Who, or what, was Deerfoot? Until my kind and generous neighbor gave me the book, Five Kings of Distance Running, I had never heard of this unique runner. Joe gave it to me when I ran past his home. It tells the stories of the runners Deerfoot, Walter George, Alfred Shrub, Paavo Nurmi, and Emil Zatopek. This is now in my library alongside my other special books—the original edition autobiographies of Charles Lindbergh’s We, Eddy Rickenbacker’s Seven Came Back, and Jimmy Doolittle’s Winged Defense. more

Are women not included in “we the people”? In deciding Roe v Wade, the Supreme Court case that legalized abortion before the viability of the fetus, the Justices cited multiple provisions of the Constitution, including a right to liberty, freedom, and privacy. This has been settled law now for 50 years. What has changed? Certainly not the Constitution. more

Now, some people are making New Year’s resolutions—or at least thinking about making New Year’s resolutions. Some may even have been giving serious time to the task for a while already. more

Some of the most frequently made resolutions are: Quit smoking, quit drinking, lose weight, and/or exercise more. Plus, attend church every Sunday of the new year, and/or daily read the Bible. more

I went for a couple of country drives over the Christmas holiday weekend, photographing old bridges, farmhouses and cemeteries. more

In the fall/winter of 1941, out on a cotton farm in west Texas, I saw differences in lifestyles, but it didn’t register. We weren’t a transient family, but I met folks who followed crops. My parents had both attended college at Southeastern State College. They both had teaching degrees. That’s where they met, but here we were living near a cotton patch. more

I drive slowly through the parking lot at Walmart, looking for the ever elusive “good” parking spot, which is virtually impossible this time of year. It’s that time again. I can feel Christmas all around. more

Almost from the first recorded pleas a century ago to put Christ Back into Christmas, this historically unsound original notion was joined by a more serious argument. In the 1920s, some religious groups objected to the practice of substituting the word Xmas for Christmas, taking use of the X to replace the name Christ as an insult, even a sacrilege, although the use is more than a thousand years old and some Christian adherents consider the X to be a religious symbol for the word cross. more

In the fall of 1941, I was 9 years old. We were out in west Texas working on a cotton farm. We weren’t pulling boles on that day because it was Sunday. Mother had made cotton sacks for my brother, Jerry, and me out of some kind of thick denim-like cloth. Even though I was still young, I pulled around 200 pounds each day. In those days, I think adults would strip the stalks, but I gingerly pulled the boles from the stalk. more

Reading in the November 25th Weekly Democrat about how the Director of the new homeless shelter was affected by seeing an apparently homeless man walking alone in the snow eight years ago, I was … more

What is it in our love for guns and the resulting savagery caused by them? America leads the world in gun deaths. The record gun violence deaths for the year 2020 was 19,739. This excludes the 24,090 … more

I fear for this country, in a way I’ve never feared before. I don’t worry that another nation will conquer us in a war. The United States military seems to be unmatched by any other … more

Did any of you ever pick cotton? If you were picking by yourself, what did you do while you picked? Did you sing or make up stories or poems? Back in 1928, a young man named Albert was picking … more

Recently, quietly, an Oklahoma school district eviscerated the traditional canon of world literature in American education. According to KFOR news agency, the Edmond Independent School District … more

Meeting Oklahoma patients where they are is an important part of health care. When it comes to serving Oklahomans in rural counties, having a presence in that community is vital. Providers get to … more

Oklahoma Representative J.J. Humphrey wrote in The Durant Democrat on October 14, 2021, something too disturbing to ignore. Humphrey stated “a moral and official duty” to say to President … more

Stitt says that all babies are born female or male: Ignorance or propaganda? The Oklahoma State Health Dept. has added a non-binary option to birth certificates, to which Governor Stitt replied on … more

The American flag is itself. It’s not a decoration for a garment, a cushion, a napkin or other object. It’s not a weapon to be wielded against anyone, certainly not against duly … more

Imagine that Matt Swearengin and Kevin Farr were crossing a street one day, and Matt tripped in one of Durant’s widely-known potholes and fell down, hitting his head on the curb. And then … more

Our Senators from Oklahoma keep spreading information that they must know is just wrong. “Snowball” Jim Inhofe will still be maintaining that climate change is a hoax when all the … more