J. Davy Crockett III

In this time when we are all being urged to "go green" in every part of our daily lives, we may lose sight of the word picture painted in Psalm 23, which is probably the most oft quoted Psalm in the Bible. I like the way it is expressed in the old English hymn by William Havergal, a well-known writer of hymns (1793–1870).

The torrent of sickening images of death and destruction in Haiti just keep on coming. Search and rescue operations have become grisly recovery operations, as the dead are removed from the rubble of collapsed buildings.

As we begin 2010, I think it is good to take a look back. What a decade it has been!  Just think, September 11, 2001 was a turning point for the United States and for the world. Now wars in Iraq and Afghanistan drag painfully on. The world's economies are in shambles. We see increasing unemployment, bank failures, major manufacturers in bankruptcy, and government agencies floundering as they try to solve problems, only to create news ones.

Sadly, the United States is a deeply divided nation today.

A visit to the USS Arizona Memorial at Pearl Harbor, Oahu, Hawaii, was for me a moving experience.  The impact of the horrific attack catapulted the United States into World War II and directly affected the lives of millions of Americans, including my family.  You see, my father, caught up in the national indignation and patriotic fervor that swept the nation, enlisted in the U.S. Navy three days later.

Many families have a "rich uncle," and I had mine. My father's brother had the knack.  Whatever he did seemed to prosper.  A product of hard times in the Great Depression, he had known poverty, scratching out a living on his father's truck farm raising vegetables for market. He was highly motivated to do well and he had the energy, drive and desire to pursue his dreams and ambitions.  As the years rolled by, his efforts paid off as he plowed the earnings from his automobile business into real estate.