"He took care of a lot of people . . . "

       He had had but 50 birthdays.

          In that short span, Tommy McNeill "took care of a lot of people" through his 30+ year EMS career.  At the time of his death, he was leading a training exercise for a wilderness search and rescue course.     
   
     At last night's wake and today's funeral,  personnel from numerous  public service agencies from around the state came to pay their respects and to participate.  Those included representatives of  police and sheriff's offices, fire departments, EMT's and Paramedics, EMS Honor Guards, North Carolina Highway Patrol, and air medical services (med evac) from area hospitals (with a 3 helicopter fly-over at the end of the interment service).  Uniformed persons were everywhere.  The procession to the cemetery was lined by numerous fire trucks, ambulances, law enforcement vehicles, as well as friends' automobiles.  We commented that many towns' Christmas parades are not as long as this tribute.  By all accounts, he was a good person.  Colleagues spoke of his "servant legacy"; a minister praised Tommy's 'care', 'commitment' and 'call'. 

Immediately after the service, the procession begins to form

      

     One minister acknowledged to the EMS contingent
 that we largely "think of you only when we need you" and commended their spirit of service, "especially in our self-centered culture."  I observed that these men and women form a diverse fraternity . . . of gender, race, and ages . . . of great mutual respect born of having trained for and faced many life or death events. I witnessed men unembarrassed to exchange hugs and to shed tears.

    The "Emergency and Rescue Squad Member's Prayer" that appeared in the worship bulletin reflected the spirit very much in evidence today: "O God, whose mercy, love, and compassion are given to each of us, help me to share that love through my concern for others. Make me sensitive to the needs of people not only when their lives are in danger, but also when their spirits are being drowned in the pools of loneliness, despair and discouragement. . ."

Rest in Peace

       My office is located at an intersection where emergency vehicles frequently turn, heading to the Hospital's Emergency Department.  Now when I hear those sirens, I want to remember to say a prayer of thanks for the Tommy McNeills who work to make our society safer.  And I intend to say 'thanks' to any of these folks whom I meet in everyday situations.  I urge you to do the same.

      Satchel

"It Ain't My Fault !"

         "Responsibility" . . . now, there's a BIG word  whose application  seems to be largely absent in contemporary American society.  "Credit" ? Now, that's another matter altogether. 

    Two of President Harry Truman's observations capture the distinction:  For 'Credit": "It is amazing what you can accomplish if you don't care who gets the credit." "Responsibility": "The buck stops here", the motto that he kept on his desk while President.

    While on these 'big words', here is another similar one : "Accountability".

    When the Holy One asked  'Adam' why he had eaten the forbidden fruit, he answered that 'the woman you gave me caused me to do it.'  When given the opportunity to own responsibility for her part of the drama, she answered that she had acted at the urging of 'the snake'.  At that point, the serpent 'didn't have a leg to stand on'.  The comedian Flip Wilson drew laughs with his line: "the devil made me do it !'

   'Pass the buck' of accountability or responsibility to someone else is a  frequently sung song with a long history.  As an example, listen to "Gee,  Officer Krupke !" from West Side Story. And, we all do (have done) it.  There just seems to be an overabundance of the trait these days throughout our society, beginning with the institutions that ostensibly promote the common good: the worlds of politics, institutional religion, education, health care,  justice, and on it goes.

    Decades ago when I was in grammar grades, our school had weekly assemblies in the auditorium.  Often the 'program' was a local clergyperson urging some moralistic platitude, all long since forgotten . . . except one:  Our Methodist minister told a story in which someone acknowledged their culpability and clearly said, "I was wrong."  Then Mr. Walton invited us to repeat, "I was wrong." When we had done that, he noted something to the effect that having said that  'didn't break your jaw', which I understood to mean we can survive honestly accepting responsibility for our behavior.

  "It's his (her) fault!"; "You are the one to blame !" ; "You think I'm bad? Just look at my predecessor!"  This all seems too much a part  of news reports these days.  On the other hand, "Let's work together for peace, justice, respect, etc " gets crowded out by the push of weak egos searching for public applause to 'make themselves look good' by getting the credit which rightfully belongs  elsewhere.

   The late Rabbi Edwin Freidman excelled as a psychotherapist and teacher.  His definition of maturity:  "The capacity to take responsibility for one's own emotional processes and behaviors."
God, give us more adults . . . beginning with me.

    Satchel

"Uncle George" and Changing Times

    "Uncle George" Mowry told our History Seminar that the word "nostalgia" had as it parent-words something invoking "a homesickness of the soul." I heard that to mean 'a strong desire to go back to the good old days'.  Then I remembered reading " 'The Good Old Days' ?  They were Awful." citing artifacts such as polio and typhoid epidemics, slavery, outdoor toilets, subservient women, high infant mortality rates, child labor, air pollution, and other such 'plagues'.

   Dr. Mowry was a highly regarded  Historian who had done extensive research in early twentieth century America, particularly the 1920's, sometimes called "The Roaring Twenties" His book, The Twenties: Fords, Flappers, & Fanatics provided an inside look at several of the cultural conflicts prevalent at the time.  By all accounts that era brought a lot of life-changing inventions and attitudes to American society.  It was also a time of tremendously repressive laws, groups, behaviors.  For example,  a resurgent  KKK terrorized large segments of the population at the time.

   Great changes have a way of provoking great anxieties and impulses to enforce conformity to the values of a once powerful  societal group that sees its advantages  threatened.  Mowry observed, "Societies do not give up old ideals and attitudes easily; the conflicts between the representatives of the older elements of traditional American culture and the prophets of the new day were at times as bitter as they were extensive. Such matters as religion, marriage, and moral standards, as well as the issues over race, prohibition, and immigrations were at the heart of the conflict."

    And, at such times the things that the 'stronger' inflict upon those deemed 'different', 'inferior' or a 'threat' stagger  decency, civility, kindness, common humanity, compassion, and other such humane virtues.

   We do not have to be 'professional' historians to recognize that we are living in an era that provides huge challenges to the longing for the  'way things used to be' (or presumed to have been).  Even a cursory reading of the history of the American people  (even in pre-Revolutionary War times) provides strong evidence that efforts to 'turn back the clock' do not prevail in the long run.  Often the anxiety goes 'under ground', to reappear in different manifestations the next time great societal and cultural challenges loom. 

  Well, maybe there is truth in the late George Santayana's observation that "those who do not learn history are doomed to repeat it. "  Is there yet validity in Bob Dylan's 1964 warning to those who resist when "The Time's They are a'Changing"?

   HAPPY JULY  FOURTH !! 

      Satchel