The life of John Penniman, ORHS Class of 2001 Part One
Benita Albert and D. Ray Smith/Historically Speaking
Benita Albert brings us a great story of yet another amazing Oak Ridge schools graduate. John Penniman’s story is one Benita selected because of his contribution to the 75th anniversary book on Oak Ridge schools. It is a two-part story and Part One of his first-person account of his time in Oak Ridge.
John David Penniman arrived in Oak Ridge with his family in the summer of 1995. He began seventh grade at Jefferson Middle School (JMS) soon thereafter, and he graduated from Oak Ridge High School (ORHS) in 2001. His post-secondary studies led to a Master of Theological Studies from Emory University followed by a Ph.D. from Fordham University in the History of Christianity. Now an assistant professor of Religious Studies at Bucknell University and an author, John says of his current work: “From my (undergraduate) years at Elon College, I had always wanted to teach
symptoms but ignoring the disease that say government run by six major industries from energy to defense to banking, all of whom are perpetuating ei monopoly and anti-business models, sucking it out of america. our president for his part now promising to set deficit targets. he, too, likes to avoid the base issues. his targets he sees as a place to start negotiations. speaker boehner pouncing on even that suggestion. i think what we re going to end up having to do, probably, is to set some targets. and, say, you know, those targets have to be hit. and tax increases start taking place. i don t want phony gaps. i don t want phony targets. we know what the challenges are, why don t we go tackle the problems? all of this has the vice president continues to meet behind closed-doors with the gang of six, which is where the latest legislation is likely to actually be hammered out. joining us now, msnbc news mike at the white house, where are we headed? just like a chamber of