A few years ago, my dad came to Utah to present at a conference. My dad presented on preparedness. (My mother actually came as well and presented on physical fitness.) My parents are pretty well versed in both fields. My dad started off his sessions sharing a bunch of news articles of natural disasters that occurred over the years, from the eruption of Mt Saint Helens (we watched from the roof of our home) to the 1994 Northridge earthquake (many members of my family including my parents and brothers lived through this quake that damaged all of their homes) to driving into to Salt Lake seriously just at the time the tornado touched down in Salt Lake in 1999. Those are just three things, there are SOOO many more. And his point of sharing them was that he lived through each of the disasters. Seriously, I don't know if I should tell you that you to steer clear of living anywhere near my dad because you will end up experiencing some sort of natural disaster, or if I should tell you to live near him because he's a pro on helping out when anything bad happens.
There's another situation that has become quite publicized of late in which my dad was involved. You see, my dad served in the Bishopric of our different wards when I was growing up, including our ward in SE Portland. Why does that matter? Does the name Timur Dyke mean anything to you? How about the Boy Scout leader in SE Portland who mistreated some of the scouts he led? That scout leader was Timur Dyke. And that unfortunate event took place as Dyke was a member of my ward, serving in our ward scouting program. But if you ever want to talk to someone on how a Bishopric should operate (for lack of a better word), you could talk to my dad, and you could talk to the Bishop he served as a counselor to in that ward. I find it unfortunate the Church paid a million plus dollar settlement to the victims of these events because I know how this situation was handled by the local leaders. Though at the same time, I also understand why the Church had to pay. What did make me happy though was to hear today on the news that the Boy Scouts will have to pay a whole lot more, because I also know of their involvement or lack of. Click here to read more. I don't necessarily feel that paying someone a lot of money is going to solve anything, that it will make anything better. But I know that the ward handled the situation in the best way possible. And I hope that these men, now approaching their 40s (yup, they were just a few years older than I am) will use their settlements for helping themselves finally put this behind them and that they will use their settlements for good.
ps - I have a really cool dad
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