President N. Eldon Tanner, Part One - The Last Lecture and Randy Pausch

For Part Two, Part Three, or Part Four, click the link you wish. 

Yes, there are four cultural quotes from President N. Eldon Tanner's talk "Choose You This Day" in April 1971 Conference. The first was more of an offhand remark than anything of substance at that time.

 

The Quote 

"We have heard a great deal lately about the Last Lecture Series, in which those who lecture choose their subject as though it were the last they would give. With that in mind, I chose my subject for this conference as though it were to be my last lecture—the most important message I could leave with the people."

Andrew Carnegie and the Last Lecture Series

One of the many ways Andrew Carnegie touched nearly every aspect of life even today, was the Last Lecture Series, based in Carnegie-Mellon University, where professors were tasked with giving a lecture on what they would tell their students if this would be the last time they could speak. What would be the most important thing they could share before the end?

Most of the time it was an exercise in imagination. Once in my lifetime, it wasn't.

 

Randy Pausch and the Last Lecture

When Randy Pausch, computer science professor at  Carnegie-Mellon University, was tasked to give the address in 2007, it really was his last talk - he'd been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, and everything they tried to stop it had failed. When he gave his talk, his doctors had given him only months left to live. He managed to hang on until September of 2008, when he passed away in Virginia.

His talk became a media sensation due to the context of it.  His talk was recorded and broadcast, and he gave different variations of the talk in different venues before he became too sick. His lecture became a best-selling book. 

His advice? Well, I won't spoil it here. His video lecture (linked above) and his book are both well worth the perusal.

Not only that, but if you missed it when the movie came out, he got a day player part in a Star Trek film from the impact of his Last Lecture, and how could he refuse? How could anyone? Don't blink or you'll miss him. 

 

 

Elder Harold B. Lee, Part Three: Dr. Fisher of the Boy Scouts

If you missed Part One or Part Two, here's your chance to click. 

Finally! The final cultural quote from Elder Harold B. Lee's talk, "Today's Young People". 

 

The Quote 

"As I read that, I recalled a statement made by Dr. Fisher, former educational director of the Boy Scouts of America, who here in the Assembly Hall made an interesting remark. He said, “If the youth of today were not twice as good as were the youth of two generations ago, they wouldn’t be half as good as they are.” If you analyze that, I think you can understand why he would make that remark."

Let's pull that out a little bit - 

If the youth of today

were NOT

twice as good

as were the youth of two generations ago,

they wouldn't be

half as good as they are.

 

Nope - still don't get it. I don't understand. Sounds like math.

Does anyone here understand?

 

Dr. Fisher's Work with Kids (and Volleyball)

I'm assuming Dr. Fisher may have been hit on the head one two many times by a volleyball, since he was the founder and first president of the United States Volleyball Association. Having been through enough volleyball tournaments in my teenage years, I know from my own experience how hard that volleyball can hit.

Seriously though, he created volleyball as a training tool for the military. That's pretty hardcore. It's a wonder I survived.

Volleyball is heck.

He did serve in high-level positions with the Boy Scouts as well, and I'm assuming that Elder Lee is still referring to the perception of all kids being bad because of the perception of a few bad kids being extrapolated out to cover all kids.

We don't want to do that. Most people are basically good - I do believe that. If we control our focus and look for the good, we'll definitely find it. The bad can also be found, if sought. 

 

Elder Harold B. Lee, Part Two: Dwight D. Eisenhower - These Kids Today

If you want to read Part One or Part Three of the references from this talk, click where you will. 

The next quote from Elder Harold B. Lee's talk in April 1971 goes in a more positive direction. It's definitely something to keep in mind, even today. 

 

The Quote

I came across a statement from the late President [Dwight D.] Eisenhower in the Reader’s Digest some years ago. 

He said, “Unfortunately many people nowadays have become so bemused 

by the excesses of a small minority of American youth, 

 that they forget to note the decency and intelligence of the overwhelming majority. 

This is a great injustice to you young folks and a disservice to America.

“Judge Lester H. Loble of Montana, 

who has done so much to check juvenile delinquency in his state, 

has said that 97 percent of our youngsters today 

are as good as those of any generation, but the three percent who are hoodlums are worse. 

I might go one step beyond and suggest that in a good many ways, 

today’s young people are better than my own generation. 

Certainly, you are better educated, better informed about the world, 

have a far broader outlook on life than we did at your age. 

Moreover, most of you I talk with—

and I do talk with hundreds every year in student and political gatherings and elsewhere—

have fine motives and a sound moral attitude.” 

(“Thoughts for Young Americans,” Reader’s Digest, April 1966, pp. 88–92.)

 

Media Distortion (and Judge Lester H. Noble)

Couldn't find the original article in the Reader's Digest online - it's in the Eisenhower Presidential Library.

 Got me thinking about Judge Lester H. Loble, though - who was he?

Hard to find anything on him beyond some random genealogical records - here he was a judge who did great things for Montana, and who remembers him?

I guess that's why I do so much genealogical name-dropping, because the media distorts the importance of certain people, and then there's all this history on them, but for me, they're like hangers that I can use to learn more about all the little people in between, who were too busy living and not counted as important for the writers of the day to record their lives.

Some of them have been every bit as fascinating as any public figure - sometimes more so.

 

More people are good than we think, and no people are small. That includes:

Lester Henry Lobel (the husband of my ninth cousin twice removed), 

or Dwight David 'Ike' Eisenhower (my seventh cousin three times removed), 

or even Elder Harold B. Lee (also my seventh cousin three times removed through a different line.)