Two Opinionated - A Tribute to Alex Adwan and Ken Neal

The Tulsa Press Club - Tulsa, OK (2003)

The video of "Two Opinionated - A Tribute to Alex Adwan and Ken Neal" (2003) has now been posted in 6 parts.  The video features speeches from Gov. George Nigh, Gov. David Walters and Tulsa Mayor Susan Savage.

Part 1

http://www.nealfamilyarchive.com/NealFamilyArchive/Ken-Neal-Tulsa-World/Video-Two-Opinionated-Tribute/22837726_kLN4b2#!i=1833008678&k=XSXpXNb

Part 2

http://www.nealfamilyarchive.com/NealFamilyArchive/Ken-Neal-Tulsa-World/Video-Two-Opinionated-Part-2/22843414_c7hwtQ#!i=1833673495&k=3Zh5w9r

Part 3

http://www.nealfamilyarchive.com/NealFamilyArchive/Ken-Neal-Tulsa-World/Video-Two-Opinionated-Part-3/22858423_PfVrPz#!i=1835174245&k=BbRsWhK

Part 4

http://www.nealfamilyarchive.com/NealFamilyArchive/Ken-Neal-Tulsa-World/Video-Two-Opinionated-Part-4/22859574_Xc53c2#!i=1835585770&k=RLLbTKz

Part 5

http://www.nealfamilyarchive.com/NealFamilyArchive/Ken-Neal-Tulsa-World/Video-Two-Opinionated-Part-5/22860230_d67WQ3#!i=1835584982&k=R7Px7dF

Part 6

http://www.nealfamilyarchive.com/NealFamilyArchive/Ken-Neal-Tulsa-World/Video-Two-Opinionated-Part-6/22861290_gQvdbw#!i=1835560466&k=k5xpWN8

Ken Neal - Speech to Teachers Association

Approximately mid-1990's

Teachers: Why I Hate You, Why I Love You

Ken Neal, Tulsa World (1953-2009)

     In recent years - almost by accident - I have come to be a defender of education in general and teachers in particular. I didn't plan it. It happened as a logical outcome of what I like to believe is sincere and thoughtful consideration of Oklahoma, her people and her future.

     As a native son, I'm as sensitive as anyone to the generally low regard Oklahoma enjoys in the rest of country. I've been forced to try to defend our state in conversations with my editorial peers in national seminars and stand ready to continue to do it.  But in many respects, it's a losing battle. The blunt truth is that Oklahoma, by most measures, is at the tail end of the country.

     I won't bore you with recitations of where we rank among the states on a variety of measurements of what can be loosely called progress. In almost every instance, whatever the comparison, whatever the measure, Oklahoma is near the last. You teachers know how true this is in the field of

education.

     In the past 10 years, the statistics and information have flooded my desk and that of anyone else who cares to pay attention. Oklahoma is the last frontier of the United States, a unique blend of her immigrant streams of Indians, poor Appalachian folk, cowboys and some midwestern farmers. One great accident of nature has at one time given the state wealth and at the same time held back the development of the state. That accident was oil and gas.

     Virtually since statehood, Oklahoma has thrived or suffered depending on the fortunes of the oil industry. For five years or more, we have been in the depths of a great depression caused by the collapse of the oil industry.

Ken Neal - Rotary Club Speech

Fall 1995

God Is A Liberal: She Told Me So

Ken Neal, Tulsa World (1953-2009)

I developed this ridiculous title line in the hope of grabbing your attention and also to suggest that linking God to any side in politics is as presumptuous as a football team praying for victory. 

I've often wondered at what God must think when two high school teams are praying at opposite ends of the field for opposite results.

The terms liberal and conservative change so much in relation to each other that it is only slightly sacrilegious

to wonder if God can tell which is which.

Broadly speaking, liberals have been described as those who want change while conservatives have been defined as those who are reluctant to change the status quo.

When Barry Goldwater launched the modern conservative movement in the early 1960s he in fact was sounding a rebellion against the orthodoxy that liberalism had become. In this sense, he was a liberal.

When the founding fathers broke away from the English crown and formulated a new government, it was not only considered to be liberal, but radical. It was the American Experiment.

Yet today, the Constitution and the government founded by those liberal thinkers is now considered to be the

conservative cornerstone of the Republic. We want - conservatives want - prospective members of the U.S.

Supreme Court to be strict constructionists, that is, conservative, in their approach to the Constitution.

Yet the conservatives in Congress today are anxious to change the Constitution. The Balanced Budget Amendment, the Line Item Veto and Term Limits are the basic litmus issues for the conservatives pushing, oddly, for radical change of the Constitution. Still others would amend the Constitution to ban abortion, return prayer to schools or protect the U.S. flag.

Ken Neal - Commencement Speech

 St. Gregory's University

Approximately May 1991

Parents, faculty, administration, (Dr. Carmen Notaro) friends, honored guests, and students.

What an honor it is to be here with Tulsans like Henry Zarrow.

Bishop Slattery: I don't believe you can possibly know what a thrill  it is to have you introduce me----And you read what I wrote so well.

I fear that the bishop's introduction will be the high point of my talk. I would probably be ahead to simply say thank you and sit down. But don't get your hopes up.

You might think you are leaving St. Gregory's. But the truth is, you can't.

The good brothers here have grasped you in ways that you do not yet comprehend. And it is my judgment, knowing something of the nature of St. Gregory's and the men and women who run it and teach you, that this is a good thing.

You will find yourselves seized by the values that were put into you at St. Gregory's at the strangest times; you will remember things you learned here that you can not now bring to mind.

I am not talking only of knowledge gained from the classroom; in fact, I suspect that this might be the least important aspect of your education here.

One of my college professors once told me that the purpose of a college education was not to give one knowledge but to teach him where to go to find knowledge.

That was true 30 years ago but it is even more true today with the body of knowledge growing exponentially. Leonardo DaVinci might have been the last man to know everything that was known in his day.

No one can know everything that is known; no one can carry around all the knowledge that one needs in one's head. This has been true for many generations; in the computer age, the most useful knowledge is how to gain access to the total body of knowledge.

You leave St. Gregory's to travel many different paths, but you all share this: graduation from St.  Gregory's is not the end of learning for any of you.  You have only made a start on a lifetime of learning.