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The Champion, Thursday, December 10 -16,2015 OPINION
Remember Brannon Hill
In 1989 after Hurricane
Hugo ravished McClellan-
ville, S.C., outside of Charles
ton, I and some schoolmates
at Clemson University col
lected supplies to help the
victims there.
At age 22,1 had never
seen such destruction—
houses washed away from
foundations; centuries-old
oak trees snapped like tooth
picks; large shrimp boat sit
ting in the ruins of houses
and debris everywhere.
Approximately 18 years
later I led a youth group mis
sions trip to New Orleans
to help with cleanup in the
aftermath of Hurricane Ka
trina. The scene there was
worse with whole streets of
houses missing.
The destruction of those
communities is the frame
of reference I had when I
Andrew Cauthen
andrew@dekalbchamp.com
Managing Editor
@AndrewChampNews
recently visited the Brannon
Hill condominium complex,
which a documentary claims
may be the worst neighbor
hood in America.
Located off of Memo
rial Drive, behind Memorial
Drive Presbyterian Church
and a few hundred feet from
the campus of Georgia Pe
rimeter College, the Third
World living conditions there
are staggering. Debris is ev
erywhere. Abandoned vehi
cles are everywhere. Dilapi
dated, uninhabitable housing
is everywhere. Poverty is ev
erywhere. And the complex
has only worsened since my
first visit there in 2011.
Just as Americans band
together to address sudden
tragedies such as the Hugos
and Katrinas and the more
recent flooding in my home
state of South Carolina,
DeKalb County residents,
churches, businesses and
community leaders must
band together to address
Brannon Hill.
We don’t have to send
church youth groups from
DeKalb to help the Cherokee
Native American Reserva
tion or to the impoverished
mining communities of West
Virginia or to some Carib
bean Island. We have a com
munity right here in DeKalb
that needs our help.
We don’t have to send
our money to save the chil
dren in various foreign coun
tries. There are children right
here in DeKalb County’s
Brannon Hill that need our
money.
We must open our minds
and hearts and wallets to
think and feel and give until
we have addressed this prob
lem.
We should be ashamed to
live in metro Atlanta and al
low immigrants and refugees
from Third World countries
to live in Third World condi
tions year after year here in
DeKalb County.
Sure there are challenges,
but that is no reason to allow
these conditions to go on for
years. If, in a few weeks, we
can come up with a plan to
try to bring a soccer team’s
headquarters to Memorial
Drive, surely we can in sever
al years come up with a plan
to address Brannon Hill.
This should be a top
priority for local faith-based
groups, local businesses, resi
dents, our interim CEO and
commissioners, volunteer
organizations and even local
media.
And we can start by re
moving the trash and debris
immediately, even if it means
starting an online fundrais
ing account to pay the coun
ty or some professionals to
haul the debris away.
We can no longer turn a
blind eye to Brannon Hill.
“I have a debt to pay, and
I’m doing it with my chess
board.” -Orrin “Checkmate”
Hudson, executive director
of Be Someone, www.beso-
meone.org in Atlanta.
My first grade teacher,
Miss Rice, challenged our
class to a contest. Whoever
could read the most books in
a month, and write the title
of each of those books on an
index card, piled into a shoe
box, would win a mysterious
grand prize.
I had learned to read
early, and this contest just
gave me a reason to do more
of that. I went to the school
library and checked out as
many books as they would let
me. I talked my mother into
a trip to the Barwick Phar
macy, where comic books
were a mere 12 cents each,
and bought a couple bucks
worth. I stacked up every
Little Golden Book we had
at home and started to read
and write those titles on a big
stack of index cards. I won
the contest by a healthy mar
gin, and began my lifelong
love of comic books.
With great fanfare, Miss
Rice brought out the award,
along with a blue ribbon, and
it was a rather modest chess
= ONE MAN'S OPINION =
Chess for success
Bill Crane
bill.csicrane@gmail.com
Columnist
set. I had never seen one,
and did not even understand
checkers, but with lessons
from my father, I learned
chess before Chutes and Lad
ders or Candy Land, before
any card game except War,
before any organized sport
except swimming—and I was
hooked.
I didn’t really know why,
but I was amused by how
folks reacted to being asked
to play chess by a 7-year-
old. I was even more amused
at their reactions when I
won. I read chess books and
watched others play.
By the end of elementary
school, I won a few tour
naments. I started playing
three-dimensional check
after seeing a fictional ver
sion on Star Trek, and started
to appreciate the benefits of
thinking two or three steps
ahead of my peers.
By college I noted that
chess had helped me become
good at logic problems, and
their cause/effect, linear flow.
Chess is like life in many
ways, particularly if well
played, but it is also a game
that takes time and skill de
velopment, and, as a result,
is less and less in favor today
in our quick thrills, 3-D,
electronic age. But thank
fully, though it may not be
currently in vogue, there are
those making sure chess does
not become a lost art, and
particularly in some surpris
ing places where it can make
even more of a difference in
the lives of chess players.
Orrin “Checkmate” Hud
son was similarly inspired
by the game and an educa
tor early in his life. Hudson
was a struggling inner-city
Black youth in Birmingham
in 1978 when a high school
teacher introduced him to
chess to help him understand
the importance of every
move, every decision and
each step that we take in life.
“He taught me to think it
out, don’t shoot it out. Now
I have debt to pay and I’m
doing it with my chessboard.
I am reaching young people
through chess. I speak their
language and they listen.
And watch. And learn. And
change,” Hudson said.
The educator assured
Hudson that by making
the right choices, in time,
Hudson could “be some
one.” Hudson fulfilled that
prophecy, later founding a
nonprofit of the same name,
based here in Atlanta.
In the decades since,
Hudson has introduced
thousands of young men liv
ing a life as he had known to
the joys and benefits of chess,
and many of them have since
made the move to a better
life.
Hudson has the ambi
tious goal of reaching and
impacting one million youth
“one move at a time.” He has
written a book of the same
title, and teaches hundreds
of seminars each year, often
giving away his time. His sto
ry has been told and retold
by television networks and
affiliates and daily and com
munity newspapers across
the country.
Hudson and Be Someone
Inc. sponsor tourneys and
chess traveling teams—and
they win. These students are
also coming to the realiza
tion that learning and hard
work can have great benefit,
and as they are sharpening
new skill sets, they are not
sharpening knives or joining
gangs.
If you want to help
Checkmate, you can donate
your time, your skills or from
your purse (www.besome-
one.org/donate). Or invite
Orrin to your neighborhood
school or church to intro
duce more kids to chess, and
whichever choice you make
along these lines, you cer
tainly can’t make a bad move.
Bill Crane cdso semes as
a political analyst and com
mentator for Channel 2’s Ac
tion News, WSB-AM News/
Talk 750 and now 95.5 FM,
as well as a columnist for The
Champion, Champion Free
Press and Georgia Trend.
Crane is a DeKalb native
and business owner, living in
Scottdale. You can reach him
or comment on a column at
bill. csicrane@gmail. com.