Reflections of An Uncommon Common Man

 In Trump's first term he adopted Reagan's Soviet Union strategy directed at bringing down the Iranian regime. Trump knew that the Iranian people, like the Russian people of the 1980's were unhappy with their government and wanted change. Without targeting the Iranian people Trump targeted the regime itself by isolating it economically from the world. Trump promised severe economic sanctions against any country that did business with Iran. Iran's oil exports dropped significantly and by the end of his first term in office Iran was on the verge of bankruptcy. They were also unable to fund their proxy terror groups like Hamas, Hezbolah and other terrorist groups. Trump was hoping that this economic punishment would spur a popular uprising in Iran. It would probably have happened had he been reelected in 2020. His sanctions were also designed to kill their attempt to build a nuclear weapon. The most clear and present danger to Israel, the United States and the entire world...

 On the late afternoon of April 4, 1968 I was working the 2nd shift at Baird-Ward printing company in Nashville when I heard the news about the assassination of Martin Luther King. All hell broke loose in Nashville and Memphis that night. Cities all over the country were burning and looters were running rampant. A state of emergency was declared and by the next day National Guard tanks and armored vehicles were deployed throughout Nashville. Our plant was right across the street from the Tennessee National Guard headquarters. On my breaks I watched as the troops were being mobilized. By the next day a six PM curfew was declared by then Democrat governor Buford Ellington. The Mayor of Nashville was Democrat Beverly Briley. Both handled the situation masterfully. After six o'clock the only people allowed on the street were people like myself who were going to work or were enroute to a hospital for emergency care. Everybody else would be arrested. I was a senior in high school at the ...

   It was the best of times and it was the worst of times. These are the opening lines to Charles Dickens book "A Tale Of Two Cities". This could describe the life with my father Willard Aaron (Bill) Segroves for the almost thirteen years that I knew him. All of his friends and family called him Bill but he was just daddy to us. The best of times were from my birth in 1950 until I was about nine years old. The last three years of his life from 1959 to January 16, 1963 were the worst of times. How does a man evolve from the best father in the world to being a monster? I have asked this question thousands of times in the last 62 years but I can only speculate. On this Fathers Day I want to honor the good dad that I knew. Many people can honor their father on Father's day without reservation but it is more difficult for me. I have tried very hard not to hate him over the years, which I could easily do. Through the years members of my family and friends have tried to console ...

  The very public political break-up between President Trump and Elon Musk is sad and painful to see. It wouldn't be the first time that two great men in history formed a friendship during a pivotal moment in history only to become bitter political rivals later on. The relationship between Thomas Jefferson and John Adams comes to mind. Both men were signers of the Declaration of Independence. Jefferson wrote the Declaration after Adams recommendation During the American Revolution they were great friends but in later years they became bitter enemies. So much so that when Jefferson succeeded Adams as president he left Washington refusing to attend the swearing in ceremony of Jefferson. In the years before their death on the same day, July 4th 1826, they reconciled as friends. Ironically July 4. 1826 was the 50th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence.  I don't know yet what really happened to cause this rift. It will eventually all come out in the wash I ...

I worked at Colonial Baking company in Nashville from March 1973 until April 1982. A beautiful young girl named Jennifer Lynn Wyant began working in the Distribution Dept where I worked in 1980. I remember that the male employees went gaga over her because she was so pretty. She dated one of our supervisors who I was friends with. I can't remember his name but he was tragically killed in Atlanta a few years later when he ran head on into a tractor trailer truck. I helped train this girl some and she was very friendly. One morning she didn't report to work and after her apartment was searched it was discovered that she was missing. Nothing was disturbed and her car was still in the parking lot. Police were never able to find her and as of this date her disappearance is still an unsolved mystery. I am posting this because for years I could never remember her name until this morning when I saw a story about her on Youtube. It always bothered me that such a nice girl could go missi...