16 Dec 2001 #0151.html

Young Women In Excellence

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Dear Paul and Kate, Melanie and Jared, Bridget and Justin, Sara, Ben and Sarah, Heather, Audrey, Rachel, and Matt via hardcopy,

cc: file, Tony Hafen, Pauline Nelson via mail, Sara and Des Penny, Lloyd and Luana Warner, Diane Cluff, Maxine Shirts, and Sherri Nelson.

Welcome to "Thoughtlets." This is a weekly review of an idea, belief, thought, or words that will hopefully be of some benefit to you, my children, with an electronic copy to on-line extended family members. Any of you can ask me not to clutter your mail box at any time.

"I had a busy week. How was yours? I'm going to put two tables in this Thoughtlet, one describing all of the companies I visited with this week, and another one summarizing all of the proposals I have outstanding, which have not been acted on yet. Hopefully this will help those interested see why I remain optimistic in the face of not closing any deals, and maybe by sharing the information with those I love, I will feel better about the lack of recent closing success.

First, four e-mails received this week it is worthwhile to share:

1. Sarah wrote: `Hey Roice -- Just wanted to let you know that we drew Christmas present names at Mel's dinner after graduation. I have emailed Heather and Paul/Kate. I was hoping you could pass this along to Rachel, Audrey, and Matt. Here is the list. I included everyone just in case someone asks and someone other than me has the list. I'll probably email it to Melanie as well so we've got three! :) Roice drew Sara Ethan drew Matt Paul/Kate drew Roice Mel/Jared drew Rob Heather drew Mel/Jared Sara drew Audrey Audrey drew Rachel Rachel drew Paul/Kate Matt drew Heather' I couldn't help but notice Rob is not asked to give a gift, and Ben/Sarah/Ethan are not receiving one. I question both, for Rob will grow by giving, and the Dallas Nelsons will grow by receiving. I did visit Handy Dan's yesterday and make a suprise for Ben, which I anticipate will make up for not being on the list. Now to figure out how to get it to Dallas.
   
2. My Cousin Diane Cluff wrote: `Subject: THIS WILL OPEN YOUR EYES. By Paul Harvey I don't know if you have received this before but I was stunned after reading it !!!!!! > >THIS WILL OPEN YOUR EYES. > >By Paul Harvey - Conveniently Forgotten Facts. > >Back in 1969 a group of Black Panthers decided that a fellow >black panther named...Alex Rackley needed to die. Rackley was >suspected of disloyalty. > >Rackley was first tied to a chair. Once safely immobilized, >his friends tortured him for hours by, among other things, >pouring boiling water on him. When they got tired of torturing >Rackley, Black Panther member Warren Kimbo took Rackley outside >and put a bullet in his head. Rackley's body was later found >floating in a river about 25 miles north of New Haven, Conn. > >Perhaps at this point you're curious as to what happened to >these Black Panthers. In 1977, that's only eight years later, >only one of the killers was still in jail. >The shooter, Warren Kimbro, managed to get a scholarship to >Harvard, and became good friends with none other than Al Gore. >He later became an assistant dean at an Eastern Connecticut >State College. Isn't that something? As a '60s radical you >can pump a bullet into someone's head, and a few years later, >in the same state, you can become an assistant college dean! > >Only in America! > >Erica Huggins was the lady who served the Panthers by boiling >the water for Mr. Rackley's torture. Some years later Ms. >Huggins was elected to a California School Board. > >How in the world do you think these killers got off so easy? > >Maybe it was in some part due to the efforts of two people who >came to the defense of the Panthers. > >These two people actually went so far as to shut down Yale >University with demonstrations in defense of the accused Black >Panthers during their trial. > >One of these people was none other than Bill Lan Lee. Mr. Lee, >or Mr. Lan Lee, as the case may be, isn't a college dean. He >isn't a member of a California School Board. He is now head of >the US Justice Department's Civil Rights Division, appointed >by none other than Bill Clinton. > >O.K., so who was the other Panther defender? Is this other >notable Panther defender now a school board member? s this >other Panther apologist now an assistant college dean? > >No, neither! > >The other Panther defender was, like Lee, a radical law student >at Yale University at the time. She is now known as The >"smartestwoman in the world." She is none other than the >Democratic senator from the state of New York----our former >First Lady, the incredible Hillary Rodham Clinton. And now, as Paul Harvey said; You know "the rest of the story." Pass this on! This deserves the widest possible press. Also remember it, if and when she runs for President!'
   
3. Andrea's brother Randy wrote: `Here is the advertisement from the Dec. 8 Church News. BYU opening: Tenure-track position in geophysics with emphasis in seismic interpretation and exploration geophysics; contact Scott M.Ritter, Faculty Search Committee, Department of Geology, Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah 84602; deadline, March 1, 2002.'
   
4. Andrea and I discussed this at length. I called Professor Ritter and discussed the opening with him. Because of my MBA at SMU I barely qualify for the position. I called the Professor who resigned, Al Benson, and talked to his wife. I wrote my cousin Darrell Krueger an extended `memo' describing my feelings and received the following reply: `BYU would not be a very good place for the person you discribe in the memo. You could do better in another university or research lab. I suspect that those of us in the "mission field" would have a hard time adjusting to some environments in Utah. I do not know that much about BYU but I know about universities. Department politics control a lot of what happens at universities and most departments are very traditional. One only earns the real freedom to act with tenure and becoming a professor.'

When we visit Paul and Kate and Grant Matthew (who is now scheduled to join earth life from his current celestial home in the spirit world this coming Thursday, December 20th, due to being overweight: 8 1/2 pounds at minus 2 weeks), I will meet with Dr. Ritter and his associates and decide whether it makes any sense to apply for the position. They want someone who understands 3-D seismic. I qualify. They want someone to teach freshman geology. My views on creation and geologic time match Apostle Talmage's and Apostle Widsoe's writings, and not the writings of several current noted church writers at the Y. And, like some who don't do windows, I don't do bureaucracy, especially if it is dogmatic and incompetent. I did talk to Roger Anderson about it on Wednesday evening, and he said he, friends at Cornell, Stanford, LSU, Penn State, CSM, and other places would each write me an `outstanding letter of recommendation' to submit with a resume. Because I started Landmark's University Program, and have kept in touch with many of those professors, I expect a simple request would result in a few dozen letters of recommendation from all top geoscience Universities in the world, and I expect there are a similar number of Oil Company executives and heads of what oil company research labs which still exist, who would also write this kind of letter, including specifying opportunities and suggestions for joint research and virtual education projects. Anyway, I consider it an interesting alternative with very low probability of happening.

So my first table is those companies (and family members) I visited with this week:

I was totally wiped out by the time I got back to the house from the Maritech meeting in The Woodlands on Friday. And I took a nap. Then Andrea and I decided to go to a movie: Ocean's Eleven; which we both enjoyed. Kind of a Las Vegas casino robbery version of Mission Impossible. Fun to see the sites of the desert back home, and the movie was quite entertaining. The credits pointed out that it introduced Julia Roberts. While there we bought tickets for a sneak prieview of Kate & Leopold, the new Meg Ryan and Hugh Jackman movie. This movie is excellent. I wish all movies could be close to this entertaining and well put together. They did have someone from the late 1800's saying `haven't' and that didn't ring true to me. Rachel met us at this movie with a friend from Choir at Taylor High School.

I don't know how to beat around the bush, and so I will just say how proud I am of how well Rachel is doing. Although like others who have been hurt by divorce and the challenges of being raised by a single Mom or an angry Dad, for the most part she doesn't carry her anger around on her sleeve year after year after year. There are times she can be a bear, and these times are usually when she is being a surrogate voice for someone else's anger and just last overnight. She has done quite good at channeling most of her efforts into very positive activities, even though she doesn't have many friends to do these positive activities with. I was totally impressed with the Young Women's in Excellence program she put together, was the master of ceremony at, and performed in on Tuesday night. Since Thanksgiving we have had several heart to heart talks about R-rated movies, mistakes, and recognizing the wisdom of following guidance from the Prophet and Apostles. I like the quote from Garth Brooks in today's Parade Magazine, which summarizes some of these discussions:

It hurts that you have not all learned this simple truth, at least as of the last time you were living under our roof. At least Rachel has at least acknowledged this truth, and although, like all of us, she struggles, she seems to be doing exceptionally well for a late teenage girl going through all that late teenage girls go through. I look forward to the day when apologies will come for sneaking R-rated movies into our house, having secret drinking parties here when I was away, and then lying about them, influencing younger siblings based on trying to prove independence, and creating unnecessary tension and anger. Maybe I'm the one carrying anger around on my sleeve. It was so nice to see a beautiful young girl shine as she was touched by the spirit of God when singing a beautiful song about His Son after conducting a wonderful group of youth who show what the spiritual and talent potential of today's youth is. I struggle with how to fullfill my responsibilities as a Dad and a Step-Dad and how to best teach truth. I have given cars to some who have made wise choices, and held cars back from others. I have no control over the Trust money going to some without going to court, which I do not want to do, and have considered and reconsidered the value of struggling to fund others education when they are rude and mean spirited and unforgiving and angry. My summary is it doesn't do any good for me to let myself act in these unchristian ways, and so I will continue to struggle to fund and to love those who act so unappreciative, with the simple hope they will come to choose to change their attitude.

If some of the projects I have started are funded, then it will not be the same sacrafice it currently is to provide support and aid. However, if it were not something of a sacrafice, it would not be have the same meaning I hope our efforts eventually come to be recognized as providing. For I truly do love each of you, and desperately want you to each have a wonderful, happy, joyous, and fruitful life, and that you grow to want to join our table in the eternities following this short experience on earth.

The other table I mentioned, is largely put together to remind myself and Andrea that there are significant opportunities still just over the horizon, and that some of them are going to happen:

In order to sufficient for family requirements, only one of these projects needs to happen. If all of them happen, I caculate it is $53,290,000. income, with probably $20,000,000. expenses, which isn't bad. If 5% of them happen, it is $2,664,500. with probably $1,500,000. expenses. Whatever happens, I don't expect Andrea and I to live much different than we do now. Maybe I will take more time to read and for personal projects, and I expect we will travel more than we have. For those that don't realize it yet, you will not get much more support than we now provide. And maybe less, if what is provided isn't appreciated and if we are not treated as we strive to treat you. Life is a challenge, and we get to choose where we spend our time and what the consequences of our choices are. I recognize I have reaped consequences for poor financial choices. Hopefully you will each learn from my mistakes and choose to not repeat them. However, you will have other challenges, and I hope we have helped prepare you to meet them and to shine in your successes. Like Rachel did this week in her choir concert and program for Young Women in Excellence."

I'm interested in sharing weekly a "thoughtlet" (little statements of big thoughts which mean a lot to me) with you because I know how important the written word can be. I am concerned about how easy it is to drift and forget our roots and our potential among all of distractions of daily life. To download any of these thoughtlets go to http://www.walden3d.com/thoughtlets or e-mail me at rnelson@walden3d.com.

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Copyright © 2001 H. Roice Nelson, Jr.