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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.