local news, political news

Best wishes and thanks … Marine

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If you are anywhere near Steve Deffibaugh, you would have no trouble spotting him from a distance or in a crowd.

He would be the fellow with the long white beard, long white ponytail tied to run through he back of a bright red ballcap placed on his head. And the front of the cap would have some reference to the U.S. Marine Corps, where Deffibaugh served with enormous pride, the type of pride he proclaims to this very day.

Deffibaugh has ended his lengthy tenure in public service, resigning from the City Council seat he has occupied since 2009. He resigned after “much prayer” and likely considerable thought over the unfinished work that he leaves behind. Princeton remains a city under construction. It is growing at a still explosive rate. US 380 is being torn to pieces as it courses through the city. And work has begun on that gigantic commercial complex at Beauchamp Boulevard and US 380.

Deffibaugh’s time on the council, though, comprises a mere fraction of what he has given to the city. He served as mayor until May 2005. He served the Princeton Fire Department, which was a volunteer outfit when he joined it in 1989. He rose to the rank of assistant chief. The city hired its first full-time firefighter, Chief Tom Harvey. Deffibaugh said he made the “hard decision” to retire from the fire department in January 2018.

I met Deffibaugh while covering the City Council for the time for the Princeton Herald. I told someone nearby that I had just moved to Princeton after spending many years in Amarillo. That got Deffibaugh’s attention, as he told me he was from Borger originally. Borger is about 50 miles or so north of Amarillo and is home to an oil refinery where, when the wind’s right, carries “the smell of money” throughout the Panhandle.

Of course, I was struck by Deffibaugh’s eternal pride in being a U.S. Marine. He wore his USMC cap everywhere. He took part in all veterans services. He was proud of his city and he has high hopes for what it is becoming.

But I am sure you know the phrase, “Once a Marine, always a Marine.” That’s Steve Deffibaugh.

Thank you for your service, Marine.

local news

Trust the system we have

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Well, kids, I did it first thing today … I woke up, gulped some coffee and headed for the polling location to cast my midterm ballot.

I did so out of implicit trust in the system we have in North Texas, believing my vote will be counted fairly and cleanly and there will be zero hanky-panky with my ballot. That belief, of course runs counter to the message that the national Republican Party would have us believe. The GOP is trying to sow enough doubt into the local voting process that they think they can cast shade over the entire national network.

Here’s some news for the doubt mongers among us. There is no national voting network.

The US Constitution is crystal clear that elections should be handled by the states. Last time I checked, I learned that we had 50 states in our Union and they all take great care to ensure that our voting system is above board, that it is as clean as your Mama’s wash and that every vote will be assigned to the candidates of our choice.

My intention going into this election was to wait until Election Day. I have spoken many times on this blog and other platforms that Election Day voting was my preferred method. My goal was to protect myself against some last-minute shenanigans by candidates. The trouble spot changed this time around, with Republicans threatening to gum up the works. So, I cast my vote early and when I was finished, I asked a poll worker in Princeton whether my ballot was being entered into the system. Her response: Your ballot became part of the record the moment we scanned it.

That’s going to have to be good enough.

I long have believed our statewide systems are clean and clear. I am aware of isolated cases of ballots being cast fraudulently. They comprise an infinitesimal portion of the total. I am sticking with what I know and what I believe. I know the system works well and I believe the GOP — the party that yells “vote fraud!” — is the outfit most responsible for the monkey business they claim to want to stop.

local news, political news

It’s all changed the way I vote

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For decades I operated under a simple, but seemingly thorough, understanding of how to protect the sanctity of my vote.

I would wait until the last possible minute on Election Day before venturing to my polling place. The thought was to cast my vote late enough to prevent any last-second surprises from the candidates of my choice. I didn’t want to cast my ballot too early and then be shocked, surprised and disgusted by some end-of-the campaign surprise that disqualified the individual I had chosen for public office.

By an large, the notion served me well. Plus, I kind of enjoyed the pageantry associated with standing in line at the end of Election Day. I mean, casting a ballot in a democratic republic is a big … deal, you koow?

Then along came Donald John Trump and his phony voter fraud lie. It all came to a head on Jan. 6, 2021, with the armed assault on the nation’s Capitol. Trump called the election of Joe Biden as president a fraud. He said the presidency was “stolen” from him. The idiot hasn’t let that one go. He’s now all but vowing to cast aspersions on the 2026 midterm election if the result doesn’t go his way … and as I write this, it appears to be shaping up that Trump’s party is going to get a thorough pummeling.

But wait a minute. Now the Party of Trump is threatening to throw the whole process into chaos. They might challenge results in normally strong GOP areas that suddenly turn Democratic. Let me think … oh yeah, that means Collin County, Texas, where I have lived for the past eight years.

That is why I have changed my thinking, turned it on its head and decided that the better way to protect my vote is to cast my ballot early, get it logged into the system and then have it counted when they release the results on Election Day.

local news

Trust the system we have

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Well, kids, I did it first thing today … I woke up, gulped some coffee and headed for the polling location to cast my midterm ballot.

I did so out of implicit trust in the system we have in North Texas, believing my vote will be counted fairly and cleanly and there will be zero hanky-panky with my ballot. That belief, of course runs counter to the message that the national Republican Party would have us believe. The GOP is trying to sow enough doubt into the local voting process that they think they can cast shade over the entire national network.

Here’s some news for the doubt mongers among us. There is no national voting network.

The US Constitution is crystal clear that elections should be handled by the states. Last time I checked, I learned that we had 50 states in our Union and they all take great care to ensure that our voting system is above board, that it is as clean as your Mama’s wash and that every vote will be assigned to the candidates of our choice.

My intention going into this election was to wait until Election Day. I have spoken many times on this blog and other platforms that Election Day voting was my preferred method. My goal was to protect myself against some last-minute shenanigans by candidates. The trouble spot changed this time around, with Republicans threatening to gum up the works. So, I cast my vote early and when I was finished, I asked a poll worker in Princeton whether my ballot was being entered into the system. Her response: Your ballot became part of the record the moment we scanned it.

That’s going to have to be good enough.

I long have believed our statewide systems are clean and clear. I am aware of isolated cases of ballots being cast fraudulently. They comprise an infinitesimal portion of the total. I am sticking with what I know and what I believe. I know the system works well and I believe the GOP — the party that yells “vote fraud!” — is the outfit most responsible for the monkey business they claim to want to stop.

local news, political news

Not all political foes ‘hate’ each other

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Two quick takeaways from my early-voting exercise are worth sharing with you … so here goes.

One is that Texas Democrats, based on what I witnessed in Princeton at the Deffibaugh Community Center, might get their wish for a big turnout in the 2026 midterm election. I don’t have any numbers, but my visual, visceral sense is that the enthusiasm level is high in Princeton. That’s an unusual thing to observe about this community, in that previous election turnouts have been limited only to the highly motivated voters among is.

We have nearly 30,000 residents eligible to vote in Princeton. The most recent municipal election saw a turnout of about 2,000.

The population here continues to explode. The main highway through the city, US 380, is under heavy reconstruction as TxDOT is widening the highway from four lanes to six. Still, the initial turnout on early voting was more than brisk this morning. I do hope is stays high.

The second takeaway speaks to the animosity that has built in DC between the MAGA morons on the right and the progressive movement on the left. My point is that the hatred hasn’t trickled to the local level in Collin County. This morning I watched known MAGA followers yukking it up with known progressives. They must be friends. They might attend the same church. They might live next door to each other. Their kids might be best friends. Who knows? Frankly, none of that matters to me.

What does matter is that the gut-level animosity between the MAGAn in chief Donald Trump and his “enemies” in Congress hasn’t found its way to the heartland. I feel better already just reporting on what I saw this morning.

local news

Consequential day is at hand

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Well, kids, here we are as Texans from Orange to El Paso, from Borger to Brownsville  begin casting their ballots in what is being called — as they always are — the “most important election in our lifetime.”

I know you’ve heard that said before. This time the projection actually might be true.

Americans across the great state have a chance to change the frightening trajectory on which Congress appears to be headed. W’ere voting early beginning at 7 a.m.  Central Daylight Time. We’ll be able to vote early until Oct. 30.

I’ll be one of them. Years of resisting calls to vote early have given way to a fear I have developed that Republican election manipulators will try to gum up the works. Our best defense is  to cast our ballots early, get ’em recorded and then hope that they’ll be counted when the time comes to finalize the result.

Approximately 15 million Texans are qualified to vote. I don’t know how many of them are registered to vote. Those who are registered, here is your chance to have your voice heard.

I’m done bitching about the clown show the Republican Party has brought us. I will heed the words of President Obama, who urges us to forgo “booing.”

“Don’t boo,” he says. “Vote!“

local news, media news

Can’t have too many issues

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I have been blessed beyond measure to be able to do what I did professionally for nearly 37 years.

Damn near every day I went to work, I entered my place of employment with a smile on my face. There is, however, a paradox, given that the source of my smile was one of this nation’s most horrific episode. I refer to the 9/11 terror attacks on New York, on Washington and aboard the United Airlines jetliner that crashed into the Shanksville, Pa., field.

I can relate the paradox to 9/11 because since that fateful day, I became faced with an opinion page editor’s dream: having to decide which issue I can set aside for another day. In other words, I generally had more to comment on than otherwise.

Writer’s bloc? Didn’t happen since Sept. 11, 2001.

Where am I going with this post? I want to reiterate how much fun I had writing editorials and signed columns for two newspapers in Texas and in my home state of Oregon. I once thought that you couldn’t have “fun” while working for a paycheck. What in the name of serious discussion is wrong with that? Not a thing, I’ll tell you.

I always took my task each day with absolute seriousness. But not myself.

I guess that’s where the fun comes together. I wish the dwindling number of daily newspaper reporters and editors can grasp that work and fun can mean the same thing.

national news, political news

Trump scrapes bottom of barrel

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We all know that elections have consequences, but I am going to presume that few of us saw the consequence that is emerging from the 2024 presidential election.

Donald Trump won a second term as POTUS and vowed to populate the executive branch of government with the brightest minds in all of humanity. Oh, man … he’s falling far short.

It’s beginning to look to me as if Trump is going to be left with an assortment of clowns, frauds, bozos and bimbos for the rest of his time in office. White House press flack lasted one week on her job. Trump gave her the boot. Seems that the flack lied about her academic credentials.

He’s got utterly incompetent nincompoops running the Defense and Justice departments, the FBI, the Treasury Department, the Commerce Department, the Agriculture Department … and on it could go. You get the point.

The self-described genius at hiring “the best people” is now hiring a hysterical assortment of flakes. No one’s laughing.

I’ll just ask: Does anyone believe that a President Kamala Harris would stoop to plucking people off of TV talk shows or hired them from the ranks of personal legal counsel to fill these spots?

And so … we shall soldier on.

military news

What to do with this hat …

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For far longer than I can remember, I have possessed a headgear item that once sat atop the noggin of a young man who — if given the chance — would have killed my dad.

My father brought it home from World War II, where he served for more than three years in the U.S. Navy. He saw the bulk of his combat in the Mediterranean Theater. The headgear, of course, belonged to a German Nazi soldier who was among other enemy fighters who surrendered to American troops in the Med. I don’t recall how Dad actually acquired this helmet. It’s not dented or pocked with any bullet strikes. I guess the guy who wore it knew enough to keep his head down.

Dad died in 1980. My memory of what he told about those days have faded quite a bit in the decades since we lost him. I do recall him telling me that the Germans who were captured generally acted like gentlemen even as they were interrogated by Allied troops. Not so with the Italians, who were still in the fight until 1943, when they surrendered to the Allied onslaught on Sicily and the Italian mainland. They behaved “like animals,” Dad told me. Whatever, back to the helmet.

I wrestled for a time with what to do with this piece of history. Do I get it appraised and sell it? Do I donate it to a museum?

After giving it some thought — but not too much of it — I have decided to keep it. I might even hang it on a wall in my man cave. I have some pictures and other framed documents from Dad’s Navy service hanging on a wall in my home office. I could buy some nail anchors that are heavy enough to hold this piece of metal headgear. So, that’s what I think I’ll do.

I want to display it as a testament to Dad’s courage in enduring the constant aerial bombardment that fell on him and his fellow sailors. I want it to be my tribute to his love of country when, at age 20, he enlisted in the Navy on the very day the Japanese hit us at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.

I also want it to be a lasting tribute to the sense of patriotism he imbued in me as I have come of age and am now enjoying my elderly years in this great nation of ours.

crime news, education news

This fellow is a serious hero!

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We toss the word “hero” around a bit too cavalierly in this era … using the term to describe pro athletes whose only “heroism” is doing what they are paid handsomely to do, which is run fast, throw hard and otherwise perform up to what is expected of them.

Let’s save the term for the real deal, shall we? Such as the fellow who followed the 16-year-old lunatic into the Bend, Ore., elementary school and then killed him in a firefight. The killer murdered three children, ages 5, 8 and 11, and a teacher. Four lives lost at the hands of a moron who seemingly aimed his rifle at the kids and then killed them.

I get that this idiot was a teenager. His brain wasn’t quite finished developing, or so psychologists will tell us. But what kind of animal would seek to harm children in this manner? The world is a bit safer now that he’s been removed from the population.

As for the hero, I will salute him with all the emphasis I can muster. He clearly knew how to handle the weapon he carried into the school. Bend police report that he “engaged” the shooter the moment he saw him inside. Well done, sir.

As a personal note, I want to share with you this item. My wife and I began our married life together when we honeymooned in Bend back in September 1971. It was a four-hour drive over the Cascade Range from Portland to our resort hotel. It was brand new then, and Bend was a whole lot smaller than it is now. But I have grown to know the city well as I have watched it grow to around 100,000 residents.

Their hearts are broken … and so is mine.

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