Breaking the Cycle and Gaining Ground

                        Breaking the Cycle and Gaining Ground

            

                 Published in Marietta Daily Journal March 26, 2017

            “One match struck. Two lives lit.”  That’s the motto of Mentoring for Leadership, the splendid program founded by Marietta native Beverly McAfee in 2010.

            Today, 7 years and approximately 200 students later, this stellar 501(c) 3 organization continues to place youths on the path to achievement and success in life. For MFL, achievement and success in life means building character, learning basic life skills, overcoming difficult circumstances, and creating a better future for oneself and the community one lives in.

            Talking with McAfee and her able co-workers Joyce Caldwell and Marge Kellogg about their mentoring program is nothing less than inspiring, mainly because of the commitment these three ladies have, not just to a program but to the young people it serves.

            Based at Marietta High School and supported by the school board, community leaders, and many businesses and individuals, MFL matches students with adult mentors who, by virtue of their one-year commitment, meet with their students at least twice a month and from time to time attend group activities with them as well.  It also enjoys the support and assistance of Leigh Coburn, director of Graduate Marietta Student Success Center at Marietta High School.

             MFL’s major goal is to help students move toward graduation as they form habits and adopt values that will lead to productive citizenship.  No wild-eyed dreamers, but dreamers still, McAfee and company know their program is not for everybody.  Its design is for students with high potential who could benefit from one-on-one support and friendship of an adult mentor but who would also be positive change agents among their fellow students.  To enter the program, students must be recommended by a teacher or administrator.

            Many students who have successfully completed the program experienced transiency, poverty, family dysfunction, or homelessness.  For students grade 6 through 12 there are after school programs, field trips, and extensive leadership training, but the heart of the program is the one-on-one mentoring provided by volunteer mentors from all walks of life.

            This week during an enjoyable hour with McAfee, Caldwell, Kellogg, and Coburn, my thoughts ran to the work of sociologist Charles Murray.  In a book titled Losing Ground and a follow-up volume titled Coming Apart, Murray argued that federal government programs have only served to increase the number of  America’s poor.  Asserting that government largesse destroys self-reliance, Murray insists that to gain ground and to stop our coming apart, each community must take care of its own.

            Murray’s conclusion about help coming from close by is the centerpiece of MFL’s philosophy and practice.  “My town, your town, our town” pretty much reflects the heart and the strategy of MFL’s leaders, mentors, and participants. 

            Another program tenet is that to address social problems, it’s wise to aim efforts toward the next generation.  Organizations that attend to the needs of parents and needy adults in general should be applauded, but to break the cycle of poverty or hopelessness, efforts should be aimed toward youth.  In other words, MFL’s goal is long range: attend to present needs but gain ground by showing the next generation the way to success and good citizenship.

             69% of the students in the program are from extremely low income families.  63% are from single parent families, and 16% have been homeless at some time in the last two years.  Currently the program has 100 students and a goal of 200 by 2020.

The on-time graduation rate for program participants is 85% compared to the state of Georgia’s rate of 69%.  90% are promoted to the next grade level on time.  MFL’s Class of 2016 was awarded over $200,000 in college scholarships.

In the words of Beverly McAfee, “How can I not be passionate when I learn that one of our students is achieving her dream of being the first one in her family to graduate from high school?”  From the lips of an MPL participant, “I got into lots of trouble while in New Orleans but by the grace of God I got to attend MHS and play football.”  This young man is making straight A’s and working 2 jobs.

There’s no cursing the darkness in the MFL office; lighting fires in the hearts of the young is its sole plan and purpose.

It’s after 4 PM but in the Graduate Marietta/MPL wing of storied Marietta High School, students are still around.  I think they don’t want to leave. They’re tutoring and being tutored or working in the clothes closet.  They themselves are lighting up the lives of others.  They themselves are breaking the cycle.

Check out this splendid operation at MentoringForLeadership.org.

Roger Hines

3/22/17

The Arts, the Cold War, and Cultural Investing

         The Arts, the Cold War, and Cultural Investing

               Published in Marietta Daily Journal March 19, 2017

            State school superintendent Richard Woods recently received national recognition for promoting the arts in Georgia’s schools.  Perhaps he believes, as many others do, that the arts carry us out of ourselves: to dream dreams, to learn to look at things from a perspective different from our own.

            One musical artist who dreamed dreams that took him behind the Iron Curtain was the famous pianist, Van Cliburn.  I never met Van Cliburn, but I knew and admired his doting uncle.  The uncle, L.E. Cliburn, was an education professor at East Central Jr. College in little Decatur, Mississippi.  All teacher wannabe’s were required to take Introduction to Education, taught only by Dr. Cliburn.

            If you took Dr. Cliburn’s class, you learned about Van Cliburn.  To illustrate what he called “the art of teaching and the art of life,” Cliburn skillfully wove into his lectures occasional stories about his nephew’s life and work.

            The year was 1963. Cliburn the elder frequently related how his talented nephew developed his art and how “he gave it away freely.”

            “Teachers must do the same,” Cliburn urged, “because you will be just as much an artist as Van is.”

              Perhaps because my father subscribed to four newspapers, I already knew that just five years earlier in 1958, the lanky Texan, Van Cliburn, had traveled to Moscow for a piano competition at age 23.  There he won the First Piano Prize of the Tchaikovsky Competition.  Within weeks, Van Cliburn was internationally known.

            Adoring Russians called him Von Kleeberrn.  According to biographer Abram Chasins, citizens of Kilgore, Texas knew him as the lad who “shot through Kilgore High School in only three years,” and who, as a Baptist boy, “always tithed whatever prize money he earned from his competitions.”  (Cliburn doubled his tithe to Calvary Baptist Church in Manhattan once he became well-heeled and famous.)

             For half a century, L.E. Cliburn and his nephew have perched on my shoulder, whispering to me certain life principles and posing questions, some of which I have found answers for, some not.

            The principles have all dealt with the importance of hard work, the pursuit of excellence, and the development of one’s gifts.  Playing the piano so well that the world applauds you is, I suppose, a lofty gift.  But the ability and willingness to smile and encourage those around you is a lofty gift as well.  Van Cliburn’s uncle said so.

            “Be authentic,” they both have whispered, “and humble.”  Despite concerts all over the world, despite being told by statesmen around the world that his magical music would end the Cold War, Van Cliburn remained Texas folksy and humble.  Unlike so many self-absorbed celebrities of today, he remembered his roots, namely his mother who at his own insistence was his only music teacher until after high school when he headed off to Julliard School of Music, and his father, an unassuming purchasing agent for a local oil company. 

            As for the questions, what should be the place of the arts in a school curriculum and in our federal government’s budget?  Are the arts worth an investment?  I’m persuaded that the arts are a civilizing influence.  Much is made, rightly, of STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) education.  These disciplines have fed our bodies and our minds.

            Yet, because I have watched the arts serve as a gateway for students to enter the joy of learning in general, I’m persuaded we must guard and transmit both the arts and the humanities which in L.E. Cliburn’s words, “feed the starving soul.”

            But should the federal government (through its National Endowment for the Arts) give millions each year to arts programs?  Columnist George Will says government has no more business giving money to the arts than it has to rodeo.  He cites government-funded works of art that denigrate certain religions and people of faith.  Like Will, I also don’t care for taxpayer-funded demented art.

            Nobody, however, can argue that we have over-emphasized the arts.   In the fifties and sixties while American teenagers were swooning over Chubby Checker, Russian youths were clamoring for Van Cliburn.  That’s something to think about: Chubby Checker’s “Come on Baby, Let’s Do the Twist,” versus Van Cliburn’s “Claire de Lune.”

            YouTube Van Cliburn.  See Khrushchev smiling approvingly.  Ponder whether or not the lanky Texan’s Russian connection cooled the hot words of the Cold War.  (The Soviets did let the American pianist in.)  Ponder what our investment should be.  Consider whether or not we should continue to abandon all things classical – at school, at church, and everywhere else.

Roger Hines

3/15/17

A Few Questions about the State of American Culture

                A Few Questions about the State of American Culture

                Published in Marietta Daily Journal March 12, 2017

            Government.    Was Jefferson right when he said, “That government is best which governs least”?  Was Reagan right when he said, “Government isn’t the solution.  Government is the problem”? 

            Are we more likely to be governed better by people close to us than by people far away?    Are there at least 2 or 3 federal departments and scores of agencies we could get rid of?  Is a 26-year-old too old to be covered by his or her parents’ insurance?

            Education.  Can a child learn to read with just a reading teacher and only a few materials? Can teenagers do well in a high school that doesn’t look like the Taj Mahal?   Is teaching a human activity, as opposed to a completely objectifiable or quantifiable one?  Has our testing mania negatively affected learning’s human dimension (encouragement, inspiration, joy, human interaction)?  Has it made test scores our primary objective? 

            Politics.  Did Donald Trump win the presidential election?  Did Democrats lose?  Does President Trump appear to be pursuing what he campaigned on?  With the exception of the People’s Republic of California, would every state turn out thousands for a Trump rally any day of the week?  Could serious social chaos result if losers resist the will of the people and continue to take to the streets?  Is there a breaking point at which conservatives would also hit the streets, causing things to get ugly?

            The media.  Is it true that the U.S. Constitution provides for a free press but not a privileged press?  Shouldn’t the media be held to account just as much as anyone else?  Has slant poisoned real news to the point of its near demise?  Has the media ignored the Trump-influenced surge in just about everybody’s stock portfolio, opting to cram the unsubstantiated Russian scare down our throats daily? 

            Sex and the Society.  Does everybody on the planet have a mother and father?  If so, doesn’t this fact provide an unquestionable nature-based model, a prototype, on which the broader society should be structured?  In other words aren’t a mother, a father, and a child a little unit of society, indeed a little unit of government in which and for which some reasonable rules must be established and followed?  Are rules and self-restraint still the price we pay for civilization?  Is it possible that legalizing so-called homosexual marriage plus all of the emphasis on transgenderism is confusing otherwise well-adjusted children or teens, causing them to wonder what the truth about sexuality really is?

            If it’s “insensitive” to say that homosexuality is rebellion against nature, should we at least be allowed to say that it is an aberration or that in sexual matters we have normalized the marginal?  Has the LGBT lobby become hyper-intolerant?  Do they not claim that one is hateful just because he opposes homosexuality?  If Heather has two mommies, wouldn’t the optimum for her, given nature’s original model, be her mommy and daddy?   Aren’t male and female differences wondrous and do they not complement each other?

            Entertainment.  Is comedy serious business?  Is making fun of something one of the best ways to undermine it?  Are Hollywood celebrities far less knowledgeable of politics and public policy than they think they are?  Is Disney still moving further and further away from wholesome family entertainment?  Does nudity and crude language in movies and on television matter?  Is porn harmful to young and older men alike?  Have parents and community and political leaders stopped caring that porn is now ubiquitous, grabbing young boys (in their homes) at the very outset of puberty?

            Corporate America.  Is corporate America ironically leaning left?  Have many non-practicing capitalists like myself written and spoken in defense of capitalism and corporations only to have their CEO’s turn on us, their customers and defenders, to fawn over the LGBT lobby?  Are corporations crazy to curry the favor of those who consider the word “corporation” a symbol for evil?  Are Chambers of Commerce complicit in dismissing the social issues because their only concern is the dollar?

            Is it possible that America can ever again have some shared values and cease normalizing the marginal?

            Just asking.  And my own answer is yes for every question, even the last one.  But an effectual yes for the last question will require that traditionalists make some noise, light up some phones, attend some meetings, and write some emails.  Otherwise, oppressive government and cultural hedonism will continue their romp, all because of our own disengagement.

Roger Hines

3/8/17

Catholic Capitalists and a Baptist Debtor

                             Catholic Capitalists and a Baptist Debtor

                Published in Marietta Daily Journal March 5. 2017

            I am indebted to two Catholics who have taught me much about the American way of life and who have given me an example of how to stand firm even if you must stand alone.  It all started in my childhood.

            When I was eleven, a small Catholic church was built on the east edge of town on U.S. Highway 80.  In Forest, Mississippi there were at the time five churches: two Baptist, one Methodist, one Presbyterian, and one Assembly of God.

            The word ecumenical certainly wasn’t in my vocabulary, but ecumenical we were, if only once a year.  When revival time came, normally at mid-summer, the churches all visited each other.  “Revival” had both a functional and a spiritual meaning.  Functionally it was a week of evening preaching services from Sunday through Friday.  Ordinarily the week’s preacher was an evangelist or a pastor from far off.  Spiritually it was a time for concentration on renewal, rededication, and bringing the faithless to faith.     

In terms of decibels, the Assembly of God, pastored by the brilliantly red-headed Sister Robinson, was the loudest.  The Presbyterians were, without question, the quietest.  In fact, the Presbyterians were deathly quiet, but their quiet was penetrating and meaningful.  It taught me that quiet can often afford self-examination in a way noise cannot.

            The Baptists and Methodists were somewhere in the middle on the decibel scale, although we could get down and loud with those wondrous hymns that are now so disrespectfully ignored.  Speaking of ecumenicalism, had it not been for Charles Wesley, that great hymn-writing Methodist, we Baptists would have had very little to sing.

            I don’t know if  Catholics would have joined us or not, but I remember the effect that the new little Catholic church had on a school bus full of energetic children and teenagers.  When St, Michael’s building was finished and a sign was placed near the highway, we realized that “the Catholics” had come to our area.  Set back into thin woods, the chapel-like structure bespoke as much quietness as the Presbyterians.

            Every morning as the school bus approached and began to pass by the new church, everyone grew absolutely silent.  Those on the church side of the bus pressed their noses to the window and stared.  Those on the opposite side of the bus stood up, leaned over toward the church side, and stared in silence as well.  As soon as the church was out of sight, the bus became noisy again.

            This pattern continued for at least two weeks until we finally got used to the church, or more precisely, to the word “Catholic.”

            A few years later, because of a deep interest in politics, I became more acquainted with Catholicism.  At age 16 I saw my first copy of National Review magazine and became a fan of its Catholic editor and columnist, William F. Buckley.  Buckley was not ashamed of his faith.  Having written “God and Man at Yale” while in college wherein he charged Yale professors with being committed anti-capitalists, Buckley never minimized his faith, never gave up on his church, and never viewed politics and faith or science and faith as being mutually exclusive.  Buckley became my teacher.

            A Catholic I admire just as much is the recently departed Michael Novak.  Novak was a theologian, professor, and Democratic speech writer who took a philosophical turn in his 40’s from leftist to staunch defender of capitalism.  “Capitalism has its flaws,” he wrote, “but all other known systems of political economy are worse.”

            With a deep concern for the poor and for immigrants like his Slovak parents, Novak in his “Spirit of Democratic Capitalism,” wrote,” Any hope we have for alleviating poverty and tyranny lies in the much despised system of capitalism.”

            Faulting his own party for not defending the working class, Novak wrote, “If America is going to come apart into those who went to college and those who didn’t, I want to be with those who didn’t, those who don’t want their kids taking acid, sleeping around, or having abortions.”

            It is rare for a Catholic theologian who trained for the priesthood to be a defender of capitalism.  It is even rarer for such a defender to be avid about it and to write, “Socialism is the residue of Judeo-Christian faith without religion.”

            As for St. Michael’s on U.S. Highway 80 that made me start wondering what a Catholic was, it’s still there, sitting pretty.  I hope the school bus route still takes youngsters by the church.  It might lead them to wonder and learn as it did me.

Roger Hines

3/2/17