican’s State Convention, described the press as “nattering nabobs of negativism” because of their investigation of the Nixon White House. So we flash forward 48 years to hear similar sentiments coming from Donald Trump, even though his comments are much more explosive. ...

For those of you who don’t know, Megyn Kellly is a former Fox News employee who was recently hired by NBC News to anchor the 9 a.m. version of the Today show. She drew intense criticism Tuesday morning when she questioned whether wearing blackface as part of a Halloween costume is actually racist during a segment on her show...

This past Monday night at some hour, I was taking the magical mystery tour across my apartment for one of several nightly trips to the bathroom when the lights went out. Not literally because I always sleep in total darkness but figuratively because my own lights went out. ...

A few months ago, I found out about a new reality television show on A&E called LIVE PD. The promise of the show was to have cameramen ride with on-duty patrol officers and film their encounters with the public. I tuned in on the first night because I remember what it was like for me and wanted to see what had changed in the years since I wore the uniform. ...

Although I’m a lifelong Democrat, I found the latest assault on Donald Trump’s Supreme Court nominee tasteless, opportunistic and politically motivated. I know of very few men who could withstand an FBI investigation into their behaviors during high school and I suspect Brett Kavanaugh is no different. ...

This argument has been raging forever. There is a perception that colleges are a hotbed of liberalism and any student who attends will be brainwashed from all sides to be liberal too. Although a popular perception, it’s one that isn’t true, although it has some caveats...

I’ve been asked a version of the title of this week’s column by every Republican I know since they came out with the Fall ad campaign that features Colin Kaepernick. People in this part of the country, along with other locations, were shocked and dismayed at the news, not understanding at all what provoked Nike into doing it...

The lead story yesterday on practically every news broadcast was the searing column attacking President Trump that appeared in the New York Times editorial section. It was especially controversial because even though it claimed to be written by a senior administration official, the column was submitted anonymously...

We use the term “hero” way too often these days. You’re not a hero if you join the police department, or the fire department, or the military. You have to DO something besides being a member to earn that title. John McCain and his band of brothers certainly did that during his five-year stay at the infamous Hanoi Hilton during the Vietnam War. ...

I know that since North Platte is three times larger than McCook, its airline service is going to be significantly different than ours and it is. Many of you remember that after my last flying fiasco with Boutique Airlines in Denver, I said in this column I would never fly them again and I meant it. On two trips to Arkansas since, I drove the first one and took United out of North Platte last weekend. The difference in the two airlines was as dramatic as daylight and dark...

Before the Internet and social media took hold of our souls, it used to be fairly easy to tell the difference between real news and fake news but it’s not anymore. That’s because we’re inundated by both 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and our BS filter simply doesn’t work nearly as well as it used to. They don’t because outright lies and distortions are much more likely to see the light of day today than they were in generations past and be seen by many more people on top of that...

Most normal people agree that no one should be forced to do anything they don’t want to do by someone else. And that’s especially true in the gender battles that have been going on for decades now because of man’s perceived superior position over women. So it wasn’t surprising to see the Me2 movement erupt at a time where women are finally standing up for themselves and being heard...

I read a couple of posts on Facebook this past week that were pretty hard to believe. One said they would trust a Russian before a Democrat and the other asserted that Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton were the two biggest terrorists in the world. We’ve always had partisan politics because each side has what they believe to be their own best way of governing and it tends to conflict directly with the way the other party sees it. ...

I’ve been teaching and writing for 30 years about the most important function the President of the United States has is to make Supreme Court nominations. It’s his most important job for two major reasons. First of all, any person appointed to the Supreme Court serves for life. ...

The drive to Arkansas and back was uneventful but long and boring. No matter how you split it up or what kind of vehicle you’re in, you’re still driving ten and a half hours by yourself and that’s no fun. On top of that, spending the night going and coming added on to the usual fuel costs and incidentals totaled more than an airline ticket would have so I’m going to have to rethink my travel plans before my next trip down there...

RUSSELLVILLE, Arkansas — As promised, I didn't fly Boutique Airlines when I decided to come to Arkansas for Father's Day. Since my last malady with them, I have heard negative stories from other people about the service with all the problems originating in Denver. This obviously isn't fair to local Boutique employees who are doing nothing wrong but one of the assurances we have is that when you fly out of a place, you'll be able to fly back in. That's often not the case with Boutique...

I was a child of the ’50s and life was pretty perfect back then. There were few regulations, we minded our parents, there were no school shootings or gang violence and we could do practically anything we wanted to do, provided we came home before the street lights came on. ...

I’ve been enamored by knowledge for as long as I can remember. My uncle, who was a wise old man in his own right, told me when I was very young that the more you knew, the more control you were of your own life and I’ve never forgotten that. On top of that, learning for me was fun. ...

On July 25th, 2000, Air France Flight 4590, better known as the Concorde, ran over a small strip of metal during takeoff at Charles DeGaulle Airport in Paris, causing a tire to explode and sending fragments into one of the engines which caused the plane to have its first fatal accident, killing all 109 people on board along with three on the ground. The crash eventually led to the Concorde fleet being grounded and the public lost its only supersonic flight, perhaps forever...

Of all the things that have gotten turned upside down during the Trump presidency, the most obvious one has been the press. It has been held in high esteem by most people for as long as this country has been in existence and now it’s being shattered and maligned by the President and his supporters in ways not seen before...

Linda and I had been married only 6 months when our first Mother’s Day rolled around. So not only was I new at knowing what to do on Mother’s Day, I was new at knowing what to do as a husband. The day passed by quietly and as we were watching television at around 11 o’clock that night, Linda politely but firmly informed me that I hadn’t wished her a happy Mother’s Day. ...

I attended the retirement party this past Wednesday for another longtime professor at McCook Community College and it provided me the opportunity to pause and reflect on what MCC used to be and what it is now. Three years ago, Jim Garretson, Jim Hall and I all retired and left the college with almost 100 years of teaching experience and now Lynn Salyer has retired with almost 40 years of experience. ...

Yesterday was a big day in the hearts and minds of football fans from coast to coast. It was the first day of the NFL draft and everyone was wondering who would get drafted and how high they would go. Leading the charge were the so-called “experts” from the broadcast networks and they pontificated for hours before the draft started about who would go high and who wouldn’t. ...

The popular song used in the title of this week’s column recorded by Credence Clearwater Revival is particularly important to everyone living close by this weekend. The National Weather Service has issued several warnings concerning the storm moving into our area today and has used at least two phrases I’ve not seen in the 23 years I’ve lived here. When they talk about life-threatening conditions with wind gusts up to 80 mph, it’s time to take them seriously...

Police work has long been rumored to be the most likely place for racial prejudice and the reasons for that are well known. First of all, police work is attractive to a certain kind of person more likely than not to be authoritarian, expressive, and has a need to be in control. ...

I’m beginning to think it’s not my own bad luck that causes me problems whenever I fly because it happened yet again. I was due to fly out of McCook at 7 a.m., making connections in Denver later that morning and getting into Bentonville, AR at 4:30, in time to see the Razorback baseball team play Kentucky...

I’ve always been a big sports fan and continue to be so it’s not strange that all my friends in and around McCook are sports fans too. And I heard a collective gnashing of teeth last week when we all found out that Nebraska didn’t get a spot in the NCAA basketball playoffs. I’m sure the uproar was just as big in other parts of the state although I wasn’t privy to that...

We’re used to playing golf every month, including all the winter months, in McCook but not this year. It has been a cold and snowy winter and we still have the potential for snow storms through April. I’m sure not many of you have forgotten the 18-inch snow we had on the last day of April last year. This is the way winter used to be in McCook and around the country when I was growing up...

Two major issues have exploded in America over the last few weeks and they are the Me Too movement and yet another school shooting. I’m not going to write a column about the latest school shooting because I think most people know what my feelings are and my feelings aren’t likely to change the feelings of anyone else in this part of the country...

I think every generation looks back on their lives and decides the time they were young to be the best and the baby boomer generation is no different. Hardly a day goes by that someone doesn’t post on Facebook how good the 50’s were and how we all survived without hardly any of the rules and regulations we have today...

I think every generation looks back on their lives and decides the time they were young to be the best and the baby boomer generation is no different. Hardly a day goes by that someone doesn’t post on Facebook how good the 50’s were and how we all survived without hardly any of the rules and regulations we have today...

I’m sure that many if not most of you have seen the ads posted in this newspaper for the past couple of weeks advertising Loop Brewing Company new breakfast menu. They’ve been open for several years now, featuring craft brews plus lunch and dinner and decided to branch into breakfast. ...

Some things appear to be similar or even the same at first glance but upon looking at them further, we discover they’re not the same at all. That can be said about fellow columnist Dick Trail’s observations about my son’s career change at the tender age of 40. ...

First of all, let me apologize for not publishing a column for the past two weeks. Week before last I encountered a computer glitz that couldn’t be fixed by me and last week I was in Arkansas without a computer. The Arkansas trip was for the purpose of taking our middle son, Michael, to the University of Oklahoma for enrollment in the broadcast meteorology program there. ...

If you’re on Facebook, you’ve seen the comments about all the things we used to do when we were kids that kids aren’t allowed to do anymore and most of us seemed to grow up okay. This is a slap at over-regulation and the government trying to become parents of children. Although some of the laws make sense, others don’t and many people simply want their freedom back to do as they please...

When I was growing up in the small town of Atkins, Arkansas, the one holiday I looked forward to more than all the others combined was Christmas. The idea of Santa Claus and his flying reindeer traversing the whole world in one night to bring presents to deserving boys and girls was just magical. ...

For the first time in 25 years, Alabamians have elected a Democratic senator in the reddest of red states in America. Judge Roy Moore was defeated by 21,000 votes by a Democrat former prosecutor who gained convictions of racists in Alabama who were responsible for the deaths of small children in a church bombing. So the contrasts between these two candidates were significant...

I flew down to Arkansas last weekend for my middle son’s 40th birthday. How fast time goes by has always amazed me because it just seems like yesterday I was celebrating MY 40th birthday. But time doesn’t wait for anyone so my focus was on Michael. Regular readers of this column know that maladies often befall me whenever I fly and I didn’t even have to get on the plane before they started this time around. ...

To understand what sexual harassment is, you first have to know what it isn’t. It isn’t flirting, it isn’t complimenting someone on how they look or the clothes they have on or their physical attractiveness. Those kinds of things happen every day in practically every business and school in America and have been happening for as long as they’ve been in existence. ...

One of the things that really rubs me the wrong way is to see the number of Americans who are throwing away their heritage on a daily basis. Of all the places on earth to be born, they were born here and yet so many don’t seem to recognize that good fortune. The chances of a person not only surviving but prospering in the United States is higher than any other country in the world and that’s a big reason why immigrants want to move here...

In light of the recent outburst of sexual harassment charges lodged against powerful and important men by men and women they encountered in their lives, it seems only proper to examine Bill Clinton’s political life again too. Bill was from Hope, Ark., and was a saxophone player in the high school band and also the band’s drum major. ...

Garth Brooks had a hit song several years back that dealt with the topic of this week’s column. In the song was a line, “Sometimes I thank God for unanswered prayers” because the song was about a lost love he had grieved over for some time until he found a new love that was much better than the one he had lost...

This week two more prominent men were accused of inappropriate sexual touching or sexual harassment as the list continues to grow. Mark Halperin, a journalist and author of Game Change, a book about Sara Palin’s failed bid for the Vice-Presidency, has been accused by five women of inappropriate touching and sexual misconduct along with former President George H.W. ...

Harvey Weinstein got his fifteen minutes of fame this week in a way I’m sure he never wanted it. Several women have gone public with accusations of sexual harassment by him, culminating in his wife divorcing him. Weinstein was a Hollywood mogul who exercised great power in determining who got certain roles in movies and the casting couch was certainly no stranger to him. In fact, his explanation for doing the things that he did to women was “That’s just the way things were done back then.”...

I haven’t written about sports in quite a while but developments this week mandated that I do so today. The Nebraska football team has been installed as a 25 point underdog at home this Saturday to the Ohio State Buckeyes. That makes them the biggest underdog they have been since 1956 when they played Oklahoma and won only one game that year...

The FBI defines mass murder as the murder of four or more people during the same incident and time frame and Americans are really good at it. The United States makes up only 4.4% of the world’s population but is responsible for 31% of the world’s mass shooting incidents. And this obviously doesn’t count the carnage that goes on in the streets of America’s cities every day...

I’ve heard from many in this conservative enclave we call home during the past week or so that the NFL has a rule that addresses player conduct and that it specifically details behavior to follow during the playing of the National Anthem. This is a timely subject this week because isolated examples of protest during the pre-game festivities reached a boiling point this past Sunday, culminating in teams either kneeling in unison or staying off the playing field until the National Anthem had been played. ...

Another Christian prognosticator, among others, is predicting the end of the world again. This time it’s going to be tomorrow, Saturday, September 23rd, when Planet X, also called Nibira, collides with earth. David Meade, a self-described “specialist in research and investigations,” claims that on the aforementioned date, a constellation will reveal itself in the skies over Jerusalem signaling the beginning of the end of the world as we know it. ...

One of the reasons Trump supporters backed him for President was his opposition to minority groups, including immigrants, having special rights that others don’t have. This was first called Affirmative action and the concept goes back to the early 1960s. It was seen as a way to combat racial discrimination in the hiring process and was later expanded to address gender discrimination. It was created by Executive Order 10925, signed by President John F. Kennedy on March 6, 1961...

When I accepted the instructor job at McCook Community College in 1995, we had to deal with several things as a family. My wife was hesitant to move again since our boys were juniors and freshmen in high school, plus she had never been to Nebraska and didn’t want to feel isolated the way she had when I was Assistant Professor at Northwestern Oklahoma State University...

A few weeks ago, the McCook Gazette reported of a ‘suspicious death’ being discovered in Hitchcock County. To my knowledge, nothing further about this case has been reported by the local media. I say to my knowledge because the Gazette is the only local media I read or listen to. I don’t listen to local radio stations or watch regional television stations so if it’s not printed in the Gazette, I usually don’t know about it...

Last weekend started with a drive to Lincoln on Saturday to hook up with my boys, Michael and Will. They had driven in on Friday for a concert and Will and Erica (Will’s wife) were going to one on Saturday night as well that Michael had no interest in so he and I were going to meet at my hotel. ...

With students moving into McCook this week in anticipation of college classes starting on Monday, I think a look at how colleges have transitioned over the years is pretty appropriate. I loved college. I graduated high school at 17 in 1963 and three months later was on my way to rush week at the University of Arkansas by myself. ...

There is an occurrence that has always been present in marriages and is as prevalent today as ever and to identify it in the least offensive terms, it’s called cheating and cheating is defined as being unfaithful to your spouse. There are a thousand reasons for it, each one different and unique based on the situation and the individual personalities of the people married but the most common reasons are boredom, predictability, and sameness. ...

A former student of mine at MCC who became a very good friend died unexpectedly at home earlier this week. He was an avid runner and bicyclist, competing in many races and events in Nebraska and surrounding territories but his heart gave out on him. ...

I’ve heard Donald Trump called literally every name in the book since he declared his candidacy for the Presidency. And it runs the gamut of compliments and put-downs from God-like to the Devil Incarnate. Hardly anyone has a neutral opinion of him. He’s either the best guy or the worst guy to ever be elected President...

As it turned out, the timing of my vacation was not good. I was going to go the week before but that was the week of Linda’s high school reunion so I delayed it a week to be there for her birthday. That was a mistake. She was stressed out that she was turning 70 and, in addition, had planned a big birthday bash that didn’t include any family members and was afraid something bad was going to happen to ruin her plans. ...

As we get closer to the end than the beginning, we begin to think about how we want our end to be. It’s even often the topic of conversations we have with friends. And what I hear is pretty consistent. We don’t want to be warehoused; put in a nursing home by relatives and forgotten about. ...

I watch a lot of police movies and television shows and read a lot of books about police work and it seems evident to me that screenwriters and authors are describing them from only one perspective and any one perspective boxes a person or a group in. ...

I was talking to a good friend of mine the other day who had attended some sort of conference in Omaha the week before where one of the talking points was the population differences between Georgia and Nebraska. He then went on to say that he had no idea that Atlanta, Georgia has a population of over 25 million people...

My buddies and I were sitting around happy hour the other day bemoaning the cost of lunch in and around McCook. What used to be dinner prices are now lunch prices because it’s hard to find decent food for less than ten dollars a plate. And, although not quite as pricey as sit-down restaurants, fast food restaurants aren’t far behind in their pricing either, especially if you purchase a drink...

I’ve never really been a big fan of professional basketball. I’ve watched it off and on throughout my life but not regularly and certainly not to the point of having a favorite team. The game tends to be dominated by size rather than skill and the officials let the players get away with too many rules violations. ...

The first amendment to the Constitution, one of ten original amendments called The Bill Of Rights, was passed by Congress in 1791 and says the following: Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof, or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press, or the right of the people peaceably to assemble and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances...

The earth is approximately 4.5 billion years old. Although our ancestors have lived here for 6 million years, modern humans have only been around for 200,000 years and civilization as we know it is only 6000 years old. That suggests that humans had to learn how to exist with each other long before the serpent talked to Eve in the Garden of Eden...

There are basically two kinds of people in the world; those who think through problems and situations and get the best and often the most advice they can before they act and, on the other side of the coin, those who behave impulsively. People in both camps believe they’re using the proper strategy to solve a problem...

I listened to a report last night that said that of all the school suspensions in Texas last year, 47% of the children who were suspended were black, even though they make up only 13% of the population. Police statistics reveal similar numbers and this begs the question that has been asked by many since the ‘60s. ...

The following are short quips of newsworthy stories picked up from the national media over the past week that some of you will find interesting. Sources are quoted when they are known. Former Florida governor and Republican presidential candidate Jeb Bush, along with ex-New York Yankee star Derek Jeter won a bidding auction to buy the Florida Marlins baseball team for a reported 1.3 billion dollars. Bush is expected to be the principle owner...

I’m going to use this column to write about Donald Trump’s first hundred days as seen by a Democrat in heavily Republican territory. Withhold your conclusions until the end. I, as anyone who invests in the stock market, am interested in how the DOW does immediately after a presidential election and Trump fares pretty good when compared to other Presidents. ...

One of President Trump’s campaign promises that cannot be met; that will be, in fact, impossible to meet, is his promise to put 25 million people back to work. In the coming 10 years, millions of people will no longer be needed to work in a large variety of jobs across the country and 40 percent of the current Fortune 500 companies will no longer exist. The reason for this is robotics and Artificial Intelligence...

I was born into what today would be called a dysfunctional family I suppose. My mother married my father when she was only 16 years old and a junior in high school. He was 24 and a law student at the University of Arkansas. She was from Atkins, a small town of 1300 people in central Arkansas and he was from Little Rock, the capital of the state. ...

I’ve thought this for a long time. High school diplomas quit being a job qualifier many years ago, although the public schools didn’t want anyone to know that. Now the city officials in Chicago have taken the first step to make that more or less official...

For thousands of years, the role of parents has been pretty much the same. Take care of your kids, protect them, feed them, clothe them and teach them the basic norms and values that guide our behavior. As far as we know, Neanderthal families did this in similar ways to the way modern families do. Parents came to know their obligations and responsibilities and most were willing to meet that challenge...

My plane was scheduled to leave McCook at 5:30 a.m. on Tuesday March 21st and I didn’t feel like that would be a problem for me since I’m usually up between 4 and 5 a.m. anyway. I slept for a couple of hours, then got up, finished packing, dressed and headed for the airport so I would get there at 4:45 which is recommended by Boutique Airlines...

We’ve all heard how toxic the climate is for discussing politics and there now are some statistics that prove it, according to this week’s The Week magazine. It reports that a YMCA in Greater Scranton, Pa has banned new coverage on its workout rooms’ televisions in order to reduce the stress level of members. The report says that members kept having heated political quarrels that threatened to turn into fistfights...

We’ve all heard how toxic the climate is for discussing politics and there now are some statistics that prove it, according to this week’s The Week magazine. It reports that a YMCA in Greater Scranton, Pa has banned new coverage on its workout rooms’ televisions in order to reduce the stress level of members. The report says that members kept having heated political quarrels that threatened to turn into fistfights...

For all the crimes that could get a person sent to prison, the most controversial ones have always been the ones dealing with felony drug offenders. And the issue seems to be divided right down the middle, like almost everything else is these days. A certain group contends that sending a user to prison is the wrong solution to a problem. ...

Tiger Woods was, at one time, the greatest golfer in the world; some say the greatest athlete in the world. He didn't defeat fields of other excellent golfers, he destroyed them. He won tournaments by double-digit scores. The other professional golfers averaged one whole stroke worse when Tiger was in the field than when he wasn't. The reason for that was pure intimidation. Because he was so dominant and his game was so strong, most other golfers simply didn't think they could beat him...

I've always lived my life head-on; not shying away or backing away from anything, and I intend to keep doing that. That's how I was raised. My mother was a 17-year-old small town girl when I was born but went on to beat all odds and become a nationally known fashion model because she lived her life the same way she was teaching me to live mine...

Regardless of how you feel about Donald Trump, no one from any political persuasion can accuse him of not doing what he said he was going to do on the campaign trail. He's writing Executive Orders as fast as he can write them and there has been some sort of crisis at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue since the day he took office. ...

Throughout recorded history, there have been very few occasions when the whole world was at peace and the same thing holds for the United States. Infowars.com states that America has been at war 93 percent of the time since 1776; 222 out of 239 years. The only time we went 5 years without war was during the isolationist period of the Great Depression. So we are not unlike other cultures and societies; in fact we are just like them...

Throughout recorded history, there have been very few occasions when the whole world was at peace and the same thing holds for the United States. Infowars.com states that America has been at war 93 percent of the time since 1776; 222 out of 239 years. The only time we went 5 years without war was during the isolationist period of the Great Depression. So we are not unlike other cultures and societies; in fact we are just like them...

Imagine yourself as a young black teenage boy living on the south side of Chicago. There has never been a dad in the family that you can remember. Your mom is a decent caring person but she started having babies when she herself was a child and is now working two or three low-paying jobs just to put food on the table and clothes on the backs of her three children because you have a younger sister and an older brother. ...

When I was a first-year Ph.D. Student in Sociology at Oklahoma State University, I was taking a criminology class and the professor asked the class why man is still so violent and reactionary after thousands of years of socialization not to be. I replied that it was the nature of the beast and a second-year student laughed at my response. ...

When I was growing up, our two major political parties were nothing like they are today. Most of who we are we learn from our family and I was no different. They were very active politically so I became enamored with politics too and at a very early age. ...

After a pretty dry winter so far, it looks like that's about to change this weekend. The National Weather Service has issued a Winter Storm Watch for McCook, all of southwest Nebraska, northwest Kansas and South Central Nebraska for a mixture of freezing rain, sleet and snow beginning during the day on Saturday and continuing through Monday. ...

Things didn't start well. When I pulled out of McCook around nine in the morning on Friday, December 16th, the temperature was in the mid 20's and we had freezing fog. As I headed south, things got worse instead of better. By the time I got into Kansas, the freezing fog had turned to freezing drizzle and the roads had turned icy. ...

This is the time of year that brings panic to the hearts of many, especially men, because we've postponed and procrastinated buying our Christmas presents until we can't wait any longer. I have some ideas that are unconventional and won't warm the hearts of everyone that reads this but in terms of the true spirit of giving, it's the most rewarding...

I'll be leaving later today for Arkansas to spend the Christmas season with my boys. Michael just had a birthday a couple of weeks ago and Will's is this Sunday so at least I'll get to be there for one of their birthdays. We didn't plan very well when we were starting a family all those years ago because both our boys were born in December, just a year and two weeks apart. ...

We think we know people pretty well, especially our loved ones and best friends, but we really don't know them very well at all. The best way to wrap your head around this concept is to think about how much you hold back from the people that are near and dear to you. ...

Most people give lip service to the value of honesty but don't practice what they preach. How many stories have you heard lately that turned out to be blatantly, one hundred percent false? You hear something at the coffee shop or the bar or at a group function that sounds right because it supports your built-in biases so you repeat it to as many people as possible as the absolutely truth because you want it to be true. ...

I tend not to cry over spilled milk and I'm not going to this time either. Even though the Democrats have lost two presidential elections since 2000 when they won the popular vote, the popular vote isn't what gets you elected, even though in a democracy, I've always thought it should be the only way to get elected. The will of the people vs. the state's congressional representation does away with the concept of one man, one vote which our nation was founded on...

I was asked by more than one person why the Gazette allows personal attacks of one columnist by another to be printed. My answer was the same to all of them: I don't have any idea about the decision-making process of what gets printed and what doesn't. I'm sure the editor expects its contributors to be fair, even-handed and as objective as possible but we've never been given specific guidelines as to what we can write about and what we can't...

The most bizarre presidential campaign in American history ended Tuesday with the most unlikely result. Donald Trump garnered enough electoral votes to win the presidency. Everyone I talked to, Democrats AND Republicans, were shocked and surprised at the outcome because no one saw it coming. ...

The term gerrymander came into existence in 1812 from Eldridge Gerry. Gerry, governor of Massachusetts at the time, was lampooned when his party redistricted the state in a blatant bid to preserve an Antifederalist majority. One Essex County district resembled a salamander, and a newspaper editor dubbed it gerrymander (online etymology Dictionary, 2010)...

Josh Brown, former kicker for the Nebraska Cornhuskers and up until last week, the current kicker for the New York Giants professional football team, was dismissed after domestic abuse events between him and his wife came to light. This had been reported several times over the past few years before definitive action was finally taken and it's a bad mark against the NFL for their continued slow response to a nationwide problem...

The Omaha World-Herald, in endorsing Hillary Clinton for President last week, said the following: "The risk of a Donald Trump presidency is simply too great. His alienation of so many groups-women, the disabled, Muslim-Americans, former prisoners of war, the family of a Muslim American soldier killed in action, Mexican nations and Mexican Americans-is too divisive...

The Omaha World Herald, in endorsing Hillary Clinton for President last week, said the following: "The risk of a Donald Trump presidency is simply too great. His alienation of so many groups-women, the disabled, Muslim-Americans, former prisoners of war, the family of a Muslim American soldier killed in action, Mexican nations and Mexican Americans-is too divisive...

The highlight of any trip I make to Arkansas involves spending quality time with my boys and the week-long trip I just got back from was no different. I spent three days in Russellville with Michael while Will was on a sports weekend to Dallas. He and friends attended the Rangers-Blue Jays playoff baseball game on Friday, the Oklahoma-Texas college football game on Saturday, and the Dallas Cowboys-Cincinnati Bengals pro football game on Sunday. ...

I'm leaving later this morning (Thursday) on a road trip I've been thinking about doing for years but never have and now since I'm retired, there's no need to put it off any longer. My final destination will be Arkansas so I can visit my boys, Michael and Will, for my birthday tomorrow but I'm going to get there differently than I have before. ...

There is a common assumption among democracies around the world that voting is a good thing and in any election, the higher the voter turnout, the better it is. That perspective is based on the belief that who gets elected and what gets passed or defeated should not be decided by a minority of people living in an area. Voter turnout in the United States has historically been low, averaging around 40% of all registered voters, and we hear people complain about that every election cycle...

A former home town of mine and a city where I joined law enforcement as a police officer is in the national news this week because of a shooting incident involving a black citizen and a white, female police officer. Terence Crutcher, a 40-year-old black male, was shot and killed by Tulsa, Oklahoma, police officer Betty Jo Shelby after she stopped to investigate a vehicle left in the middle of the road with its engine running. ...

A former hometown of mine and a city where I joined law enforcement as a police officer is in the national news this week because of a shooting incident involving a black citizen and a white, female police officer. Terence Crutcher, a 40-year-old black male, was shot and killed by Tulsa, Oklahoma, police officer Betty Jo Shelby after she stopped to investigate a vehicle left in the middle of the road with its engine running. ...

Colin Kaepernick, the back-up quarterback for the San Francisco 49ers pro football team, created a flashpoint of support and criticism last week by kneeling during the playing of our National Anthem as a protest against the continued oppression of blacks in this country and police brutality against that same group of people. ...

When I analyze my life from birth until now, there's no doubt that I was happiest during my childhood. I grew up in an extended family in which I was the only child so I was loved and protected from the day I was born and that gave me the courage and the integrity to pursue my dreams...

Most of us don't like to lose. We don't like to lose at anything. It's called being competitive and we're taught that attitude from the crib. Everything in life seems to be about winning and we learn at an early age that people like and respect winners a lot more than losers. But, contrary to the popular notion, losing isn't always bad and it can be good...

After writing a pretty glowing column about Boutique Airlines six weeks ago, I got to try them out over the weekend and the results were mixed. The flight from McCook to Denver was pretty perfect. The co-pilot took time to explain everything to us and snacks and drinks were also available if we decided to partake. ...

The emerging power and influence of unions during the mid-twentieth century was a boon for workers and allowed them to finally work their way up to the middle class. Unions had the power to negotiate contracts with management and, because of the strength of numbers in unions, many obviously spoke much louder than one. Before unions, individuals had to negotiate themselves with management and management usually held most of the cards...

The emerging power and influence of unions during the mid-twentieth century was a boon for workers and allowed them to finally work their way up to the middle class. Unions had the power to negotiate contracts with management and, because of the strength of numbers in unions, many obviously spoke much louder than one. Before unions, individuals had to negotiate themselves with management and management usually held most of the cards...

It's been said that we are a story our brain tells itself. And our brains are habitual liars. We feel like the most compelling thing we can tell someone else is that we know what we saw. And those who are experts on the functioning of the brain say no you don't. You have a distorted and constructed memory of a distorted and constructed perception, both of which are subservient to whatever narrative your brain is operating under...

The more outrageous things are, the more outrageous they become. On Wednesday, Donald Trump called on Russian premier Putin to hack into the private files of Americans to discover the emails that Secretary of State Clinton deleted. Sources have said that the only files she deleted were personal but, based on the results of the FBI investigation, who knows?...

During the just concluded Republican National Convention, I decided to share a comment on Facebook to gauge the reaction of my friends and I was neither shocked nor surprised when I tallied the responses up. The statement simply said: "I wonder why we are so obsessed with trying to find intelligent life on other planets when we can't even find intelligent life here?"...

Last week I wrote about all the forks in the road we face in living our lives and all the choices we have to make when we get to those forks, not knowing ahead of time which will be good choices and which will be bad ones. Finding a life partner is another fork in the road because we have so many to choose from...

It begins shortly after birth and continues throughout our lives. Every decision we make that leads to a choice alters the direction our lives take. At any point in our lives, we are the result of the choices we've made. So the responsibility for who we are, what we believe, and where we're going from here isn't anyone else's responsibility, it's our own. ...

I was amazed by the number of replies I got in regards to Boutique Airlines since they only began air service in McCook on June 1st. And just as amazing, almost all the comments were good if not great. I'll paraphrase them here in this column and then conclude with a conversation I had with employees of Boutique Air at the airport...

I appreciated the story in last night's Gazette about Boutique Air's passenger counts climbing but I think prospective passengers need a lot more information than that in order to make an informed decision on whether to fly with them or not so I had decided to write this column several days ago. I would like to do a full column next week on the pros and cons of flying out of and into McCook and that can only be done with help from the readers of this column...

The implosion of the Riviera hotel in Las Vegas this past week brought back a lot of fond memories for me as I'm sure it did for some of the readers of this column. The last time Coach Bonow and I went to Vegas, we stayed at the Riviera. And although it was worn and showing its age, you were reminded of the class it and others like it exuded in their prime. ...

Magazines and the internet just keep doing it. They keep coming up with lists and ways to be successful at something when there are no lists and ways that work for all the people all the time. But because it attracts people's attention, they do it anyway. ...

The most exciting weekend of the year begins today at McCook's Heritage Hills golf course with the annual Ron Coleman Memorial Horserace which kicks off the festivities at 4 pm. In a unique format, all 25 professional golfers due to tee it up in the Pro-Am will also compete in the horserace. It will begin simultaneously on holes one and 9 and one pro will be eliminated on each hole until only one remains after play is finished on the 18th hole...

America had statistically high crime rates for a thirty year period from the 1960s into the 1990s. During that time, the emphasis was on what was called the due process model, a liberal perspective, rather than the crime control model which was a conservative perspective. ...

Most people don't like doctors and hospitals. It's really an indirect effect instead of a direct one because when we have to go to one or the other, it means something is wrong with us and that's the part we don't like. But I also know people who say they don't want to go to the doctor for fear of finding out something's wrong with them they didn't already know about. ...

"Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." We have all heard a variation of that phrase since it was written by George Santayana in Life of Reason in 1905. There are several meanings and interpretations attached to it but the most enduring and popular one is that we need to learn from our mistakes. In fact, one interpretation says that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different outcome...

A presidential contest that would have been laughed at and put down a year ago looks as if it's going to happen. Despite an all-out effort by the establishment branch of the Republican Party to deny Donald Trump the nomination, from all appearances those efforts not only failed but failed badly...

Even though I have classes today (Friday) and will give final exams next week, yesterday (Thursday) was ceremoniously the end of my college teaching career. After stints at four-year colleges and universities, including being a member of the Graduate Faculty at Northwestern Oklahoma State University in Alva, Oklahoma, I landed my first and last community college job when I took the position of Sociology and Criminal Justice Instructor at McCook Community College in January of 1995. ...

On Thursday, April 21st, McCook Community College held its annual Honors Convocation which was started six years ago. It is designed to honor students at our college who have excelled academically, in service to the college or the community or both. ...

I was perusing the Internet the other day when I came across an article about the Police Olympics that brought back fond memories. I had no idea they were still being held and, in reading the article, found out that they're bigger and better than ever, hosting teams from all over the world with the number of participants in the thousands. In addition, fire departments have been included and it's now called the Police-Fire Olympics...

Dictionary.com defines lazy as being disinclined to work, activity or exertion. Generally speaking, Americans like people who get things done; not people who are constantly trying to get out of work. In fact, in the sociology classes I teach, we go over the top ten values of Americans every year and activity and work are always right at the top of the list. So being lazy is seen as a character flaw and is to be avoided...

Not nearly as many as you think you do because we confuse friendships with acquaintances and they're nowhere close to the same. Most people know a lot of people and most people think the people they know are their friends but they're often mistaken. Through the years, I've put together kind of a check list to help me figure this out if I don't already know. Maybe the check list will help you too...

One of the common topics at the golf course is the fact that it's feast or famine a few nights a year in McCook for the hotel industry. This was specifically characterized in a letter to the editor that appeared in the Wednesday edition of the McCook Daily Gazette and was written by the owners of five hotels in McCook. ...

Establishment Republicans are falling all over each other trying to be more anti-Trump then the next person. It's almost like a letter went out to all of them detailing the points to use against someone most Republican traditionalists call an outsider who isn't submissive and dictated to by the core principles of the Republican Party. ...

Have you made up your mind who to vote for in this year's presidential primary and general election? Do you consider yourself an informed voter? Try today's quiz: (1) This candidate wanted to be an astronaut as a child -- even wrote to NASA -- and admittedly can't carry a tune...

It's estimated there are over 85,000 different products being marketed and sold as a dietary supplement in the United States today. From vitamins, to energy boosters to workout aids, they're sold in stores all over the country. And because they have attractive packaging, are sold in reputable stores and look like prescription drugs, we buy them; at our own risk and sometimes at great risk...

Much of the country is twittering about President Obama's decision not to attend Supreme Court Justice Scalia's funeral and like most other things, it's divided primarily among party lines. Republicans say it's an outrage, Democrats say it's a decision that's been made before. ...

When Perry Case signed over the Elks Club building and property to McCook Community College, I finally had to admit to myself that the Elks Club as I had known it was through. We tend to hang on to relationships, both personal and professional, until something happens that cements in our mind that they're over and they're never going to be with us again and it took the above mentioned transaction to seal that deal for me...

I'm amazed every four years that a state like Iowa, which isn't representative of the country at large, gets so much attention from the media and candidates running for President. It's not that I dislike Iowa because I don't. My best friend at the college and his wife are both from Iowa and my Aunt and Uncle are too. ...

What I threatened to do last year, I did this year. Earlier this week, I submitted my letter of retirement from my faculty position at McCook Community College to the powers that be. That brings to a close a 35 year college and university teaching career, the last 21 years at MCC, that I stumbled on accidentally and one that gave me more personal satisfaction than about any other career I could have chosen...

I'm writing this column at three in the morning because of the constant pain I'm in as a result of a medical procedure I had done a week ago. It is not an indictment of a particular doctor, a particular hospital or a particular city so those things won't be mentioned. ...

Practically everybody has a deep seated belief in something; religion, politics, science, friendships or relationships. And when we do, we believe with all our hearts that our beliefs are true. Every romantic relationship is based on faith and belief. ...

We think we know a lot more than we do. We think we know our best friends, our lovers, our boyfriends, our girlfriends, our husbands and our wives. And although we know them slightly, we never know them completely because there are parts of them they always keep hidden...

According to Ezra Klein and Alvin Chang in Vox.com, only 5 percent of Republicans and 4 percent of Democrats said they would be upset if their son or daughter married someone affiliated with the other political party in 1960. Today, 49 percent of Republicans and 33 percent of Democrats say they would be distressed by a politically mixed marriage. ...

Boutique Air (kind of a funky name for an airline) is due to become the next passenger airliner in McCook, replacing Great Lakes Airline whose contract expires in June, 2016. Great Lakes has been heavily criticized in this column and by many of the flying public because of their recent unreliability. ...

A deeply religious follower of Islam and his wife slaughtered 14 people and wounded 21 on Wednesday in San Bernardino, California and law enforcement says they left no calling card behind that would have made anyone suspicious of them. Syed Rizwan Farook was born in Illinois, raised in California and was said to have been liked by all those who knew him. ...

I find myself saying "It seems like that was just yesterday" a lot anymore. I guess I've always said it because things that happen in the past, both good and bad, etch themselves in our memories forever and when we recall them, they're just as intense and specific as they were on the day we experienced them. It just seems like I'm saying it now a lot more than I used to!...

When I was a police officer I always hated plea bargains given to defendants, especially defendants I had arrested but I understood the reason they were used. The prosecutor gained a conviction without having to go to court plus time and money was saved by not having to have a trial. ...

I was raised by a progressive family who emphasized the importance of personal character in everything we did. Character in the sense of knowing who you were, what you were about and embracing it, even when you were criticized by others. Those teachings have stayed with me throughout my life and have buoyed my definition of self. ...

The World Health Organization has determined that meat causes cancer and processed meat is the worst culprit. They define processed meat as any meat that has been smoked, salted, cured or changed by another process to enhance its flavor or make it last longer. ...

The third Republican presidential debate lacked the fireworks of the first two, thanks primarily to Donald Trump muzzling himself and, for the first time, sounding more like a politician than an outsider and that won't serve him well in the after-debate polls...

I've often wondered what's worse; being the bug or the windshield. Mary Chapin Carpenter sang about that 20 or so years ago and I've wondered about it from time to time ever since. Neither one is very pleasant. The bug gets smashed and dies which not many of us want but the window gets abused too. So I'm thinking it's not an either-or situation, it's just which is the better of two bad options...

I was talking to one of my Republican friends Tuesday afternoon and asked him if he was going to watch the Democratic Presidential debate that was going to air later that night. He said he wasn't, that he would just let the pundits interpret it for him the next day. ...

It was two years ago today, Oct. 9, 2013, that I suffered a heart attack, something I had never even thought about before. Except for a tonsillectomy when I was six years old, I had always been as healthy as a horse without restricting myself to a healthy lifestyle like so many do these days. The only ailments I had were colds and the occasional flu. I've never had a broken bone, been diagnosed with any illness nor had I spent even one night in the hospital until two years ago...

While we were having an active shooting drill at McCook Community College yesterday, a real active shooter was wreaking havoc at Umpqua Community College, just a couple of miles away from the peaceful, scenic town of Roseburg, Oregon. I read about this on the Internet while I was at work and when I left to go to afternoon happy hour, a woman who I know and respect walked in, saw the news on the television and said "What's wrong with people?" And I think we're all required to think that question through.. ...

The second Republican presidential debate took place Wednesday night inside the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in California so the viewers knew they were going to get liberal (pardon the pun) doses of the former Governor of California and President of the United States and the candidates didn't disappoint. ...

Every adult reading this column remembers where they were and what they were doing fourteen years ago today. I was with the woman I was seeing at the time and we didn't have the television on. When she left for work, I started getting ready to go to the college. A few minutes later she called me. She was at the Student Center with the television on and she told me that two planes had crashed into the twin towers of the World Trade Center and that we were obviously under attack from somebody...

A new era begins tomorrow at 2:30 pm when Mike Riley coaches his first game as the head coach of the Nebraska Cornhuskers. The turbulent reign of Bo Pelini is over. Bo always won games but didn't win enough BIG games. He also alienated part of the fan base with his temper and outbursts on the field directed at officials, coaches and his own players. ...

In A Tale of Two Cities, Charles Dickens' wrote in his opening line that "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times." That was the way it was for me last weekend. First, the best of times. I picked up my son Will in Seward, the home town of his wife Erica, and then let him drive us to Kansas City. ...

It was a quiet evening at home a month or so ago and I was kicked back on the couch listening to the R&B channel on my television from DirecTV when a song was played by Boz Scaggs and my mind shot back to the '70s when his Lowdown album was one of the biggest sellers of that decade. ...

While talking to my son last night, he asked me if I was going to watch the Republican Presidential debate. I told him not only was I going to watch the headline debate, I was going to watch the undercard debate as well. This struck him as strange, as it did a couple of other Democrats I told the same thing earlier in the day. ...

Just about everyone these days understand what is meant by a nanny state, especially in conservative bastions like Nebraska, Arkansas and Texas. It's a term of British origin that conveys a view that a government or its polices are overprotective or interfering unduly with personal choice. It comes from a couple hiring a nanny to watch everything a child does to make sure they don't put themselves in any danger...

I've always loved sports and played most of them when I was younger. I was a three-sport letterman in high school and made the police Olympics team in tennis while serving on the Tulsa Police Department. The one sport I didn't excel in was track and field...

Our forefathers and the initiators of democracy in the United States created three branches of government in the belief they should be separate but equal with no one branch having more power than the others. So they established the Executive, the Legislative and the Judicial branches with each acting as a check and balance to the other two. ...