James C. Moore

personal stories

The Guns of October

“Ours is a world of nuclear giants and ethical infants. We know more about war than we know about peace, more about killing than we know about living. We have grasped the mystery of the atom and rejected the Sermon on the Mount.”― Gen. Omar N. Bradley

Texas Politics

No Bugles, No Drums

"Ten members of the Texas National Guard have died in the Texas governor’s multi-billion-dollar presidential campaign commercial called “Operation Lone Star,” and Abbott has offered them anonymity, not honor, for their deaths."

Podcast

Somebody to Look Down On

“And that’s what just kills me,” George said. “I gotta go to bed every night now for the next four goddamn years thinkin’ about a n***er in my White House. What the hell is wrong with this country?”

personal stories

When Horses Could Fly

My mother’s love gave me the courage to say no. Even if I wanted to indulge in their teenaged stupidity, I resisted because getting caught and arrested would have destroyed Ma. She wanted something better, which she was unable to even define, for her kids.

Religion

The Least of These

“The bosom of America is open to receive not only the opulent and respected stranger, but the oppressed and persecuted of all nations and religions; whom we shall welcome to a participation of all our rights and privileges.” - President George Washington

personal stories

The Wounds of War

I did not want to live in Canada because it was colder than Michigan, but I figured it was much better than dying in the jungles of VietNam for no apparent reason. With my low draft number, I was certain to be inducted and sent to basic and on to Southeast Asia.

Texas Politics

Ann Richards and the Lost Eagle

The center of attention was a woman, the governor of the state of Texas, who had just released an American bald eagle from her leather-sheathed and extended arm. She'd made plans to raft Santa Elena Canyon with friends before returning to Austin. “Why don’t y’all come along?” She was speaking to us.

Abortion

That One Thing

If nothing else were spoken of the entire campaign season this autumn, abortion ought to be enough to defeat Republicans. The same Trump party fools who refused vaccines with the chant of “my body, my choice,” are telling women they cannot legally make choices about their bodies.

personal stories

Adventures of a Young Man: Starting Out in the West

“You need a tape. Nobody will hire you without a tape.” The DJ struck me as a leather-sandaled beer keg in a tie-dyed tee shirt, but he had a voice that suggested death coming round a curve...

Texas Politics

It's Only Words

"I want to know that if a person who laughs about 19 school kids being obliterated by what amounts to a military-grade weapon is not a motherfucker, then who is?"

Texas Politics

A Letter from Texas

"Fascism in Texas is no longer creeping. It is up and running with Olympian legs."

national politics

Called to the Colors: Betrayal of the American Veteran

Our culture has become very skilled at ginning up false causes for invasions and wasting the honor and patriotism of our young on lies. Young recruits believe their government and the political leaders sending them into conflict, and that, sadly, is their mistake.

environment

How the West Was Lost

“Thousands have lived without love, not one without water.” - W.H. Auden

Baseball

Best of the Pecos

“You see, you spend a good piece of your life gripping a baseball, and in the end it turns out that it was the other way around all the time.” - Jim Bouton, pitcher, author

US History

What Does America Want?

"Bradley Freeman was a 19-year-old freshman at Mississippi State University in Starkville when he enlisted in the U.S. Army and became a paratrooper. He knew that America was worth fighting for. Freeman, who passed a day before July 4th, would be the last of the "Band of Brothers." "

Texas Politics

Governor Death

Nothing reaches his dark heart. How many Texans who need help and won’t be able to get it because of Abbott’s policies, and then will end up hurting themselves or others?

Texas Politics

The Race to Ruin

The rest of America ought to view Texas as a conservative crystal ball and get an honest read of the potential future under unrestrained Republican leadership.

Texas Politics

The Streets of Laredo

People around town had told me Lawrence Berry was nothing more than a drifter, a hitchhiker. He took on probably the oldest group of power brokers and backroom bastards in America.

US History

Drinking with Doc Holliday

Doc was a man who did not need a myth. His life was equal to the epic expansion of the West and the rule of the gun when law was unavailable.

Guns

To See, Or Not To See

The government controls what we see, and we have let them, which is foolish in the extreme. Because we are now met in a battle on our own soil, except it is not a war, it’s the slaughter of our children.

Guns

The Moon that Never Rose

Greg Abbott’s hands are drenched in the blood of the youth of Uvalde. He said the shooter had a “mental health challenge.” So does the governor.

Texas Politics

Trainwreck Texas

The conversation turns to politics. My confounding love of Texas reveals an affliction that leads us all to experience as much joy as frustration.

personal stories

A Southern Sensibility

“Well, James, y’all made good time, then,” she said. “I don’t think you coulda made better time than that.” I swear I saw my father blush. No finer accolade might have been offered.

I Called Her Ma

"He stood at the window of the empty cafe and watched the activities in the square and he said that it was good that God kept the truths of life from the young as they were starting out or else they'd have no heart to start at all." - Cormac McCarthy

personal stories

On Grief and Loss

This is what we have. The sheer joy of just living. We might not feel it now. Or like those we know who were lost, maybe we never come to know it. But that joy is what we are given.