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Opinions

Leo’s Lance: Welding Friendships

 With a name like Duke you knew he had to be a good guy and he was. I don’t think it was hero worship that made me feel that way. I was a grown man twenty three years old when I went to work for Pioneer Natural Gas Company. Duke was a truck foreman and I was a helper.

There were several Truck foremen, but Duke was the one all the helpers wanted to work with, even though we always had to buy the coffee on coffee breaks. We will explain that in a moment.

Musings By Marilou: Finally Grown Up

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I made a startling discovery the other night.  I am no longer that pesky little runt of a girl who tormented those who lived around her. I, as well as a former neighbor, have finally grown up.

Wright's Words: I Dislike the Aging Process

Over the past several weeks, I had been sporting a beard.

On a whim Sunday evening, I decided I was tired of the beard. I got up out of the recliner, made my way to the bathroom and began trimming the beard down to a goatee.

Mindlessly, I opened the mirrored cabinet door, reached in to grab the trimmer, and closed the door. I removed the guard from the trimmer to begin the process of removing the beard and I gazed into the mirror.

Mirror Ministries

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You hear this sometimes... when a tragedy has happened, or something is unexplainable: “Well, you know God has a reason... He’s in control of everything that happens...” Is He? If

Thinking Out Loud: Truth Amid the Noise

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"Truth has a sound."

So saith a liberal friend from Austin with whom I was having a friendly debate about due process, and Dr. Christine Blasey Ford's credibility in the lead-up to the Kavanaugh hearings. 

And I could not agree more. 

Frantically sharing messages with my daughter in the Dallas County D.A.'s office during Thursday's proceedings, she told me, "I think she (Ford) comes across as extremely credible. Kavanaugh is going to have to bring his A-game."

Leo's Lance: Our 'Dream' Vacation

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Some time back, I had received an invitation to speak at a youth meeting sponsored by several churches on the west coast. 

For several years I had preached every Sunday morning and evening, as well as on Wednesday evenings at my local congregation, a small group of working class people who loved the Lord, but saw no need for offering the preacher a raise, or a vacation. 

I considered it was my place to preach and theirs to take care of the needs of me and my family. But I also knew they were not wealthy so they allowed me to work at other part time jobs for extra finances.

Musings by Marilou: ‘We Did it with Love and Compassion’

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When I was in my first year of teaching in Oklahoma, I remember an older educator telling me, “Methods in teaching are always changing but everything goes full circle. It eventually always comes back around and, when it does, they will call it something different so you will think that it is something new.”  She was right on target. My only hope now is that once the extreme focus on testing runs it course, it never returns no matter what they try to call it.

Wright's Words: Roaring Back to the Top

Americans love a great underdog story. 

It is in our blood, dating back to the American Revolutionary War: a war we were never supposed to win in the eyes of many at time.

From political moments, such as when President Harry Truman defeated heavily favored Thomas Dewey to win the 1948 presidential election, to pop culture classics like Daniel Larusso’s defeat of Johnny Lawrence in the “All Valley Tournament” in the 1984 classic The Karate Kid, the underdog story is one we all can rally behind.

Thinking Out Loud: Return to Civilization

When last we visited the Cirque du Folle that is known as the Kavanaugh hearings two weeks ago, I thought we could wash our hands of the whole mess, let the opposition throw out their mindless little mudballs -- and miss, and let what appears to be an infinitely qualified jurist take his place on the High Court. Maybe Sen. Cory Booker would return for another entertaining "I am Spartacus" moment, and a "secret" e-mail that everybody had already read. And we could all laugh, and laugh.

Leo’s Lance: Beautiful, But Banned for Growing

Back in 1907, my grandfather stood out in his yard chatting with his children discussing many of the mysteries oflife.Suddenlythey heard a honking noise which they recognized as the sound of a flock of geese.

The children began looking around theyard for wherethe sound was coming from. They had no geese on their little farm, but the sound was surely that of the honking of geese. The observant father told them to look up.