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opinion
Thursday, November 18, 2021 • Page 4A
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Letter to The Editor:
Peace & Joy
Interrupted by
Pearl Harbor
To the Editor
My life began on the
heels of my young
mother’s misery. She
weathered more than a
young mother should have
to and prevailed overall to
raise a group of children in
her image of fairness,
goodness, and an abun
dance of laughter always
coming at the most
needed time.
The feelings of dread
and hopelessness of a ter
rifying day in a young
girl's life remained seared
in her memory as the news
of the bombing of Pearl
Harbor swept like wildfire
from west to east across
the American mainland.
She was home alone
with her first child, three
days old; and though un
usual for her not to be in
church with the family on
that Sunday morning, her
baby's crying kept her
awake to sunrise.
Mother was a child,
just 16. Old pictures reflect
innocent eyes, bare feet,
and jumping rope with
sisters and cousins in the
front yard less than a year
earlier. Proof that she was
soon to be a barefoot
mother showed through
her feed-sack dress
stitched together by an
aunt charged with keeping
the family's young girls in
fresh clothes. Particular
attention focused on those
'soon to be with child.'
She calmed her baby in
the front porch swing that
morning singing old-
timey gospel songs, but
peace eludes them both.
Their tranquility is dis
turbed by distant noises
growing louder with the
approach of honking
horns coming from the di
rection of the church
nearby. Old engines rev
and sputter as they come
around the corner - a
stream of rattly old cars
driven to a point beyond
repair.
The convoy of the
faithful arrives and comes
to a sliding stop up the
street from her little
cracker house in a close-
knit village of cotton-mill
workers. From the top of
the porch steps, she sees a
circle of neighbors at the
community park, a grassy
area for picnics and family
reunions. The park's old
gazebo was the center for
trusted town criers and
cotton mill bosses to an
nounce the latest news.
Some rush from barely
stopped cars and run in
side homes to turn radios
up full volume; windows
propped open so the con
gregation could hear
breaking news about
Pearl.
The realization is clear
- we are at war. Husbands,
daddies, uncles, and cous
ins will soon leave for the
fight. Hank Williams’
haunting voice coming out
of her little kitchen radio
replaced by endless news
about the war.
The date: Dec. 7, 1941.
The place: Silvertown Vil
lage, Thomaston, Ga.
Life had been carefree
so far in mother’s life; she
had never thought much
about the horror of war,
but it soon became some
thing she’d develop very
powerful feelings about.
She would say, “War
never leads to peace, only
to more war. And only the
young die. Stop it!”
My mind’s eye clearly
sees her wiping the tears
from her face and waving
goodbye as I left on the
bus at the Sears Process
ing Center for Parris Is
land during a different
war.
She was happy that my
service was short, that I
served, that I didn’t come
home with a tattoo, but
she would be happy today
that I finally came home.
I hear her soft words,
“Why are you always trav
eling? Come home to stay
and I’ll lead the high
school marching band
down Main Street.”
Gary “Doc” Granger
This I had to share. I was
reading my most recent issue of
“The New Criterion” and ex
claimed, “Wow!” when I came
across this statement:
“Most of us begin to learn
what civilized behavior is from
our families. If you have been
fortunate enough to be raised in
a good family, you will have
been taught that there are
things you do and things you
don’t do. Your parents taught
you not to be selfish, but to share
what you have with your
brothers and sisters. They
taught you it was right to re
spect your elders and to be
gratefidfor all they have done
for you. You should not get
angry and fight with your
siblings but settle differences
calmly and consider what is
best for everyone. You were
taught to do your share of the
family’s work, to be loyal to
family members, and not to crit
icize them in front of outsiders.
B. Waine
Kong, Ph.D., JD
Waine's World:
An Elegant Statement
of Our Mission - We
Cannot Become
Civilized by Ourselves
You were taught that mistreat
ing people outside your family
was wrong. You learned cour
tesy, good manners, to say
“please” and “thank-you,” and
to apologize for bad behavior.
Learning to be civilized
starts in the family but con
tinues as you enter morefidly
into larger communities: those
of your school, your religion,
your town, and your country.
As a representative of your
country, you may one day be
called upon to act in civilized
ways when dealing with other
countries. To be civilized you
need to know how to treat
equals with the respect due to
them, to defer to rightfid super
iors, and to treat those under
your authority with fairness
and goodwill. You must learn to
be a good friend. You must de
velop proper sense of what you
are as a member of a neighbor
hood, an institution, or a politi
cal community. You should
acquire a discriminating enjoy
ment of literature and the arts
that nurtures a deep and sym
pathetic understanding of your
world. You should learn to re
spect the wisdom of religion. All
this will help you to understand
people who are different from
you and to discover a higher
purpose for your life. You
should also learn to honor those
who have built and defended
your civilization, and to pre
serve the ways of civilized life
for later generations. ” (Civiliza
tion & Tradition by Allen C.
Guelzo & Jamkes Hankins, The
New Criterion, Sept. 2021, Vol
ume 40, Number 1, pp. 4-5)
Can I invite you to cut this
out and use one of the magnets
on your refrigerator to post it for
all to read for inspiration? Ob
viously, in order for any society
(country) to survive for the long
haul, we must have a strong de
fense system but more impor
tantly, our institutions must
provide opportunities for all its
citizens to succeed and enthusi
astically express their loyalty to
our most cherished traditions,
values, customs, and laws.
But while these United States
of America can rightfully boast
of unsurpassed achievements in
every field of human endeavor,
patriotism should never blind us
to our shortcomings or commit
ting the sin of vulgar exagger
ation of our merit; but with due
recognition of whose shoulders
we stand on. Are we worthy of
this legacy?
Ladies and gentlemen, our
civilization (language, music,
arts, religion, morals, architec
ture, mathematics, law, medi
cine, representative government,
free markets, aviation, science
(especially physics) evolved from
antiquity. Good customs and
good character (kind and wise
enough to favor what is benefi
cial and reject evil makes you
civilized, not just your member
ship in a particular group or cit
izenship in a particular country.
Why would anyone reject the
progress achieved and the enor
mous benefits of modern society
brought about by the contrib
utions of western civilization
that has benefited all mankind?
I grew up in Jamaica, a Brit
ish commonwealth country,
where manners and being a gen
tleman became a part of my
DNA. While I have pruned away
a lot, trying to wholesale discard
who I have become is now im
possible. Plants that are up
rooted die.
When I was born, a tree was
planted over the placenta I came
with to give me roots in my com
munity. Wherever I may roam,
my roots will always be in Wood
lands, Jamaica. You can take the
boy out of the country but you
cannot take the country out of
the boy.
Congratulations if your roots
are Thomaston, Ga. That is a
great gift!
Our values have changed
over the last 50 years but I am
appalled that there is a recent
movement to turn our backs on
the great contributions from
western civilization due to its
promotion of white male su
premacy. Stanford University
and Howard University abol
ished their Western Civilization
and “Classics” departments.
Their students will no longer
have the opportunity to study
Latin, Plato, and the Greek
tragedies.
Let us not throw the baby out
with the bathwater or judge our
past heroes by current stan
dards. We can modernize with
moderation and pass on enough
of our civilization for genera
tions to come. Let us make sure
that this country will have a fu
ture with incredible possibilities.
According to Edmund Burke
(1790): “People will not look for
ward to posterity who never look
backwards to their ancestors.”