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PAGE 6A
BARROW NEWS-JOURNAL
WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 7, 2016
Religion in sports
This being football season, you are
going to hear many references about
religion in the locker room. I’m not
an opponent or naysayer with respect
to prayer and spiritual musings, but the
notion here is there has to be something
more urgent on God’s agen
da than who wins a football
game.
When the subject comes up,
I often hark back to the quote
from Chuck Mills who once
was the head coach of the
Wake Forest Deacons. “We
pray before our games, too,”
Mills said in reference to the
praying tradition of college
teams.
Then he added, “What I have
learned is that God seems to be
on the side of the teams with
the biggest and fastest players.”
There once was a tradition of players
finishing pre-game warm-ups and then
huddling informally on the sideline in
front of their bench and reciting the
“Lord’s Prayer.” In my mind’s eye, I
often revisit that scene in the fall.
You are familiar with the final line
which ends, “.. .forever and ever, Amen!”
A segment of the players would include
an addendum to the recitation, shouting,
“Let’s go kill the (insert Boatswain’s
mate language.)
Joel Eaves, the former Georgia ath
letic director, who was never one to
wear religion of any description on
his sleeve, always felt that a pre-game
prayer “added to the dignity of a sport
ing event.”
Good point. However, I am happy
that there are no more pre-game prayers
in Jackson, Mississippi when the tem
peratures are in the 90s and a Baptist
preacher spends six minutes, or more,
delivering the invocation.
Post game prayers can put the day’s
event in perspective. Time to be hum
ble, time to show respect, time to offer
thanks for a hard fought encounter.
Having said that, you know the subject
on most players’ minds: Find the cooler
of beer ASAP.
There has always been an interesting
pattern with locker room prayers. If
your team wins, the player given the
responsibility for leading his teammates
in prayer usually will offer thanks for
victory.
More often than not when losing the
game has to be addressed there is a mes
sage that basically asks for forgiveness
for letting God and the team down.
The colorful Frank Howard at Clem-
son had a player who became a minis
ter. One fall, the reverend returned for
a campus visit and met with a coffee
club at a local motel in Clemson
where Coach Howard and bud
dies convened each day. The
player-turned-minister obvious
ly had a sense of humor when
he told Coach Howard that he
heard God’s name mentioned
on the practice field more than
at seminary.
A good story, no matter the
subject, travels well and often
has an enduring shelf life. Some
one sent along a knee-slapping
vignette which came from the
one-time chaplain of the Chica
go Bears, a popular after dinner speaker
named John Cassis.
Seems that Mike Ditka, the Bears
coach in the eighties, had some remarks
for the team.
During a chapel session, he advised
the colorful former Clemson player, the
338-pound Refrigerator Perry, that he
wanted the “Fridge" to lead the team
in the Lord’s Prayer when he (Ditka)
finished.
As the scene takes place, quarterback
Jim McMahon sidles up to the chaplain
and whispered, “I bet he doesn’t know
the Lord’s Prayer.” The chaplain noticed
that Refrigerator was sweating profuse
ly. To confirm his confidence that Perry
did not know the prayer, McMahon tells
the chaplain, “I bet you 50 bucks that he
does not know the Lord’s Prayer.”
The chaplain can’t believe the ridicu
lousness of the scene — convening for
a chapel service and making such a bet.
When Ditka finished his remarks, he
followed through, as planned, by calling
on the Fridge to lead the team in the
Lord’s Prayer.
Refrigerator cleared his voice and
began, “Now I lay me down to sleep. I
pray the Lord, my soul to keep.”
Suddenly there was a tap on the
chaplain’s shoulder, he turned around
to see McMahon handing over $50 and
saying, “I had no idea the Fridge knew
the Lord’s prayer.”
Loran Smith is a columnist for the
Barrow News-Journal. He is host of the
University of Georgia football radio
pre-game show.
loran
smith
Letter to the Editor
Forms of extremism
Dear Editor:
In the Barrow News Journal, Wednes
day, Aug. 31, edition. Tom Crawford’s
op-ed, “Extremism Comes in Many
Forms” details several incidences of
extremism in America.
He is correct to point out the violence
unleashed by individuals during the past
two decades was committed by white
Americans, compared to Muslim terror
ists.
It is certainly true that there have
been many “home-grown” terrorists who
have done great damage because of their
deranged ideologies. But I challenge the
seemingly disparaging assertion he made
in almost every description of “white
Christian.”
Any person can self-identify as a
“Christian.” Even Hitler called himself a
Christian in 1922 and then went on to kill
millions of innocent people.
A true Christian is a follower of Jesus
Christ, and has committed himself or
herself to the ideology that Jesus advo
cated in the Bible. Jesus told us that the
greatest commandment is to love God
and to love others. He also told us that
we would know them by their fruit. The
white “Christians” Mr. Crawford listed
had evil fruit!
Sincerely.
Beth Sims
Winder
Winder Library to demonstrate
technology devices from GLASS
What is G.L.A.S.S.? It
stands for Georgia Librar
ies for Accessible State
wide Services.
As a key component of
the new model for Geor
gia’s provision of library
services to the blind and
others whose physical
abilities require the use
of books and magazines
in audio format or braille,
Georgia Public Library
Service (GPLS) has begun
supplying a suite of assis
tive technology devices to
every public library system
in the state.
On Thursday, Sept. 29, at
6 p.m., the Winder Public
Library will demonstrate
available devices and ser
vices. “We hope to raise
awareness of GLASS to
the levels enjoyed of other
services,” states Julia Simp
son, Winder Public Library
manager.
The GLASS network
of talking book librar
ies gives Georgians ready
access to materials from the
free national library pro
gram that is supported and
administered by the Library
of Congress and the Nation
al Library Service (NLS)
for the Blind and Physically
Handicapped.
GPLS will issue to the
Piedmont Regional Library
System one desktop Mag-
niLinkS video magnifier,
two Mobilux Digital Touch
portable magnifying devic
es and one MagniLink
Voice “reading machine.”
These devices will be on
demo at the check-out desk
throughout the month of
September.
The video magnifiers
are basically cameras that
attach to a computer and
convert images of items
placed below its lens to a
magnified image onto the
computer monitor, Simp
son explained.
“The magnifier can be
adjusted for size of magni
fication and for color con
trast. This allows a person
with low vision to read
books — or their mail and
personal correspondence
— while on a public-access
computer in the library,"
Simpson said.
The LVI MagniLink
Voice reading machines are
text-to-speech devices that
use optical-character read
ers to translate print into
audio, thus opening the
library’s book collection to
patrons with vision impair
ment. The machines can
read pages one by one or,
when scanned with audio
output saved to a flash
drive, can convert and store
up to 100 pages of audio
that can be listened to as a
single stream.
GPLS was also able to
purchase an accessible
computer keyboard for
every branch library in
Georgia. These keyboards
have large-print, high-con-
trast, black-on-yellow type
designed to give users with
low vision an easier and
more accurate way to type.
“Come learn more about
these devices and the
GLASS program for your
self or a loved one," Simp
son said.
The library is located at
189 Bellview Street and
can be reached at 770-867-
2762 or by visiting winder.
prlib.org.
Hypocrisy of federal government
A video recently came to my attention
of a story that is a few months old. The
story was pushed by a freelance jour
nalist by the name of Martin Mawyer
who went into various parts of
the United States where radical
Muslims have set up regions in
rural areas so that they can live
apart from Americans and train
residents as “Islamic militants.”
This is actually nothing new to
the federal government, as these
training camps have been popping
up around the U.S. for years.
When asked what the FBI’s
reaction was to these training
camps, Mawyer responded that
the “FBI’s reaction is...they have
a first amendment right to operate
within the United States regardless of
the type of weapon training or guerilla
warfare training that’s going on inside
of them.”
Let’s back up a moment. On Jan. 26
of this year, the FBI and Oregon State
Police targeted, illegally detained, and
then shot at a group of protesters who
occupied an empty federal building,
killing protester LaVoy Finicum and
wounding two others, for peacefully
gathering to protest against the federal
government’s unlawful possession of
land.
These men and women, who harmed
no one and tried to spread peace and
liberty, were labeled as “domestic ter
rorists” and are now being detained in
a federal jail while being denied their
rights to speak with their attorney and
to a speedy and public trial. In fact, the
federal judge who is overseeing the case
put a gag order on the case to where the
defendants could not even speak about it
to the public.
What started the occupation? In
2012 the federal government convicted
Dwight Hammond, 73, and Steve Ham
mond, 46, for arson when they burned
trees on their own property. The fire
reached over to the neighboring land
which is “owned” by the federal gov
ernment.
Although no one was harmed in the
fire, and the fire was done so as to
improve the land and ecosystems and
also to prevent worse damage than if
fire were to break out in an uncontrolled
manner (which would create an unat
tainable forest fire), the federal gov
ernment, who neglected this necessity,
charged the Hammonds with arson.
The judge originally overseeing this
case sentenced Dwight Hammond to
serve three months and Steve Hammond
to serve one year. Both men completed
their time in prison and were released.
Fast-forward to 2015, the federal
government decided that the Hammonds
Random Rants in Rhyme
needed to serve more time, so they
appealed the case and forced them to go
back to prison for the minimum sentence
of five years, credited for time served.
Do we not have a Constitu
tion that binds the federal gov
ernment? It states that citizens
are free from double jeopardy,
and what good is that if the
federal government can sen
tence you twice for the same
crime?
This is what the protesters
of the Oregon Malheur Wild
life Refuge were protesting —
peacefully. Were they armed?
We know for sure that some
had revolvers, but they have a
right to be armed.
If you look up the case on Wikipedia,
or you search any mainstream news arti
cle on this case, you will see that these
men were labeled as “militants,” which
is done so as to make citizens afraid of
them. This way, the government may
wrongly label them as terrorists and then
treat them as if they’re fighting along
side ISIS.
Then we have true radicalized Islamic
militants who are training people how
to snatch, kidnap and kill people in
the name of Islam, where Shariah Law
is being the driving force behind such
teachings, and the FBI says that these
people have the first amendment right
to do so.
Did you catch that? The FBI thinks
that you — a regular, every day, Amer
ican-loving patriot who expresses their
second amendment and preaches free
dom, are considered more dangerous
than a group using a religious ideology
in order to infiltrate and usurp our rights
and freedoms. Why? Because Shariah
Law requires tyranny and oppression,
and this is what the government needs
in order to make us accept its overreach
of power.
I am not saying that Islam is our num
ber one enemy, or that every Muslim
believes or behaves in such a way. I am,
however, saying that there are radicals
within our nation that the government is
letting walk free, while it demonizes lib
erty-lovers and those who are awake to
the truth. A man lost his life defending
your freedom against your oppressor.
America sits by and lets it happen.
Do you still think that the federal gov
ernment truly cares about your safety?
Your freedom? Your national security?
No. Government cares about one
thing: Power. Remember that when you
cast your vote this November.
Jessica Swords is a local columnist.
She can be reached at jlswordsl998@
aol.com.
jessica
swords
Shattered Life ?
Shattered Life?
Two ways to go
dr.
cb
skelton
So there you lie ... dreams ripped to shreds ...
lying in a heap ... maybe wishing you were dead ...
your life’s hopes thrown completely to the ground.
What you once called ‘security’
has now become ‘what used to be’;
You see no way to turn this thing around.
There is a possibility
the fault lies in your family,
or hope was shattered by your heavy load.
You wonder, What will I do next?
How can one right a life that’s wrecked?
You’ll always find, there are two different roads.
First, you can wallow in self pity-
be just as sorry as you can be-
become someone not worthy of his/her salt
Take drags! Run wild! Go on a spree!
Yet most in our society
will say, “Poor thing, it’s really not his/her fault.”
If pity is what your heart desires,
the type of thing that lights your fires,
then take the low road. Who will ever know?
But if you wish to walk with pride,
call every strength you have inside
and take the high road. It is the way to go!
What better place is there to build from?
You are torn down to base foundation;
no teeter-totter remnants now remain.
So start right now! Begin to build.
You can do it, if you will.
You’ve nothing to lose and all to gain!
Your future can outshine your past.
Society will stand aghast
and wonder wide-mouthed, “How did (s)he do that?”
Then, as you travel this high road,
your friends will help you bear the load.
In modern talk you’ll say, “This is where it’s at!”
© 1998, cbs
Edited and re-published 2016
Dr. CB Skelton is a retired physician and author of several books of poems.