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FORUM Whom will you meet in heaven ? Nigel Alston Motivational Moments "Don't cry because it's over; smile because it happened." - Unknown "What five people do you think you will meet when you get to heaven?" I asked my -wife recently, over dinner. She didn't waver at all. The first name out of her mouth was Jesse Lee Lit tlejohn, her mother. I'm looking forward to seeing her too. Next was her sister Frances, then a friend we graduated with from college, a cousin who lived across the street from her and her third-grade teacher. The question had been on my mind after reading "The Five People You Meet in Heav en," by Mitch Albom. I recog nized the author after the title of the book grasped my attention. Albom wrote the best seller "Tuesdays with Morrie," which chronicled the slow illness and death of his college professor and mentor Morrie Schwartz. I enjoyed reading that book and remembered sharing it with oth ers. I was captivated by the title and had to pick up this new book and read it. It takes off where "Morrie" ends, looking at what happens after death. "Who might 1 meet?" I won dered, reflecting on loved ones, friends and people 1 have come in contact with who have depart ed this earthly life. Like my wife, my mother is at the top of my list too, followed by my grandfather and mother-in-law. Another person would be a friend I went to high school with, played football with in college and also was a fraternity brother, Charlie B. Dulin. He will probably be sitting in his white convertible with the top back, waiting. We spent a lot of time in that car. Who is number five? I don't know, probably someone I would least expect. "The Five People You Meet in Heaven" is a novel, based on Albom's uncle Eddie. "He was a blue-collar worker his whole life," said Albom in an interview with Rebecca Phillips. "He felt that his life was insignificant." Eddie is also the name of the main character in the book, an 83-year-old amusement park maintenance man. From the opening chapter, an account of his last 90 minutes on earth is described, leading up to an acci dent that kills him. He wakes up in heaven and all the pieces of his life come together after conversations with the people he might have expected to see and a few he was surprised to see. One of the lessons he learns is that he is now one of five people responsi ble for sharing with another per son upon their arrival in heaven. There is responsibility after death too. An incident in Albom's uncle Eddie's life provided the spark for the book. He remem bers his uncle telling the story of being rushed to the hospital for open-heart surgery. According to Albom, "it was touch and go." His uncle "remembered waking up and rising and seeing all of his dead relatives sitting on the edge of his bed." That incident planted a thought with Albom that there was something' else after death. His response to peo ple who ask what he thinks will happen after death reflects his uncle's influence: "Well, I know there are people waiting for you because my uncle told me so." There are several spiritual lessons in the book, according to Albom in the interview with Phillips. "We're all connected," he said. "Everybody affects everybody. We're all part of this ^ life force." - - I agree. Thefe is a ripple effect to touching another per son that leads to an impact on the life of someone else, who influences yet another. We are all interconnected, planting seeds that we may not see grow to maturity but may have influ enced unknowingly. Here is a great line from the first person Eddie talks to when he arrives in heaven, the Blue Man: "You could no more separate one human being from another than you could separate a breeze from the wind," The next lesson is that of asking questions such as "Why?" We want answers to the unexplainable. Why me? Why did he die so young? Why did my love one get sick? "We often die without these questions answered," Albom said. The book offers you something to think about: What if we get our questions answered in heaven from those people waiting for us to arrive? And last but not least is a lesson worth understanding: "that love is a lot stronger than people realize and lost love is not wasted love." That is power ful, isn't it? I loved the story and what it suggests: that it isn't over after death. It represents another beginning. There are people who have been connected to you, who influenced you or were touched by you during your lifetime, who have some thing to share with you about the meaning of your life. Whom might you meet? Nigel Alston is a radio talk show host, columnist and moti vational speaker. Visit his Web site at www.motivationalmo ments.com. Author Mitch Albom Will the bombs explode in Havana ? Jesse Jackson Guest Columnist A car bomb kills six and wounds 35 in Baghdad. Al Qaeda is reportedly planning new assaults on the United States. Clearly Fidel Castro is in trouble. Fidel Castro? What does he have to do with Iraq and Osama bin Laden? Noth ing, of course, but that may just be the point. Bush's pre-emptive war on Iraq has led to an occupation that isn't going well. Ameri can casualties and suicides are up. The Army brass is in virtu al public revolt, with half of our forces mired in Iraq, and brutally long assignments raising fears about re-enlist ments and recruiting. Republi cans are chafing at the $87 bil lion Bush wants for next year in Iraq, building schools in Baghdad while school budgets are cut across the country. And the president's pre-war state ments painting Iraq as an imminent threat to the United States have been exposed as false. The administration's response to the debacle has been to roll out an aggressive public relations campaign. National Security Adviser Condi Rice is named head of a new coordinating structure (which Defense Secretary Don Rumsfeld dismisses as paper shuffling). Bush. Cheney and Rice hit the airwaves to recy cle increasingly threadbare justifications for the unilateral war. A form letter-to-the-edi tor praising U.S. efforts in Iraq is sent to newspapers as if written individually by U.S. soldiers, some of whom didn't even know about the letter until it appeared in print over their names. Amid all this, the president appeared in the Rose Garden on Oct. 10 to announce a renewed offensive against Castro. "The Cuban regime." Bush warned, "will not change by its own choice." He announced a program "to has ten the arrival of a new. free, democratic Cuba." He ordered the Department of Homeland Security to increase inspec tions of travels and shipments to and from Cuba. This is the same depart ment that doesn't have the resources to inspect shipments coming in and out of the Unit ed States; the same depart ment unable to afford training and equipment for our front line defenders, local police and firefighters. As the New York Times reported, it is easy to dismiss this as politics, a ploy <o '"shore up the president's sup port among Florida's Cuban Americans." Bush needs Florida in 2004; Cuban-Amer ican votes are essential. So throw a stick and a few harsh words at Castro. Establish a commission headed by the good soldier Secretary of State Colin Powell, his credi bility already compromised over Iraq, and the Cuban American Housing Secretary Mel Martinez to plan for "Cuba's transition from Stal inist rule to a free and open society" and to "identify ways to hasten the arrival of that day." Ratchet up the failed 40-year embargo that, if anything, has only consolidat ed Castro's nationalist creden tials. But there is a more omi nous possibility. In the 1980s, Ronald Reagan, despite the skepticism of the professional military, dispatched U.S. forces to Lebanon and started lobbing artillery into the civil war there. A shocking terrorist attack killed more than 200 foolishly exposed U.S. sol diers. Reagan figured he better change the subject. Suddenly the little island of Grenada became a threat to freedom in the hemisphere. An armada and U.S. troops were dis patched to invade the tourist paradise and overthrow the rowdy nationalists that had taken over. U.S. troops got out of Lebanon under the cover of victory in Grenada. American students studying in Grenada were "rescued." bolstering President's Reagan's polls, if not his credibility. Now in Iraq, much of the professional military wants the administration to put Iraqis in charge, and get U.S. troops out of there as fast as possible. That won't be easy, given the chaos that we'd leave behind in a critical region. The administration is pushing to make it work in Iraq. But if what the military is now calling a "classic gueril la war" continues to escalate, if U.S. troops continue to die in an occupation for which they are not trained, the presi dent's political operatives will be looking for a way out and a little cover. Iran might be too dangerous. But with Castro now 77. the Cuban economy ground down from misman agement and from the embar go. the Cuban people increas ingly restless, Florida in play in 2004. Cuba just might be auditioned as a modern-day Grenada. The Cuba experts I've talked with are skeptical. Cuba is just too tough. Castro still has too much support. The international community, would be outraged. They are probably right. But if the pres ident isn't cooking up a crisis over Cuba, why are we spend ing the resources of the already overwhelmed Depart ment on Homeland Security inspecting shipments going in and out of Cuba rather than those coming in and out of the United States? Jesse L. Jackson Sr. is founder and president of the Chicago-based Rainbow/Push Coalition. Deadline for News Stories is Monday by 5 p.m. Ava H. Blount Broker (336) 462-6086 DIRECT (3.46) 748-5318 BUSINESS (336) 748-5363 FAX realavaCi1 aol.com M'-Q TRIAD, REALTORS 285 South Straltord Road Winston-Salem. NC 27103 Rep. Larry Womble NC House of Representatives 71st District Tel (336) 784-9373 Fax (336) 784-1626 E-Mail: LWistm@aol.com Home Address 1294 Salem Lake Road Winston-Salem. NC 27107 Homecoming Special I 30lb box Hormel Hog Maws AC 1 60lb box of 101b A ?? II Jl Smithfield Chitterlings a ? ^Lfl ww (six to a box) ? POULTRY^ (336) 725-9858 po Corner of Fayetteville " Street and Waughtown Buy is Bum and Save! Winston-Sai.em,NC Louise E. Harris ? Bankruptcy ? Consumer Problems ? Traffic Tickets & DW ? Divorce , ? Eldercare Law 102 West Third Street. Ste. 485 Call 24 Hours Winston-Salem, NC (336) 761-0222 | f FAMILY IS WHY YOU DO IT ALL. j WE LIVE W in-RE YOU?LIVE. [ ? 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