Wednesday, June 6, 2007 THE OBERLIN HERALD 5A Men need to focus Cowboy singer on what’s critical To the Editor: pleases crowd Some questions I would like to ask the men of Oberlin: How are Letter things? Are you doing OK? Really? What’s your relationship with to the Editor at home on range your wife like? Are you loving and cherishing her? Or are you sitting in The afternoon was gentle, the like the one Sunday, for restoration front of the television while she does others, approve of her, like her, and breeze cool, and cotton fluff drifted of the old Shirley Opera House in all the things that enrich your life, as want to be with her. She wants you through the grove shading a few Atwood, for years. well as taking care of your kids’ to admire and desire her. hundred hardy music fans waiting Back in the days when southern needs? Men, give her what she wants! It for Michael Martin Murphey to Colorado ranchers were fighting a Do your kids have a vague notion is your duty (And here’s a little se- come on stage. Canadian billionaire who wanted to of what role you play in their lives, cret, it will serve you well. Trust me There’s something right about sell their water to California, or are they solidly connected to you? on this.) watching Michael, who bills him- Michael would drive up from Taos Look, we know you work hard, Life in America is pretty good self as “American’s No. 1 Cowboy each summer to do a benefit for the that you deserve a little down time. right now. Most of us men haven’t Music Singer,” from a seat where water war. He never failed to draw First, though, you need to let your experienced a lot of deprivation and you can see the range, not some city a crowd to the rodeo grounds in woman know that she means more uncertainty about our very future. auditorium. Monte Vista. to you than anything, that you would As a result, we are flabby mentally “Murph” has come a long ways He left New Mexico for Colorado sacrifice your very life for her. Your and morally. We aren’t entirely sure since the days of “Wildfire” and a few years back, he told the crowd, kids need your undivided attention we measure up to the ones who came “Carolina in the Pines,” leaving when yuppies cooking steaks be- as you instill them with self-worth before us, those who conquered the Nashville for ranches in Taos, Colo- hind their condos started to outnum- and show them what a good father land, sea and space, who wore rug- rado and Texas and, strangely ber the elk he could see from his and husband looks like. ged individualism as a badge of their enough, Wisconsin, where he lives porch. He didn’t want to wake up to Do you want to stay married? If manhood. We’re told to be nice. We today. a forest fire, he added, and it was you are not sure, let me help you out. are stuck in an adolescent mindset. He’s into old-time cowboy bal- getting a little crowded. There was You desperately want to stay mar- Guys, we need to grow up. We lads, and he had a haunting version an attitude. ried. Any alternative is not going to need to minimize our pursuit of of “Streets of Laredo” for the crowd And at 10,000 foot elevation, it provide any happiness for you. Any childish endeavors. (Think sports, at Lake Atwood this Sunday. was pretty poor range anyway. good legacy you might wish to leave hobbies, NASCAR – you get the Wearing jeans, chaps, spurs and He started something called will be destroyed if you allow your idea.) We need to focus on what boots, a vest and an old cowboy hat, “Michael Martin Murphey’s Cow- marriage to fail. makes a man a man – and that’s lay- Murphey bounded onto the stage — boy Experience” in central Colo- And let me assure you, whether or ing down our own interests to satisfy really two flatbed semis parked rado, where dudes could live in the not your marriage succeeds is en- our wives’ and kids’ interests. back-to-back — after an opening set bunkhouse and ride horses all week tirely in your control. No wife and I’ve got some bad news: It is vir- by Erica James, an Oklahoma fa- on vacation. Maybe the real cowboy mother will have the desire to be tually impossible to do that under ther-and-daughter duo who do life wasn’t for most city folks, but he parted from the man who won her your own power. original music on violin and guitar. gave that up a couple of years later COWBOY SINGER Michael Martin Murphey put every- heart, loves her sacrificially and fa- Here’s some good news: We have He opened with “The Long and — for love. thing he had into a sad old trail song Sunday during a benefit thered her children. If you are in an help available! The power of Jesus Lonely Ride to Dalhart,” a sad and His new wife, he said, has three concert at Lake Atwood. — Herald staff photo by Steve Haynes unhappy marriage, it is your fault. Christ and His resurrection is all we lovely ballad about a cowboy com- girls who can’t leave Wisconsin, so You are thinking, “Oh, yeah, easy need to be able to have a successful, ing off the summer range. Michael that’s where Michael punches cows for you to say, you don’t know this fulfilled life. is no Hollywood cowboy, though he these days. He doesn’t seem any woman I live with.” Call me. Let’s talk about what it said as a kid, he dreamed of being the worse for the wear. But I do – she, in some ways, is a means to be a man in the world to- next Roy Rogers or Gene Autry. We hope Jeff and Alice Hill and lot like you and me. She wants to be day. I don’t have all the answers, but He grew up on his grandfather’s their supporters made a few bucks Along the Sappa loved; she needs to be accepted. She I know Someone who does. place in the Panhandle and still calls for their project Sunday, but we needs to know that you, above all Steve Stacy, Oberlin Texas home. He raises horses and know they made a lot of music fans By Steve Haynes runs stock, and the farther he gets happy. Michael, too. from Nashville, the more cowboy he He gave the crowd a heavy dose [email protected] is. of new and old cowboy tunes, teas- Substantial Success He’s also a heck of a nice guy, an ing them a little about his Nashville entertainer of some means who life. The song came to him in a dream, said, “but I don’t understand this is waiting for you at Friends University takes time to sign everything offered But when they stood and cheered, he said, and interpreting dreams is song. I don’t know how to explain and talk with each fan in a long line he rewarded them with “Wildfire,” God’s work. it.” after the concert. He’s done benefits, his first and most enduring hit. “I don’t know how to tell you,” he Nobody seemed to mind. The College of Adult Bills to curb pickets, end business tax, lift English and Professional The Legislature got school fi- This bill will impose a 25-year Studies (CAPS) offers nance out of the way early this year. moratorium on any future expan- On Day 2 of the 2007 session, with sion of gaming. Possible casino lo- a variety of degrees a strong desire to move forward, cations, each subject to local voter money was set aside for the next two Letter from Topeka approval, are Wyandotte County, and majors with years of school funding. By Sen. Ralph Ostmeyer Sedgwick or Sumner County, Ford schedules formatted to Unlike all other years I have County and Crawford or Cherokee served both in the House and the [email protected] County. fit YOUR busy life. Senate, we did not wait until the end HB 2140 - English as Official of the session to debate school fi- Kansas Language nance. Early on, we placed enough This notion was first introduced money in reserve to pay for public ing measures; repeals the ability of would be phased out over the next to the Legislature more than 11 CALL TODAY schools for the next two years. public entities from restricting or five years. Beginning his year, the years ago. It finally passed to make Here is a summary of major bills prohibiting concealed weapons on exemption will be increased from English the official state language. passed this year: public premises; repeals the ability $100,000 of net worth to $1 million. HB 2237 - Regents Deferred 1-800-715-9438 SB 244 - Funeral Picketing — of property owners from restricting The rate will be reduced from the Maintenance — Last, but certainly This bill created the Kansas Privacy or prohibiting concealed weapons; current $1.25 per $1,000 of share- not least, this issue was definitely • Classes are held at the Act, which will prohibit persons and requires posting of signs at the holder equity or net worth to $.9375 the dark horse of the session.