By Mickey Walker - February 14, 2016

My Dad was a great man.  He was a union leader at Gulf Oil Corporation from the early 1940’s to when he retired in 1965.  Over the years Dad petitioned the company for equal rights in the plant dressing rooms back when “whites only” and “colored” signs were above the entry doors.  Until the signs were taken down.  Relentlessly, he kept his potter’s wheel of equality turning for all men.  He was a molder of human rights and good as he shaped his pot of human rights for all men and all colors of men.  And women.  Women back then were treated with disrespect and scorn as second-class workers and paid accordingly. He bargained with Gulf that women, too, would receive the same pay as men.  He elevated, as best he could, their collective worth as human beings to that of being as fit as men to do the same jobs and hold the same positions. Not with better rights but with equal rights. Dad bargained with Gulf Oil that they would be considered for the highest order of job considerations.   And through his efforts, some of them were elevated to be the bosses of men.  The women knew him or knew of him because of his work as an unwavering champion of human workers who had little without a spirit like him, a human force, to help them ascend.  He was that champion.

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By Mickey Walker-November 8, 2015

Last night, October 28, 2015, the Republican presidential candidates engaged in what was said to be a “debate.”  More like a drunken brawl of interruptions, shouting, dodging issues, and gross belittling of each other and Hillary Clinton (who wasn’t even there).  A cousin of mine called to say how appalled he was that we Americans had reduced ourselves to acting like a nation of dumbass savages.  I enjoyed hearing him say that; I thought it was just me caught in this whirlpool of morons. But it is comforting to at least hear that I am not alone in shrinking back from terminal tirades of wrong-headed babble about what some profess to know about politics.  They do make a good case for believing the Democrats, but to do that would be just as dumbass.

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By Mickey Walker-October 11, 2015

In Part I we saw that America’s grass roots political sanity had run amuck.  Cousins fighting cousins with no idea of what is true or not, just parroting the blasted “talking points” sowed by high-paid political consultants of each party.  It sucks.  And just look at the  big, fat, radio pundits like Rush Limbaugh or television talking heads eat-up-with-dumbass, e.g., Sean Hannity on Fox News (Fair and Balanced, you know)?  Funny how American voters flock to them like flies to repeat and circulate their stupid “talking points” as political facts full of certainty, without a pause to breathe.

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By Mickey Walker - 09.13.15

We’ve all got ‘em.  Cousins or in-laws who think they know politics and attempt to give you quick course and the benefit of their knowledge whether you ask for it or not.  They call us out for being big-spending Liberals but never mention the New Conservatives philosophy that spending on insane weaponry to keep us safe is fine, just fine.  Talking out of both sides of the mouth simultaneously, they present an elusive target to zero in on.  Does the Tea Party come to mind?  Can anyone tell me how Ted Cruz or Donald Trump managed to reach such popularity in the GOP?

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By Mickey Walker-August 9, 2015

My backyard is the magic stuff of dreams.  At least it was until I moved away to the country.  Back then it was in a bustling urban area, yet cloaked in trees and lush vines that grew on a creek that time forgot.  Within this green world and canopy of vegetation, it was the home of many wild creatures that had somehow lost their way to risk navigating the bustling freeways less than a mile away.  There were armadillos, raccoons, feral cats (which I had to stop feeding because their numbers kept growing), and, of course, the birds.  Oh yes, and rabbits and even deer who had to negotiate these tangled manmade arteries of roads and thoroughfares without getting smashed by a car or even a big truck.  My backyard was just north of Houston back then.

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