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2\ niLM.HS-JOl'WNM, Rai’ford, N.C. February 7, 2001 Viewpoints Life is one waiver after another One itl tlio lliings I heard many times from older folks \\ as. “There is somelliii’e jioing around." 1 x e got new s for them. 1 caught it. Not onl\ did 1 catch it. but in the piocess 1 learned a gretit lesson from it. I•ailing to follow the directions on cough syrup, such as Robitussin, will plug you up. While 1 was waiting for my prescriptions to he filled. 1 said to my friendly pharmacist. Sprite Barbee, "1 am plugged up. What do you suggest?" Without any hesitancy, he replied, "Suddafed or Benadryl should do it." I said. "Sprite, 1 don't think we are communicating." Then we began to communicate. This past Saturday was the first opportunity that 1 htive had to help on the Habitat House. It is al.so the first time lean remember that I hadtosign :i w ai ver ;is a volunteer, which I didn't read, but was confident that it said, among other things, that 1 was re sponsible for my ow n actions. It was no big deal for me, because 1 have always had to sign waivers. When 1 enlisted for.serv ice during World War 11. I had to sign a waiver; my blood pressure was loo high. In fact, they turned me dow n the first time, only to .say, “You go home, come back in 10 days, if it is okay we will take you." 1 tried every home remedy known A View from the Country Raz Autry to man to reduce my blood pressure to the acceptable level. When I re ported back in 10 days, nothing was said about blood pressure. They slapped a paper in front of me and told me to sign it. 1 can only assume that it was a waiver, saying if I fell dead, the armed forces wouldn’t be held accountable. In fact, I didn't get my blood pressure checked until I was discharged after the war. My next waiver deal came when I wanted to play football at ECU, known in those days as liCTU. When 1 approached the coach, he gave me a look of approval. I was 6 feet, weighed 202. Big for a football player during those days. My bubble was burst when he asked where 1 played my high school football. After informing him I had never played football in high school, he lost interest immediately saying, “No way, you will get killed on the football field. ” I pleaded my case by saying they dropped football when we entered the war at my high school —didn't cut a bit of ice with him. It took me a full year to convince him that he should give me a chance. I am fully aware that I got that chance because he was tired of hear ing me; besides, he needed another body for a tackling dummy. Natu rally, 1 had to sign another waiver. A good friend I met on that foot ball team by the name of John Wyatt taught me how to put on the gear and to block and tackle. The coaches didn’t have time to teach me. A hu man tackling dummy doesn’t need a lot of teaching. All one has to do is hold the stuffed bag while 50 linemen hit you. The coach didn’t know it but 1 was an old country boy who had fought all the battles of country life. Finally, he decided he couldn't kill me and I was worthy of a chance. At long last I came off the sixth team. Today that coach is one of my best friends. Parting thought... A teacher took her fi rst grade class to the playground. They were to participate in a field day. One of her students, a boy, won one of the races. He jumped up and down and y el led, “Me won, me won.” The teacher, feeling it was her duty to teach him to use correct En glish, said to him, “1 won, I won.” The boy looked at her and replied, “Damn if that is so. You didn’t even run.” Love those children. Not necessarily to our way of thinking Opinions expressed by guest col umnists on this page and elsewhere in this newspaper are their own and do not necessarily reflect the views of The News-Journal. Readers are invited to write in with their own disagreements and opinions. Be sure to include your name and a phone number so you can be contacted for verification. Churches on the U.S. government payroll? Ye know not “Give it to the Salvation Army," Robert Bashford remembers his fa ther telling him. “That way it will end up in the right people’s hands. You know where it's going. Right there in a soup bowl, something for somebody hungry to eat. ” According to his son. Ryan Bashford didn’t have much confidence in the abil ity of the govei lunent to get a very high percentage of his money to the people who really needed it. A lot of other people who want to help other people and feel a duty to contribute don’t have confidence in the government to do the job. Too many bureaucrats. Too much waste. Too many regulations. Not enough focus. 1 bet there was another reason Ryan Bashford sent his money to the Salva tion Army; The Army's mission vv ent beyond helping people with their im- One on One D. G. Martin mediate problems of food and shelter. Tomake a lasting difference, the Army always gave something that the gov ernment couldn’t offer. It gave needy people a chance to make a lasting turnaround — a spiritual one. All of us have seen thegreat power of churches and civic organizations to help vv hen they go to work. I remem ber hearing Katie Dunlap talk about the efforts of Seigle Avenue Presby terian Church in Charlotte with asmall group of w’omcn single parents who vv ere “trapped" in the welfare system. Helping them prepare for the work place was a tough, complicated pro- am O200t S^NDibOoMNlOti-msi^ cess. It involved learning unfamiliar work skills and practices, findingself- discipline, and arranging for trans portation and childcare. There were many successes, Katie Dunlap told me, but it took a lot of prayer together, and often some kind of real religious transformation. Such positive results are often based on some kind of new personal commitment to change, one that is based on some kind of religious un derpinning. Our new president must think this way too. He is readyTo commit gov ernment (taxpayer) reapurces to help people in need, if those resources are used by “faith based” organizations that can bring their “edge” to the task. Now, there are all kinds of consti tutional and other problems with the President’s idea. But assum ing these problems could be overcome, 1 might be tempted to WATCH IT .YOU'DE ABOUT TO VIOLATE HER RIGHTS. ACLU II ■M’' ■■ '"■/ CPUS ***"» give his plan a try. Here’s why. It would expand the coalition of people wi 11 i ng to appi y government rcsou rces to the solution of our country’s en demic social problems. If using churches to work on our toughest problems persuades “compassionate conservatives ” like our President to support funding for these efforts, why not go along with it? There is a good reason to resist his tempting proposal. Churches and gov ernment are not naturally good part ners. When they keep a projver distance, the government and most religious groups are good for each other. The governmentsafeguards religious free doms. It protects the rights of all reli gious groups to organize and operate. Religious groups help provide a strong moral background and belief system that give citizens the strong fundamental values on which good government is based. These values can give great strength those who serve as our political leaders in chal lenging times. But can a church be a church when it works for the government? I doubt it. Going into business with the government makes the church a government agent — or, even worse, a government dependent. Here are some of the risks: 1. A government contract becomes a key element of the church ’s financ ing plan. The church loses its real independence, becom ing i ncreas i ngly dependent on the government for the resources to survive. 2. The church’s service mission gets caught up in books of federal regulation. 3. The church loses sight of one of the fundamental purposes of service — to transform the lives of those who render the service. 4. The church finds itself forced to choose between its own religious prin ciples and the Federal Government’s program mandates. When the church becomes depen dent on the government to support its programs, something bad happens. I have seen it in Europe where the officials of the state supported churches are often like government bureaucrats. They have lost the “edge” that our independent churches and religious leaders still have. As much as I would like to see new resources applied help solve our country’s problems, and as much as 1 think religious organizations have an “edge” in turning lives around, 1 am going to be mighty skeptical of any government program that puts churches and their programs on the government payroll. Dorothy Spruill-Redford will dis cuss her book “Somerset Homecom ing: Recovering a Lost 1 leritage" w ith me on North Carolina Bookwatch on UNC-TV at 5 p.m. Sunday, February 11. For more information, check UNC-TV’s website (WWW.unctv.org) under the “Local Programs ” cat egory. Letters to Editor policy The News Journal welcomes Letters to the Editor and encourages readers to express their opinions. Letters must be signed and include an address and phone number. The street address and phone number will not be published, but are required so we may verify authenticity. The name of the writer and, in some cases, the town the writer is from will be published at the end of the letter. We reserve the right to edit letters for grammar, as well as those that exceed 300 words. We will not publish letters that we consider to be in poor taste or slanderous. In some cases we may add an editor’s note as a postscript when we ■ believe a correction, explanation or amplification is warranted. We may also, at our discretion, limit the number of times an individual writer may submit a letter for publication. The News-Journal Published every Wednesday by Dickson Press, Inc., Paul Dickson Pres. 119 W. Elwood Avenue Raeford, North Carolina 28376 (910) 875-2121 Call for fax number PRINTED WITH SOYINK Home Page: http://www.dicksonpress.com e-mail: Njournal @ coastalnet.com ~__0^ NjoumaKg) aol.com Robert Dickson Publisher Ken MacDonald General Manager Pal Allen Wilson Editor Victoriana Summers Reporter Henry L. Blue Production Superv isor Mantise Andrews Press Foreman Sam C. 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The News-Journal (Raeford, N.C.)
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