"The Saturday before this Thoughtlet was scheduled to start, the following e-mail arrived from Sara: http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/12/08/oppenheim.sundown.town/index.html
Monday, 18 December 2006, was memorable because it started the lead up to the Vidor CNN Town Meeting. There were phone calls and e-mails last week (0651.html) about the CNN show concerning racism in America, with it's focus on Vidor, Texas. However, on Monday we found out that CNN was coming to Beaumont to hold a Vidor CNN Town Meeting. Of course I am separated from the actual events, and my ego tells me this meeting is happening because of my daughter's e-mail. At the same time, my insecurity told me this whole thing would turn into a circus and somehow Melanie would end up getting hurt by the news creating liberal media. These thoughts made me want to get back my guns, which I gave to Uncle Tony years ago (../9835.html), and go hunting. I expect most of us never recover from our youth. In most ways I hope this is true, for in general I believe Andrea and Rick, as well as Marti and I were able to create a positive framework for the 10 of you to enjoy your youth. It is easy to focus on the one-percent of the time when our parents or some other adult made a graphic mistake, and yet our lives tend to live out the ninety-nine percent of the times when life was basically good. Those times when we were experiencing sight and sound and taste and touch and smell and sometimes were even touched by spiritual feelings. Compared to the vast host of any member of humanity who has ever lived on planet Earth, well over ninety-nine percent of all human beings born on planet Earth, we have each truly been blessed (consider the fact the church in which you were each raised has about 5.5 million members of the LDS church in the U.S., which when divided by 6,451,058,790 people on planet earth, is equivalent to 0.085%. In other words we are more blessed than 99.915% of the population with those basic truths we have been taught in Primary, Young Men and Young Women, Relief Society, and Priesthood meetings). What we choose to do with the teachings of our youth is another story altogether, which is what the Vidor CNN Town Meeting is all about. Melanie sent the following e-mail on Monday:
Even though Melanie's note set the tone for the week, work and life went on. The following note was sent out by Dave Johnson to everyone in the new Geokinetics on Monday:
Monday evening I sent the 11th FSI Investment Report to Family who invested. Pretty good report, including a description of The teleconference which happened Monday from 10:00 AM until noon with Sadhar Ghalib (Gabby), who was HyperMedia's agent in Saudi Aramco. Participants in the teleconference were:
This was the first time I have seen the drilling presentation. I was very impressed with how good the story holds together. The key is NASA sensors which Chevron was paying $1 million per year to have developed, and which they have transferred all rights of to FSI. FSI is currently negotiating a license agreement with NASA. There are 7 zones defined for a drilling rig, and 5 initial places the sensors are placed. This won't make a lot of sense, but so you start to learn the words I will summarize this part of the presentation:
Chevron has opened the door for Baker-Hughes to be a drilling fluids partner. Chevron has also set up for drilling instrument suppliers to sign non-disclosure agreements and to have discussions about partnering with FSI. Chevron is hiring someone to be full-time in the test yard, starting the first of March. Chevron will not participate in the initial round of funding, and based on seeing the same presentation I saw earlier this morning, they are setting the steps in motion to participate in the second round funding, subject to a functional prototype. Chevron is assigning individuals to sit on a technical advisory board, and this board will convene the day after FSI gets their first round of funding. Gabby wants to replicate what is planned to be built in Galveston in Saudi Arabia. Gabby was offered 15% of the company for $5 million. The FSI plan calls for $11 million investment in the first 12 months, and the additional $6 million will be the second round after the functional prototype is built. FSI is pursuing a $40 billion per year market which has no competition, and which they believe their initial service can address 30% of the need. They will grow the service in stages from drilling to the digital imaging of cuttings which I am most interested in. However, if I get funding for my Dynamic Resources exploration opportunities, then I will purchase the cuttings services and will accelerate getting to the useful exploration stuff. Besides Gabby expressed interest in putting up $3 million of the first $6 million. He will talk to Fouad and Aramco over the coming week. Christian and Jim are talking to 3 other investment groups. These groups are saying they want between 2 and 6 weeks to complete their due diligence. Based on the excitement in the room, and the discussion, I expect there is a reasonable chance FSI will have their initial $6 million funding by the middle of February. Of course, Christian, like me, is broke again, and it will be interesting to see what happens.
Steve Joseph and I traded e-mails during the process of my getting his new address for our Christmas card. One note include a copy of a note he sent to a colleague who is working on church genealogy stuff:
Needless to say, reading the note felt good. Between this note and the FSI meeting, I almost forgot about my concerns about Melanie taking on the international media at the Vidor CNN Town Meeting. However, I remembered on Tuesday, and worried about it all day. I could not help but reflect on my meeting with the New York Times Science Writer in Mesquite, Nevada in 1975, and how that story turned out so much different than I thought it would (../9938.html). There was a special on the Martin Handcart Company on Monday night. I had told Mike Dunn about it and he watched it and we talked about it on Tuesday. He also watched Melanie Tuesday night, and I forgot to tell him about the Mormon Tabernacle Choir special on Wednesday night. Anyway, when I got home, I found out one of Andrea's seminary students had an art exhibit in a bank at Highland Knolls and the Parkway, which started at 7:00, just when the Vidor CNN Town Meeting started. Andrea set up the television to record the show, and we went over to the art exhibit. It started at 6:00 and her student had left by the time we found the right bank and got there. Oh well!
We got back to the house about 7:30, and watched the second half of the CNN special on racism in America. We saw Melanie a couple of times. And mostly we listened to national black activists making comments about how they have been discriminated against. Their comments about how the whites have institutionalized racism, and they have no power to respond really struck a really sour note with me. I thought of being the last white family to move into Quail Run subdivision in Missouri City, and not considering race an issue. I thought about a couple of years later when black youth broke into a white policeman's house, less than a block from our house, and covering all of the walls with black spray paint slang graffiti. I thought of moving my family to get away from the violence and the black against white racism we encountered after a few years in Missouri City, to one of the nicest and safest subdivisions in Houston. Then I think of the murder of a white boy by a black youth in front of my house at 1307 Emerald Green (../0521.html, ../0522.html, ../0523.html, and ../0524.html). The comments of the black activists seemed one-sided, whiny, shallow, and racist.
After the show was over, we rewound the tape and watched the first half of the program. There was Melanie, the first person called on by Paula Zhan, beautiful, composed, a little bit hoarse, well spoken, and a wonderful representative of our family. In Melanie's first comment she took on CNN directly, telling them they create news and perceptions with their stories (http://www.walden3d.com/photos/Family/05_JaredMelanie/061220_Vidor_CNN_Town_Meeting/mov07424.mpg). Paula Zhan did not want to call on Melanie the second time, and told her to keep her comments short. Melanie proceeded to give the perfect example of integration (http://www.walden3d.com/photos/Family/05_JaredMelanie/061220_Vidor_CNN_Town_Meeting/mov07425.mpg), how the local High School elected a black youth as the most popular kid, and race was never discussed as an issue. There was a clip showing her friend from West Africa, his white wife, and their baby (http://www.walden3d.com/photos/Family/05_JaredMelanie/061220_Vidor_CNN_Town_Meeting/mov07423.mpg), and discussion about how he had never felt discriminated against as a Mormon Missionary, nor as a Spanish Teacher at the High School (http://www.walden3d.com/photos/Family/05_JaredMelanie/061220_Vidor_CNN_Town_Meeting/mov07428.mpg). There was also a clip of one of Jared's cousins pointing out reverse discrimination the Beaumont Jack-in-the-Box (http://www.walden3d.com/photos/Family/05_JaredMelanie/061220_Vidor_CNN_Town_Meeting/mov07427.mpg). Melanie brought 13 people with her to the Vidor CNN Town Meeting, which was held in the Beaumont Theater where blacks were once required to only sit in the balcony. All in all, after seeing the first half of the program, I was pleased with how Melanie's first experience with the media turned out. When Melanie called later Tuesday night, I told her I am sure this was not her 15 minutes of fame in life. At first, she didn't understand I meant she was laying groundwork for much more important contributions to our world.
Tuesday morning, Ken Turner sent an e-mail recommending the Frisch Auf Country Club in La Granges as the best place to take the Austin kids and Rob to dinner on Friday night. I called the country club on the Wednesday after the Vidor CNN Town meeting. I could not make reservations for dinner because it was a private club. I felt discriminated against, and assumed it was because I sounded black. Oh well! In reaction to these feelings, Andrea and I went to see the movie 'In Pursuit of Happiness' Wednesday evening after work. Christian Singfield called with some questions during the commercials, and Andrea was not happy I took the phone call. I was really feeling discriminated against after this experience in the movie theater. However, I got over it during the movie. Even though the movie is about a black guy and his son, it is not a movie about race. It is a movie about succeeding in America. It is really a good movie, and a movie for all ages. I encourage each of you to watch this movie, with your children if you have children, and to talk about the movie after watching it. In this regard, i.e. creating a conversation about what has happened in the past regarding race, I agree with the conclusions of the the Vidor CNN Town Meeting.
Thursday George was still ill, and so he didn't go to work. I called Mike to see if I could get a ride and woke him up. Oh well! He gave me a ride, and Andrea took me to the Park 'N Ride to meet him. Later on Thursday Lee Bell sent me a copy of a video clip about 'Hu's in China' (http://www.walden3d.com/photos/Family/05_JaredMelanie/061220_Vidor_CNN_Town_Meeting/Hu_s_on_First.wmv). Note that I placed this video clip in the Vidor CNN Town Meeting directory, specifically because I felt it showed what I feared the media was going to do with Melanie and her friends. In fact, at work that Thursday morning I got an e-mail from Laura Kay Ethetton telling me a $6,180 from Walden 3-D had bounced. Andrea was kind enough to go to the bank, to get them to write out a cashier's check, which they did for free because of the $10,000 stolen from the Walden 3-D account (0647.html), and get the check to Marc Roulston.
Andrea picked me up after work, and we drove up 290 to the Tollroad and were not going to make it to the 5:00 session at the temple as we had planned because of all of the traffic. Wulf called to see if we were still on for dinner at Macaroni Grill, and I gave him the choice of 5:00 or 8:00. He chose 5:00. We were just about at 1960 when he called, and so we went right over to the restaurant. We had a wonderful dinner and a wonderful evening. I learned that Wulf, the wonderful man who funded Sara Ellyn's birth, was the son of a Panzer Tank Commander in the Nazi army. We talked a lot about each of you kids, about their two girls and grandchildren, and about the church. Again, it was truly a wonderful evening, and we need to do things like this more often.
Melanie sent the following on Thursday, specifically regarding my Thoughtlet on inheritance (0634.html), and also refering to the Vidor CNN Town Meeting:
The more I thought about the Vidor CNN Town Meeting during the week, the more convinced I became that blacks are looking for racism. The reason Melanie's friend has not felt discriminated against is because he is not looking for racism. He was not raised in the U.S. and he is not part of the black culture that takes offense at the inoffensive, and great offense at mistakes. They all need to read Elder Bednar's talk about being too easily offended (0651.html). And of course, I hope there will be many future discussions in our family about whether it is offensive to provide an inheritance based on individual decisions, or whether there is an entitlement to an inheritance no matter how you treat your parents and the things they taught - to the best of their ability.
Thursday there was also a correspondence from Bowen Loftin's assistant, as follow-up from our discussions at Dirk and Carolina's wedding (0648.html):
I responded with:
Cherie wrote back:
There was also my last week at the office for 2006. The biggest frustration was not being able to get hold of Jialin Yan. I talked to his wife several times. However, Jialin was in another city, did not answer his cell phone, and it is very frustrating. Oh well! Work in the prestack depth migration processing group is very, very, very, very slow. One thing which kept me awake were several e-mail's following up on Ken Turner's recommendation for a restaurant in La Grange. I liked Rob's e-mail the best:
I could write about our dinner in La Grange with Roice and Sarah, Sara Ellyn, and Rob on Friday night, or our dinner with Melanie, Jared, Colby, Taylor, Halle, and Rob on Saturday night. However, I''ll save those words for the next Thoughtlet (0653.html), and leave anyone reading this far to think about the Vidor CNN Town Meeting."