Weekly Comments: Will Rogers Joins Winston Churchill and Florence Nightingale. Remembering 9/11/2001.
#1325 Sept. 6, 2026
COLUMBUS, Ohio: I told you I would write about a wonderful annual gathering of rather “mature” professional speakers. Our group is called the Veteran Speakers Network. The conference includes about 60 speakers and a few spouses. Ages range from 50 to 98. Yes, 98-year-old Dave Yoho is still active, still speaking in his commanding voice.
Some might refer to us as an “Over the hill gang.” However, three-fourths of us are still in the business of grabbing a microphone and holding onto an audience as long as they invite us to share wisdom, inspiration, motivation and laughter.
We meet in Herndon, Virginia. It’s close to Washington, but far enough away that we mostly avoid politics. One highlight each year is honoring a new group of “Legends of Professional Speaking.” The five honored this year are Tim Gard, Ron Karr, Scott Friedman, Liz Weber, and (posthumously) Og Mandino, who wrote “The Greatest Salesman in the World.”
You might recall that two years ago, Will Rogers was also honored, which I referred to as “post-humorously.”
We always have an hour of entertainment on Friday evening. Can you believe it, this year it was a conversation, led by Terry Brock, with Florence Nightingale, Winston Churchill, and Will Rogers.
Young folks may not realize that Florence Nightingale was the founder of modern nursing. She is portrayed by Dr. Candy Campbell, an award-winning nurse herself, an acclaimed actor, and author. Winston Churchill led Britain through WWII, enduring the constant bombing by the German air force. Randy Otto has been performing as Winston for 55 years. And then there was me, determined to keep up with these pros. The audience was fantastic. They appreciated the history and laughed with and not at us.
Friday, Sept. 11, will be the 25th anniversary of the horrible attack led by radical Islamist Osama bin Ladin. Today, it’s hard to believe we have elected officials and candidates, including the mayor of New York City, who justify or refuse to condemn, the attacks that killed almost 3000 people.
Radical Muslims have been attacking, killing, and enslaving us and others around the world for centuries. President Thomas Jefferson sent the Navy to the Mediterranean Sea in 1801 to stop the Barbary Pirate attacks on merchant ships. President Trump took on radical Muslims in Iran to eliminate their goal of killing us with nuclear weapons. You may debate details, but no other President in 46 years took effective action against the Muslim leaders who continue to shout, “Death to America.”
Politics rev up after Labor Day. Republicans will meet this week in Dallas. The Democrat Socialists of America met last week in Chicago. In most of the contested elections (excluding the one-sided ones) for Congress and the Senate, voters will have a clear distinction between candidates.
Historic quotes by Will Rogers:
“Tomorrow is Labor Day. I suppose created by an act of Congress… How Congress knew anything about labor is beyond us… It’s a day in the big cities when men march all day and work harder than they have in any other of the 365.” DT #967, Sept. 1, 1929
“Democrats are attacking and Republicans are defending. All the Democrats have to do is promise ‘what they would do if they got in.’ But the Republicans have to promise ‘what they would do’ and then explain why they haven’t already ‘done it.’” DT #1917, Sept. 26, 1932