About the Blog
I launched my Just Sayin’ blog in November 2016 as part of my website, BobLaycock.com. My interests are quite varied, both political and spiritual, resulting in a somewhat eclectic mix of posts. You’ll see this reflected in the Categories menu. You can select any category that interests you.
I decided in October 2021 to shift the emphasis for this blog less towards politics and more towards spiritual and personal reflections. I’ve added the word “Now” to the blog name in keeping with this new emphasis: the idea of mindful presence in the here and now. I still post on political matters, but less often.
Thank you for stopping by. I hope you will find value here and that you’ll visit again.
Bob Laycock
About Me
I’m a retired municipal employee where I was an active member of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) for 27 years. Prior to that I worked in neighborhood-based, non-profit community development.
I came of age during the civil rights movement, Vietnam and Watergate. These and other events shaped my world view and political perspectives. I organized opposition to the Vietnam War in my high school, later worked as an organizer with the United Farm Workers (UFW), and at college I was active in gay liberation and in socialist politics aligned with the United States Socialist Workers Party (SWP). I continued my association with the SWP, off and on, most of my life until Spring 2022 when I parted company with them over differences concerning LGBTQ+ rights and transgender issues particularly. I’m still a socialist, but now a man without a party.
For several years I helped produce GayWaves, a weekly radio program on WRUW-FM in Cleveland, served as Board President for Cleveland’s Lesbian-Gay Community Service Center, and have done other work to advance LGBTQ+ rights.
My interests also extend to meditation and spirituality, with a lower-case “s.” I’m a student of mindfulness and meditation — not a perfect practitioner by any stretch, but good enough to realize some of the benefits. I suspect I’m closeted the Buddhist! While I never pursued it, I recall being attracted to concepts rooted in Buddhism back in the early 70s.
And then there’s technology. My father influenced me from an early age with his interest in gadgets and Citizens Band (CB) radio. I studied and received a commercial FCC First Class Radiotelephone Operator License with plans to work as a broadcast engineer. That didn’t pan out except for a brief stint as a recording engineer at a local FM station. Since radio and TV were not to be my vocation, I made radio an avocation instead. I passed the exams required for an amateur radio license, first as KA8UHL and now under the callsign K8RCL. Still later my interests gravitated to computers, which lead to the creation of my website and this blog.
