Our state’s educational television network (AETN) has a slogan that goes, “Where Learning Never Ends.” This slogan has come to mean the world to me. In 1958 when I dropped out of Arkansas A&M College in Monticello and made my way to Little Rock where I had kinfolks, I did not have a very bright future. However, I did have one thing going for me: I was willing to work. Before I continue, please permit me to share something that is most important: When I began this column in 1995…

In these modern times when millions of Americans are all wrapped up in sports, we hear a lot about “winning” and “losing.” But have you given much thought to the difference between the winners in life and the losers? Well, believe it or not, the difference is very little. In fact, it can be as little as 2 percent. Some time ago I ran across a very timely article by Dr. Gene Emmet Clark titled “The Slight Edge - It Only Takes 2 Percent.” If you are striving to reach…

Have you ever known someone who, long after they were dead and buried, you would like to dig up and clone? If there has ever been a good candidate for this, former President Harry Truman would be at the top of my list. I have always liked President Truman. In fact, he is one of my all-time favorites of all the men who have served in our nation’s highest office. To be sure, he was a different kind of president. He probably made as many important decisions regarding our nation’s…

The past several weeks have been truly exciting here at our office. Because of the success of my previous book “The Best of Jim Davidson,” which is a collection of favorite radio shows as determined by a panel of award-winning journalists, I have made the decision to publish another book this year. It will be a collection of my favorite newspaper columns from the 1,300 that I have written. The title for this book will be “Better than the Best,” and it’s been an exciting process going through the titles…

It is not my nature to be critical of other people, and when I am, I try to do it in a way that it is not personal and do it in a way that criticizes the action and not the person. However there comes a time when we just need to tell it like it is, and this is one of those times. There is a group of people in America today, who have been around for a long time, who I believe are selling us down the river.…

The English language is one of the most difficult in the entire world to master. This is because so many of our words have multiple meanings. For example, “When I look at you time stands still” has a completely different meaning than when we say, “You have a face on you that will stop a clock.” Words are powerful, and how we use them will determine our success or failure. In my own personal experience, I have seen the power of inspiring words lift a very despondent person to overcome…

If you will tune me in for a few minutes, I would like to share what I consider to be the most disgusting thing I have ever presented in this column. This is a case of unintended consequences. In his Union Address on Wednesday, Jan. 8, 1964, President Lyndon B. Johnson proposed legislation that would create a “War on Poverty” in response to a national poverty rate of around 19 percent. His speech led the United States Congress to pass the Economic Opportunity Act, which established the Office of Economic…

It has been said that “children in a family are like flowers in a bouquet: there is always one determined to face in the opposite direction from the way the arranger desires.” For the vast majority of parents, our greatest hope is for our children to grow up to be happy, healthy and successful human beings. In today’s times this is no easy feat, even for those parents who are the most qualified. But it is a monumental task for first-time parents who did not have a good role model…

Here is a very sobering thought that will separate the winners from the also-rans: Everything worthwhile is uphill. Now, make no mistake about it, what I am saying is that to achieve any real success in life requires hard work. The beautiful thing about this statement is that any citizen in our country has the opportunity to achieve success because of our form and system of government. We are guaranteed that right by the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. It is important to note that our forefathers never intended…

Sometime back my friend Dennis Card sent me something that brought back some very fond memories. It was an article about Lt. Charles Plumb, a U.S. Naval Academy graduate who was a fighter pilot in Vietnam. After 75 combat missions, his plane was destroyed by a surface-to-air missile. Plumb ejected and parachuted into enemy hands, where he was captured and spent six long years in a Communist Vietnamese prison. He survived that ordeal, and today travels around to lecture about lessons learned from that experience. Dennis was surprised when I…