Full Circle on the Oxford Square

A book event in my college town brings my early story roaring back to life.

Last night, I spoke at a small event hosted by Mississippi Fair Elections immediately to the north of the famous Oxford, Mississippi, town square:

Rachel at the historic Oxford town square

This event, tucked quietly away in a safe red state, evoked a line from Field of Dreams, in that the memories were so thick I had to brush them away from my face. As people filed in, chapters of my past that were preserved in my book, The American War on Election Corruption, came to life. There sat Ole Miss chemistry professor Ryan Fortenberry, who just won a prestigious award given to the top teacher at Ole Miss; he was my high school classmate with a great memory of the kid who never worked hard and didn’t have what it took between the ears to turn into what he was supposed to.

Then there sat Mrs. Kat, the Ole Miss ROTC administrator and “Rebel Battalion Mom” who kept all of us cadets in line and who personally helped punch through the waiver that granted me access to the commissioning program that allowed me to become “Captain K” in the first place. Nearly half of the 20 attendees were military veterans, including Butch Harris, who honored the memory of my longtime friend, Colonel Lee Jones, who served in Vietnam alongside my father and who was stationed at Fort Buchanan, Puerto Rico, when I was born on the island. Brigadier General (Ret.) Gary Huffman also attended. This brought back a lot of memories from my military career, which I told in what turned out to be a completely unscripted jaunt down memory lane.

I was in town to begin with because today I’ll be part of a ceremony celebrating the 20 year anniversary of the Ole Miss Rebels SEC Tournament Championship team, which featured several future Major Leaguers and of which I was a member. That was the first major building block of my analytical course of study, a full decade before sabermetrics and rigorous analysis of collegiate baseball became commonplace. As soon as I hit “publish” on this article, I’m going to take Rachel and two of my step-kids down to “The Grove,” where many Ole Miss alums remember darker days for the football program. That hallowed ground is the birthplace of the phrase “we may not win every game, but we’ve never lost a party.” I have my own brick there, which my Dad sponsored as a graduation present in 2008:

1LT Seth Keshel, shortly before deployment to Afghanistan, May 2010

When The American War on Election Corruption was published last month, my event in Oxford hadn’t been scheduled. I didn’t realize in going to a forgotten location among the red-and-blue political maps that I would remember so many key components of the story that set my life and its goals in motion.

Dr. Cyree is recently retired as Dean of the Ole Miss Business School, and has been a staunch conservative in a sea of leftist academics for decades. He and Lori have been among the loudest voices for activism and citizen engagement in north Mississippi, and have never shied away from these views despite the great risk to Ken’s career. These are the types of people we must admire when it is so easy to blend in and slink away when the fire gets hottest. One of the most surreal connections to this trip has been the memory that when I look at my diploma, Dr. Cyree’s signature sits right there in the bottom right corner:

It may be 10, 15, or 20 years, or even longer, but eventually, the past rings itself in your ears so loudly you’d have to be numb to the world to ignore the marks it has made on your life. Now on to celebrate with some old friends and remember some amazing times!

Captain K and Dr. Cyree at last night’s event

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Seth Keshel, MBA, is a former Army Captain of Military Intelligence and Afghanistan veteran. His analytical method of election forecasting and analytics is known worldwide, and he has been commended by President Donald J. Trump for his work in the field.