Newspaper Page Text
Page 4 — Wednesday, November 25, 2009, The True Citizen
inions
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The Pledge Of Allegiance
I pledge allegiance to the flag
of the United States of America
and to the Republic for which
jit stands, one Nation under
God, indivisible, with liberty and
justice for all.
★ -A'’*’*- Ir* ★ ★ ★ ★
Giving thanks in tough times
Every school child knows that the tradition of Thanks
giving started with the Pilgrims who landed at Plymouth
Rock in 1620. But a lot of us don’t know the details of
that event and how their small celebration evolved into
the institution it is today.
Following a hard winter which claimed the lives of
46 of the original 102 who sailed on the Mayflower,
the group faced an uncertain future. But, with the help
of the local natives, they had a bountiful harvest in the
fall of 1621 and decided to celebrate with a feast. They
invited, of course, the 91 Indians who had helped them
survive their first year.
While turkey and all the trimmings is a staple of
today’s Thanksgiving feast, it’s very unlikely that the
colonists in old Massachusetts enjoyed it themselves.
They applied the term “turkey” to just about any sort
of wild fowl. Their menu included venison, boiled
pumpkin, fish, berries, clams, lobster and plums. Gov
ernor William Bradford also sent “four men fowling”
for wild ducks and geese. The festival lasted three days,
but was not repeated until 1623 when the colonists cel
ebrated a badly needed rain.
Some might assume that the practice continued
through the years, but is was actually another half-cen
tury before the governing council of Charlestown,
Massachusetts proclaimed June 29 as a day of thanks
giving for the good fortune experienced by the com
munity. It’s notable that the local “heathen natives”
were not included in the event as their conquest was
one of the reasons for the celebration.
October of 1777 marked the first time all 13 colonies
joined in a thanksgiving celebration marking the vic
tory over the British at Saratoga.
Though many felt that the hardships of a few pilgrims
did not warrant a national holiday, President George
Washington cited the plight of the early settlers in Mas
sachusetts when he proclaimed a National Day of
Thanksgiving in 1789.
It was the campaign of a magazine writer, Sarah
Josepha Hale, which led President Abraham Lincoln to
proclaim the last Thursday in November as a national
day of Thanksgiving. The exact date was changed a
few times, but has remained the same since 1941 when
Congress made it a legal holiday.
As the result of the worst economic recession since
the 1930’s, there are millions of Americans today who
are facing an uncertain future. They may be finding
little to give thanks for on this particular holiday. Maybe
by reflecting on the sacrifices of those earliest settlers
those families will gain a new perspective about today’s
problems. Those first Americans took time to give
thanks for what little they had and went on to build the
foundation of what became the United States of
America. Today’s Americans need to believe, just as
the settlers did, that things will get better with time,
hard work and faith.
Looking Back
10 years ago: November 24,1999
A two-hour standoff between police and a man with a .45-cali
ber handgun ended peacefully in a yard near Blakeney Elemen
tary School. It turned out that the gun held by Michael Paul Coo
per was unloaded.
- See Looking Back, Page 5
tElje (True (Ettistm
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Roy F. Chalker Jr. Bonnie K. Taylor
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By Bonnie K. Taylor
General Manager The True Citizen
It’s that time of year when we stuff ourselves silly with all the
delicious Thanksgiving foods.
It is also the time we pause to give thanks for the bountiful
feast we enjoy and the many, many blessings.
There have been some tough days financially
in many lives lately with the economic down
turn.
Many are out of work due to these condi
tions. Those who have some wealth socked
away for a rainy day are holding on to it tight-
fisted.
We have been a wasteful people in the past
and we are learning a lesson to be more fru
gal. If you are in the retail business this is one
term you do not want to hear ... frugal.
If last Sunday’s Open House in Downtown Waynesboro was
any indication of the Christmas shopping season, we are headed
for a pretty good season.
According to Mary Harper, owner of Waynesboro Florist and
Gifts, and Yvonne Chambers, owner of Yvonne’s Flowers and
Gifts, Sunday’s sales were good in spite of the rainy weather.
Yvonne said she had some 100 customers come through her doors
during the hours of 1-5 p.m.
It sounds like we’re off to a better-than expected shopping for
the holiday season.
Let’s try to keep those spending dollars at home where it helps
our friends and neighbors.
So when we sit down to our Thanksgiving feast this Thursday,
let’s remember to give thanks to the Almighty for His blessings
... too numerous to count.
Let's be thankful for family, friends, jobs and freedom to wor
ship as we please and enjoy the bounties of the harvest!
Don Lively
THE GAME
Football. It’s just a game.
Right?
Just a sports contest where opposing teams
line up on opposite sides of the ball and see
who can score the most points. All it really
requires at the high school level is marginal
speed and strength. There’s really not much
to be learned from twenty-two young men
sweating, grunting and colliding for forty-
eight minutes until one comes out the winner.
It’s just a game.
Correct?
Let me express a hale and hardy response
to that assertion.
B.S.
Thank you.
Now allow me to bust that myth wide open.
All it really requires to know that it’s much more than “ just a
game “, at least to the players and coaches, is to look into their
eyes after they have laid it all on the line for ten or twelve weeks,
spent countless hours practicing, learning, improving, then played
and coached their guts and hearts out but still came up just a bit
short of their ultimate goal.
At a recent post-game gathering, the last one for this year, those
eyes betrayed an array of emotions.
Shock. Anger. Disbelief. Sadness.
Heartache.
Why?
Why does this silly little game inspire such wrenching feel
ings?
Because it’s more than just a game.
More than any other game football requires teamwork. Every
player has an assignment on every play. Some positions shine
more brightly than others but every position is important. Whether
you’re rich or poor, from the country or from town, on the field
you’re just one part of a system that by design needs all the other
parts.
Sounds a little bit like life doesn’t it?
You have to prepare for this game. Practice till you’re sick to
death of practice, then practice some more. That’s how you get
better than the other teams, how you win more than you lose.
Be better than the other guy and success is guaranteed.
That’s a life lesson.
Here’s another, one that I wish every coach in America would
pound in from day one of the summer sessions.
Enjoy this time. Enjoy the game. If it’s not fun, don’t play.
Enjoy the game so much that you can’t wait for Friday nights to
roll around. Can’t wait to deliver that first smackdown. Can’t
wait to hear the crowd, your crowd, roar for you.
Enjoy the smell of the turf and the feel of the black grease
paint under your eyes.
Enjoy it so much that when the realization strikes that it’s over,
really over, and when you take off those smelly old shoulder
pads some night that it will be for the final time, something hap
pens that you’re not accustomed to, not prepared for, being the
rough and rowdy that you are.
You cry.
Impossible.
Big boys don’t cry.
While we’re destroying fabrications let me take a shot at that
one.
Big boys don’t cry?
Trust me. They do.
Big, strong, strapping, fire snorting, ornery boys do cry.
And why not.
The field where I stood as one of the crowd recently held more
wet eyes than dry ones. Not just the players either.
Parents. Friends. Fans. Girlfriends.
And big boys.
Some just wanted to be left alone. No amount of “ it was a
great season” or “just wait till next year” could console, par
ticularly not the seniors. Those words will ring hollow and taste
bitter until some time has passed. But on the other side of that
emotion were the kin and friends who knew nothing else to do
but comfort, or at least try. Mamas and Daddies wanted to hug
their boys and try to find the one thing they could say that would
magically make it okay again.
It wasn’t going to happen.
Because amidst all the tears and anger and shock one fact re
mained that was never spoken aloud.
They’re just kids.
These tough talking, hard charging well coached and well
trained athletes, these big boys who shouldn’t cry, are kids.
Of course I know that not one of them would admit that. In
their own minds they are men, able and ready.
I understand that part too, but the fact is, the two descriptions
don’t necessarily contradict.
The Daddies understand that. So do the Mamas.
One day, when other football seasons have come and gone, all
of those tough guy players will understand too.
Because, while football is not war and not rocket science, the
lessons learned from this game we Southerners love can take the
participants far in another game we also love, the game of life.
One of those lessons is very simple.
Big boys do indeed cry.
And that’s just fine.
Because it’s more than just a game.
Don Lively is a retired police officer and freelance writer. He
lives in Shell Bluff. Email Don at Livelvcolo @ aol.com
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