2A TIIE NEWS-JOURNAL
Kacfurd, N.C.
Maixh3l,2004
Viewpoints
Ask why he doesn’t do windows
Some of the folks who read my
column remark to me, "I know you
made up that story you used in your
column."
No way, they forget I have lived a
long time and have seen many things.
As an example, every time I see a
rescue squad I think of what hap
pened to the Dunn's Rescue Squad
many years ago. Unfortunately, some
of these fine organizations have a few
members who would be more com
fortable driving on the Nascar circuit.
'Piese boys bel ieve the best way to get
to people in trouble is to drive wide
open and push everyone else off the
road.
Regardless, a call came in to the
Dunn squad and they responded at
full speed. The fellow in trouble had
been in a terrible accident. Arriving
with the speed of a dog-chased deer,
they picked the fellow up, put him on
the stretcher, tossed him in back of the
vehicle and raced to the Dunn 1 lospi-
tal. Unfortunately, they forget toclose
the diwrs. As they literally flew down
Main Street, the back doorcameopen.
The poor fellow on the stretcher sai led
out the back, rolled down the street,
and went through the window of a
furniture store.
The crew arrived at the emergency
entrance at the hospital, rushed to the
back only to find no man or stretcher
was occupying the ambulance. Nccd-
A View from
the Country
Raz Autry
less to say, when the news of that
event got to the town board, the
rescue squad was disbanded, and it
took at least 10 years before any
member of the town board would
discuss forming another rescue
squad.
* * * 4:
The longer 1 am married the more
1 am convinced the Lord played a
trick on us men. We don't under
stand women, perhaps He didn't
mean for us to understand them. Mel
Gibson, as 1 have mentioned before,
is in a movie called. "What Women
Want." 1 haven 't seen the movie but
I would bet the peach orchard that he
doesn't know what women want.
Men will look at the total picture,
women will take the picture apart
and look at each pane. Most men
when going some place will take the
route they know. Women will figure
out a shorter way and try and per
suade you to take it.
A woman will ask a husband to
do some things which she knows
will irritate him. Washing windows is
the shortest route to a divorce. A woman
will point every place you have missed
and smile when you start cussing —
which leads to more cussing.
If a man will stay away from wash
ing windows, painting a house on the
outside and inside, and let her do all the
driving, he will probably live at least
20 years longer. Never take for granted
that you know what she is thinking. If
you were smart enough to know such
you would probably end up in the nut
house. You have got to always be on
your guard.
My wife of 53 years gave me this
little book called, "To My Very Spe
cial Husband." It contains some quotes
which are quite interesting.
A husband is the only person whose
socks you'd wash without a shudder.
He is a man who stands by you
through all the troubles you wouldn't
have had if you had stayed single.
A husband is a man who w hen some
one tells him he is hen-pecked, an
swers, "Yes, but I am pecked by a goerd
hen."
A happy marriage is the best thing
life has to offer. It is built up brick by
brick over the years and cemented as
much by the moments of tenderness as
by those of irritation.
We might as well face it, men, they
outsmart us. Hang in there; it is a great
life.
Putting extra starch in education
Tomorrow was to be a very special
day for the number one, two, and
three children of my family. (I was
number three).
So tonight I have to make sure that
my shirt is clean, starched, and ironed
just right. Of course I have to put extra
starch on the creases of my Lee Jeans
and make sure that the cuffs at the
bottom are pcrfec't. Oh, yes, I must
make positively sure that my shoes
are shining.
All month long our parents let us
know that they were coming to my
sch^l ,and sit in class with us, to see
what we were learning and doing.
Consequently, I was on my P's and
O’s the preceding month so that they
would receive a good report. This
Parent School Day was a Parent
Teacher Association (PTA) effort,
and, of course, it was successful.
All
Together
Now
Ray P. Owens
The Hoke County Civic League
is initiating a similar agenda for our
schixrls. The League is calling it
“Old School" (for now), and, begin
ning in May, we hope to implement
this plan that is still in its infancy
stage.
Marian Wright Edclman, a noted
'Educator and advisor to Presidents,
said, "We are at risk of letting our
children drown in the bathwater of
American materialism, greed and
violence. We must regain our spiri
tual bearings and roots and help
America recover hers before millions
more children — Black, Brown and
White, px)r, middle-class, and rich —
self-destruct or grow up thinking life is
about acquiring rather than sharing,
selfishness rather than s.icrifice, and
material rather than spiritual wealth.
This“01d School" idea or any other
idea must be adamant to holding ac
countable everyone who adheres to the
“No Child Left Behind" promise. Of
course our first line of offense are the
parents, the community. So, here we
go-
Now, I doiTi’t expeqt pur children to
put creases in their Lee jeans or iron a
white shirt and wear a tic, this is a new
day with new clothing and dress stan
dards, but, I will betcha that they will
be on their P's and O's. And I just
believe that the teaching and learning
atmosphere will change dramatically.
There’s always a chance for redemption
Sometimes, when 1 am discour
aged about the possibilities of “solv
ing" some of our country ,s toughest
problems, I remember two of my he
roes in Charlotte, Mary Carol and
George Michie. They taught me that
our responsibility to serve others does
not end just because we cannot find a
quick and simple “solution.”
A few months ago, I wrote about
them in "Our State Magazine." Just in
case you are in need of a little inspira
tion, 1 am going to share part of that
story with you now.
About the same time that Mary
Carol and George, together with their
three young children, moved to Char
lotte in 1967, Martin Luther King was
assa.ssinated. They were anxious about
relationships—race relationships.
Mary Carol says, “We wanted to do
something positive to make a differ
ence."
As Presbyterians, they wanted to
join an integrated Presbyterian con
gregation, if they could find one. They
found just one in Charlotte—Seigle
Avenue Presbyterian.
Actually Seigle Avenue was a
white church that had served Pied
mont Courts, a white public housing
• project. Butcivil rights laws had forced
• Piedmont Courts to integrate. When
• the church opened its doors to blacks,
; many of its white members left.
I When the Michies visited the
; church, Mary Carol sat beside one of
; the few blacks attending the service.
; “I remember taking communion with
; her and thinking that this is the way it
; ought to be."
; Within a few months, the Michies
I were mainstays of the struggling
! church. Their first project, and the
one that Mary Carol treasures the
most, was a program for the teenagers
who lived in Piedmont Courts and the
nearby neighborhoods.
First, George and Mary Carol took
charge of the“Noble Knights,” a group
of teenage boys. Then they took on
the “Cloud 9" girls club. Each group
had about 10 regular members, and
.soon they were a part of the extended
One on One
D, G. Martin
Michie family. They were taking
camping trips, organizing sports
teams, cooking meals, doing service
projects — and making waves.
Mary Carol and George Michie
are not the only people to volunteer
to mentor a group of teenagers in a
poor neighborhood. Teenagers in
public housing projects may be our
country,s toughest challenge —
theirs may be the hardest broken
lives to mend. So everyone who takes
on such an assignment deserves our
thanks and praise.
What may set the Michies apart is
their willingness to stay on task for
so long. They have never stopped
their work with the members of the
Noble Knights and Cloud 9.
More than 30 years after they
were teenagers, the club members
are still in touch with each other and
the Michies.
“At weddings and funerals," Mary
Carol says, “they will all be there,
sitting together on the front row.”
Most of these club members have
built good lives— with families and
solid jobs. Some have struggled.
Some are still struggling. But Mary
Carol and George never give up on
any of them.
Almost 20 years ago, a man, who
h.'id been a favorite of Mary Carol’s
when he was a child, broke her heart
when she learned that he had been
arrested for murder.
As Mary Carol left the jail after
her first painful visit she remembers
thinking, “Is this the same child who
came to church early on Saturday
morning to help me clean? The
same child who quietly came into
worship the Sunday before Christ
mas to give me a gift? The same
young man, who as a youth, spoke so
eloquently about the meanine of
Christmas? Who once talked about
his own far away dream to be a youth
worker? 1 remember his occasional
temper and moodiness and his diffi
culty incompletingtasks,butmy mind
cannot fathom his getting a gun and
blowing someone away."
This tragedy led to another avenue
of service. Still deeply di.sappointed,
Mary Carol continued to visit him
regularly. She went to his trial and
after hissentcncing kept in touch. This
experience prompted Mary Carol and
another church member, Ann Brad
ley, to organize a church group to
correspond with prisoners. The mem
bers of the prison mission group meet
once a month. The members agree
only to do two things: write a prisoner
regularly, and pray for that prisoner
regularly.
At meetings, the group spends about
half the time in Bible study and prayer.
Then they report to each other about
“their prisoners.” The outward jour
ney of reaching out to the prisoners,
gives the participants an inner spiri
tual underpinning.
The “success” with prisoners is hard
to measure. Some will never leave
prison. Not all who do gain freedom
will be able to keep their lives turned
around.
But the prisoner who broke Mary
Carol's heart was released from prison.
Surrounded by the love and prayers of
the prison mission group, he found a
job, built a family, and has now started
his own prison mission group.
“Why don,t you ever give up?” I
asked Mary Carol. “Why can’t you
just say that you have done what you
can and take a rest?”
She told me that, whenever she
thinks about quitting, she remembers
“something Martin Luther King said
about keeping on loving people until
you find the God that you know is
within everyone. I just think there is
always a chance for redemption.”
D.G. Marlin hosts North Carolina
Bookwatch, which will return to the
air later this year.
6^'
vV
iv-b I-,
fTy\\
TTckEls FOR SALE
_We Get
Letters
They were nice
Monday night of last week, my
family needed assistance. We called
911 and Hoke County Rescue and a
FirstHealth ambulance crew re
sponded and provided needed assis
tance. They were very nice.
I thank them for being there when
1 needed them. Raeford is a beautiful
place to live and, 1 might add, if ev
erybody had Jesus what a beautiful
world this would be.
1 will continue praying for them
that they will be safe as they go in and
out of homes and up and down dan
gerous highways.
Jeannie Allen
Consider property rights
when elections come
To The Editor:
Subject: Property Rights Form
Foundation of Freedom
“A man is said to have a right to his
property, he may be equally said to
have a property in his rights. Where
an excess of power prevails, property
of no sort is duly respected. No man is
safe in his opinions, his person, his
faculties, or his possessions.’’-James
Madison on property, (1792).
I believe that all of us should stop
and think very long and hard about the
above statement and Icxik at what is
happening to U. S. Citizens almost
daily by our governments (elected
officials at the federal, state, county,
and city levels), companies, and vari
ous groups who are removing our
property rights.
This year is election year; as you
know, persons seeking election to
offices will tell us many things. The
news media will push their favorite
individuals. The only way to protect
our property rights is to elect indi
viduals dedicated to preserving them.
Below is an example of what is
happening across our country today.
Many non-smokers believe that
they shouldn’t be subjected to the
secondhand health effects caused by
smokers. Many believe that it is their
right to expect business owners to ban
smoking for all persons to suit their
ideas.
Well, here’s why:
Someone put up a good deal of his
own money to open that business.
That, or he risked his reputation and
financial status to take out a loan.
Someone took great care to set the
atmosphere of that business. Some
one did all the appropriate paperwork,
applied for all of the appropriate li
censes, and took care to hire people,
and managers, Someone worries alxnit
that business’s financial success.
Someone assumes the risk and liabili
ties that go with operating a business.
The non-smokers took none of
those risks. They put up none of their
own money. They have no stake in
(See BROCK LETTER, page 3A)
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