Meet 56,000 of my New Heroes: Future Farmers of America (FFA)
When I flip through the news channels, I’m having a harder time finding heroes. Congress doesn’t impress me much. Athletes making a gazillion dollars a year don’t warrant my affection. Movie and music stars don’t receive my adulation. So I look around me for...

Santiago: The Man Who Taught Me to Hate Charity
I met Santiago in a rural village of Nicaragua. He was the kind of person whose smile unlocks a part of your heart and wanders in without any formal invitation. Yet when he gets there, it feels like he’s home and has belonged there all the time. Villagers there have a...

My Most Huggable Hero: Christine McNary
I was scanning through my list of huggable heroes I want to write about and it occurred to me that the most inspirational person I know wasn’t on the list; Christine McNary, my wife. She sees things in me I’ve never seen but have always wanted to be true. She knows...

Ambassador Tony Hall: A Hero You Can Hug
To get cell phone reception in my Smalltown, USA, I have to hang out the window with my right ear pointed north, my left foot pointed south, and my head tilted in alignment with the axis of the earth. So imagine my surprise when I had five full bars on my phone in the...

Listening the to Voices in My Head; A Tribute to My Sister
Lately, I’ve been paying more attention to the voices in my head. As each day presents itself with challenges and opportunities, I find my decisions are greatly influenced by common, ordinary people whom I’ve known through the years whose voices I hear in my head. ...

The Healing Power of Writing
The power of life or death is in the tongue.- Proverbs 18:21 A man walked into my office recently and saw a picture of my wife and me on my desk. He picked it up, looked at her, looked at me, looked back at her, then looked at me and said, “Good Lord, man, is she...

Heroes You Can Hug: Floyd and Kathy Hammer
I’m pretty picky about my heroes. Tights and capes don’t impress me much. Multi-million dollar movie stars or athletes are okay for some, but not for me. I’ve never watched Survivor. Ever. I prefer my heroes to be real people I can hug every once in a while. I’d like...

Being Ten Bucks Overdrawn at the Bank When I Die
I never drank Scotch at 10 o’clock in the morning until I met Chuck Pryzmus, an anesthesiologist from Minnesota. We were in Tanzania, Africa, riding in a bus full of Medical professionals and support staff with and Chuck opened a bottle of Scotch and started passing...

I Never Thought Fighting Hunger Required This of Me
I have long said that as long as it's not immoral, unethical, or illegal, I will do whatever I can to feed hungry people. I should have kept my big mouth shut. What else was I supposed to do when college students asked me to lead them in the Hunger Shake? I'm at the...

8th Annual Universities Fighting World Hunger Summit
This weekend, March 2-4, is the 8th Annual Universities Fighting World Hunger (UFHW) Summit in Overland Park, Kansas, this weekend, March 2-4, 2013. The History of UFWH Dr. June Henton, Dean of the College of Sciences at Auburn University, founded UFWH in 2004. Dr....