Ivory Dome

What other group, or culture can say the same? This guy I know from some of the places we write. He’s a retired Army guy. As you can see on the wall behind him he has earned his right to express an opinion. Lots of good songs wrote by this man. Take a little listen.

When I first heard the news that Richard Roberts had resigned his position as President of Oral Roberts University amidst allegations of financial misappropriation, I wasn’t particularly surprised.

Back in the 80’s, I read a book called Ashes to Gold (1983) by Patti Roberts, the first wife of Richard Roberts.  In this book, she described the priorities they lived by that contributed to their divorce:

Our success, our high-gloss way of living, our highly polished exterior gave us no refuge when the terrors of real problems hit, because our hope was in our empire.  Our desire was to protect our empire.  So all our effort went to “how does this look to the public?’ – not “how does this look to God?”  We turned our eyes to the public when we should have turned them to the wind and cried, “God, what responsibilities do we have to You?”

It seems that Roberts didn’t learn his lesson.  In 1987, two years after he was named executive vice president of ORU and six years before he succeeded his father as president, university regent Harry McNiven resigned from the Board of Regents because of misspending he had witnessed.  McNiven was recently quoted as saying, “It’s been 20 years that they’ve been doing the same things that I became aware of.”

The allegations lodged against Roberts include “a $39,000 shopping tab at one store for Richard Roberts’ wife, Lindsay, a $29,411 Bahamas senior trip on the university jet for one of Roberts’ daughters, and a stable of horses for the Roberts children.”

Apparently the Roberts empire included political influence as well as lavish lifestyle.  In 2006, he personally endorsed Randi Miller for mayor of Tulsa, Oklahoma (the home of ORU), and allegedly required students in a government class to work on the Miller campaign (an allegation that Roberts denies).

Here’s a link to an AP article about the scandal:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071124/ap_on_re_us/oral_roberts_scandal

My guess is that Rudy Giuliani is thanking his lucky stars that it was Pat Robertson, and not Richard Roberts, who endorsed his campaign.

The VFW Last Saturday the Admiral and I went to the VFW in Amarillo for their early Thanksgiving dinner. They also had a country-dance going after the dinner.  She had heard a commercial on the radio about it. We had not been dancing since the Caravan closed so she pushed me pretty hard to go. I really didn’t want to, as the last time I had been in a VFW it had been mostly very old folks and not a lot of fun for a young guy.  

And I was right. Almost all were ancient even compared to my 55 years in this life. But that was the sad thing about the night. On the walls all around were pictures of young, and I assume mostly local, men who had fought in WW2. There were pictures of the machines and places of that great time in history. It was dark and I didn’t get to look at everything on the walls there, but I saw nothing of the wars that came after WW2.

I had posted a e-mail I had received earlier speaking of how different the thinking of the American populace was at the beginning of WW2 compared to now.  I ate and danced and talked to many of these old men who teetered and shuffled on the dance floor, often causing me genuine concern for their safety. But mostly I thought about how different our country is now from the country these men knew when young. I wondered if they would have been so anxious to participate in the bloodiest most destructive conflict in the history of man if they had known what the US would look like today after 42 years of Liberal control.

I was told by some of these guys that the VFW is a dying organization. It is said that over 10,000 WW2 vets die each month. A very telling bit of evidence to that statistic was the number of old women “widows” who sat together watching the folks who could still dance.  The VFW stretches the rules a bit these days in a effort to stay active. There was a time when just being a Vet was not enough. You had to have actually fought in a war, or at least have been active in time of war. I don’t know why the VFW never really caught on with Vietnam Vets. I’m not sure about Korean Vet participation.

But I do know that it was nice to be among great men such as those who fought in WW2.  It was good to be among the relics of that tremendous conflict and be reminded of the equally tremendous sacrifice made by these men. It was the last time that both the US government and population were fully dedicated to the goal of freedom, and just law for all in the world.  

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving. All day today I’ve heard all the talking heads speak about how terrible the Indians were treated. I’ve heard the usual garbage about how America is the source of all evil, just turned up in volume a tad, as is usual during a holiday.  Much has been said today about a flood of new movies being released that bash everything American. From Christianity, to the troops and Iraq. And of course the government is as always portrayed as evil and corrupt. 

Anyway I for one am going to start spending a lot more time at the VFW, and tomorrow I’ll eat turkey, and enjoy my family, and give thanks for the bounty this great nation still provides for us all. But this year more than any other I’ll be thinking about the great men of WW2. I’ll be thinking about how regardless of the horror of war, we were at that time, as a nation, greater than perhaps at any other time in our history.  The men I watched at the VFW last Saturday night have little time left in this world. I hope that in the next they get the rewards they so deserve. They in many ways represent the ultimate evolution of the goals of the Pilgrims. Tomorrow I’ll honestly and truly be giving thanks for what I have. But I’ll be hoping that soon the ideals the Americans of WW2 risked all for, and that so many died for, will be restored.

Happy Thanksgiving to you and your families Bo and CT, and to all who visit us.

Last November, as it became clear that the Democrats would win the majority of the 110th Congress, there was celebration among the faithful.  In the midst of the euphoria, there were even taunts of “How does it feel when it all crumbles down around you?”  Here was my response back then:

http://www.ivorydome.us/2006/11/11/elections-and-alarmism/

Now, just eight short months later, we learn that as of July 12 – 14, a mere 14 percent of those polled think that Congress is doing a good or excellent job.  Amazingly, President Bush actually climbed 4 percent in the same category:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070718/us_nm/usa_politics_poll_dc_2

I wouldn’t be at all surprised if the popularity of Congress sinks even further after the anti-war slumber party last night.

Who would have thought before the election that the Democrats could muck things up so badly?  Not to brag, but back last October, I made the following observations and prediction:

 The sad fact of the matter is, Democrats always have to rely on the corruption of Republicans in order to gain power (remember Watergate and “Read my lips”?). Their campaign slogan seems to be, “Vote for us. We’re not Republicans.” If they actually ran a positive campaign, based solely on their platform (higher taxes, partial birth abortion, gay marriage, open borders, socialized medicine, soft on national security), they’d never get elected.

The other sad fact of the matter is, the Democrats might very well win both houses of Congress in November. Be careful what you wish for, Clint. Along with power goes blame when it all blows up in your faces.

Comment by Curious Texan — October 10, 2006 @ 4:28 pm

And the response from the Left?

Blow it out your butt, old man.

Comment by Clint — October 12, 2006 @ 12:24 pm