Back in January, on Friday the 13th with freezing rain in the forecast, my brother and I left Northwest Arkansas and traveled to Tulsa to see an event at the downtown BOK Center featuring Fox News' Bill O'Reilly.
Because we were traveling on Friday the 13th with a chance of encountering icy roads, you might think my brother and me to be brave souls, men of great faith, or just plain crazy.
But if it makes you feel any better, we kept a very close check on the weather and looked carefully at the location of the potential icy conditions before departing.
In the "The Spin Stops Here Tour 2017," O'Reilly was joined by comedian Dennis Miller and Fox News' Jesse Watters.
What was it like?
Imagine the content of the O'Reilly Factor on the Fox News channel, then make it slightly less serious, more laid back, more informal -- even though O'Reilly still wore a tie and jacket -- and more conversational. Then throw in several laughs.
Some of the dialogue touched on serious issues of the day but it was often accompanied by good clean fun.
And most of it was not politically correct, which was fine with a crowd that appeared to be largely supportive of Donald Trump, who at the time had not yet been sworn in as president.
The evening began with Watters addressing what appeared to be a capacity crowd in the arena, and then he took his microphone and came down on the floor to speak with individuals in attendance.
He asked them what questions they had for O'Reilly and Miller during the final portion of the show. He wanted 10 good questions and after circulating in the audience for several minutes, he had them.
Next Miller took the stage and spoke behind a podium.
Wearing eyeglasses and using a few sheets of notes, he looked a bit like a college professor.
If you've heard Miller doing a comedy routine before, you know his delivery is certainly cerebral in nature, but that is where the college professor comparisons end.
His delivery was spicy at times, and if your beliefs fall on the left side of the political spectrum, you might have considered some of his statements to be iconoclastic.
But the pro-conservative crowd was fine with that.
When O'Reilly spoke, he shared several thoughts about Donald Trump, telling how he knows him personally and what he's like, and provided an interesting recap of how Trump rose to the top of the Republican field.
He also talked about how Trump's critics are coming at him hard, but said he felt it would diminish if Trump gets the nation's economy up and running strong.
It was a good evening for thinking about the issues and enjoying oneself at the same time, a blend of current events and entertainment, if you will.
O'Reilly and Watters weren't required to wear their journalism caps on Jan. 13, so they were able to kick it up a notch.
Miller has never claimed to be a journalist at all, so he was able to kick it up a couple of notches.
None of them, however, were beyond what we recognize them to be on television.
My brother and I had planned all along to stay the night in downtown Tulsa after the show, and that is exactly what we did, but the next morning, with bad weather moving in, we hit the road to get back to Arkansas.
The freezing rain was already accumulating on trees in the Tulsa area, but within 30 minutes we had escaped the icy weather front and began feeling a sense of relief.
In one respect, our short trek back to Arkansas is symbolic of the path that many Americans hope to take at this time, optimistically moving from potentially hazardous times on to better things ahead.
As O'Reilly brought his show to a conclusion, he was also looking ahead to what the future might hold, and everyone seemed to be listening intently, and with a sense of hope, I might add.
A better future. That's what Americans always want and that's what they might get.
That's because America has a history of facing tumultuous times with faith, dedication, hard work, optimism and good cheer, and it has worked well.
The question is, will America demonstrate those attributes in the days ahead?
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David Wilson, EdD, of Springdale, is a writer, consultant and presenter, who grew up in Arkansas but worked 27 years in education in Missouri. You may email him at [email protected]. The opinions expressed are those of the author.
Editorial on 02/08/2017