The Virginia 2nd Amendment backers who staged a peaceful protest to the gun-grabbing antics of the state’s Democratic governor and newly-installed Democrat-dominated legislature were a huge disappointment to the establishment leftist elite.

They were peaceful and when the 20,000 citizens expressed their opinion (contempt for the elitists that are attempting to strip them of their constitutional right to own the means of self-defense, including against a repressive government), they picked up their trash – unlike leftist protesters – and went home.

This no doubt frustrated Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam who had predicted all sorts of illegal actions by the 2nd Amendment patriots.

Columnist-author-attorney Kurt Schlichter puts it this way, speaking to Virginia residents:

“You have no moral obligation to respect or obey unconstitutional actions by a government. None. And when a government acts outside its constitutional limits, you do not merely have the right but the sacred duty to reject and replace it.

“That’s the issue for patriots in Virginia.

“Leftists decided to put all their efforts into grabbing the reins of government in that formerly not-terrible state, dumping tons of money into it and counting on the incompetence of the Virginia Republican Party plus the lassitude of many Virginians. See, a lot of people stayed home in 2018, and this is what you get. Remember, Hitler got into power following an election.

“No, I’m not saying that your governor is Hitler, only that Hitler would dig his fashion sense.”

Virginia’s gun owners are using the left’s own tactics in this battle, which is far from over. A majority of counties and many municipalities have declared themselves gun sanctuaries.

Virginia is a test state for the gun grabbers. If they’re successful there, similar methods will be employed nationwide.

Thanks for the memories

A number of people dropped by the newspaper office for a visit Wednesday and many others sent notes by email, Facebook (via Christine) or by post office mail.

Christine, my wife, loves an event, so she put a note in a recent edition that I had observed my 62nd year in the newspaper business on Jan. 16, and invited residents to drop by last Wednesday for a visit.

To my surprise, quite a number of friends did drop in to visit.

Office Manager Brenda Slater, who has been at the Times and Free Press almost as long as I have (she was our first hire after buying the newspaper and taking over its operation on Dec. 1, 1979), jumped into the effort and baked up batches of three kinds of cookies and made some spiced tea for the occasion.

Brenda loves a party, too.

I thank those who have congratulated me for these milestones, but there’s really nothing to it. You just go to work every day and all at once its been 62 years. It seems like a blink of an eye looking back.

We should have publicized it as a “thank-you” event – me thanking all those who have allowed me to live and work in a very special county for almost half a century.

I never considered entering the newspaper business growing up. We were a farm family and I dreamed of a career in livestock as a kid.

Because of a congenital heart condition, I didn’t consider attempting a cowboy life. (The doctor attending my birth told my folks that I would probably live to about age 20. I didn’t hear about that until I underwent successful heart surgery to repair infundibular stenosis at age 26. Interestingly Dr. Allen Greer, a Kingfisher product, led the team that operated on me.)

I entered Oklahoma State University in Stillwater (then Oklahoma A&M College) as a music major in 1954, having been offered a small scholarship in music.

A couple of years into the program, I realized I wasn’t cut out for a career in music; I didn’t have the background for it.

My brother, Ken, who is 10 years older than I, suggested I consider journalism. He and a partner, Ed Burchfiel, had purchased the Pauls Valley Daily Democrat in Garvin County, and Ken said there would be a job waiting for me if I got a journalism degree.

That sounded wonderful ($65 a week) after scrimping and scraping my way through college with a variety of minimum wage jobs – $1.25 an hour as I recall.

I enrolled in journalism and it was a fit. Our English major mother’s influence, as well as that of a paternal grandfather who demanded proper grammar, may have given us the genes that made writing a comfortable fit. Besides, I’d always read – a lot.

Besides, I’d always read – a lot.

Normally the last words I’d hear at night were from Dad telling me to “turn that lamp off and go to bed.”

Although I had a journalism degree when I arrived in Pauls Valley, I actually knew very little about journalism.

Ed Burchfiel, taught me more in three months than I’d learned in college.

I will forever be thankful to Ed and Ken for putting up with me until I learned enough to be worth what they paid me.

Some newspaper guy – who must not have had enough to do – once determined that there were a million mistakes possible in the average 12-page newspaper.

We figure we’ve made them all at some point over the last 62 years.

We’ve never published a perfect newspaper but it’s been fun trying.

Newspaper work is always rushed, meeting deadlines and getting the newspaper “out” to subscribers.

It is humbling to realize people look forward to receiving the product you work to produce.

We have been rewarded in so many years and are thankful to our readers, our news sources who help us present the news honestly and fairly, and our advertisers, without whom there could be no newspaper.

Newspapers are a business and they must make a profit to continue operating.

Our son, Barry, became owner of the Times and Free Press a few years ago and we pray that our customers will continue to show him the same loyal support we have received.

He still lets me hang around the office, probably because I wouldn’t know what to do otherwise.

Newspapers are facing difficult times now, more so than any time we have been in the business. For instance, the Altus Times-Democrat, which was once a vibrant daily, has dropped to a weekly in a town of about 20,000.

A newspaper is important to a thriving community. Towns without a newspaper seem to dry up and disappear.

The Kingfisher Times and Free Press is the oldest continuously published newspaper in Oklahoma, having been established in conjunction with the April 22, 1889, land run into Unassigned Territory in central Oklahoma.

The Oklahoma Press Association was organized in Kingfisher.

Something important we always like to mention: please support your local businesses. They’re here for you year-around and they need your business year around in order to continue serving your needs.

The owners are your friends and neighbors who support your local schools, churches, little league teams and much more.

And, again, thanks for coming to my party. It was great getting to visit with really nice people that I don’t get to see every day.