The 2014 Shawnee Chamber of Commerce Banquet was held last week. As the incoming chair of the chamber, I was asked to make a few remarks at the end of the evening about our goals for the coming year. Following are my comments:
Over
five years ago my wife and I moved with three of our four sons to Shawnee. My work at OBU brought us here but I can
honestly say that we are proud to call Shawnee home. That
extends to the one son who didn’t move here with us. He was serving in the U.
S. Navy at the time. When he became
plane captain (crew chief in the other services) his name and hometown was painted
on the E2C Hawkeye to which he was assigned along with the pilot and crew.
Though
he’d never lived here, Joshua chose to list his hometown as Shawnee,
Oklahoma. So for the years he served on board the U.S.S. Harry Truman, “Shawnee,
Oklahoma” was emblazoned on a plane that guarded our freedoms including nearly
a year soaring over the Mediterranean Sea and Persian Gulf supporting efforts
in the war in Afghanistan as well as other assignments in that part of the world. Five
years later, upon completion of his military service, my son and his family moved here
to make Shawnee home.
As relatively new citizens here, let me say how blessed we are to live in a city of so
much potential and particularly with such wonderful people. I
have often described OBU as the best kept secret in higher education. I believe
too that Shawnee is Oklahoma’s best kept secret. We need to share our story so
that the secret gets out.
We
have much for which to be proud and a bright future if we can lock arms as
community leaders, city officials, chamber members, and tribal leaders. To move forward as a city we must--all of us--join hands in cooperation and work. Together.
May God bless Shawnee.
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