The Baytown Sun (Baytown, Tex.), Vol. 91, No. 153, Ed. 1 Friday, August 5, 2011 Page: 4 of 14
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Viewpoints
He was, by any measure, the
most versatile student whose
path I crossed during a 40-year
career in higher education.
Upon completing high school
in Toronto, he was off on his
bike to "seek his fortune.” This
sounds like a nursery thyme
beginning; for Dan Murray,
though, it was the real deal.
First, he flew to Vancouver, die
starting point of his 3.400-mile
biking adventure that ended in
Texas 36 days later. (The only
“break” was a stop in San
Francisco to ran in the
marathon.)
He was a freshman at Howard
Payne University in Brown-
wood. Tex. for the 1991 spring
semester. Like most other first-
year students, he was unsure of
his academic path. Dan was cer-
tain. though, that while at die
undergraduate fountain, he
would take on collegiate experi-
ences in big gulps. My fomiiy
and I as well as colleagues and
his fellow students-quickly
realized that he didn’t march to
drummer beats. A sharper pic-
ture would show him strapped
to a laser beam-maybe multiple
beams-hanging on for the
Versatility redefined
DON
NEWBURY
ride....
This is not to
any I always
understood his
judgment.
Sometimes
when 1 heard
“Can-you-
believe-what-
Dan-did" sto*
net, | cringed,
thankful he survived. I'll cite
just a couple.
One Thanksgiving, he headed
for Sacramento on a motorcycle
one would expect to buy for a
three-digit figure at Sanford and
Son’s place. Never mind it was
sleeting, with the temperature in
the teens. He fell asleep near Las
Cruces, struck a road sign, sus-
tained a deep gash on a big toe
and knocked a foot peg off the
'cycle. He bought a needle,
thread and akohoL sewed up the
toe and proceeded to Sacramento
I abo would have recommend-
ed that he leave it to others for
challenges of a country road's
"thrill hill ” It was mar the cam-
pus, and its 75-foot drop on a
thousand-foot descent lured stu-
dents for assorted races. Dan.
though, was the first to make the
descant on roller blades, some-
tunes at *eeds exceeding SO
tnph. Clad in feather clothing, he
cams to sudden slops by felling
down before smacking into a
foreboding cable-tapped fence....
The fat of accomplishments is
fer longer than his ''firahtnan fol-
lies.” some in which he was
enMed for all four yews. A grad-
uate of the university's prestigious
Doughs MncAithur Academy of
Freedom, Dan's interests were
meny and varied.
He was a member of three
honor societies, played trumpet
in the marching and concert
bands and appeared in a college
drama. A cheerleader all four
years, he was a three-time All-
American and “top gun stumer”
As head cheerleader for two
years, be led the school's first-
ever team in national competi-
tion.
He also was a member of
HPU's championship track teams
in 1993-94, tunning in the 800-
meter, 1,500-meter and 5,000-
meter events. In *94, the confer-
ence track meet was held in
Abilene, where he was to take the
MCAT exam on the same day. I
urged him to forego the 5,000
meter race that day. He ran the
race in the a.m., then sat for the
MCAT in the afternoon. And he
did well in both. ..
He won numerous academic
honors, and later was the alumni
association's “outstanding young
graduate" during 2004 home-
coming activities.
In 1995, he was off to medical
school at Texas A&M University.
In an initial class, his studies
included a textbook written by
his fether, Dr. Robert Murray, a
longtime member of the faculty
at the University of Toronto
Medical School. Dan received
his M.D. diploma in 1999 before
completing his residency in fam-
ily medicine in 2002. Specialty
honors included his being named
chief resident and “resident of
the year."
Next were duties as a flight
surgeon in the U. S. Air Force.
Yet another degree was forth-
coming. He received the Master
of Public Health degree as part
of the residency in aerospace
medicine from UTMB-
Galveston. Awards continued to
multiply...,
A few weeks ago, he was one
of eight officers graduating
Friday
Aitgmt 8, 2011
from die residency in aerospace
medicine. At the San Antonio
ceremony, my wife and I
"tewed up,” noting how Dan
has continued to endear himself
to others. He was host for the
commencement speaker, Lt.
Gen. Bruce Green, surgeon gen-
eral of the Air Force. It was a
weepy occasion for everyone,
this being the final event for the
military facility that provided
medical trairting for almost an
entire century.
Now, Lt. Col./Dr. Murray-or
just "Dan, the guy who con-
quered ‘thrill hilT"’-is chief of
aerospace medicine at
Vuidenbeig AFB in California.
When astronauts come back into
play, his name is on the candida-
cy list. Any parents would be
proud to call him “son.”
We salute him, his wife, the
former Melissa Wertz, and their
livewire sons, Kaid and Ian,
who, at ages 4 and 2, are "chips
off the old block."...
Dr Nenbury it a speaker in
the Metroplex. Send
inquiries/comments to: new-
buniaispeakerdoc.ivm. Phone:
817-447-3872. Web site:
tmr. speakerdoc. com.
AFTIS DCO&IN&'OCW BJLLET LQ3MSH85 MAKES RPST CUT
TODAY IN MSTORY
Today is the 217th day
of 2011 and the 46th day
of summer.
TODAY’S HISTORY:
In 1884, the cornerstone
for the Statue of Liberty
was installed on Bedioe's
Island in New York
Harbor.
In 1962, Marilyn Mon-
roe was found dead in her
Los Angeles home.
In 1981, President Ron-
ald Reagan began to fire
striking air-traffic con-
trollers for violating his
order to return to work.
TODAY’S BIRTH-
DAYS: Guy de
Maupassant (1850-93),
novelist/writer, John
Huston (1906-87), direc-
tor; Neil Armstrong
(1930- ), astronaut; Loni
Anderson (1945- ),
actress; Patrick Ewing
(1962- ), basketball play-
er; Carl Crawford (1981-
). baseball player.
TODAY’S SPORTS: In
1973, Phil Niekro threw a
no-hitter as Atlanta defeat-
ed San Diego, 9-0.
TODAY’S FACT:
Norma Jean Baker began
using the name Marilyn
Monroe in 1946 but did
not legally change it until
1956.
TODAY’S QUOTE:
"Patriotism is a kind of
religion; it is the egg from
which wars are
hatched." - Guy de
Maupassant
TODAY'S NUMBER:
28,537 - average daily
number of commercial
flights in the United
States.
TODAY'S MOON:
Between new moon (July
30) and first quarter moon
(Aug. 6).
IDM8M800
foeBMMM
font Oram 0M.9
wmhMtgMtioe
When a cut is not a cut
One might think that the
recent drama over the debt ceil-
ing involves one side wanting
to increase or maintain spend-
ing with the other side wanting
to drastically cut spending, but
that is fer from the truth. In
spite of the rhetoric being
thrown around, the real debate
is over how much government
spending will increase.
No plan under serious con-
sideration cuts spending in the
way you and I think about it.
Instead, the "cuts* being dis-
cussed are illusory, and are not
cuts from current amounts
being sprat, hut cuts in project-
ed spending increases. This is
akin to a family "saving"
$100,000 in expenses by decid-
ing not to buy a Lamborghini,
and instead getting a frilly
loaded Mercedes, when really
Barack Obama.
Pratiat
KM&rni foci
focxrata foe*
REP. RON
PAUL
their budget
dictates that
they need to
stick with their
perfectly serv-
iceable Honda.
But this is the
type of math
Washington
uses to mask
the incriminat-
ing truth about
their unrepentant plundering of
the American people.
The truth is that frightening
rhetoric about default and full
faith and credit of the United
States is being carelessly
thrown around to ram through a
bigger budget than ever, in
spite of stagnant revenues. If
your family's income did not
change year over year, would it
be wise financial management
fcl
********* TOE*
SMbr MkMM
nut
"*saar msstg*
to accelerate spending so you
would feel richer? That is what
our government is doing, with
one side merely suggesting a
different list of purchases than
the other.
In reality, bringing our fiscal
house into order is not that
complicated or excruciatingly
painful at all. If we simply kept
spending at current levels, by
their definition of "cuts" that
would save nearly $400 billion
in the next few years, versus the
$25 billion the Budget Control
Act claims to "cut". It would
only take us 5 yean to "cut" $1
trillion, in Washington math,
just by holding the fine on
spending. That is hardly aus-
tere or catastrophic.
A balanced budget is similar-
ly simple and within reach if
Washington had just a tiny
amount of fiscal common
sense. Our revenues currently
stand at approximately $2.2
trillion a year and are likely to
remain stagnant as the reces-
sion continues. Our outlays are
$3.7 trillion and projected to
grow every year. Yet we only
have to go back to 2004 for fed-
eral outlays of $2.2 trillion, and
the government was far from
small that year. If we simply
returned to that year's spending
levels, which would hardly be
austere, we would have a bal-
anced budget right now. If we
held the line on spending, and
the economy actually did grow
as estimated, the budget would
balance on its own by 2015
with no cuts whatsoever.
We pay 35 percent more for
our military today than we did
10 years ago, for the exact same
capabilities. The same could be
said for the rest of the govern-
ment. Why has our budget
doubled in 10 years? This
country doesn't have double
the population, or double the
land area, or double anything
that would require the federal
government to grow by such an
obscene amount.
in Washington terms, a sim-
ple freeze in spending would
be a much bigger "cut" than
any plan being discussed. If
politicians simply cannot bear
to implement actual cuts to
actual spending, just freezing
the budget would give the
economy the best chance to
catch its breath, recover and
grow.
Dr Ron Paul represents the
Nth District in the U.S. House
of Representatives:
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Gray, Janie. The Baytown Sun (Baytown, Tex.), Vol. 91, No. 153, Ed. 1 Friday, August 5, 2011, newspaper, August 5, 2011; Baytown, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1028213/m1/4/: accessed June 19, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Sterling Municipal Library.