GEORGETOWN, Ohio: This is the home of that great American General, U. S. Grant. He is remembered more as a General than as a President because he was better at giving orders, than taking them from Congress.

Everybody asks the question, “Who is buried in Grant’s tomb?” Well, I don’t’ know if he’s in it, or even where the tomb is, but I can tell you the house he was raised in is here, about 2 blocks east of the Courthouse.

I’m down here today talking to some youngsters about riding safely on one of those All-Terrain Vehicles (4-wheelers). They are kinda the modern day version of a horse, except they aren’t near as smart. You’ll never find a horse that’ll run up a hill so steep he turns back over himself and slides to the bottom.

I’m a fine one to be talking about safety, as many times as “I” have fallen off. (That’s off a horse, not an ATV)

In Iraq we have lost about a hundred of our men and women, and some of them were even killed by the enemy. Losing our troops is serious, no matter who is shooting at them.

We need to keep things in perspective. You take 200,000 of your average American drivers and have them drive back and forth between Kuwait and Baghdad for a week, you’ll lose way more than a hundred just from accidents, and that’s not counting the ones that’ll shoot each other.

That was good news about our troops rescuing Jessica Lynch. She’s a farm girl from Wirt County, West Virginia, a small county in a small state. She’s kinda small herself, but her heart’s as big as Montana. Her family went to Germany to be with her, and I’ve got a suggestion, and don’t be surprised if it happens. Do you remember the man named Whitaker that won a hundred million in the lottery that I wrote about in December? (Weekly Comments #254) Well, he owns a construction company not too far from Wirt Co., and he just might take his men up there and build the family a house before they get back home. If he does the whole state is liable to turn out to help him.

We sure won’t forget the Iraqi man that helped Jessica get saved from the hospital where his wife’s a nurse. He walked 6 miles to tell the Americans about her, then walked back for more information, and out again. He is a real hero, showing concern for another human being with no regard for his own welfare. Now, you may say there’s lots of heros doing the same thing. Yes, but this one is a rarity, he’s a lawyer.

(My lawyer friends may shoot me on that one, but even they will admit, if you ask them, that the big majority of lawyers could use some inspiration and humanity.)

Tonight Kansas and Syracuse won their big college basketball games and they’re ready to play for the championship*. Their two coaches, between them, have won about a million games, but Monday night one of them will get his first championship. Let’s hope it’s a good game because there’ll be a lot of our troops over in the Middle East watching and listening. They could use a short respite from the war.   (Note: Syracuse won 81-78)

Historic quotes from Will Rogers:

“You can have all the advanced war methods you want, but, after all, nobody has ever invented a war that you dident have to have somebody in the guise of Soldiers to stop the bullets.” Saturday Evening Post, May 12, 1928

“You can’t say civilization don’t advance, however, for in every war they kill you in a new way.” DT #1063, Dec. 22, 1929

“I have used kidding stuff about us going into somebody’s country, and it’s always been tremendously popular stuff, for not a soul wanted us to be sending Marines out over the world. Like a big city would send policemen to places where they heard there was trouble. It had just become almost impossible for a country to have a nice home talent little revolution among themselves without us butting into it.” WA #576, January 7, 1934