The Times - Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley

I take my next-door neighbor’s political temperature by perusing his bumper stickers. During the reign of Bush II, Rob’s work van sported this exhortation: “Visualize No Liberals.” I didn’t take it literally. I even managed a smile. It was pithy and rather witty.

I knew Rob didn’t want me gone, just like I didn’t believe what I heard in Catholic school: that all Protestants were going straight to hell. My mother was an eminently lax Episcopalian.

No, it would take more than a bumper sticker to drive a wedge between Rob and me, not to mention his wife, Helen.

For years, Rob hay...