Mentors-Bill Powers

I was cleaning out some of my basement and came across the obituary of one of my Law Enforcement mentors.

I came into this field honestly, IE, I was not a friend of the program either through family, interest or drive.  Rather, it first came across my perceptions while I was taking paramedic courses in college in Texas.  I realized during my hundreds of hours of on the road clinical time that the police can be proactive and paramedic/firemen can only be reactive.  The idea of preventing calamity rather than reacting to it was very appealing.  A few years later I found myself in the Police academy.

Fast forward nine years and I found myself in a professional crisis, due to a mixture of my mistakes and a management change that soon found me deselected from the fast track and placed me on the no track.  It was looking that I was going to be having a "meeting" once every eight working days on patrol for the rest of my career.  I began fishing around to advance myself outside of work.  I first did what everyone does in a crisis/test/trial I went back to God.  I started leading a small group at my church and set it for Tuesdays at 10:30am so that anyone who was a second shifter could have a Bible study.  It was a disastrous.  Just in case you are thinking of using that time, while there are a number of people who work afternoons and midnights that need bible study, there are also a number of people that are free during that time mainly due to complete insanity.  Anyway one day a Chicago Cop named Mike Touhy came in and had a prayer request for an old partner of his who had just been diagnosed with cancer, Bill Powers.  I soon called him, enrolled in the Master program he created and got to know him and learned of his love of the Lord.  I was amazed his career path was incredibly similar as mine and he managed to become deputy superintendent (my hopes are not half that high).  He provided me with some advice and things immediately got better back at the home department.  Because of his mentoring I was able to right a nearly sunken ship and I because a believer in the idea that everyone needs a Christian mentor.

A quick anecdote as to the kind of man he was.  My wife and I came to his home during his home hospice on the second to last day that he was on this earth.  When we arrived he was a sleep on the couch.  My wife and I were sitting across from him when he woke up.  He looked up and said, "(my name) how are things?  How is school going?  How are things back at the department, any better?"  I said, "How am I doing!?! I think the only thing that matters today is how your doing!"  He looked up at me, sighed and said, "I know how I am but I want to know how you are."  He then made me answer his questions.  That was the man that he was and a man that I have tried to emulate as I have moved forward in my life.  Below is his obituary.

 
Link to Mike Touhy's truck stop ministry:
Transport for Christ




and a quick article about it

Failed Predictions

In honor of the walk of shame that another prognosticator has yet taken once again, a post of Failed Predictions.









Source Credits: Listverse, ODDEE,2 Spare, 2 Thing.org, and Live Science

“There is no reason anyone would want a computer in their home.” — Ken Olson, president, chairman and founder of Digital Equipment Corp.

“We will never make a 32 bit operating system.” — Bill Gates 

“Lee DeForest has said in many newspapers and over his signature that it would be possible to transmit the human voice across the Atlantic before many years. Based on these absurd and deliberately misleading statements, the misguided public … has been persuaded to purchase stock in his company …” — a U.S. District Attorney, prosecuting American inventor Lee DeForest for selling stock fraudulently through the mail for his Radio Telephone Company in 1913.

“There is practically no chance communications space satellites will be used to provide better telephone, telegraph, television, or radio service inside the United States.” — T. Craven, FCC Commissioner, in 1961 (the first commercial communications satellite went into service in 1965).

“To place a man in a multi-stage rocket and project him into the controlling gravitational field of the moon where the passengers can make scientific observations, perhaps land alive, and then return to earth – all that constitutes a wild dream worthy of Jules Verne. I am bold enough to say that such a man-made voyage will never occur regardless of all future advances.” — Lee DeForest, American radio pioneer and inventor of the vacuum tube, in 1926

“A rocket will never be able to leave the Earth’s atmosphere.” — New York Times, 1936.

“Flight by machines heavier than air is unpractical (sic) and insignificant, if not utterly impossible.” – Simon Newcomb; The Wright Brothers flew at Kittyhawk 18 months later.

“Heavier-than-air flying machines are impossible.” — Lord Kelvin, British mathematician and physicist, president of the British Royal Society, 1895.

“There will never be a bigger plane built.” — A Boeing engineer, after the first flight of the 247, a twin engine plane that holds ten people

“Nuclear-powered vacuum cleaners will probably be a reality in 10 years.” -– Alex Lewyt, president of vacuum cleaner company Lewyt Corp., in the New York Times in 1955.

"It will be years --not in my time-- before a woman will become Prime Minister."
--Margaret Thatcher, October 26th, 1969.

“That virus [HIV] is a pussycat.”
--Dr. Peter Duesberg, molecular-biology professor at U.C. Berkeley, 1988

"Drill for oil? You mean drill into the ground to try and find oil? You're crazy."
--Associates of Edwin L. Drake refusing his suggestion to drill for oil in 1859.

"Reagan doesn’t have that presidential look."
--United Artists Executive, rejecting Reagan as lead in 1964 film The Best Man

"The singer [Mick Jagger] will have to go; the BBC won’t like him."
--- First Rolling Stones manager Eric Easton to his partner after watching them perform.

"Taking the best left-handed pitcher in baseball and converting him into a right fielder is one of the dumbest things I ever heard."
-- Tris Speaker, baseball hall of famer, talking about Babe Ruth, 1919.

"Ours has been the first [expedition], and doubtless to be the last, to visit this profitless locality."
---- Lt. Joseph Ives, after visiting the Grand Canyon in 1861.

Everything that can be invented has been invented.
Charles H. Duell, an official at the US patent office, 1899.

Stocks have reached what looks like a permanently high plateau.»
Irving Fisher, economics professor at Yale University, 1929. 

Democracy will be dead by 1950.
John Langdon-Davies, A Short History of The Future, 1936.

They couldn't hit an elephant at this dist-
Last words of Gen. John Sedgwick, spoken as he looked out over the parapet at enemy lines during the Battle of Spotsylvania in 1864.

Man will not fly for 50 years.
Wilbur Wright, American aviation pioneer, to brother Orville, after a disappointing flying experiment, 1901 (their first successful flight was in 1903).

The Americans are good about making fancy cars and refrigerators, but that doesn't mean they are any good at making aircraft. They are bluffing. They are excellent at bluffing.
Hermann Goering, Commander-in-Chief of the Luftwaffe, 1942.

... good enough for our transatlantic friends ... but unworthy of the attention of practical or scientific men.»
British Parliamentary Committee, referring to Edison's light bulb, 1878.

Who the hell wants to hear actors talk?» H. M. Warner, co-founder of Warner Brothers, 1927.

END OF THE WORLD...well no its um tomorrow...sorry.  Or is it the next day...

Person                                                  Date

Charles Wesley                                   1794

John Wesley (Brother of above)           1836

Jehovah Witness                                 1914,1915,1918,1920,1925,1941,1975,1994

William Miller                                     March 21, 1843 through March 21, 1844

Joanna Southcott                                Oct 19, 1814

Albert Porta                                        Dec 17, 1919

Nostradamus                                       July 1999

Joseph Smith                                       Feb 1835 plus 56 years.

Pat Robertson                                     End of 1982.

Michael Rood                                     April 15, 2000

Richard Noone                                   May 5, 2000

Rebecca Harrison                               May 17, 2000

Marily Agee                                        May 28, 2000

David Parked                                      May 28, 2001

Proverbs 12:23
The prudent keep their knowledge to themselves, but a fool’s heart blurts out folly.

End of the World!!!!!!!!

I was going to take a shot at Harold Camping and his mathematical system he created to delve into the mysteries of the Bible that had today as the Judgement Day.  But instead I will ask this question instead...If it really was the end of days do you know FOR SURE  where you would go? Heaven? Hell? Wal-Mart greeter in purgatory?  Drummer for an all girls polka band? 


Salvation is the only way to live for eternity with our Lord in heaven.


Romans 3:23   All have sinned.
A sin is anything we do wrong, anything we do that is disobedient to God. This is one reason we should read our bible so we understand what is sin and what isn't.

Romans 6:23    The wages of sin is death
The death being spoken of here is not physical death but it is separation from God for eternity in Hell.

Romans 5:8      Jesus paid the penalty for your sin.
God sent his one and only Son to die for YOU on a cross so that you may be forgiven of your sin.

Romans 10:9-10    Believe in the Lord Jesus and the salvation provided through Him.
It's simple all you have to do is believe that Jesus is God's Son and he was sent to die for YOU upon a cross and confess with your mouth and believe with your heart.

Romans 10:13   Everyone who calls on the name of te Lord will be saved.
All you have to do is pray and ask God to forgive you of your sins and you must repent of (or turn away from) your sin.


Now the end of the world has no fear for you, you now know your final destination.

Salvation Verses

Charles Barkley-You gotta love him...

I was listening to sports radio, Tuesday, while on another marathon vehicle surveillance (can't feel me knees anymore) when an interview came up with basketball legend/Michael Jordan confidant/TNT announcer, Charles Barkley.  Since it was with ESPN radio, the sycophantic sportscasters were gushing all over him and pushing the TNT broadcast that he would be on.  They asked the enviable question concerning his contribution to  Basketball and American society in general.

Charles said this, "I am just an entertainer.  I always say that there are only five real jobs.  Doctor, Police Officer, fireman, teacher and the military.  The rest, while nice, aren't necessary.  I am an entertainer.  I hope that for a few hours I can let people get away from their problems but my job has never been important."

Wow, can't argue with that.  I wish the rest of society would wind that swiftly into the clockwork in their heads.  But my hopes are not high.



Ephesians 4:11
So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers,

Addendum:  I wish I could fully embrace Charles except for the: drunken driving, gambling problems and driving around looking for a "blow job" (Dec 31, 2008).

 

Life and the Job...Changes

The first vehicle pursuit that I got into I remember thinking, wow this is cool, this is the reason I signed on to be a Police Officer.  The lights flashing, the blaring of the radio, the engine noise coming through into the interior because of it's near red-lining, brakes squealing and coming home after that shift with stiff and sore calves because of the continuous *stomp* on the gas followed by *stomp* on the brakes followed by *stomp* on the gas...well you get the idea.  Oh and we got him too.

The last one that I got into recently, my feelings were quite different.  The thoughts that were going through my mind this time was not about how cool this was, but rather it was *stomp* on the gas, “I am going to get sued and loose my house”, *stomp* “some little kid is going to run in front of me”, *stomp* “if I ding up my car its going to be three weeks of paperwork”, and so on.  Oh and he got away.

I always marveled when I first came on the job about how all the veteran Officers seemed so embittered toward Law Enforcement.  They would pine over their future retirement at every roll call.

I understand them a little better know that I am half way through.  It slowly kills the enjoyment of this job when you begin to focus not on the task at hand or the people you help but rather on the consequences that would happen should it suddenly go all wrong. 

Its best summarized this way: in the beginning it was, "Yeah! We got him! Can you believe...(insert story of incident that just happened)", and now its, "Wow sure glad nothing happened!  Can you believe what would have happened had...(insert analysis of worst case scenario)...I knew a cop that...(insert story of Officer that got in trouble or lost his job through no fault of his/her own under similar circumstances)".

The first part makes you look forward to going to work, the second part makes you look forward to going home.

Matthew 6:34

Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.


1.  5/04/2011 1:33am

Back from Vacation

Spent a week in Sedona Arizona for the family's yearly visit and got some much needed R and R.  The kids got to run around like manics and my wife was able to be left alone (a very rare occurrence).  In order to make the trip more relaxing we decided to leave right after having our 1st floor repainted...it only took three weeks.  We are just getting the house back together and are using the total chaos to Spring clean and chuck all the assorted bric-n-brac that have piled up over the years.

So...computer put back together, blogging resuming.  Status quo reached.

Psalm 116:7
Return to your rest, O my soul,For the LORD has dealt bountifully with you.

PS:  the house we were staying at is just on the other side of Cockscomb the rock formation pictured.

Easter

A little late but...

HE HAS RISEN INDEED