
My favorite Paul Harvey memory came in my third year
of college, at Saint Mary’s (then) College in Winona, Minnesota. I had been banished to that particular
Catholic boy’s school, because my first two years at the University of Iowa
fell short of my father’s expectations.
His solution: take away my car, my check book, and send me to Saint Mary’s,
where his brother, as Bishop of the Diocese exercised a certain amount of
respect.
Paul Harvey kept me grounded with the outside world
and I remember one morning (for some reason it aired at a different time than I
was used to) I heard Paul say, “Well, they’ve finally done it! They have made life.” He then went on to describe an experiment
where some detergent was put into process that allowed the inorganic compounds
to become not only organic, but divisible.
Wow!
I told everyone I knew about this great find and
waited to read more about it in the paper. I waited. And waited. But nothing was ever said about
the experiment. I suppose that was when
I lost my innocence about what is news and what is sensational.
Somewhat ironic to have Paul Harvey my Zen Guru,
because in his more than fifty years of syndicated news and commentary, his signature
was religious conservatism. When Mary
and I married we jokingly imagine a time when he might introduce us to his audience
as a couple married for, the then barely imaginable period of fifty years. Harvey and his wife, Angel lived together for
sixty-seven until she passed away at the Age of 92. We have logged fifty-two to date.
Several of Paul’s close friends define both his
politics and his religious beliefs. They
included former Senator Fred Harvey, J. Edgar Hoover, and Billy Graham. He was known for bringing humor or surprise
to many popular stories and legends in his featured The Rest of the Story.
Although some of these trod on the truth a bit, they were so popular
that no one really cared. He also had some
recurring stories; two of the more popular being “Things I wish for You” and “IfI were the Devil”. This latter was
originally broadcast in 1996 but remains a popular YouTube connection to this
day.
I was reminded of my Paul Harvey story recently when
the WSJ published a story about a Massachusetts Biotech firm that is seeking
approval to advance studies to make stem cells out of adult skin cells, thereby
averting all the controversy about embryonic cell study. The story was couched with words like “further
study”, “promising”, “clinical trials”, "contaminents", and “mice not being human”. And, although not specifically mentioned as a
caution, the article did not encourage buying shares in Advanced Cell Technology.
In some ways I’m sorry to see that. I like to think that maybe in some small
college there is a boy, or girl, who would read that story and, with the
innocence of youth and the curiosity we all need to make discoveries, would
say, “Well, they’ve finally done it.”
That person may make the naïve comment that, “My
friends tell me I’m gullible, but I don’t know if I should believe them.” Whatever, if it encouraged them to look deeper into the science, that is a good thing.
My next post will explain my life long experience
with Port and Starboard, and why that’s relevant in my life today. Please come visit.
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