Newspaper Page Text
OpEd
God surely works
in mysterious ways
Not many people remember that
Sowsopia Mercantile Store was the
first building to be painted in
Sowsopia, Ga. Hezekiah Pepcheck
received a gift of paint from an Army
friend. He offered the paint to Old
Man Ruckus, owner of Sowsopia
Mercantile.
The painting went fairly well
except for Miss Montine sitting down
on a newly painted chair in her brand
new church dress. No one had put up
warning signs. When they talked
about it later they all agreed that even
though painting was a new thing, any
body who walked up while every
body was painting ought to figure out
to ask if a chair was wet. Even so,
they all chipped in and bought Miss
Montine a new dress.
Well, they didn’t exactly buy it for
her. One of the ushers at Gum Swamp
Baptist laid an envelope in her pew
right before church started. When she
came to sit down the money was
waiting there. As soon as services
started, she jumped up with a testimo
ny and said “Looky here ya’ll, God
does answer prayer.”
Her shawl was slung over her
back even though it was still hot. She
took off the shawl and threw it at the
preacher. She walked around the
room sideways with her back to the
congregation, showing off the olive
drab image of a chair on the back of
her dress. She testified that she just
couldn’t bear another moment of
wearing the shawl in the heat but she
couldn’t bear the shame of a chair on
the back of her dress even worse, so
she got down on her knees every
night and morning and lunchtime,
too, and prayed to the Good Lord to
help her get right with her clothes so
she wouldn’t be ashamed in church.
She held that envelope up high in
the air. She cried out “Stand up ya’ll
Schools and character:
Students should participate in
programs that teach basic values
The beginning of another school year is at hand.
Teachers, administrators, students, and families are
all gearing up for the upcoming school year. Before
we know it, Labor Day has
slipped past, and the routines of
mother school year are upon us.
This routine affects everyone in
)ur society.
The big yellow buses start
ooling around, the school zone
ights begin to flash, and scores
jf students walking to and from
heir bus stops and schools let us
ill know that summer is over. I
lave known this routine for the
ast 42 years of my life, first as a 6-year-old first
>rader and then as a teacher for the last 25 years.
<Ay life literally revolves around the 180 days
>chool calendar year. But, so does almost everyone
dse’s in our society.
The terribly tragic events of last year at
Columbine High, and the school in Atlanta, certain
y taint the beginnings of this school year for par
:nts especially, those of us with children know
hat there is nothing on this earth more precious to
is than our children and nothing is more important
o us than their safety.
The Georgia Legislature has given to the
Georgia Emergency Management Agency the
responsibility for improving school safety proce
dures in the state They are developing guidelines
:overing every possible scenario ranging
from aircraft crashes and earthquakes to
violent intruders in the school. Their
efforts ate reasonable and desirable.
Schools need to plan for emer
gency situations and to ever ;
:ise reasonable and prudent
ludgments in crisis man
igement. However, as
most experts will tell
you, it is impossible tofIHHH
eliminate every threat.
The rash of children
tilling other children is an
ilmost inexplicable phe
nomenon. It is also, thank
God, a very rare event. I do
not think that schools
should have a knee-jerk
'eaction to such events and
make schools armed
fortresses patrolled by
irmed guards.
This docs not preclude,
towever, schools taking
some wise reasoned steps to
Oftd David
jfe’ c,ark
and looky here if you don’t believe in
God.” She told how God had her
answer sitting right smack dab in the
middle of her church pew. Everyone
stood up and said Praise God, but
mostly looked down at the back of the
legs of the person in front of them.
Everyone was afraid they’d all start
laughing at Montine, who was always
concocting great mysteries to explain
the simplest things. But she couldn’t
help it that she was sort of slow.
Everybody knew she didn’t have
anybody else to look after her, so the
whole community sort of took turns
doing it. Everyone knew deep down
how it just wouldn’t be right to laugh
at her, especially while she was giv
ing a testimony and all that.
So they all got up the feeling
inside themselves that they had been
acting on God’s behalf. Hezekiah said
they had been acting as God's
Contraptions, working to restore the
faith shaken by a perfectly innocent
chair covered with wet paint which
had become a symbol of the devil
himself when Montine sat in the chair
in her brand new Sunday dress.
David Clark 's work lias appeared
on NPR’s "All Things Considered,"
in The Christian Science Monitor,
Southern Living, Charleston
Magazine, Peanut Fanner Magazine,
and The Atlanta Journal. His column
is syndicated in seven states. Write to
him at P.O. Box 148; Cochran, Ga.
31014, or via email at dclark@accu
comm.net.
increase security. I do not believe that schools
should ever be distracted from their fundamental
goal of educating the next generation.
I believe strongly in the power
Ww W"
Phil
long been a part of our Judeo-Christian society.
Schools have striven to be, misguidedly I think,
value free zones. Schools have avoided like the
plague any appearance of teaching values. This has
been a terrible mistake. Values not only can be
taught in a non-sectarian way, they must be taught
within our public institutions.
The core values of trustworthiness, respect,
responsibility, fairness, caring and citizenship
► extend across all religious and secular
belief systems. Thankfully, lots of
schools are now involved in the teach
ing of these values through implementing
a program called Character Counts! It is a
non-profit, bi-partisan, non-sectarian organiza
tion dedicated to helping communities and
■k schools, both public and private, to embrace
what they call the six core pillars of value
and strengthening the moral fiber of
the next generation by promoting
consensus values. There are
C'--./ many other programs like
Back
to
School
We each can make a difference in the
world if we will only become involved
There are several versions of a heart-warm
ing story currently circulating on the Internet.
The story tells of a Scottish farmer named
Fleming who heard a cry for help and as a
result, rescued a young boy from drowning.
When the farmer refused to take a reward,
the boy’s wealthy father
decided to assure that the
farmer’s son, Alec, would
have an opportunity for a
good education. Years later,
the boy who had almost
drowned, now a prominent
public figure, again had a life
threatening experience this
time a potentially fatal case of pneumonia. He
survived, but only due to the administration of
a then-new drug, penicillin. The real story is in
the names of the key people in the story. The
wealthy father was Sir Randolph Churchill and
his son, who nearly drowned and later recov
ered from pneumonia was, of course, Winston
Churchill, former prime minister of England.
The son of the farmer, Alexander Fleming,
went on to medical school, knighthood and the
sharing of a Nobel Prize for his discovery of
the mold that eventually led to the development
of penicillin. Although a great deal of liberty
seem to have been taken with the facts, the
accuracy of the story is less the point than peo
ples’ reactions to it.
It truly is inspirational and even if it is not
wholly accurate, it does present a very positive
set of hopes and wishes for most of us. There
are several messages contained in this “para
ble.” One is that good deeds often have away
of resurfacing with unexpected positive effects.
Another, and the one that most intrigues me, is
that each of us, as individuals, can make a dif
ference as did the acts of each one of the
individuals in the story.
Many of the events taking place in the
world around us seem outside of our control.
National and international crises have a life of
their own, for most of us, far out of our indi
vidual spheres of influence. New social trends
or even new products and services (or lack
thereof) are things for most of us to experience
rather than direct. And unless one is in a high
public office or position of power, thinking
about these issues is often accompanied by a
sense of helplessness. What can I. as an indi
vidual, do to change things that I think need
changing? In many cases, dwelling too long on
this subject only gives rise to in an increasing
sense of frustration, particularly since the ten
dency is to focus on the things that bother us,
of education to change the way
people think and live. Someone
once said that if you could change
the way a person thinks, you could
change everything. The key to safer
schools lies in educating children
and families about basic issues of
respect for others, the value of dif
ferences, the dignity of individuals,
respect for legitimate authority, and
other traditional values which have
Character Counts! out
L there doing the same
Bbk thing.
Bhk Every parent
HBl who cares about
H the moral environ-
K ment of their child’s
E school should contact their
fe school administrators and
ask them how moral values
H are being taught within
t their system and should
A encourage them to explore
programs like Character
Counts!
I Ultimately character
& matters more than guards,
f metal detectors, and armed
' schooled administrators.
■ What do you think?
rather than how to improve things that are
already good.
It is hard to envision the universe. It is so
vast. It is hard to experience a raging ocean
storm and make the connection with droplets
falling on a field of flowers in a gentle rain. In
Mel
Copen
what happens when a trend catches on and peo
ple become enamored with simple things like
Beanie Babies and Furbies. Pyramids get built
and the earth gets reshaped when enough
human energy is brought to focus. And societal
trends are shaped by those same forces —a
composite of the action or non-action taken by
all of us. New developments are influenced by
many factors, but they often occur without con
scious leadership, like the rain droplets flowing
together even though it is unlikely that each
raindrop is driven by a purpose (the equivalent
of a life-mission) to build and maintain a
mighty ocean.
Years ago I encountered another, perhaps
apocryphal, story which came from an ongoing
longitudinal study being conducted by sociolo
gists in Pennsylvania. They were reviewing the
subsequent lives of students who came from
high schools in an economically depressed
area. They had already accumulated substantial
data over the years, and believed they could
accurately predict what they would find. But
the data for one group was completely off the
scale. The number of people who had gone on
to successful careers and life experiences was
so much higher than anticipated that they
decided to do an in-depth study to find out
what was so different about this group. The
answer was a dramatic statement about what
one person can do all of these students had
been subject to the influence of one particular
caring teacher who helped inspire them to
achieve and gave them support when they
needed it most.
I believe this story is true, although I have
been unable to locate the file where I had saved
it. But it’s very believable! Why? Because we
know that these situations do occur. An indi
vidual, doing his or her "thing," can make a
difference. “Happenings" like this make us feel
good and tend to renew positive outlooks for
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similar fashion, it can be even
more difficult to make the
translation from our day-to
day contacts with others to
the impact of what happens
when there is concerted
action by many human
beings. We see the results,
somewhat humorously, in
the future. Even more so, they verify the fact
that we can make a difference and that to some
extent, we can control or influence what hap
pens around us. One person can influence oth
ers, magnifying the impact. And if enough peo
ple get involved, like the drops of rain, we cre
ate new oceans and universes of progress.
Last week, one Atlanta TV channel carried
a story about a high-school girl who has devel
oped a video tape that makes a powerful state
ment against juvenile violence. Others are
‘making similar efforts. Think of the impact this
type of effort could have if it were to catch on
and attain even a fraction of the attention (and
resources) that young people devote to
Nintendo or Pokemon. Look around and you
will find many many organizations that are
working to make a difference. All they need is
involvement ours!
Yesterday my wife and I received an e-mail
from a good friend who is heavily involved in
local community activities. It asked for our
views on the “northern arc” transportation pro
posal and the alternatives being considered,
and encouraged us to attend one of the commu
nity dialog sessions that are being held on the
topic. We hadn’t really given the issue much
attention, but this message triggered a good
deal of thinking (mostly constructive, I believe)
and the realization that we not only had a stake
in what was being discussed, but we had some
strong opinions.
Sending a response was better than nothing,
but we realized that participating in a commu
nity dialog session would be much more effec
tive. The key word is “participating."
The message is simple. Each one of us can
make a difference and together we can make
an enormous difference. It may be the rare
individual who, with great oratorical skills or
with enormous prestige and power singlehand
edly changes the course of history. But many
of us, voicing our views and getting involved in
what we believe in can move mountains and
it doesn’t matter if these be physical, or more
difficult, conceptual in nature. And we sure
have enough mountains out there that need, if
not moving, a good deal of reshaping.
Dr. Melvyn Copen of Cumming is an educa
tor and businessman who has worked and lived
in dozens of foreign countries and provides
consulting services for businesses and organi
zations throughout the world. Please share
your comments with him via e-mail at mel
copen@hotmail. com
PAGE 13A