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The Georgia Bulletin
November 6,1980
The Mandate
They told us it would be a
cliff-hanger and they were wrong.
With unquestionable finality the
overwhelming pledges of popular
votes were redeemed. The redemption
came unexpectedly early in the
evening as Ronald Reagan was the
clear uncontested choice of the 1980
electorate.
Mr. Reagan goes to Washington
with a clangingly clear message ringing
in his ears. The nation was most
dissatisfied with the leadership at
home and abroad. The economy of
the nation may not glitter as once it
did but we still enjoy a comfort
unknown to other Western
communities. So the message is only
partially economics. Leadership
professionally practiced in the White
House is the message.
The solid mandate extended to the
President-elect is also a challenge from
a jaded uninspired citizenry. They
now ask the best from the new
leadership and over the next few
weeks before Mr. Reagan’s term
begins, he should seek out the best.
Let him find America’s brightest to
stand at his side and at the country’s
service, as the new administration is
launched.
The needs are obvious. We need a
calm, steady leadership voice in the
halls of nations. We need a display of
understanding and compassion for the
struggling Third World communities.
At home we need assurance that the
new President will commit himself to
constitutional goals of justice and
brotherhood without question. And
surely support for the most helpless of
all, the constantly attacked unborn
child, is a need to be carefully
considered.
The mandate of last Tuesday’s
vote, lays heavy responsibilities on Mr.
Reagan’s shoulders. His campaign
message clearly stated that Jimmy
Carter could not do it and he could.
The electorate believed him. Now
Ronald Reagan must make them
believe in him.
-NCB
Working Women
Sheila Mallon
The Game Of The Name
Dave McGill
I have figured something out. Not the
name of the game, but rather the game of
the name. The game of the name is:
CHANGE IT. Change your name, and
whatever was your lot in life, it’ll improve.
Examples:
(a) Crooks. Crooks have been changing
their names for centuries. Long ago they
discovered that their old names would get*
them thrown into the pokey, while a new
one would help them stay outside the walls.
(b) Women. The gentle sex, back when
they were all gentle and before she worked
outside the home, changed her name in
marriage and the lucky winner got to bring
home the bacon to her for around 50 years.
(c) Movie Stars. Hollywood’s finest have
rarely used their real names. If they had,
they’d never have made it onto the screen.
Bob Hope started out in the world as
“Leslie,” and John Wayne as “Marion.”
(d) Authors. Old Samuel Langhorne
Clemens’ career was going nowhere until he
changed his name to Mark Twain and
became one of America’s greatest writers.
(e) Athletes. Whoever heard of Lew
Alcindor or Cassius Clay? But everybody
knows of the sports feats of Kareem
Abdul-Jabbar and Muhammad Ali.
It’s not just people who change names,
either. I just got home from seeing the movie
“The Great Santini,” a box office hit which
was a flop until they changed its name from
“The Ace.” And “All in the Family” lives on
under its new name of “Archie Bunker’s
Place.”
Lately it’s become fashionable to only
slightly modify your name - by altering an
accent, for instance. A star football player
decided he was no longer going to be Tony
DORsett, but that henceforth he would
score touchdowns under the name of Tony
dorSETT. And the NBC TV anchorman is no
longer John CHANcellor, but now he signs
off each evening as John chancelLOR. I find
this is depressing; as successful as those two
fellows are, I was thinking of changing the
accent of my own name to the last syllable,
until I realized it was already there and had
been for forty years.
Whoever lost the election (this is being
typed Nov. 2) would have pulled it out had
his campaign manager only thought to put
the emphasis on the final syllable of his
man’s name. Who could resist ads like these:
“Yes, SIR! Who am I FER? Why, Jimmy
carTER!”
“America needs a leader. WHO CAN?
Ronald reaGAN CAN!”
“John anderSON shines forth for
America”
The funniest thing I ever saw and heard
was related to names. We had a teacher in
engineering school named Professor Mike,
who was very old. He knew all his students
by name and, though he never forgot his
engineering lectures, he began to forget our
names and fracture them in his efforts to
recall who we were when he wished to call
on us in class.
For instance, he began to call me
“MacNeil,” and a friend named Jimmy Pinac
became “Speevak.” But the funniest thing of
all was what happened one day to my pal
Harvey Carruth. Professor Mike asked a
question and looked at Harvey:
“What is the current flowing in this
circuit, er, ah, and er ...” He pointed to
Harvey with one hand, scratching his head
with the fingers of the other. Then he said,
“ . . . er, I’m trying to call on that fella
Carruth, but I can’t remember his name.”
And then, so help me, he took his grade
book off his desk, turned to the class roll,
ran his finger down the names, turned to
Harvey, and said loudly:
“CARRUTH, that’s your name. Now
what is that current, Carruth?”
Shakespeare wrote these famous words in
“Romeo and Juliet:” “What’s in a name?
That which we call a rose, by any other
name would smell as sweet.” His point is
clear: it is the substance behind the name
that counts. But there is more to it. The
name IS important. It identifies us. So let’s
make something of it, and be proud of it.
U
If I Found A Wistful Unicorn”
Teresa Gernazian
We were so fortunate, neither of us was
hurt - the closest we came was that burned
robe. The house is not badly smoke damaged
and there was nothing ruined or lost that
cannot be replaced.
Still, it was a terrifying experience and a
lesson for me that you cannot ever, ever
leave a flame of any kind unattended. In
fact, my husband says that if I ever so much
as light a candle on a birthday cake again he
will send me back to my mother, (she says -
“thanks a lot, does he think I want to burn
up.”)
I stood there in the living room after it
happened and offered a prayer of
thanksgiving that we had escaped without
physical harm or worse damage to the house.
I couldn’t sleep that night and at 2:30
a.m. I was moving the cars further away
from the couch in our driveway for fear an
unquenched spark might begin the fire over
again. The smell of burned upholstery was so
strong even after running the attic fan for an
hour that the odor alone kept me restless
and wakeful.
I thought of all the things I should have
done but didn’t. I should never have gone
upstairs that night and left that candle
unattended. We should have had a fire
extinguisher handy - it is just a miracle that
Herb’s hands and arms were not badly
burned taking down that flaming drape.
We have two smoke alarms and neither
one was operating and we knew it but just
dilly-dalleyed about replacing them.
Finally had that blaze gone unnoticed
just a little while longer we would never have
been able to put it out. In fact we might
“As a young, progressive assistant you have
a lot of good ideas, but giving up the Sunday
collection isn’t one of them!”
have been trapped upstairs with a two story
drop from the bedroom window.
Incidentally, checking during my
nocturnal meanderings I discovered that
there were many windows which I was
unable to budge.
The fright was enough for me to decide
to share this with others so that someone
else might avoid tragedy by using this
checklist.
1) Make sure smoke alarms are operable.
2) Have a fire extinguisher handy.
3) Have a rope ladder handy for upper
floors.
4) Check all windows to make sure they
open and close easily, and don’t use clay
jack-o-lanterns indoors.
Halloween was more than a little exciting
at our house this year. I had purchased a
clay jack-o-lantern in a mistaken burst of
economic zeal. Now that our children are
grown and the grandchildren seldom get over
to trick or treat - I thought it would save
money and time to buy a permanent
pumpkin. Little did I realize that because of
that lantern we would have a fire that could
have been fatal.
I lighted a candle and put it in the
pumpkin - it fitted neatly into the hole in
the bottom which I assume is there for that
purpose. For a moment or two I debated
about putting it out on the porch but other
years we have had our pumpkins demolished
by some of the trick-or-treaters so I decided
against that.
I set the jack-o-lantern, candle aflame, on
the table close to the window and went
outside to observe the effect. Marvelous! It
was a very slow night - we only had about
four children come by all evening. About
eight thirty I decided to let the lantern cast
its eerie glow a while longer and took the
paper upstairs to read. Fortunately my
husband stayed downstairs to watch the
fight because I promptly dozed off. The
next thing I knew I heard my husband
shouting and I awoke to find the house filled
with smoke.
You can’t imagine my horror when I
stumbled downstairs to find the couch and
curtains ablaze. We worked like maniacs to
put out the fire. I tossed burning cusions out
of the house, while my husband pulled down
the flaming drapes and we poured water on
the couch trying to smother the flames.
We finally had to drag the heavy sofa
blazing merrily through the foyer and out
the front door onto the driveway. While my
husband worked extinguishing the flames on
the couch I returned to the house and
poured water on the smoldering embers
which were burning holes in the living room
carpet.
The house was still filled with smoke and ,
rank with the odor of burning material.
There were burned holes in the rug and a big
empty space where the sofa had been as well
as scorch marks on the window sill where
the drapes had hung. Worst of all, when I
went outside to look at the pile of
smoldering rubble I saw my husband’s robe
with burn holes in the arms.
Ann Ashford had an immensely vivid
imagination as a young girl, but never in her
wildest dreams did she envision being
honored as author of the year. Yet so
honored was she recently by the Dixie
Council of Journalists and Authors (in the
juvenile category) for her delightful best
selling book, “If I Found a Wistful Unicorn”
now in its fourth printing.
The petite and vivacious Agnes Scott
graduate makes time for autographing
parties and speaking engagements while
keeping up with husband, two children,
eight cats and a partially finished manuscript
for a second book, “The Magic Cat.”
The story behind her successful book
venture is as fascinating as the book itself.
Four years ago, she shared an old poem with
neighbor Bill Drath, whose watercolors have
been widely acclaimed. One idea created
another and before they knew it, “If I
Found a Wistful Unicorn” evolved - Ann’s
touching yet whimsical poem coming alive
To the Editor:
That is a very good article in the Georgia
Bulletin, Oct. 9, about the work of the
Corpus Christi Church for the deaf. Also you
are an excellent photographer.
IRENE KELLY
ATLANTA
To the Editor:
According to Mrs. Judie Brown in a
recent issue of American Life Lobby
Newsletter, “the true test of a pro-life
service agency is its total commitment to
principle that is unshakeable and beyond all
compromise.” She wonders then why any
group calling itself pro-life “would align
itself with such anti-life groups as Planned
Parenthood, ZPG, and the March of Dimes
Birth Defects Foundation,” even for fund
raising.
Sheila Mallon continues to mislead us
when she calls the March of Dimes a
beautiful affirmation of life. The M.O.D.
continues to sponsor clinics where the
dangerous amniocentesis test is given for the
purpose of finding the child with the
incurable defect before birth so as to expose
him or her for abortion . . .
MARY PEEK
DECATUR
To the Editor:
I would like to comment on Sheila
Mallon’s column about the conference “The
Pregnant Woman and Her Child.” Articles of
this type are quite helpful to readers, like
myself, who depend on our Catholic paper
to keep us “up to date.”
I was heartened to see that BETTER
INFANT BIRTHS-MARCH OF DIMES
sponsored a conference focusing on maternal
and infant health. Thank God that medical
people, social service people and government
people are uniting in this effort!
Secondly, it is my feeling that March of
Dimes is taking an awful lot of abuse from
some quite vocal people. Is it justified
abuse? I’ve heard that March of Dimes is
taking care of birth defects by killing
defective babies, yet they sponsor a
conference like this? I’ve heard the results of
amniocentesis cause people to have
abortions. The results of PREGNANCY
TESTS cause some people to have abortions.
Do we strike out against people who give
pregnancy tests? Amniocentesis could also
help doctors and parents to prepare for a
sick child or even assure concerned parents
that the child is healthy. . . .
MRS. JOHN H. PARKER
MARIETTA
with Bill’s sensitive watercolor
interpretations.
Looking for a publisher was also a little
bit of magic. Helen Elliott was embarking on
a new phase of her life and when their paths
crossed, she gladly welcomed the manuscript
for the first creation of her newly formed
Peachtree Publishers in northeast Atlanta.
The first printing in August of 1978 was
followed by the second one in November of
the same year.
As an only child, Ann Ashford created
many “fantasy” friends - in fact almost
every creature she came across was viewed as
a potential friend. This charming
characteristic of her childhood is revealed all
through the book.
Mrs. Ashford was born in Hannibal,
Missouri and grew up in Michigan. She has
been a group leader for migrants in Texas, a
social worker, a teacher and an actress. Mr.
Drath first developed an interest in wildlife
in the woods of northern Wisconsin. He
To the Editor:
Regarding Teresa Gernazian’s column of
Sept. 18.
To date, at least 35 religious
organizations have endorsed the Equal
Rights Amendment. These organizations
represent a broad spectrum of Jewish and
Christian men and women throughout the
United States, who believe that “as long as
inequality under the law exists, the fullness
of our humanity under God has not been
realized.” (Religious Committee for the
ERA)
Therefore, I am distressed to learn that
the Knights of Columbus have taken a stand
against the amendment. By so doing, they
have joined such organizations as the John
Birch Society, the Communist Party and the
Ku Klux Klan, who have taken the same
Many years ago one of the monks at
Conyers told me a story about the devil
going out of business. As any good
businessman would, he decided to have a
liquidation sale and get a profit from his old
merchandise. One of the angels came down
from heaven to check things out. After
examining all the satanic equipment he
found a small weapon that had the greatest
price tag. “What is this and why does it cost
so much?” the angel asked the devil. “Oh,”
he said, “that’s my most valuable weapon.
That’s my ‘discouragement gun,’ because
with it I have vanquished the great number
of Christians!”
Perhaps he should have said “parents,
priests and religious” too, because if there is
anything that can weaken us, it is the sense
or feeling that somehow all our efforts are
useless. Parents and priests and religious have
a great deal in common in that results are
not always obvious after much work and
sacrifice. Perhaps that is why parenthood
and priesthood are such “God-like”
vocations. You have to be unselfish because
you give and give and there are not always
immediate visible results.
graduated from the University of Wisconsin
in 1940 and served in the military, retiring
from active duty in 1966 as a lieutenant
colonel. He had his first one-man watercolor
show in Green Bay, Wisconsin in 1946. He is
now a free-lance illustrator living in Atlanta.
The focus of the book is on the
importance of listening and caring about the
people around us. Though primarily for
youngsters, it is quite popular as an adult
gift. Several psychiatrists use it with their
patients, according to the author, and one
girl gave it to her boy friend on Valentine’s
Day and he proposed soon after!
Mrs. Ashford speaks frequently to
elementary and middle school classes. “Put
your thoughts and reflections in writing/’
she tells them. “Become proficient in what
you like best. Use your potential to the
fullest.” Encouraging the children in
creativity is just as much a part of her
format as talking about the book.
position. Before the Knights are
congratulated publicly for stepping on
anyone’s toes, it would be well if they
assessed the policies of the above groups.
Neither the Communist Party or the Ku
Klux Klan are noted for their full support of
human rights for all people, regardless of
race, class or religion. It would be most
unfortunate if the Knights of Columbus,
who have accomplished so much that is
good, would now be considered to be allies
of those who actively support discrimination
against any human being solely on the basis
of race, religion or sex.
However, if the results of your work are
not always immediate, they can be lasting.
Not a week goes by that someone doesn’t
say to me about a priest long departed,
Father —- was so good to me, or he
understood me or he made me think of
Christ. Sometimes one small gesture of
kindness or sacrifice, a gesture really not
very momentous in itself, done by a priest
towards a child or individual, leaves such an
impression or mark that that person is
forever drawn to Christ. That priest
probably never knew what good he had
done. Because like a parent and child, the
child cannot until he is an adult totally
understand the goodness and sacrifices of his
parents, so we often do not recognize the
love and sacrifices of a priest or religious
until they are gone.
The priesthood can be discouraging
because you are not always privileged to see
the results of your efforts. However, if
someday, just someone said of me “Father’s
work and love drew me closer to Christ,” it
would all be worth it. That is a result that is
eternal. Then a whole lifetime would be
worthwhile. Would it not be for you?
r\The
p)n n r
V Gepryia
SM
Ur=ciroL
Catholic Archdiocese of Atlanta
Most Rev. Thomas A. Donnellan - Publisher
Rev. Monsignor Noel C. Burtenshaw — Editor
Gretchen R. Keiser - Associate Editor
Thea K. Jarvis — Contributing Editor
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680 West Peachtree, N. W.
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Resound ... Resound ... Resound ... Resound ...
OF WOMEN RELIGIl
PEOPLE OF FAITH FOR I
N.E. ATLAI
“The Devil’s
Greatest Weapon
Father Richard Lopez
Vocations Director
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