My first experience with Indiana University football was in 1963 when the United States Air Force sent me to IU to learn the Hungarian language. IU lost six out of nine games that year. As is the case with most Indiana Alumni, I have clung to a hope IU would somehow, sometime, win a game in the fourth quarter rather than lose. Peg and I have attended many games filled with enthusiasm but left crushed by reality. The cruelty of an Indiana winter’s sleet, snow and rain coupled with IU football faux pas has been an almost unrelenting Hoosier heartbreak for sixty-two years. We did finally reach the Rose Bowl in January 1968, but O.J. Simpson ran over us as easily as he later did the California … [Read More...] about Do You Believe In Magic?
Gavel Gamut
Recent Articles
Dad’s Birthday
Gentle Reader, it is possible you have heard or read some of this Civil War type story before. But Peg and I are going to spend this coming weekend at the re-enactment of the Civil War Battle of Honey Springs which was the largest Civil War battle west of the Mississippi River involving Caucasian, Black, and several Native American tribes in a desperate struggle for the control of Fort Gibson, the main installation that controlled the western supply route along the Texas Road. I do not know if my Grandfather Redwine fought in this battle which occurred July 17, 1863 near what is now Checotah, Oklahoma. If he did, it would have been as a teenager on the side of the Confederacy. However, as … [Read More...] about Dad’s Birthday
The Public Forum
I have subscribed to The Posey County News and its progenitors for about forty years. At the request of the then editor and owner, Jim Kohlmeyer, in 1990 I began writing “Gavel Gamut”. Current editor Dave Pearce continued to publish my column after he and his wife Connie took over the paper. Neither Jim nor Dave nor Connie ever sought to censor any of the more than 1,000 columns I have written. Gentle Reader, you are undoubtedly aware of how rare it has become for news outlets to provide a true forum for the exchange of differing views. The Posey County News provides such a forum. The Posey County News is a beacon to the First Amendment at a time that such beacons of illumination are under … [Read More...] about The Public Forum
News On Our Doorsteps
According to our new Bible, the Internet, local, independent newspapers are rapidly going the way the American bison did in the 19th century. I researched these facts via the Internet. The last time I entered a public library was about the time Ted Turner unleashed CNN in 1980. However, the last time I received a non-amalgamated view of the news was only today when my October 01 and October 08, 2025 editions of The Posey County News arrived in my post office box. Some cynics might opine that my view of our fine local newspaper is colored by the fact this column appears every week. Maybe so, but I submit my long-time personal friends, Editors and Owners Connie Redman Pearce and Dave Pearce, … [Read More...] about News On Our Doorsteps
Lessons Learned
Peg and I used to live on 12 acres just outside of New Harmony, Indiana. We enjoyed taking care of it ourselves. We now live just outside Barnsdall, Oklahoma on a small acreage we do enjoy but find its care occasionally more of a challenge. Such was our recent experience. In fact, we almost got nostalgic for town living when we decided to attack the repair of our mower. It all seemed so simple, in theory. I had just finished mowing the high hill we call “Mogul Margaret’s Mountain” and was going back down the trail along the side of the mountain when the zero-turn mower controls quit controlling. I was headed into a ravine. I pushed the brake and stopped the mower just before taking the … [Read More...] about Lessons Learned
Ever Again
Maybe it is because I was born and grew up on an Indian reservation and had many Native American friends, including my Osage Sunday School teacher, but there are things involved in the Gaza Peace Plan claimed by President Trump that remind me of the treaties between the United States government and numerous American Indian peoples. In general, those treaties put Indians out of sight and white people in possession of Indian lands. Although many of those peace plans did contain magnanimous conditions and gratuitous language such as, “As long as the rivers flow, etc.” It turned out those were a secret code that meant, until gold, silver or whatever thing the dominate culture wanted was … [Read More...] about Ever Again
Judicial Isolation
This week starts the seven-week online course for Special & Ethical Considerations for the Rural Court Judge sponsored by the National Judicial College (six weeks online meetings with one week break in the middle). As a member of the NJC faculty, I have helped teach this course for fifteen years. The other faculty members are judges from Nevada, Mississippi, Tennessee and California. The student judges preside in rural trial courts in several states. We meet via Zoom. Our first week’s session will concentrate on the topic of Judicial Isolation involving rural court judges. The lead faculty member is Judge Pat Lenzi from Nevada. Judges who serve in smaller jurisdictions often find … [Read More...] about Judicial Isolation
Up Stairs, Down Stairs
Donald Trump will be forever associated with escalators. Much of the world, at least the part I am part of, had paid little attention to The Donald until he and Melania descended those moving stairs at Trump Tower in New York City, New York on June 16, 2015. Then there was the non-moving escalator at the United Nations building September 23, 2025. President Trump demanded an investigation. President Trump spoke to the assembled countries of the world that day. He began his lecture with: “I’m really good at this stuff. Your countries are going to hell.” Perhaps he has information about the world from some higher source the rest of us are not privy to. Next, he criticized the United … [Read More...] about Up Stairs, Down Stairs
Chim Chim Charlie
When I think of Charlie Gaston, I conjure up Dick Van Dyke’s song “Chim Chim Cher-ee” from the musical Mary Poppins: “Chim chiminey, chim chiminey, chim chim cher-eeA sweep is as lucky as lucky can be Chim chiminey, chim chiminey, chim chim cher-oo Good luck will rub off when (Charlie) shakes ‘ands with you.” I do not know if Charlie has ever been a chimney sweep but I do know he has built some. I also bet he clicked his heels while he did so. My September 03, 2025 edition of The Posey County News arrived by mail to JPeg Osage Ranch on September 08. New Harmony’s purveyor of good humor appeared resplendent along with his bicycle in a half-page article announcing the All About Charlie … [Read More...] about Chim Chim Charlie
The End of Days
What makes life worth living? The ability to choose. If humans cannot choose what they do, then we are as livestock. When Americans travel to some foreign countries we are often perplexed by the reluctance of many of their citizens to voice their true opinions or openly protest the actions of their governments. One of the greatest values of foreign travel is the appreciation Americans discover of our freedom in America to say what we truly believe without fear. So, when violence is perpetrated against Americans in America for speaking their minds, it jars our collective psyches. We may not agree with a speaker’s politics, religion, philosophy or choice of sports teams, but our First … [Read More...] about The End of Days
Richard Nixon
It is 4:30 a.m. and I just spent the last three hours watching a PBS special on Richard Nixon. It may be that years of working the night shift followed by several hours of college classes makes normal sleep abnormal for me. At least I prefer that explanation to what my father told me when I asked him why he was up and down most nights, “Son, when you get old you just can’t stay asleep”. Regardless, I am awake and the PBS documentary reminded me of a Gavel Gamut article I wrote in about January of 2007 about Presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford. That article is set out below. Gentle Reader, I trust you remember it. What almost twenty more years has done to my impressions of the turbulent … [Read More...] about Richard Nixon
Books
Unanimous for Murder
Live on Amazon.com and Kindle eBooks!
Unanimous for Murder picks up where JUDGE LYNCH! left off. A gripping story of small town murder and judicial shenanigans on the western frontier when the western frontier was east of the Mississippi.
Echoes of Our Ancestors: The Secret Game
Jim’s new novel tells the exciting story of a long hidden but important football game that occurred between representatives of Haskell Indian Institute (now the Haskell Indian Nations University) and professionals from the then Kansas City Cowboys in 1924 at a secret location on the Osage Indian Nation near Pawhuska, Oklahoma - where Jim was born.
JUDGE LYNCH!
“Judge Lynch Holds Court!” That was the banner headline in a Posey County, Indiana newspaper after seven African American men were murdered by a white mob during October, 1878.
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Gavel Gamut Greetings from JPeg Ranch
“Gavel Gamut Greetings" is an anthology of topical and historical selections mainly about regional events and personalities that have appeared in my weekly newspaper column, Gavel Gamut.
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