Alabama Gazette - The people's voice of reason

Hard times create strong men Strong men create good times. Good times create weak men Weak men create hard times. – Unknown How true. And by the way, we are currently cruising full speed in the...

Back on 6 December, a Marine F-18 Hornet collided with a Marine KC-130 aerial refueling tanker about 200 miles off the coast of Japan. Of course, my prayers go out to the all the families impacted....

Commentaries printed in the Alabama Gazette are never presented to offend American Citizens and Legal Residents who originally hail from outside of the United States, as all legal immigrants are a...

Beginning on a sad note, I wanted to pay tribute to my wife's mother, Maria Guadeloupe (Lupe) Paredes, who died on 7 July of an aortic dissection. I could not have asked for a better mother-in-law....

I had a professor while I was working on my Masters who once told me to never write when I was angry. Through the years, I have generally heeded this advice. Once in print, those words are never...

When I first walked through the "hanging garden" of six-foot steel tablets, I was taken aback at the sheer number of "in-your-face" structures there were. The Equal Justice Initiative's, EJI,...

I was watching the news the other day, minding my own business when out of the blue, I heard something so stupid, so ridiculous, so un-American that I had to hit the rewind on my DVR and watch the...

I just returned from a 3-day trip, turned on the news and saw where 19 people have been killed at an Ariana Grande concert in Manchester, England. Again, the sorrowful, cowardly words, “New Normal...

With the study of history, we often think of the past as places where our heroes have risen above all obstacles by the very nature of their superior moral, physical and/ or spiritual qualities. We...

I will be honest with all of you. I don’t even know where to begin with this Robservation. In an era where, as a society, we should be reaching for the stars, we seem to be mired in the most toxic r...

Mary had just had a bad night; a really, really bad night. The man her “friend” set her up with and had assured her was the “catch of the century,” had predictably turned out to be anything...

There is a line from my favorite WWII movie, 12 O’clock High, where newly promoted LTC Harvey Stovall, played by Dean Jagger, is sitting in the office with Gregory Peck’s character, General...

Over the past month or so, I have become acutely aware of two things. First, time is a relentless, non-caring force that will stop for nothing. Second, I realize that there are still some very small...

I have been watching the crises in Iraq with some saturnine curiosity. I am not even sure where to begin with this Robservation. But I guess the best thing to do is to “cut to the chase” so to...

The other day, my wife and I were minding our own business taking down wallpaper in our kitchen when we heard on Fox News that a Malaysian Airlines 777 had just been shot down in the Ukraine. A...

Forrest Gump said, “I am not a smart man, but I know what love is.” In that vein I say, “I don’t fancy myself a super smart man, but I know idiocy when I see it.” Oh my, what in the heck is...

I just recently finished a month of training in Atlanta learning to fly a new airplane. For the last 12 years or so, I have been flying the Boeing 757 and 767 but now I will be flying the Boeing 717....

My wife, her sister and I just came back from a 10-day trip to Germany. Her niece and their family are stationed in the same place my wife and I were stationed from 1987-1993. You know, there is a...

You know, I spend a lot of time on the highway driving back and forth between Montgomery and Atlanta - some 500+ trips already. And I’ll tell you what, although I can’t say I’ve seen it all, I...

“Popular support is the first element which is necessary for the creation of authority. But an authority resting on that foundation alone is still quite frail, uncertain and vacillating. Hence...

1. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/special_report/1998/10/98/world_war_i/197627.stm 2. http://history1900s.about.com/od/1910s/a/christmastruce_2.htm December, 1914. For over four months, Europe has been...

I opened the Montgomery Advertiser this morning and I was overwhelmed with joy. Okay, not overwhelmed, but I was pretty happy to see the Collings Foundation is bringing their B-17, B-24 and P-51 to...

I have been called many things in my life: Charming, witty, intelligent, suave, debonair, refined, talented and of course “da_n handsome.” Okay, I’m lying. I’ve never been called...