It was a warm, sunny day in the fall of 1979, or, at least, that’s how I remember it, at this distance in time. Summer break was ended, and I was on the first day of my senior year of high school. Before class, my footsteps took me where they generally did when I wasn’t required to be somewhere else – the Journalism room. I had spent my sophomore and junior years on the school newspaper, one of the few things in my high school career I found enjoyable. I had already learned one thing: Our faculty advisor, one of the few teachers I actually looked up to, had pushed me forward as the school paper’s Opinion Editor for my senior year.
Mind you that was a lot like giving a maniac a loaded gun.
I caused a lot of controversy that year. I wasn’t a fan of the jock contingent in our school, and they were the occasional target of the few inches of column space I held as my own personal soapbox. That led to a hallway scuffle or two, but our faculty advisor told me, “If you aren’t making someone angry, nobody is reading you.” I stayed my course. One afternoon I was the recipient of a lecture on “male chauvinism,” that being what they called sexism in those days, from a classmate in a cheerleader’s uniform, tight sweater, miniskirt and all – so the next week I unleashed a blast of my pen at the cheerleaders and pom-pom squads, which caused quite an uproar. That article actually led to one scrap that resulted in detention for both me and the football player on the other side of the scuffle, but I stayed my course.
I had a lot of fun. But in May of 1980, all that ended; the Army took some years of my time, then college, where I elected to go into the natural sciences and not journalism, and then between active and reserve Army time and a career in medical devices and biotech, most of that as an independent industry consultant, which saw me doing business on four continents and racking up a boatload of airline and hotel award points. In that business, granted, I also did a lot of writing. I have probably written thousands of standard operating procedures (SOPs), work instructions, inspection procedures, responses to government inspections, and much more.
But I never really lost the opinion journalism itch. I did a lot of reading and noodling around in comment sections, wrote one non-fiction book on the animal rights movement, which is outdated now, hopped into writing sci-fi and alternative history, and read, read, and read. I spent a lot of time on airplanes, reading. I spent a lot of evenings in hotel rooms surfing news and opinion sites – and, of course, discovered the various sites of the Townhall Media group, including RedState.
Meanwhile: COVID, travel crashed, business crashed, my industry crashed, and my consulting business came apart. I had a year with no contract and no hopes of one; everyone I know in the business – and to be candid, I know everyone who’s anyone in medical devices quality consulting – was out of work.
I kept reading, though. I found the Townhall sites in general and RedState in particular to be among my favorites. In the process I made a new friend, RedState’s own Brandon Morse, who (to make a long story short) encouraged me to submit a guest piece, which was published; I wrote another, which was also published, which led to an offer to become a contributor, and… well, here I am. After well over forty years, I have come back to my high school roots, back to making people upset with me for my opinion, not on paper but on pixels. And I’m happy with that, more than I can express. RedState not only includes some of the smartest people I’ve ever met, but those people produce some amazing content, from daily briefings to detailed analysis to thought-provoking commentary.
See Related: Friday Morning Minute
My How Time Flies: Twenty Years of RedState
A few days ago I saw my first anniversary with RedState, my first anniversary of being a professional journalist, over forty years after walking away from my high school newspaper, and not only am I enjoying it, but I think I have a knack for it. I’m still working out the rough edges in my writing style but I think that now I’m getting dialed in. RedState has now been active for twenty years – and that’s amazing to think of, as I realize that RedState was founded one year after I started my consulting business.
Not all that long ago, a shot at another medical industry consulting gig surfaced. I turned it down. I’m not going back. I’m where I belong now. I plan to stick with this as long as my mental capacity stays up to the task. I never thought I would be starting a new career in my sixties, but here I am.
Thanks, RedState, for the opportunity. It’s been a great year. I’m looking forward to many more, and hope to be here for RedState’s 30th and 40th anniversaries. And thanks to all of you readers. Everything I do here is for you, and I am sincerely grateful to every one of you for your attention. Stay tuned, because I’m nowhere near done yet.
