On May 1, 1938, I was born in the White County community of Bradford, Arkansas. My mother was the oldest of seven children and, ironically, her mother (my grandmother) was expecting twins at the same time. Just 10 days later they were born -- a boy and a girl, who were given the names Bill and Betty. It was really neat growing up with an aunt and uncle the same age, especially for birthdays and during the Christmas holidays. Betty retired from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and now…

In our great nation, with our political and economic systems, it is possible to achieve far more personal success than anywhere else in the world. When any person has a vision or a dream of something they would like to achieve, the human spirit is unleashed. With time, hard work and perseverance, they can and will achieve it. I say this because of a news article I ran across the other day that epitomizes this better than anything I have ever seen, known or run across before. We were sitting…

We hear a lot these days about school dropouts and what causes this to happen to so many students. In some parts of the nation it’s as high as four out of every 10 students who start to school in kindergarten and never walk down the aisle to get a high school diploma. There are also a vast number of students who walk across the stage to the familiar refrain of “Pomp & Circumstance”, yet they can barely read, if at all, the diploma they are given. The answer to…

Lucius Annaeus Seneca, the old Roman philosopher and playwright, once said, “Pity is a mental illness induced by the spectacle of other people’s misery.” Who among us in this prosperous land we call America, the home of the free and the land of the brave, have not felt pity on the hordes of humanity who have been driven from their homes, raped and pillaged by thugs and villains who were stronger and more powerful? This is a spectacle we have seen far too often in the past several years, and…

The United States of America is blessed to have some great rivers, and they provide us with so many benefits that it would be impossible to list them all. In the early days of our nation’s history, these natural streams of water provided the early pioneers with the means to move people and supplies to remote areas which, by and large, were inaccessible by other modes of transportation. It is little wonder that today many of our major cities are located alongside these majestic ribbons of water. Just as the…

For many years my column ran in the Hillsdale Daily News, a newspaper based in Hillsdale, Michigan. It was running there in the year 2000 when our nation celebrated the Millennium (which means a thousand years). This will always be special to me because the Hillsdale Daily News sponsored a community-wide gathering to celebrate this historic year, and invited me to come to Hillsdale to be the speaker for the event. But something far more important is taking place in Hillsdale these days, and this is the battle Hillsdale College…

There is a special group of people in our nation today to whom I would like to pay tribute -- our school teachers. In fact, I appreciate them so much that I have developed a unique presentation that I have presented to our local school superintendent and the director of the Arkansas Department of Education with the focus on our teachers. The large heading says, “The Greatest Profession of them All,” and when you stop to think about it, I believe you will agree that this is true. You cannot…

In our visit today I want to share some things with you that are very special. I want to share with you some things my father taught me. At the time I did not think much about it, but now looking back, I realize what he did for me. It’s the old story of Dad being an old fogey when I was 15 and how much he had learned when I was 25. My father was considerably older than my mother. As a result, when I was born he had…

President John F. Kennedy had it right when he said, “The great danger is not that the present generation will destroy the system. The great danger is that we won’t transmit it.” Well, President Kennedy, if you were around today, you would know that we did not do our job very well. What is happening in our nation today is nothing short of insane. The protests, riots, looting, burning and mass chaos is due, by and large, to the fact that those of us in the older generation have dropped…

If you have ever heard the beautiful song by Ray Boltz titled, ”The Anchor Holds”, you will have a good mental picture of a concept that makes all the difference in the world in a human being’s life. Sadly, there are so many people in our society today who do not have an anchor, and they are adrift in the sea of humanity, being buffeted by every wind or tide that comes along. If you happen to be this person, or know someone like this, who lacks direction or purpose…