Pondering Pogo's Enemy: One Op-Ed at a Time

FROM THE AUTHOR: I have had 50 op-ed columns published in the Joplin Globe, Joplin, Missouri, since 2009. Given that volume of material, it looked like I had, in effect, written a book. The question then became one of selecting which op-eds to include. After making the selections, I found that they could be divided into five categories: • Economic Issues • Governance and Democracy • National Security • Political Issues • Social Issues Regardless of the category, each of the Op-Eds here is my own reflection on certain aspects of our social institutions and culture. But the opinions, of course, came from my own worldview as applied to what I was seeing in the world around me. As the writing progressed and with the subject matter sometimes bordering on the absurd stuff people do, I often thought of the famous Pogo declaration, "We have met the enemy and he is us." Then the wheels started turning in my meager brain. My pondering, contemplating, mulling, and cogitating about the human condition and expressing the same through a series of Op-Ed's seemed to make sense. So, in keeping with this overall theme, I titled the book, "Pondering Pogo's Enemy." I have selected some of what I think are the more interesting, diverse, and sometimes controversial of my commentaries to include here. Some of these appear as they were originally published. A number of others were expanded and revised as I had time. Where I could, I added a few quotations pertinent to the topic that were not in the original piece to underscore and emphasize my point.I also added references as needed to identify the sources for the material that were not published due to restrictions on the word-count permitted by the Globe. Of course, most of the commentary here is time-dependent and things will have likely changed by the time this book is read. There are statistics, for example, that were current at the time of the writing, but have not been updated. Nonetheless, I hope the reader can just enjoy seeing another point of view. I hope, too, that these writings may also provide ideas for essays, or for research, or even for use in an Op-Ed.