I'm going sort of medium berserk right now.  I have three speeches in the Midwest during the three weeks remaining in October, flying in and out on sequential days under the aegis of the Bill of Rights Institute.  That will be fodder for future columns.  Plus the manuscript deadline for my new book was last week.  More fodder for the future. Read More 

Like many of my Democratic friends, I initially was fairly impressed with our new governor, Republican Ron DeSantis.  At least he's better than Rick Scott, we said to each other, and when he held press conferences to tout the environment (while not necessarily doing anything), we thought there was hope that he would be better than the string of Republican governors we've had since Jeb took office twenty years ago, in 1999.  I'm not of that mind about DeSantis anymore, though. Read More 

After two columns mentally exploring Africa in 1932, I'm back to today.  Congress is in session again, and the pace is picking up, especially on impeachment investigations.  As I've said before, I don't want that too soon and be stuck with Mike Pence as an incumbent at this time next year.  That would be doing a real favor for Mitch McConnell and other Republicans, so let's calm down, slow dance, and follow Nancy's Pelosi's pace.  Instead of jumping off too soon, we should keep on keeping on for most of another year, giving Trump plenty of rope to hang himself.  Let's defeat him and his congressional enablers fair and square at the polls, and then there will be endless time for the courts and the many corruption cases. Read More 

Because some of you inquired what happened with last week's truncated column, I'm going to return to the final sections about "Olivia's African Diary." You may remember that this is a journal of a 1932 trek from South Africa's Cape Town to Cairo, which many people think of as more the Middle East than Africa.  When we left off, they were in what then was termed French Equatorial Africa -- and to my surprise, film companies already in 1932 were using its locales for tropical scenes.  Author Olivia Stokes was accompanied by photographer Mary Marvin Breckinridge, who was called "Marvin" and who brought both still and moving cameras on the trip.  The book contains many of her photos.

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Except for jokes about presidential Sharpies, things are relatively quiet in the political world, so I'm continuing the mental break from contemporary news that I began last week.  I quoted then from "Olivia's African Diary," the day-to-day journal of a six-month trip through southern and eastern Africa in 1932.  The writer was Oliva Stokes (later Hatch), and the photographs that accompany the published diary were by Mary Marvin Breckinridge (later Patterson). Read More 

from the reality TV show that is our daily life.  Although we LaGaceta columnists do not coordinate our topics, I'm trusting that my dear colleague Joe O'Neill will do the necessary ranting and raving about the latest outrage from the White House.  I'll just say that never in my life have I been so eager to see Congress go back into session after their August break.  There is much to be done, and I'm grateful that Nancy Pelosi will lead the doing. Read More 

After 54 years of decorating for Christmas, I'm grateful that I have all the things I ever will need – and probably a few more.  It's an especially good thing this year, when the president promises us that he will raise tariffs.  That, by the way, is the term for taxes on imported goods.  The "duty free" shops you see in international airports are there because the items they offer are tariff-free, and therefore presumed to be cheaper.  This is sometimes true in European airports, but seldom here.  It just means the government doesn't get a share of what you spend. 

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No, I'm not going to talk about Jeffrey Epstein, at least not until we know more.  Instead, I'm going to talk about something that I didn't know until this week – and a major omission, especially in Southern and African-American history.  My sister in Arkansas is a successful businesswoman who makes more money than I, but she volunteers a lot of time in preserving history.  Right now her biggest cause is to ensure that the newest casino franchise goes to the Cherokee tribe because they inhabited our home area until the 1830s, when they were driven out on the Trail of Tears to the Indian Territory of Oklahoma.  We grew up not knowing any of that, nor other minority history, or anything beyond white military and political men.  That is not what is most important, as the nation is slowly discovering. Read More 

You know that I've written about gun control over and over again, making many points from history and from the present.  This will be my last.  I'm so profoundly tired that I'm declaring it a dead end for me and giving up the cause to others.  But first a couple of thoughts that need more thought.  I simply can't ignore two incidents in two days that killed 31 people and injured dozens more, some of whom doubtless will be incapacitated for the rest of their lives. 

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The last two columns you (hopefully) read were written before I left for northern Minnesota. With the exception of delayed flights and lost luggage, it was a wonderful respite from Florida in July.  The days were sunny, but neither excessively hot nor humid, and the two brief rainfalls came quietly at night.  I never used the bug spray that my daughter bought for me at the Mall of America, despite the common belief that the mosquito is Minnesota's state bird.

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