Twenty years ago this month, Oklahoma teenager Monique Daniels was reported missing. About a year ago, someone who knew Monique wrote to me about her disappearance. A few months later I wrote this commentary for KOSU Radio, the text of which I’m publishing for the first time today on this blog. Missing Monique Daniels The […]
God Help Us, Another Tornado
“As the wind ripped the roof off one of the bathrooms, and debris rained down on the children, they remained calm, singing ‘You Are My Sunshine’…” Another Oklahoma Disaster. God Help Us. For the second time this year, I have to explain to my kids why a bunch of kids died at their school. The […]
How To Win Through Surrender
{ We are just four people who like to make music together and thus…pass on a piece of God’s love. — La Diju } For nearly 30 years, I have loved the song No Surrender by Bruce Springsteen. Well, now young faces grow sad and old And hearts of fire grow cold We swore blood brothers […]
Now What?
What are life’s most difficult questions? Read on to discover one of mine. Esther Cepeda, a columnist for the Chicago Sun Times, wrote an article recently about Gen Xers coming into their own.< Here is an excerpt: “Because they live in the shadow of both generations, they have never been allowed to have a full […]
Remember Tonya: Oklahoma Teen Murdered in 1990
Ninnekah is a Choctaw word. It means night or darkness. On a dark night in Ninnekah, under the Choctaw sky, Tonya Rodgers called her boyfriend from a payphone. It was the last phone call she ever made. That evening in the spring of 1990, she was raped and murdered by an Army soldier home on leave. At the first light […]
Anointed With Oil For Healing
Every Sunday, my father, who was a minister, got up early to shine his shoes and iron his shirt. He put on his best suit and always let me pick out his tie. Without fail, he’d tuck a tiny antique bottle full of olive oil inside his coat pocket. Once I asked him why he […]
Oklahoma City Bombing Memorial
It’s been 14 years since the Oklahoma City Bombing. Here are some pictures I took the other day. Oh, it seemed like a holy place, Protected by amazing grace And we would sing right out loud The things we could not say… –From Sad Cafe by the Eagles