As you may have noticed, I've begun providing general interest, community-oriented columns every other Friday. This is actually my second stint as a Gazette-Times columnist. The first, in the mid-1980s, was fun but short-lived. I hope to stick around longer this time.

I've changed a great deal since then - I know a lot less now. I can't guarantee I won't change even more in the years ahead - it seems likely - but you have a right to know who I am and where I stand.

I am a registered Republican who has serious problems with the neo-cons and fundamentalists who seem to have taken over the state and national Republican parties. I have voted for Democrats in the last several elections.

I am a gun owner and 20-year member of the National Rifle Association who distrusts the NRA's jingoistic, lowest common denominator approach to the Second Amendment.

I'm a parent who has helped raise two children, one an easy keeper, the other considerably less so. Both are now happy, productive members of society.

My wife and I were foster parents for 13 years and participated in the successes and heartbreaks of a badly flawed system. We are still in touch with several of the children we parented over the years.

I coached or helped coach every sport my children played from kindergarten to middle school. Being a part of their lives and their friends' lives during those formative years remains one of my greatest treasures.

I'm a dedicated hunter and fisherman who believes hunting is our heritage, but that some hunters are our own worst enemies.

I am religious - after my own, somewhat pagan fashion - and have little use for people who believe their religion is the ONLY way.

I think you have to be physically blind not to see the effects of evolution. And soul-blind not to recognize the work of higher beings in the beauty surrounding us.

I'm not very politically correct. I like our language the way it is and will not bastardize it to satisfy others' whims. For instance, I will never use the word "fisher" to describe a fisherman, male or female. A fisher is a large, tree-borne predator of the weasel family and although I know several people who could accurately be described as weasels, I don't know anyone who would like it. On the other hand, I've got a big dictionary, and I'm not afraid to use it.

I think children are our future and public schools are our investment in that future. I wish more legislators felt the same.

I believe in capital punishment but would like to have more confidence in the fairness of our trial and appeal process.

I hate abortion, at any stage, but don't see how anyone has the right to tell a woman what she can and cannot do with her own body.

I think gay people have as much right to live their lives as everyone else, and they should have full access to societal institutions, including marriage.

In general, it's probably accurate to say I'm as confused as anyone, and more than most.

One other thing … I tend to poke a little fun, more at myself than at other people, but no one is really safe. Folks who take themselves seriously might occasionally also take exception to something I say. Please accept my apology right now, so you don't expect one later on.

I'm looking forward to writing this column, and hope you'll let me know how you feel about what I have to say. Actually, I know you will. Caring enough to speak out is a cornerstone of what Corvallis is all about.

Pat Wray is a freelance writer and long-time local resident. His general interest columns can be found in this section on alternating Fridays. He can be reached at patwray@comcast.net.