Newspaper Page Text
PAGE 4 — The Georgia Bulletin, December 14,1972
Business Office
756 West Peachtree, N.W.
Atlanta, Georgia 30308
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Most Rev. Thomas A. Donnellan - Publisher
Rev. James J. Maciejewski — Editor
Michael Motes — Editorial Assistant
Marie Mulvenna - Editorial Assistant
Member of the Catholic Press Association
and Subscriber to N.C.W.C. News Service
Telephone 875-5536
Postmaster: Send POO Form 3579 to THE GEORGIA BULLETIN
202 East Sjxth Street, Waynesboro, Georgia 30830
Send all editorial correspondence to: THE GEORGIA BULLETIN
756 west Peachtree Street, N.W.
Atlanta, Georgia 30308
Second Class Postage Paid at Waynesboro, Ga. 308 30
Published weekly except the second and last weeks
in June, July and August and the last week in December
at 202 E. Sixth St., Waynesboro, Ga. 30830
U.S.A. $5.00
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Foreign $6.50
The opinions contained in these editorial columns
the free expressions of free editors in a free Catholic press.
A Gift of Time
We’ve all spoken quite recently about
meaningful ways to celebrate the happy
feast of Christmas and various methods
by which we can share the intrinsic joy
of the season with others. There are
many ways, as we’ve indicated, but
perhaps one we have not considered too
seriously is the gift of our time, our
concern and our dedication to a project
that runs well past the Christmas season.
An extremely worthwhile program
which can surely use our offer of time,
concern and dedication is that of
Literacy Action Inc. It is a non-profit
independent voluntary citizens’ effort to
train illiterates and semi-illiterates in
Atlanta to read and write.
It may come as a surprising statistic to
learn that there are some 200,000 adults
in metro Atlanta who cannot read well
enough to read this commentary. Nor
can they read the want ads, fill out a job
application or learn or transmit anything
via the printed word.
Literacy has very deep meaning for
men in terms of self-respect, a better job,
responsible parenthood and useful
citizenship. What greater gift than that
of our precious time to help others see
that we do care about each other.
The programs run by Literacy Action
are comprehensive and excellent, ranging
from several school age projects,
including one for actual learning
disabilities, to those for adults, teaching
them the basic living skills that require
an ability to read and write.
Involvement in the program requires
merely time - a 12-hour session learning
how to teach, then one hour twice a
week for a period of approximately nine
months.
During its first year (1968-69)
Literacy Action trained more than 800
teachers. That sounds like a veritable
horde of instructors but, remarkably, the
supply of people wishing desperately to
learn to read is far more than the quota
of instructors available.
By offering time as a volunteer, a
person can concretely help build a bridge
of communication that will span age,
race, creed and social status. It is a fine
opportunity for personal, direct and
honest community service - a matter of
civic pride and spirit working realistically
at a very vital task.
Most of the 200,000 persons needing
literacy assistance are native born
Americans. This is not merely a project
for those having a foreign language
problem. The people in need are here,
now, and their need is great.
Many often associate illiteracy with
the black population but a pamphlet of
Literacy Action Inc. indicates that
“more of Atlanta’s illiterates are white
(61 percent) than black (39 percent).”
The group’s office is located at 201
Washington Street (659-2244).
Time offered for one of Literacy
Action’s fine programs would be a
Christmas gift extending well beyond
this season. And, it would certainly be a
gift for far-reaching and beneficial
import. It would, as well, be a fine
Christian way to help those of God’s
people who need our help. Please
consider it when compiling your list of
gifts. — Marie Mulvenna
A VOLUNTEER of Literacy Action, Inc., tutors adults in basic reading skills, skills
ot yet mastered by some 200,000 Atlantans who are illiterate or semi-illiterate.
OUR
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“Peace on earth, good will
toward men-and women!”
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A Sports Book...
About God
Rev. Andrew M. Greeley
Ordinarily I would argue that professional
football players are to be watched on television
and not read about in books. They don’t watch
me play football, why should I read their
books? I make an exception, of course, for
anything about the Chicago Bears (and Jeannie
Morris’s SHORT SEASON was magnificent).
But the ugly tragedy of the career of Lance
Rentzel seemed to have revelance beyond the
football field, so I read WHEN ALL THE
LAUGHTER DIED IN SORROW (despite the
fact that no Chicago Bear fan can possibly have
much sympathy for someone who had played
for the Dallas Cowboys). It is an extraordinary
book, perhaps something of a masterpiece. As
Rentzel’s psychiatrist says in an afterword, it is
not a book about professional football or about
psychotherapy; it is a book about growing up.
In a style which is simple and direct without
being either self-excusing or self-destroying, a
former “golden boy” tells of his struggle for
adulthood, a struggle which one senses he is in
the process of winning.
His story goes beyond what are ultimately
accidental phenomena - his successes in the
classroom and on the football field, his
marriage to a lovely actress, his arrest and the
horrible humiliations which followed. The
essence of the story concerns the struggle for
maturity and the triumph of hope over despair.
Both the struggle and the triumph are part of
the human condition; and Lance Rentzel has
succeeded in touching a phenomenon that is
basic to the humanity of us all. It is the
universality of an experience that is a
prerequisite for great writing.
Rentzel is Everyman, grasping for adulthood
and trying to come back from defeat,
discouragement, humiliation, and despair. But
he does not attempt to hide his own
individuality or responsibility under the
Everyman cloak. Not once in the whole painful,
poignant fascinating book does he deviate from
the perfect balance of universality and
individual responsibility. The feat is far more
impressive than catching an option pass from
Dan Reeves or throwing one to Bob Hayes.
Indeed, it makes football look like the
adolescent’s game that it is.
The book was not written as part of
Rentzel’s therapy, and it is not - unlike most
memoirs by athletes - the work of a
ghostwriter. No ghostwriter in the world could
possibly produce something as authentic as
WHEN ALL THE LAUGHTER DIED IN
SORROW.
Eating, a purely natural function associated
with the basic instinct of self-preservation has
about as many myths, beliefs and attitudes as
religions.
Some day, a future anthropologist is going to
unearth an American bookstand and solemnly
pronounce that Americans were vitally
interested in sex and eating. Current books
range on a variety of aspects of eating from
organic foods, dieting and gourmet cooking to
the fanciful pronouncements claiming to be
able to cure or prevent practically every disease
by eating certain foods.
Since man’s pipe dream has always been to
find something that will stimulate passion in
the opposite sex, there are mostly books
revealing “secret” foods, spices and nostrums
that will promist incitement of prurient
interests. But, believe me, there “aint’t any
such thing.” It’s all hogwash, balderdash and a
lot of rot.
Interestingly, there is an association in
human minds between love and eating. This is
most noticeable in our language of love, i.e., “I
could just eat you up,” “you’re my sweetie
pie,” “Sugar,” “honey,” “pumpkin,” “lambie
pie” and “you’re my cup of tea.”
Come to think of it, some people kiss like
they’re slurping soup and both sex and eating
are abused as well as misused nowadays. There
simply is too much emphasis placed on
Sensory Pleasure Is
Emphasized Too Much
Dr. Armand DiFranceseo
extracting every titillating nugget of sensory
pleasure from both functions, totally ignoring
the biological and spiritual purposes intended
by God.
Take the Italians, for example. To them, to
love is to feed. I know, because every time I
visit my relatives, they lay out the goodies and
if I don’t eat, it means I don’t love them and
they are offended.
Beginning with childbirth, human
relationship starts with feeding and caring. The
mother-child relationship is where a child first
experiences and receives love in form of
feeding. God created the female breast for
nourishment and not for adornment.
Whenever possible, mothers should
breast-feed their babies since this is natural and
psychologically beneficial for both baby and
mother. Love here is expressed as a real giving
of oneself, a natural “communion” of bodies.
Weaning before six months is too soon and
after 11 months too late. I know that in other
parts of the world, breastfeeding is longer
because of custom and different availability of
baby foods.
One of the commonest problems that sorely
beset many mothers is the refusal of food,
something not known in primitive cultures.
This may be done because of the desire to gain
attention, to be stubborn or sometimes in
imitation of a sister or parent. Sometimes a
child may be spoiled or fussy. Refusal
sometimes contains an element of protest
against something like nagging or forced
feedings. Parents may be inconsistent with a
lack of purpose or inadequate handling.
If children are hungry, they will eat and a
child should not be forced to eat what it
doesn’t want to eat. Adults don’t, so why
should a child? Nor should playing games of
eating be carried to excess, like “here comes the
car in the garage.” Sometimes, it can be
disastrous as once in a public restaurant, little
Christina was sitting on my lap when she
suddenly said: “Here comes the car in the
garage,” and promptly deposited a blob of
mashed potatoes on my nose.
Controlled experiments have demonstrated
that the average child, if not interfered with,
will select a balanced diet in about a week if a
variety of foods are set in front of him.
Lance Rentzel’s battle is far from over. The
press and the nightclub comedians will continue
to hound him. Cornerbacks and safetys will
know what words are the most likely to sting
him. He emerges from the book as a young man
whose personality and relationships are held
together by courage and hope and very little
else. But, in truth, that is all that any of us have
at our disposal; Rentzel simply has been
permanently deprived of the illusion that there
is anything else that can provide security
besides courage and hope.
A minor lesson of his book is the ugliness of
the American emphasis on being a “winner,” an
ugliness that anyone who has dealt with
athletes even on the grammar or high school
level knows all too well. Many of the reviewers
of WHEN ALL THE LAUGHTER DIED IN
SORROW have chosen to interpret this as the
main theme of the book. But clearly the issue
which concerns Lance Rentzel is much more
basic: Is it safe to trust? Can you let others get
close to you? Do you become worthless when
you fail? Can you run the risk of seeking depth
in your relationships and your search for
meaning? Can you be brave enough to be
serious? These are all religious questions, and
Rentzel has written a religious book. Any book
about the pains of growing up - and growing up
is what such questions are all about - is
inevitably a religious book. One can only grow
up when one has begun to answer the question
of what sort of creature man is; and that is the
most basic of religious questions.
Rentzel touches only lightly on explicit
religion. He admits that his shattering
experience has forced him to wonder about
God and to question the purpose of human
existence. Well it might. Any experience that
forces us to face the God question honestly and
openly is potentially a positive experience.
In the final analysis, he must answer the
question of whether existence is gracious by
looking at himself - as we all must. There is no
stronger “signal of the transcendent” in the
human condition than hope. Lance Rentzel
must ask himself whether that powerful hope
which has enabled him to come back from the
ashes reflects a cause and an object of hope that
underwrites a universe that is ultimately
friendly. One prays that he will listen to the
forces of hope within himself. For WHEN ALL
THE LAUGHTER DIED IN SORROW is a
book about hope, and hence, whether the
author knows it or not, a book about God.
Eating provides a great deal of pleasure in
childhood and mealtime should be a pleasant
time with a minimum of excitement or yelling.
Don’t fuss too much over table manners as
children are naturally clumsy and sloppy.
Eventually, they will develop their own natural
good manners.
Overeating indicates an insecure and unloved
child, often found in small families with a
domineering mother and a passive father. Fat
people often have unhappy moods and are
prone to depression. Overeating often is
compensation for the absence of other
satisfactions. It may also be a means of gaining
parental approval.
Children develop attitudes to eating along
the lines of imitation and suggestion by the
parents. Girls especially fear rejection because
of obesity. Subject to excessive teasing and
ridicule, especially by their friends, brothers,
etc., they can develop obsessive fears of gaining
weight. Others who fear sex will get fat or very
thin in order to hide any body sexual growth,
i.e., “If I’m not sexually attractive, boys won’t
bother with me and I’ll be safe from my fear of
involvement.”
Rumination in infants is the regurgitation
(bringing up) of food that is no problem unless
it is not reswallowed. To prevent the infant
from losing weight, give thicker feedings and
play quietly with the child after feeding. Eating
is a natural function and should not be
over-regulated.
Kill Cruelty -
Not Connie!
Joseph A. Breig
Among my most cherished acquaintances is a
girl, now 13, who, when I first met her, could
hardly walk at all.
Connie and I became dear friends while I
piloted her wheel chair during summer visits to
five galloping grandchildren who lived next
door to her in a city a hundred miles from my
home.
She was attending a special school and
receiving special therapy. Little by little, at the
cost of immense effort, she began to take a few
steps with the help of braces and crutches.
Never will I forget a sunny day when I
guided the wheel chair to the sidewalk in front
of her house, and watched while she practiced
walking.
It was nothing like seeing someone with (say)
a broken leg or sprained ankle, swinging along
on crutches. No; for Connie, it was a matter of
managing one grindingly laborious step at a
time, in a very agony of concentration and
perser vance.
Spunk? Connie had spunk by the ton.
I stayed close to her, hovering over her,
guarding against a fall, while she made her
painfully slow progress, her face set in the very
incarnation of determination.
It hurt me to watch. It hurt so much that I
found myself saying and repeating, “Don’t you
think that’s enough for today, Connie? Maybe
you should stop now.”
She only shook her head and went on
practicing.
If you and you and you - and I - were to try
half as hard with what God has given us, God
alone knows what wonders we might work.
A few weeks ago, I saw my Connie again.
Two years had elapsed, because my
grandchildren had moved to another state.
This time, Connie did not need me to
maneuver her wheel chair. She is managing it
for herself, thank you. But once more, I found
myself half-begging her to stop practicing with
her crutches; but now my pleas came after she
had been walking for an hour.
After all, a typewriter-chained chap like me
gets worn out watching ANYBODY walk for
more than 15 or 20 minutes. And here was
Connie, tirelessly trudging for nearly two hours,
determined to develop her muscles and skills,
determined to become more and more
self-reliant.
How proud God must be of the Connies of
the world, and of their parents, and of the
therapists and others who help them.
But we have come into a time of abominable
selfishness, filled with vile propaganda which
suggests, when it does not say outright, “Kill
Connie; give her euthanasia,” just as it says,
“Kill the infant in the womb before it can be
born.”
What needs killing is not children, but
hideous hardheartedness among adults.
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Showing
Our ‘Thanks’
Rev. James Wilmes
Old Trinity Church in New York’s Wall
Street section, is said to be closely watched
during days of gloom and depression on the
Stock Exchange. According to an Associated
Press release, stock brokers are shy about being
seen going in during the noon-hour to pray.
They are thought to fear that investors, noting
their behavior, might decide to sell!
AP quotes one Trinity watcher as saying,
“I’m looking for the guy who looks like he’s
giving thanks.” Then and only then, he says,
will he figure it’s time to start investing again.
The whimsey has its point, and not merely
about the Market.
Why is there such a shortage of men and
women who look as though they are giving
thanks? The depressed and anxious world we
live in has need of them. Not the Polyannas
who smile determinedly no matter what. Nor
the paper-hangers, ever ready to paper over
every problem and pain. We need those who
continually, inwardly, give thanks - that our
trying times are times of birth, not death; that
high hope, good faith and the generous spirit
remain valid.
Let your thankfulness show, and many a
timorous watcher will decide to invest again in
the courageous, confident life.
RESOLUTION: Thank God for health by
taking invalids, cripples and shut-ins for a drive.
Thank Him for wealth by giving Him 10% of
profits. Thank Him for food by wasting less and
buying Food Stamps for those who can’t afford
to. Thank Him for clothes by helping teachers
clothe helpless students. Thank Him for faith
by pausing to say Grace in restaurants.
SCRIPTURE: “Has no one been found to
give thanks to God except this foreigner? “LK.
17, 16. “Paul took bread and gave thanks to
God before them all and began to eat. Then all
became more cheerful.” Acts 27, 35.
PRAYER: We give You thanks, Almighty
God, for all Your blessings. You live forever
and ever. Amen.
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