24 Dec 2006 #0652.html

Vidor CNN Town Meeting

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Dear Family and Friends,

Welcome to this week's "Thoughtlet."

These words are my personal diary and a weekly review of ideas, beliefs, thoughts, or words that will hopefully be of some benefit to you: my children, my family, and my friends.

"The Saturday before this Thoughtlet was scheduled to start, the following e-mail arrived from Sara: http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/12/08/oppenheim.sundown.town/index.html

'You can check out the article Melanie was referring to. She wasn't called back after CNN's initial call, but there are a couple of comments in the article I bet were drawn from her note and impressions made: "Indeed, I was left with a genuine impression that some Vidor residents wanted the city to welcome other ethnicities." Anyway, it seems to me a terrible article, one which draws upon the past in its entirety instead of using true journalism to get a feel of the city's current state. So it goes...'

Monday, 18 December 2006, was memorable because it started the lead up to the Vidor CNN Town Meeting. There were phone calls and e-mails last week (0651.html) about the CNN show concerning racism in America, with it's focus on Vidor, Texas. However, on Monday we found out that CNN was coming to Beaumont to hold a Vidor CNN Town Meeting. Of course I am separated from the actual events, and my ego tells me this meeting is happening because of my daughter's e-mail. At the same time, my insecurity told me this whole thing would turn into a circus and somehow Melanie would end up getting hurt by the news creating liberal media. These thoughts made me want to get back my guns, which I gave to Uncle Tony years ago (../9835.html), and go hunting. I expect most of us never recover from our youth. In most ways I hope this is true, for in general I believe Andrea and Rick, as well as Marti and I were able to create a positive framework for the 10 of you to enjoy your youth. It is easy to focus on the one-percent of the time when our parents or some other adult made a graphic mistake, and yet our lives tend to live out the ninety-nine percent of the times when life was basically good. Those times when we were experiencing sight and sound and taste and touch and smell and sometimes were even touched by spiritual feelings. Compared to the vast host of any member of humanity who has ever lived on planet Earth, well over ninety-nine percent of all human beings born on planet Earth, we have each truly been blessed (consider the fact the church in which you were each raised has about 5.5 million members of the LDS church in the U.S., which when divided by 6,451,058,790 people on planet earth, is equivalent to 0.085%. In other words we are more blessed than 99.915% of the population with those basic truths we have been taught in Primary, Young Men and Young Women, Relief Society, and Priesthood meetings). What we choose to do with the teachings of our youth is another story altogether, which is what the Vidor CNN Town Meeting is all about. Melanie sent the following e-mail on Monday:

Hello everyone, I've waited to send this email out until I had more information. Many of you have heard of the extremely negative and inaccurate report that CNN did on Vidor and racism last week. Well, I was really upset and emailed CNN after the show. Of course, I didn't think they even read those things, but they called me the next day and did a short follow-up the following night. It still was not very representative of the feelings of Vidor but the mayor did a great job at discrediting their previous story. Anyway, CNN called again the following day. Paula Zahn is now coming to Vidor tomorrow night for an invite only "town discussion". It has recently been changed so it will now be held in Beaumont. Anyway, CNN has interviewed my good friend, who is West African, and his family about their experience in Vidor. Rui (my friend) served a mission here, of course knocked on the doors of most of the people in Vidor and was never treated poorly. After his mission, he decided to move here to pursue an education. He then married a girl from Vidor and they have a one year old little boy. He now teaches at the high school. He is married to one of the Williamson sisters, if you know them. Again, he has never had a negative experience in Vidor. There are many examples of African Americans not only being accepted in this community, but playing an extremely integral part in the community. Of course, you can always find the ignorant, uneducated idiots in any town who will say something stupid - whether to get on TV, shock value, or because they really mean it... but it is not a Vidor thing and our hope is to represent our town in a positive way. Vidor as a community has a negative reputation because of media attention received 20-30 years ago and that reputation has never completely gone away, even among other cities in southeast Texas. Because of the email I sent, I have been invited to the town discussion and have been given permission to invite several people to come. I have invited some of the interracial, Filipino, and African American families that live here, along with several others that I hope will contribute to a positive discussion on our town. I realize that most likely, we will just be faces in the crowd but we may have the opportunity to say something, especially because we will have some of the mixed families from Vidor with us and I have had many personal conversations with CNN. I hesitate to tell people to watch it because you never know the intentions of the story. However, the town discussion will be aired live and I do think that CNN wants to show the other side of the story. So, tune in to CNN tomorrow (Tuesday) night at 7:00 pm central. It should be interesting and you might just see a few familiar faces. Take care, Melanie'

Even though Melanie's note set the tone for the week, work and life went on. The following note was sent out by Dave Johnson to everyone in the new Geokinetics on Monday:

'All, As the year winds down, I wanted to express my thanks and congratulations for an outstanding year for Geokinetics. This has been a truly transformational year for us all. We have combined together 3 companies with different strengths and territory into a world class seismic company. We are currently the 3rd largest land and transition zone company in the world. We operate from the high arctic to the jungles of the Amazon to the mountains to the swamps and shallow waters of the world. We have capability to run 20 crews around the globe - and we are adding an additional 2 crews for 1st quarter 2007. These new crews will use the newly acquired 10,000 channels of recording capacity which is being delivered in the next few weeks. Our processing group is growing and will become a dominate technology provider to the industry over the next few years. The outlook for 2007 and beyond looks very positive. By combining Geokinetics with Trace and Grant, we have the financial strength to grow thru re-investing the cash we generate from our operations. Our board of directors and the financial community is very supportive of our growth initiatives. Our backlog is a record $324 million dollars. This should represent about 11 months of work for us going forward. We are seeing larger and larger contracts now, which should increase our crew utilization going forward. Both Dick Miles and Jim White tell me the opportunities are getting better and better. With all of our continued hard work, 2007 will be an outstanding year. I believe we have the best management team in the industry. I am proud of the diversity of backgrounds and nationalities we have in our truly international company. The people at the top of your organizations are net afraid to speak their mind or go after the resources you need to do your job better and safer. I am particularly proud of our safety performance for the year. We don't want anyone injured. We have several crews that have achieved over 1,000,000 man hours with out a lost time incident. That is outstanding! We are well on our way to be the safest seismic company in the industry. Over the next few months I look forward to visiting many of the locations around the world and meeting you personally. This time of year is very special for many of us who celebrate Christmas, and for those of you who do, I wish you a very Merry Christmas and a great New Year. Thanks, Dave Johnson CEO Geokinetics Inc.'

Monday evening I sent the 11th FSI Investment Report to Family who invested. Pretty good report, including a description of The teleconference which happened Monday from 10:00 AM until noon with Sadhar Ghalib (Gabby), who was HyperMedia's agent in Saudi Aramco. Participants in the teleconference were:

  1. Christian Singfield, founder and driving force.
  2. Mike Hagney, former Sun Microsystems Vice-President, and President of FSI. Jim has been working for shares and a promise of half salary once the initial round of funding is closed for the past three months. He gave the presentation to Gabby.
  3. Chuck Edwards, former Chief Geophysicist of Chevron, former Director of Landmark Graphics, former partner in China Cattle Corporation, and Chairman of the Board of FSI.
  4. Dick Edwards, former Chief Geophysicist of Aramco, an employee of Gabby (Fouad & Sons Construction), and an FSI shareholder.
  5. George Stephenson, former Cray sales manager for Saudi Aramco, and independently wealthy investor (his son runs a $60 billion per year gas station company in Europe).
  6. Myself.

This was the first time I have seen the drilling presentation. I was very impressed with how good the story holds together. The key is NASA sensors which Chevron was paying $1 million per year to have developed, and which they have transferred all rights of to FSI. FSI is currently negotiating a license agreement with NASA. There are 7 zones defined for a drilling rig, and 5 initial places the sensors are placed. This won't make a lot of sense, but so you start to learn the words I will summarize this part of the presentation:

'Zone1. Fluids into the well - 2 sensors, one on either side of the mud pump. Zone 2. Fluids out of the well - 2 sensors, one as the mud goes in and one as it comes out. These two sensors are critical as they identify lost circulation. Zone 3. Solids control - 1 sensor at the end of the shaker tables. Zone 4. Secondary solids control - 1 sensor at the end of the centrifugal separaters. Zone 5. Fluid control Zone 6. Mud Make-up. Zone 7. Waste out - cuttings retrieval.'

Chevron has opened the door for Baker-Hughes to be a drilling fluids partner. Chevron has also set up for drilling instrument suppliers to sign non-disclosure agreements and to have discussions about partnering with FSI. Chevron is hiring someone to be full-time in the test yard, starting the first of March. Chevron will not participate in the initial round of funding, and based on seeing the same presentation I saw earlier this morning, they are setting the steps in motion to participate in the second round funding, subject to a functional prototype. Chevron is assigning individuals to sit on a technical advisory board, and this board will convene the day after FSI gets their first round of funding. Gabby wants to replicate what is planned to be built in Galveston in Saudi Arabia. Gabby was offered 15% of the company for $5 million. The FSI plan calls for $11 million investment in the first 12 months, and the additional $6 million will be the second round after the functional prototype is built. FSI is pursuing a $40 billion per year market which has no competition, and which they believe their initial service can address 30% of the need. They will grow the service in stages from drilling to the digital imaging of cuttings which I am most interested in. However, if I get funding for my Dynamic Resources exploration opportunities, then I will purchase the cuttings services and will accelerate getting to the useful exploration stuff. Besides Gabby expressed interest in putting up $3 million of the first $6 million. He will talk to Fouad and Aramco over the coming week. Christian and Jim are talking to 3 other investment groups. These groups are saying they want between 2 and 6 weeks to complete their due diligence. Based on the excitement in the room, and the discussion, I expect there is a reasonable chance FSI will have their initial $6 million funding by the middle of February. Of course, Christian, like me, is broke again, and it will be interesting to see what happens.

Steve Joseph and I traded e-mails during the process of my getting his new address for our Christmas card. One note include a copy of a note he sent to a colleague who is working on church genealogy stuff:

'Chris, I spent a lot of time with senior leaders while I was with Stephen Covey. Of those I've had exposure to Roice would add value to your effort more than anybody else. My guess is you're pretty busy. Here is his contact info (scroll down). Steve Joseph'

Needless to say, reading the note felt good. Between this note and the FSI meeting, I almost forgot about my concerns about Melanie taking on the international media at the Vidor CNN Town Meeting. However, I remembered on Tuesday, and worried about it all day. I could not help but reflect on my meeting with the New York Times Science Writer in Mesquite, Nevada in 1975, and how that story turned out so much different than I thought it would (../9938.html). There was a special on the Martin Handcart Company on Monday night. I had told Mike Dunn about it and he watched it and we talked about it on Tuesday. He also watched Melanie Tuesday night, and I forgot to tell him about the Mormon Tabernacle Choir special on Wednesday night. Anyway, when I got home, I found out one of Andrea's seminary students had an art exhibit in a bank at Highland Knolls and the Parkway, which started at 7:00, just when the Vidor CNN Town Meeting started. Andrea set up the television to record the show, and we went over to the art exhibit. It started at 6:00 and her student had left by the time we found the right bank and got there. Oh well!

We got back to the house about 7:30, and watched the second half of the CNN special on racism in America. We saw Melanie a couple of times. And mostly we listened to national black activists making comments about how they have been discriminated against. Their comments about how the whites have institutionalized racism, and they have no power to respond really struck a really sour note with me. I thought of being the last white family to move into Quail Run subdivision in Missouri City, and not considering race an issue. I thought about a couple of years later when black youth broke into a white policeman's house, less than a block from our house, and covering all of the walls with black spray paint slang graffiti. I thought of moving my family to get away from the violence and the black against white racism we encountered after a few years in Missouri City, to one of the nicest and safest subdivisions in Houston. Then I think of the murder of a white boy by a black youth in front of my house at 1307 Emerald Green (../0521.html, ../0522.html, ../0523.html, and ../0524.html). The comments of the black activists seemed one-sided, whiny, shallow, and racist.

After the show was over, we rewound the tape and watched the first half of the program. There was Melanie, the first person called on by Paula Zhan, beautiful, composed, a little bit hoarse, well spoken, and a wonderful representative of our family. In Melanie's first comment she took on CNN directly, telling them they create news and perceptions with their stories (http://www.walden3d.com/photos/Family/05_JaredMelanie/061220_Vidor_CNN_Town_Meeting/mov07424.mpg). Paula Zhan did not want to call on Melanie the second time, and told her to keep her comments short. Melanie proceeded to give the perfect example of integration (http://www.walden3d.com/photos/Family/05_JaredMelanie/061220_Vidor_CNN_Town_Meeting/mov07425.mpg), how the local High School elected a black youth as the most popular kid, and race was never discussed as an issue. There was a clip showing her friend from West Africa, his white wife, and their baby (http://www.walden3d.com/photos/Family/05_JaredMelanie/061220_Vidor_CNN_Town_Meeting/mov07423.mpg), and discussion about how he had never felt discriminated against as a Mormon Missionary, nor as a Spanish Teacher at the High School (http://www.walden3d.com/photos/Family/05_JaredMelanie/061220_Vidor_CNN_Town_Meeting/mov07428.mpg). There was also a clip of one of Jared's cousins pointing out reverse discrimination the Beaumont Jack-in-the-Box (http://www.walden3d.com/photos/Family/05_JaredMelanie/061220_Vidor_CNN_Town_Meeting/mov07427.mpg). Melanie brought 13 people with her to the Vidor CNN Town Meeting, which was held in the Beaumont Theater where blacks were once required to only sit in the balcony. All in all, after seeing the first half of the program, I was pleased with how Melanie's first experience with the media turned out. When Melanie called later Tuesday night, I told her I am sure this was not her 15 minutes of fame in life. At first, she didn't understand I meant she was laying groundwork for much more important contributions to our world.

Tuesday morning, Ken Turner sent an e-mail recommending the Frisch Auf Country Club in La Granges as the best place to take the Austin kids and Rob to dinner on Friday night. I called the country club on the Wednesday after the Vidor CNN Town meeting. I could not make reservations for dinner because it was a private club. I felt discriminated against, and assumed it was because I sounded black. Oh well! In reaction to these feelings, Andrea and I went to see the movie 'In Pursuit of Happiness' Wednesday evening after work. Christian Singfield called with some questions during the commercials, and Andrea was not happy I took the phone call. I was really feeling discriminated against after this experience in the movie theater. However, I got over it during the movie. Even though the movie is about a black guy and his son, it is not a movie about race. It is a movie about succeeding in America. It is really a good movie, and a movie for all ages. I encourage each of you to watch this movie, with your children if you have children, and to talk about the movie after watching it. In this regard, i.e. creating a conversation about what has happened in the past regarding race, I agree with the conclusions of the the Vidor CNN Town Meeting.

Thursday George was still ill, and so he didn't go to work. I called Mike to see if I could get a ride and woke him up. Oh well! He gave me a ride, and Andrea took me to the Park 'N Ride to meet him. Later on Thursday Lee Bell sent me a copy of a video clip about 'Hu's in China' (http://www.walden3d.com/photos/Family/05_JaredMelanie/061220_Vidor_CNN_Town_Meeting/Hu_s_on_First.wmv). Note that I placed this video clip in the Vidor CNN Town Meeting directory, specifically because I felt it showed what I feared the media was going to do with Melanie and her friends. In fact, at work that Thursday morning I got an e-mail from Laura Kay Ethetton telling me a $6,180 from Walden 3-D had bounced. Andrea was kind enough to go to the bank, to get them to write out a cashier's check, which they did for free because of the $10,000 stolen from the Walden 3-D account (0647.html), and get the check to Marc Roulston.

Andrea picked me up after work, and we drove up 290 to the Tollroad and were not going to make it to the 5:00 session at the temple as we had planned because of all of the traffic. Wulf called to see if we were still on for dinner at Macaroni Grill, and I gave him the choice of 5:00 or 8:00. He chose 5:00. We were just about at 1960 when he called, and so we went right over to the restaurant. We had a wonderful dinner and a wonderful evening. I learned that Wulf, the wonderful man who funded Sara Ellyn's birth, was the son of a Panzer Tank Commander in the Nazi army. We talked a lot about each of you kids, about their two girls and grandchildren, and about the church. Again, it was truly a wonderful evening, and we need to do things like this more often.

Melanie sent the following on Thursday, specifically regarding my Thoughtlet on inheritance (0634.html), and also refering to the Vidor CNN Town Meeting:

"Thank you again for all of your support and the fun message on my answering machine! I actually got that after I talked to you. I need to stop thinking about it - I just know that if I weren't so sick and if I hadn't gone first - I could have done better but oh well! I was quoted in the Beaumont Enterprise and I was one of the highlights on CNN so thats pretty cool! I have had so many afterthoughts about the meeting and the panelist comments, but I too have decided that CNN could probably do without them. I don't know the story behind the call from LA that you mentioned in this thoughtlet, but when I call using a calling card it says that I am calling from Georgia?? As far as feedback on inheritance... that has to be you and Andrea's decision and whatever you decide will be just fine with me. Inhertiance should not be seen as a right - it is a gift and it does not have to be given. I don't think it is offensive to give inheritance to grandkids for education - regardless of who has less, more, or no grandchildren - as long as you are consistent about that. I don't say that because I have three grandchildren - it just doesn't sound offensive to me. I do think it is offensive to offer inheritance based on individual decisions - those individual decisions could change over time and well, it is just wrong in every way. I don't really know what else to say. Good luck! Melanie'

The more I thought about the Vidor CNN Town Meeting during the week, the more convinced I became that blacks are looking for racism. The reason Melanie's friend has not felt discriminated against is because he is not looking for racism. He was not raised in the U.S. and he is not part of the black culture that takes offense at the inoffensive, and great offense at mistakes. They all need to read Elder Bednar's talk about being too easily offended (0651.html). And of course, I hope there will be many future discussions in our family about whether it is offensive to provide an inheritance based on individual decisions, or whether there is an entitlement to an inheritance no matter how you treat your parents and the things they taught - to the best of their ability.

Thursday there was also a correspondence from Bowen Loftin's assistant, as follow-up from our discussions at Dirk and Carolina's wedding (0648.html):

'Good Afternoon Mr. Nelson, Dr. Loftin asked that I contact you with available dates for you to visit with Drs. Merrell, Seitz and Loftin. I have listed those dates below, unfortunately, there are no Friday's available on Dr. Loftin's calendar in January. Please let me know which date works best with your schedule. Friday, February 23 Friday, March 2 Friday, March 9 Thank you, Cherie Happy Holidays!'

I responded with:

'Cherie, Thank you for your note. As of right now I have no specific commitments on any of those Fridays, and so you select one, and I will cancel any other activities that might come up for that day. My wife teaches early morning seminary and is going to come with me to spend some time with Karen, and so we will be able to leave Katy at about 7:30 AM, and can be in Galveston any time after about 9:30 or 10:00 AM. Let me know where you want me to be at what time. Thanks, Best Regards, and Happy Holidays, Roice'

Cherie wrote back:

'Mr. Nelson, Please hold those three dates, as soon as I hear back from Drs. Seitz and Merrell I will confirm a date and I will also review Karin Loftin's calendar as well to be sure that the date we choose is available on her schedule. The University closes tomorrow at noon and we return on January 2. I will be in touch with you at that time. Thank you for your prompt response. Cherie'

There was also my last week at the office for 2006. The biggest frustration was not being able to get hold of Jialin Yan. I talked to his wife several times. However, Jialin was in another city, did not answer his cell phone, and it is very frustrating. Oh well! Work in the prestack depth migration processing group is very, very, very, very slow. One thing which kept me awake were several e-mail's following up on Ken Turner's recommendation for a restaurant in La Grange. I liked Rob's e-mail the best:

'I say we got to Nancy's because if it isn't any good we can always go to McDonald's across the street! Naw, i am joking I will eat where ever, I have no preference.'

I could write about our dinner in La Grange with Roice and Sarah, Sara Ellyn, and Rob on Friday night, or our dinner with Melanie, Jared, Colby, Taylor, Halle, and Rob on Saturday night. However, I''ll save those words for the next Thoughtlet (0653.html), and leave anyone reading this far to think about the Vidor CNN Town Meeting."

Since the 38th week of 1996 I have written a weekly "Thoughtlet" (little statements of big thoughts which mean a lot to me). Until the 43rd week of 2004 I sent these out as an e-mail. They were intended to be big thoughts which mean a lot to me. Over time the process evolved into a personal diary. These notes were shared with my family because I know how important the written word can be. Concerned about how easy it is to drift and forget our roots and our potential among all of distractions of daily life, I thought this was a good way to reach those I love. It no longer feels right to send out an e-mail and "force" my kids and my family to be aware of my life and struggles.

Everyone has their own life to lead, and their own struggles to work through. I will continue this effort, and will continue to make my notes publicly accessible (unless I learn of misuse by someone who finds out about them, and then will aggressively pursue a legal remedy to copyright infringement and I will put the Thoughtlets behind a password).

The index to download any of these Thoughtlets is at http://www.walden3d.com/thoughtlets, or you can e-mail me with questions or requests at rnelson@walden3d.com (note if you are not on my e-mail "whitelist" you must send 2 e-mails within 24 hours of each other in order for your e-mail to not be trashed).

With all my love,
Dad
(H. Roice Nelson, Jr.)

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Copyright © 2006 H. Roice Nelson, Jr.