And your excuse is...

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Tuesday the Kiwanis club had a young man come and speak to us. This young man, like so many across the nation, has grand and sweeping visions. Unlike the great majority, he's taking steps to implement them.

If you can identify these people ... you're not gonna like what follows

But, exactly like the majority of people in this nation, he's pretty much clueless unless it concerns his very immediate sphere of concern. He specifically said he had no idea what Kiwanis was until he was invited to come speak. Then he did a bit of research.

This young man is a success, which he attributed to his parents and older siblings.

He's wrong in that.

This young man is a success because he set out to be a success. He invested in himself and plowed ahead despite obstacles in his path. While I have no doubts his parents and siblings were important, what remains is he decided.

Now, he's come back to the community he thought he'd never live in again and wants to make this a better place.

I salute him. I look forward to working with him, alongside him and, yes, challenging him when I think he's wrong.

I have no doubt many people in my community will also assail, berate, attack and vilify him. I tell you these people have no right to do so.

I have that right.

You may now say I am more full of manure than a constipated elephant.

So I ask you -



What are you doing today, beyond the requirements of your job and what's needed to make a living,  to make your community a better place?

If all you do is have a job, collect a paycheck and pay your bills, you don't have much room to complain when a person like the young man I mention gets off his butt, out of his house and puts forth volunteer efforts to make his community a better place to live.

A community is improved, made better and quality of life rises only when people step out of their comfort zone and get their hands dirty.

So what right do I have to say this? Me? I have literally shoveled horse manure from the streets in my town. What else?

Do your hands look like this outside of your yard?

My shoveling episode and everything else I do is irrelevant, beyond the fact I do them. Why I do these things is what is important. The young man I mention, if he follows up on his promises, myself and the other people who stand next to me with a shovel do it because we want a better community.

We're willing to put our money, our very real money which earn from our jobs and something far more valuable than money on the line to make this happen.

As my longtime friend Lee Ann Fisch says, "Time is what is important."

We give our time.

So, I tell you if you can identify the people in the opening picture of this column, chances are quite good that you don't do much of anything to help your community unless you are forced to do so.

The young man I mention is embarked on a harsh road. He's going to be excoriated by people who can ID the opening picture. I know. I get attacked frequently for my efforts to make my community a better place.

But hey, Jesus was spit on when He carried the cross. I reckon the young man and I are in good company then.


Great minds discuss ideas. Average minds discuss events. Small minds discuss people.
Eleanor Roosvelt

Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds.
Albert Einstein