We have come to a place and time in our world where we have forgotten the word 'fear'. 
The dictionary defines the word as something that 'causes feelings of dread, or apprehension; something a person is afraid of'.  We have assumed those consequences are inherently bad and something no one should experience.  We as a people have incorrectly assumed since these feeling are negative they should no longer be a part of the human condition.  This faulty assumptions are destroying the ability of people to live in a structured society.  It is going to take real effort and discipline to reinstate this common sense tool, a foundation of an orderly civilization.  

When I was a kid I was afraid of a lot of things.  First of all I was afraid of my parents. To this day I remember the fear of displeasing my mom and dad and the consequences of my actions.  I don't really remember in much detail the price I paid for their discipline but I do remember the fear I felt when I knew those consequences were coming.   After my parents, grand parents and other family members I vividly remember the 'fear' of teachers, coaches and principles.  In these instances some of the consequences are recalled in detail. I also remember the 'fear' I experienced knowing my parents would never question my guilt or innocence when I had been punished by a teacher, coach or principle.  The guilt was established by the teacher and the only question was would the sentence and punishment be enhance when my parents found out.  As I grew I was afraid of the police, the sheriff and all others in authority.  I knew people who broke the law would be punished, and more importantly they had the right to punish me any way the law as determined by a judge or jury saw fit.  

Underlying it all I was afraid of crossing God.  I knew was a loving God and cared for his children and gave us every chance to be accepted by him.  I also knew God was a jealous God and should I not conduct myself as he had laid out in the Bible I would burn in a fiery hell for my disobedience. 

Pretty simple stuff based on the simple concept of fear.  Today it is entirely different. Children are not afraid of their parents.  So many parents today find it easier to ignore the transgressions of the kids because they are busy or really don't even care.  It is easier to overlook the kids actions excuse them as just being kids than it is to discipline the child for wrong doings.  At the next level parents expect the teachers, coaches and school authorities to leave the discipline to them (which they fail to do) or to never hold the kids to any standard of conduct.  We have forbidden school personnel to create any fear in the kids we send to them.  

         

WHAT YOU DO :30 MINUTES EARLIER DOES COUNT

I have tried for some time to figure out where we missed it in this country.  How has so many of our values and core beliefs lost so much of their meaning?  Why can't we move forward at the pace we seem to have moved for over two hundred years?

In watching the tragic news coming out of Ferguson, Mo over the past several days I have come to the conclusion we have been sold a load of manure in the name of fairness, justice and what this country stands for.  The event from day one until today is exactly what I said it was, tragic.  For a young man to lose his life in such a way can never be excused or ignored by any people who value freedom and the other blessings we take too much for granted. This in not a commentary on why the city does not have a diverse political or police face.  It's about the line the outsiders are pushing as a defense of the madness.

The revelation to me I write about here today comes in the aftermath of the shooting itself.  Part of the justification for the rioting was the release of the video of the young man strong arming a store clerk and stealing what I understand was a few cigars.  The incidents are unrelated, published solely to assassinate the character of the young man we are told.  The leaders of the rioting community want to isolate only on the few minutes before and during the shooting of the young man.  It's a common theme and has been used forever, even to the point we as a nation take it for granted and have to some extent adopted it as a valid point.  The problem is this line of thinking is the core of the problem.

I grew up in the 50's and 60's in the smallest of white dominated southern towns.  We had a black community made up of around 13-20 families.  They were living under huge disadvantages.  The high school kids were bused to Russellville to school, they did have the worse jobs and living conditions in our little town, but they never lacked respect from the community they were a part of.  Wash Wallace, Sam Terrell, Vonie (PeeWee) Warren and many other men of the black community were respected for the men they were not because told the others to respect them.  They were men who worked to provide for their families. They found work when there were no jobs. They attended church with their families, loved their children and saw to it they had a better life.  I know many of their children today and they are model citizens, productive and no different from me.  These men were respected because they earned the respect.  Every color recognized the kind of men they were and treated them with that respect.  We probably did not give them as many opportunities and the town should have or does now but the respect we had was real and every bit earned.  Today the town is totally different, offering equal opportunities and a better life, but still the same in recognizing and giving respect where it is earned.

In my current home town the same principles exist.  I have many African-American friends who I see in every way my equals or in most cases superior in many.  I respect them for all they have done and accomplished, they have earned respect by the way they have lived, what values they champion and the simple way they live their lives.

What you did 30 minutes, days or years ago does make a difference.  How you act and inter-act with people does make a difference.  If you insist on living in an undisciplined, threatening and abusive way I am not going to respect you because I am told I must.  If you sack my groceries or weed my yard and are striving to live the American Way to move forward and get ahead then I will respect you and defend you to the end.

Al Sharpton and his elk can no more make me respect someone no more Superman is going to save the day. You can't separate life in :30 minute intervals.  Every man in this country deserves justice.  If the shooting was wrong then the guilty should be punished, but respect is not like God's Agape love, respect must be earned.      

PAPA'S ADVICE - 'LEAVE YOUR MARK'

PAPA’S ADVICE – LEAVE YOUR MARK

Papa what is a ‘mark’ and why do I want to leave one anyway and if I did how do I do it?

When I was a young 9^th grader, about to move from one hall of our school (Jr. High) to a hall on the other side of the building (Sr. High) I learned my first lesson about leaving a ‘mark’.  At that time there was a student who was about to graduate from Haleyville High School, who had made it is mission in life to either write, carve or paint his self-designed  personal logo on any surface he could reach, whether sitting, standing or lifted.  Wayland Elliott (Fern by nickname) had covered the school with his mark ‘FERN 60’.  Now ‘FERN 60’ was a combination of his nickname, ‘FERN’ (which if you went to Haleyville High you had to have) and the year he would graduate, ‘1960’.  Literally ‘FERN 60’ was everywhere, desk tops, locker doors, window facings, sidewalks, anywhere pencil, pen, paint or carving could display it.  Now Wayland was not a bad young man, in fact he is a friend, an outstanding former coach and very successful businessman in Birmingham.  He is a great Christian example now, but back then he was determined to leave his mark as ‘FERN 60’.  Probably there are not many of us left who remember ‘FERN 60’, but thousands of people will always remember Wayland Elliott because of the ‘mark’ he is leaving as the Christian man he is, the good he does and the lives he touches as a Christian. 

The Bible talks about leaving our ‘mark’ in a special way.  Paul in 2 Corinthians 3:2 puts it this way, “You yourselves are our letter, written on our hearts, recognized and read by everyone.”  We are told to live in such a way people will see in us our God.  Paul is calling us to leave our ‘mark’ on the places we have been and the people we come in contact with.  We have an opportunity to make impressions for good to others we come across daily.  You are going to be known for something, good or bad.  You are going to make a ‘mark’ of some kind, Paul is telling us to be a ‘mark’ for Christ as we go along this journey. 

Some of us are going to remember ‘FERN 60” perhaps until we die and are gone, that’s it, but thousands will remember Wayland Elliott through the ‘marks’ he made in their lives as a good, hardworking man, writing and making his ‘mark’ on their lives.   

YOU DON'T GET A TROPHY FOR LOSING

I have never agreed with the cutesy idea that everyone gets a trophy regardless of whether you win or lose. I know from 68 years of experience a person, most of the time, can get as much from losing as they do from winning.  Without failure I do not think any one person grows or a society can move forward.  After the events surrounding the Bergdahl/Taliban prisoner exchange I am afraid we as a nation may be so caught up in the 'everybody gets a trophy' way of thinking we may have allowed this theory to become a part of our national DNA.

Eugene Robinson, columnist at the Washington Post and chief apologist for the Obama administration, set out this morning five (5) reasons we should accept the Bergdahl deal and move on.  The first reason was because Bergdahl was a member of the military.  (I guess we should also pay him for the time he was gone and award him some kind of medal for the brave desertion he carried out while his fellow soldiers were losing their lives looking for him.)  This bum left on his own, he deserted, he does not deserve a trophy, he's a loser and should be labeled a deserter and pay whatever the penalty is for deserting.

This really hit a nerve with me since the column appeared on June 6th, D-Day.  To me those guys cannot be given enough trophys, praise or expressions of gratitude.  The troops of D-Day saved the free world with bravery and dedication unmatched in history.  The Germans and Axis powers were the losers and the world learned a lesson that June 6th.

I could go on all day with examples of the advances man kind has benefited from because someone lost or failed.  Our entitlement system today is simply another example of the idea no one should be allowed to fail. In failure we learn, it's not always pretty, but then again you don't want to see anyone make sausage.  God gave us a mind to overcome failure.  When we as humans know there is no failure we float on a wind that has no direction or future.  Failing tells us we have got to get better, we have to prepare better or find the right venue to excel, to win, to be better.

If Robinson and the everybody gets a trophy bunch is right, I want a National Championship ring from Auburn's team a couple of years ago.  I was a fan, I watched every game and even shed a little tear of happiness when they won.  The fact I didn't go through the off season misery of workouts, or the 3 a days in August or the grind of practice and playing the likes of BAMA or LSU during the season should not matter. I was a fan and I deserve a trophy.  

I LOVE JESUS BUT I CUSS A LITTLE

It's time everybody started reacting to negative, useless manure the way Coach Saban supposedly did last night in Nashville. We are so hung up on trying to say what someone wants us to say or what we think will make them happy we are not honest with them or ourselves. We need to start calling BS on some stuff again. Of course I am 68 and a lot like my Granddaddy Whitt, but you never guessed what he meant when he said something. ('I love Jesus but I cuss a little'.)

From the 'THAT'S NOT RAIN ON YOUR LEG' file.

Sometimes I just think there are things that just need to be said, or at least I need to get them out of my system.  There's nothing I can do about them but I don't want people to think I am so stupid I believe whatever those in charge want to tell me.

Today is April 23, 2014 and gas prices in Decatur are ranging between $3.46 and $3.55.  Two or three months ago they were below $3.20 in most places.  Now I believe in the free market system as much as anyone and understand the need for ROI, the cost of R&D and all the other things we are fed in order to protect big petroleum companies, but here's my 'burr under the saddle' moment.

I guess we are supposed to believe or at least buy that of all the 'big gas' producers operating today, their cost of raw material, their manufacturing processes, their distribution and marketing are so highly developed and refined, their final pricing is always the same.  If Exxon has more raw product and more refining capacity, and closer distribution in the Southeast part of the country than say Shell, why isn't their cost at the pump less in this area than Shell's. How come everyone's price is always the same.  Some variances are due to the local stations but the distributor pricing is always close to the same.

Somebody's gas has got to be easier to get, closer, less costly to refine and less costly to distribute, at least sometime.

I know there is a lobbyist or PR firm ready to explain this to me in a 'white paper' on petroleum pricing, but when I'm gone I want someone to stand up and at least say, old Norman was not so stupid he fell for crap like this.  That is not rain on my leg.  

PAPA’S ADVICE-DON’T WEAR MASK

PAPA’S ADVICE-DON’T WEAR MASK

‘Papa, you know I quit wearing mask when I was a lot younger, unless it’s a joke or Halloween I never wear mask anymore.’

Sorry kiddos, we all wear mask.  It gets a lot easier to not wear them as we get older, but all of you have a ways to go before ‘getting older’ applies to you.  I think part of the problem is that we learn to wear them as little kids and like I've talked about earlier lying and making excuses, it just becomes part of us and easy when we need to be someone we are not. 

Every kid learns early the fun in being someone they are not.  I have never seen a child who did not enjoy wearing a mask, a costume or something to create that feeling of being someone else.  I cherish the memories of each one of you being someone else.  For a short time when you were masking and dressing the make believe part you were that person, whether it was Harry Potter, Superman, Bob the Builder or a Princess from a thousand stories.  I laughed, your parents laughed and for the brief moment you were the person you wanted to be. 

Great actors wear similar mask.  They become the character in story they are telling and portraying.  Actors go to great lengths to achieve the mask they use to convince you they are the person so important to the story they are telling.  The gain and lose considerable weight, change their hair and eye color.  They dress in costumes appropriate for the role until the audience forgets the real person and who they really are.  A successful actor fully involves his audience in the life of the pretend person to the extent reality is lost in the script.  Again we see this so much we become actors in our real lives and rely on mask and images that hide who we really are and hide who we truly are from those around us. 

Seems to me one of the first things we want to hide is the fact we are really a good person.  Our desire to be ‘like’ everyone else drives us to masking the real person we are in order to ‘fit-in’ better, be more like the crowd, not comfortable with what we know to be good and right.  I have always thought this is one of the primary reasons for using vulgar and profane language.  As I entered my teen years I wanted to be like those I thought had it all together and figured out.  Those kids were older, and I felt wiser, so if they cursed I wanted them to think I was just a cool as them, therefore I should mask who I really was and cuss.  I wore that bad guy mask in many situations as I matured.  I wanted those around me to think I was cool so when an older person would refer to his mother as his ‘old lady’, I got behind my mask and always outside my mom or dad’s hearing I would refer to my fantastic parents as my ‘old lady’ and ‘old man’.  I was fairly bright as a student but since the majority of those around me made average grades I put on my ‘average guy’ mask and prove to those I knew that I was not very smart but just average.  As I have gotten older I wonder if everyone was not doing the same thing and as a group we were not really a bunch of pretty smart folks just masking ourselves to fit a role we perceived to be cooler. 

What really haunts me today is the mask I wore until really later in my life where I wore the mask hiding the fact I really wanted to be a decent person.  I didn’t necessarily want to be known as someone who was trying to live like I knew I should.  I never denied my religious beliefs but sure never did a very good job promoting them to others.  I never wanted anyone to know there were some things I just would not do or other good things I’d rather do.  If a friend wanted to play golf on Sunday (and who doesn’t want to play golf anytime), I would easily slip into my mask hiding the real me, who knew I should be in church.  If I met someone new in my circle of friends, I knew I should invite to worship, out would come the mask hiding the Papa who knew he should ask them to church, to ask if they wanted to play golf on Sunday morning. 

I never used to mask to do anything criminal or extremely bad I just used it to avoid doing what I really knew to be right.  We all are guilty of this masking to some extent.  Whether it is a matter of not having the nerve to be a little different or a desire to be something we are not, we all remember how we could tie towel around our necks and be ‘Superman’. 

I mentioned getting older and it becoming easier to avoid the mask now.  It is not easier; I think I have just figured out how to explain in a way I better understand. It is so much better to be genuine; your parents have a lot of experience and have taught you well.  You access to great schools and churches, you are very smart and know what is right at even a young age.  Be the people you have been taught to be.  The person who is the leader, the one others look up to and admire because you know who you are and are true to yourself.  What you are is plenty if you have applied yourself.  You don’t have to be like everybody else.  If you believe in doing right, do it and be an example.  If you believe in Christ and his message, then let people know and don’t hide it, this message has lasted over 2000 years, and it’s nothing to shy away from.  If you are smart don’t hide it, don’t flaunt it like cheap perfume but wear it with dignity so others can aspire to take more pride in their gifts. 

There are many ‘mask’ we all wear.  You are a child of God, made in his image; you really don’t need a ‘mask’.