Don't elect Johnnie for President

My husband, Billy Wayne, and his brother, Johnnie, have a warm and fun relationship as brothers.

Even though Johnnie lives in Tennessee with wife Phyllis and we live in Texas, they stay in close contact with regular telephone and e-mail conversations. They joke about a lot of things, and each enjoys reminiscing about their lives growing up in Midland, halfway between Fort Worth and El Paso.

Johnnie is the older of the two, who enjoyed the life of an only child for six years before his younger brother came on the scene. They were born to John Godwin and Dimple Aiken of Whitesboro and Tioga, after the couple married and moved to Midland so John (known to locals as "Big Boy") could go to work for the Hughes Tool Company.

Johnnie has been an achiever most of his life, becoming an ordained Baptist preacher before attending college and seminary at Baylor University. Without listing his multitude of accomplishments, I'll just say he's a published author whose books have had great successes. He continues to write on a variety of projects and sometimes submits to his local paper.

When Billy Wayne said he plans to vote for Johnnie as a write-in for President, Johnnie expressed his fear to have another President from Midland. He shared a recent article meant to entertain, and I thought our readers might enjoy excerpts from his letter, which Johnnie admits, is too lengthy to publish in the letter-to-the-editor section.

"As wonderful as growing up in Midland was, I basically grew up dumb and provincial about the bigger world. Midland was pretty much the whole world for me. When we Midlanders refer to some direction from Midland, we always use the word 'down' -- whether referring to Amarillo, Canada or the North Pole. Until I went off to Baylor University, I was so dumb that when someone answered a daily greeting with 'fair to middling,' I thought they were meaning something like doing all right in Midland, Texas.

"And when I was growing up, most folks were friendly and honest; but if someone insulted me or challenged me, I gave the typical Midland West Texas reply: 'Bring it on!' And I was ready. Really. Ready to settle the matter quickly.

"When George W. Bush was running for President, he explained the chief difference between him and his dad, our former President, was Midland, Texas. That's what George W. said. Well, I delivered dry-cleaning to the George H. W. Bush family at 1412 West Ohio before they moved upscale in the 1950s. George W. was just one of the Little League boys at that time. As fine as that family was and is, please don't elect another President from Midland, Texas. Even me.

"Since I left Midland, I have studied political science and history at Baylor (majored in Greek), got graduate degrees, and traveled over most of the known world. I was in Moscow to work at an international book fair three days after the Korean Airliner was shot down in 1983. I was also on the steps of the Russian White House with Alexander Rutskoi on May Day 1991 before 200,000 people. I was helping present him a symbolic copy of the 4 millionth Russian New Testament we were then freely distributing there.

"In Beijing in 1994, I was out in the boonies in a house church where Billy Graham had been just a few months before. Well, you get the idea, I think. Besides these things, I've done a world of politics in my life, but most of it in the fields of business and religious publishing, which again might qualify me for President (since I'm a Southern Baptist). I'm not really a Democrat, Republican, Independent, liberal, conservative, fundamentalist; rather, I am an enlightened person with common sense and conviction.

"I'm a bit younger than McCain; but my oldest son is older than Obama. Still, please don't join my brother and elect me another President from Midland, Texas.

"Well, what matters most then in electing a President? First, I'll almost guarantee the candidate who gets your vote holds some views you can't abide but likely will consider the lesser of two evils. So let me mention a few items that are more important to me than partisanship. The president should be a person of integrity. The person needs common sense, decision-making skills, and all the other things that come to mind.

"But the President for whom you vote should be able to practice what a mentor taught me when I became an executive: 'Johnnie, always hire to your weaknesses.' No person is really big enough and qualified enough to hold the office of the President of the United States.

"But the President for whom you vote should be able to practice what a mentor taught me when I became an executive: 'Johnnie, always hire to your weaknesses.' No person is really big enough and qualified enough to hold the office of the President of the United States.

"The person elected needs to know that everybody, including himself, is ignorant but just in different ways. He needs to choose a Vice President worthy of succeeding but not intruding on the powers of the President in office. The President needs to cut the rhetoric and decisively move forward on the no-brainers that any commonsense President can figure out. I'm tempted to talk about war, democracy, economy, being green, etc. ad nauseam. But I won't.

"Just be sure you vote for a President who is courageous in his integrity, enduring in his patriotism but also in his worldwide citizenship concerns, one who will get up every day asking the Pace-setter and Pace-maker what the President ought to exchange this day of life for. Did I mention I'm a preacher as well as publisher?

"Well enough, already! Just form your convictions well, and vote for the best candidate for President and then support whoever resides in the Oval Office. But above all, please don't elect another President from Midland, Texas."