Newspaper Page Text
Commentary
www.starnewsga.com StarNews AUGUST 7, 2011 Page 15
Long live fatherhood!
Sam
GENTRY
StarNews Online
editor
www. sta rnewsga. com
Well, we’re having a girl! Judith
Grace Gentry is due on November
25, and I couldn’t be more excited -
although my wife still thinks I’m a
little devastated because I was hop
ing for a boy. I’m not - I’m just
relieved and oveijoyed that the doc
tors say she’s healthy and strong.
The last time I was about to be a
dad was the first time I was about to
be dad, and almost everything was
different in my life and in the world.
I found out Samantha was coming in
June of 1996 when I was only 20
years old. I thought I was all grown
up and knew everything, but I soon
found out I knew nothing.
At that time, I was certain I was on
a path to rock & roll fame and glory.
I had quit college, brushed off my
police academy training, joined up
with a few old friends, grew my hair
out and frosted it (I hate to admit
that), picked my guitar back up, and
was on what I thought would end up
with platinum albums and endless
riches. What a clown -1 was more on
a path of nicotine and alcohol abuse
than anything else. Luckily, I was
about to be snapped into shape.
Once I knew I was going to be a
dad, I acquired a new job, cut the
frosting out of my hair, followed all
the rules (the important ones any
way), went to all the baby doctor
appointments, and before I loiew it, I
was looking down into the face of
my firstborn. Wow - amazing! And
frightening! I don’t think it really
dawns on you the first time you’re
expecting a child how it’s going to
affect your life, but once they’re
there in front of you, it becomes
incredibly real and clear that life will
never be the same.
Although things didn’t work out
between Samantha’s mother and I,
Samantha and I have always been as
close as any father and daughter
could be. I am - and have always
been - fortunate enough to see her, on
See GENTRY page 33
Korean sojourners in America
and Americans of Korean origin
I am the product of public schools
I am the product of public
schools - a city school system -
and the University System of
Georgia. I never attended a pri
vate school at any level.
Neither did my parents. I am
not aware of any member of
my family attending a private
school at any level other than
an ancestor in England hun
dreds of years ago when there
were no public schools.
I suspect that in the eyes of
some of our political leaders,
who claim to be champions of
common people, that I and my
family are the common people
public schools are good
enough for, but are not good
enough for them and their
families. Good enough for
common folks like us is the
commuter college in Georgia I
attended as an undergraduate
and the night school masters
degree program I completed.
President Obama, hero of
the left, sends his daughters to
a very classy private school.
The kids of his pal, Chicago
Mayor Rahm Emanuel, are
also being privately educated.
Carole
SCOTT
Weird, isn’t it, that Obama is
disdainful of private busi
nesses, but only a private
school is good enough for his
kids? Obama attended the most
elite, private high school in
Hawaii and Columbia and
Harvard universities, which he
didn’t work his way through.
What a downtrodden black
man he is!
When I complained about
sorry teachers, my father told
me that “If you want to learn,
you will. Nobody can stop
you.” Other people, he said,
can only make learning easier
or harder. Books I read dec
ades ago written by amateur
philosopher Eric Hoffer, who
was forced by unfortunate cir
cumstances to educate himself
by checking books out of
libraries, demonstrated to me
the truth of what my father told
me. Hoffer educated himself
very well while working in
menial jobs and even while liv
ing on skid row.
Abraham Lincoln, who
joked about finally having
gone to college when he
walked through a college’s
building, was mostly self edu
cated. However, the success of
some in educating themselves
very well on their own does
not mean that I recommend not
going to school or recommend
it only for those who want to
play varsity ball. On the con
trary, as you would expect of a
former college professor, I
endorse going to school.
However, you will get little out
of going to school if all you do
is memorize stuff long enough
to pass a test.
My high school algebra and
trigonometry teacher pointed
out something very important
to her classes. She told them
that she couldn’t pour knowl
edge into their heads. She
required that we do homework
See SCOTT page 20
The Patriot Part Two: Common Sense
It is often said that you can take
the man out of country but you can
not take the country out of man. In
most of the large cities in America,
there are Asian ethnic communities.
The China Town in Los Angeles and
New York are prime examples. In the
past decades, the Korea Town was
also bom in many areas in the United
States.
The Asian community is the trans
plant of a part of Asia to America. In
Korea Town, the people laugh and
cry as they watch home dramas
imported from Seoul. They argue
among themselves the pros and cons
regarding the politics of Korea.
Happenings in America they glean
from Korean language papers with
less interest as in the happenings in
the home country. Many residents in
the closed community have never, in
reality, left Korea. They are in fact as
much Korean as those who live in
Korean peninsula, although many of
them hold U.S. citizenship. They are
Korean sojourners in America.
In the Korean community, there
are ethnic grocery stores, restaurants,
retail outlets, and entertainment cen
ters so that residents do not have to
go outside its confines. The immi
grant church also plays a unique role.
It offers not only worship services,
but it also provides a forum for psy
chological support. Many, if not
most, of the first generation of immi
grants are engaged with work that is
beneath their formal education and
training. They feel their self-esteem I
is diminished or damaged in need of
repair. Most starve for recognition.
The immigrant church satisfies this
need and supplies the demand by
public recognition within its four
walls.
In the early 1970s, the immigrants
from Korea started to arrive in
America by large numbers. That was
nearly 40 years before Korea Town
was formed. The first wave of
Korean immigrants was followed by
more in later decades. Thrown into
an unfamiliar environment sur
rounded by strangers, many of them
had no choice but to fend for them
selves. Some tried to adapt to the
new ways. After trial and error, they
found a small niche in the American
community. These people were an
adventurous lot who decided to mix
and mingle, integrate and assimilate
with people in the larger community.
As the years went by, two groups
began to emerge and go their sepa
rate ways. Those who remained in
the ethnic community didn’t feel the
need to venture out, while the other
group became more deeply involved
in the larger outside community in
America - and the chasm is widen
ing. At times, the two different
approaches collide with each other
and create problems. This is a minia
ture cultural clash that Samuel
Huntington explained in his book,
Clash of Civilizations.
The Confucian ethic dictates that
family ties are the supreme virtue
See PAR page 20
“The man with a new idea is
a crank until the idea suc
ceeds. ” - Mark Twain
On January 10, 1776,
Thomas Paine’s first master
piece, Common Sense, was
published. He had allowed no
one but John Adams to read it
in advance, and Adams had
trashed it, calling the idea of
“insisting” that “one man was
as good as another a trouble
some and dangerous new doc
trine. I hope it will not be
printed.” Paine published it in
spite of the uncertainty and fear
of Adams and others of the
colonial aristocracy, and I’ll be
a Yankee Doodle Dandy if it
didn’t immediately sweep the
country selling tens of thou
sands of copies in a matter of a
few months. It was indeed a
bold and dangerous new doc
trine and Adams was soon to
come around.
Well, boys and girls, put
down your Ipods and listen to
this. Common Sense not only
said what Adams feared, it also
called for an immediate, imme
diate (!) “declaration of inde
pendence from England” - the
first use of that term as a rally
ing cry. It called King George a
“hardened, sullen tempered
Pharaoh” and “the Royal Brute
of Great Britain”. It con
demned all forms of monarchy
and made the very first (are
you listening?) the very first
written and uncensored appeal
for an American Republic. This
was an appeal that had only
Stuart
YAHM
been whispered in the back
rooms of “safe” taverns and
then only fearfully by some
and denounced by others. But
the main point of it was to
plant the very concept of inde
pendence into the minds of the
leaders of the colonies. In a
January 31, 1776 letter to
Colonel Joseph Reed, George
Washington wrote: “A few
more flaming arguments as
were exhibited at Falmouth
and Norfolk (both burned by
the British), added to the sound
doctrine and unanswerable rea
soning of Common Sense will
not leave numbers at a loss to
decide on the propriety of a
separation.” And later that year
again to Reed, “By private let
ters which I have lately
received from Virginia I find
that Common Sense is working
a powerful change there in the
minds of men.” Washington
was many great things, but no
one is ever going to mistake
him for William Faulkner.
Later that year, with the
revolution gaining momentum
among the citizenry, if not the
more reluctant and solid loyal
ists, the same John Adams was
singing a different tune. In
introducing Paine to a group
gathered to discuss the events
in Boston and now Lexington
and Concord, and what, if any
thing, could or should be done
about it, Adams said this:
“Allow me to introduce to you
the author of the acclaimed
pamphlet, Common Sense. His
name is Paine. A gentleman
who, General Charles Lee
says, ‘. . . has genius in his
eyes.’” Adams was now fully
on board.
Paine immediately rose and,
like a man on fire, rushed to
free the words that had been
stuck in his craw. “I came to
the colonies thinking it was a
land of opportunity,” he said,
his voice filled with the passion
of a man determined to bring
down for all time the walls
built by centuries of tyrants and
despots of all kinds, “and I
find, instead, that it is no more
than King George’s personal
cash box. We supply England
with a wealth of raw materials,
and we give her the profits by
buying her finished products.”
The gathering of Thomas
Paine’s disparate thoughts had
begun in April of 1775 in a
Philadelphia hotel and ale
house called the Indian Queen.
Paine had previously gained a
wide following and reputation
after the publication of his arti
cle decrying the slave trade in
part influenced by his Quaker
father while growing up in
England. He was, however,
still held at arms length by the
See YAHM page 20
