Hebron Crossroads 9-26-04
By Jeff Gill
The National Freedom Center is one of America’s newest museums, just down the road in Cincinnati (take a virtual tour at freedomcenter.org).
Three buildings, signifying courage, pride, and perseverance, make up just a part of their plan to tell the story of the Underground Railroad. On-line resources, an affiliation of historic sites throughout the country, and archives in many existing institutions are all being woven together into the Freedom Center.
The Underground Railroad was a vast network of abolitionists and safe houses all across the eastern half of the United States that guided more than 100,000 slaves to freedom. From the early 1820’s to 1850, that freedom might be in southwest Michigan, northern Ohio, western New York or New England; after the Fugitive Slave Law was passed, the “railroad” extended fully to Canada beyond the reach of federal law.
Major “spurs” in this invisible line of traffic went through Columbus and Zanesville, where houses with hidden rooms and secret cellars can still be seen. But from 1836 through 1860, when the slavecatchers were out in force, a side route skirting our Hebron Crossroads up through Granville was used.
William Utter, whose “Granville: The Story of an Ohio Village is one of the best local histories of the last century, wrote of the challenges even 50 years ago in sorting fact from well-meaning fiction about the days of the Underground Railroad. The label alone kept (and keeps) the idea of tunnels and buried passageways alive, with Utter noting ruefully the still-told tale of a tunnel from Monomoy House, now the home of Denison’s presidents, to the Avery-Downer House next to the library. On the other hand. . .
“The record shows that no fugitive was ever captured in this community, and no arrest of agents of the Underground,” says Utter, while it is very clear many escaped slaves passed through Licking County. Recorded accounts point to the canal path up from the Ohio River marking a line which then turned to Reynoldsburg, from which “agents” would escort their charges, usually by night, away from the Lancaster or Newark Roads with all their traffic to places like the Gilmore farm surrounding Fairmount Presbyterian Church. On calmer occasions they might chance some daylight travel along Refugee Road to Canyon, winding north then to Centerville Street, now Newark-Granville Road. Along that artery, many agents stood ready to take over for the trip through the Welsh Hills to Utica or Homer and on to Mansfield and then Oberlin.
The village of Union Station, where Canyon Road crosses the railroad tracks, is often mentioned as a station on the Underground Railroad as well.
Do you know stories of pre-1860 homes that tie them to this proud story? I’ve got a few I’ll share on through the fall, but send in any you may have heard and we’ll put them all in.
Cub Scout Pack 33 will have their first pack meeting of the new school year at Jackson Elementary, Monday Sept. 27 at 7:00 pm. All first through fifth grade boys are welcome to come and be registered.
Ed Fuentes, veteran Cubmaster of Pack 33, is looking forward to a great year of activity; themes are chosen for each month to June, with the September meeting inviting all youth and adults to come dressed as cowboys. October, as you may have guessed, will be costumes generally. If you have questions, call Ed at 323-3936.
Tiger Cubs in first grade, second grade a Wolf Den, third grade Bears, and Webelos Scouts in fourth and fifth grades make up all the “dens” of a Cub pack. Come find your place and howl with ‘em!
Speaking of howling, I’m sure you’re ready to howl at your TV if you have to watch one more political ad. Relief is coming with the general election on Tues., Nov. 2, and if you want to register to vote, you’d better do it this week! Libraries, license bureaus, and municipal offices can show you how. October 4 is the deadline.
Absentee voting is available through Mon., Nov. 1, but with demand high, you might want to get your application in to the Board of Elections on Second Street in the County Admin. Bldg. soon. Or, visit lcounty.com for more info: click to “Board of Elections.” There you can get a downloadable form to apply for an absentee ballot.
One way or another, make sure you can serve your country in the most basic way possible, and vote. We can’t all volunteer for national service, the Underground Railroad doesn’t need conductors and agents nowadays, and not everyone gets called for jury duty; yet each of us can be a well-informed participant in democracy by casting our ballot.
But you’ve got to register first!
Jeff Gill is pastor of Hebron Christian Church and an amateur historian; if you have historic announcements or news of local interest, call 928-4066 or e-mail disciple@voyager.net.
Thursday, September 09, 2004
Tuesday, September 07, 2004
Hebron Crossroads 9-19-04
By Jeff Gill
Monarch butterflies are back around the milkweed stands, swooping and drifting and fluttering through my yard, more orange than the now fading marigolds around the slumping tomato vines.
Thanks to friends and neighbors who have mowed my lawn during this broken-armed summer (ooh-rah for Scott and Mike), their consideration has extended to mowing around the milkweed I leave in the back corners, which by this time of the year can be a real pain to avoid.
But sure enough, they helped draw back those orange and black regal Lepidoptera to the Hebron Crossroads. Sadly, there seems to be fewer of them, which matches with what I’ve been reading about the cutting of their home forests in Mexico. This is one of those kind of conservation issues I wish conservatives still put front and center; too many still sound like they think that the ocean is a fathomless depth for absorbing waste and pollution, that there are limitless reaches of sky to pump chemical smog into for dispersal, or that the myriad clouds of monarch butterflies mean that we can spare a few million. Earth has limits that we do well to respect.
Humans have limits, too; limits not only of overwork and activity, but limits of solitude and self-sufficiency. We need each other, even when we get on each others’ nerves. People need community and culture and contact, even more in our crowded but individualized society.
“Intentional Community” is the phrase sociologists give to those times and places we create a place to belong that isn’t a neighborhood or village. Summer sees intentional communities sprouting all over the place, and as summer ends we see fewer of them as we retreat for the winter into our homes and streets.
Camp is a good example, whether a kids camp for a week in cabins or an RV park for a few days. National Trail Raceway has a number of intentional communities through the season: each big weekend becomes one in itself, and the Wednesday nights are a running sort of family all along.
Some very specific examples include the two week “Pennsic War” just east of Ohio near Grove City, PA. Thousands of medieval re-enactors move in and live “in character” wearing robes, roasting meat, jousting and the like. This isn’t open to visitors, it is a planned community that exists for its members, but for two weeks.
Nationally famous, or infamous, is the just completed “Burning Man” festival on a dry lake bed in Nevada each Labor Day weekend. Created by artists and performers from the San Francisco area decades ago, they now create Nevada’s third largest municipality for three days each year, where mobile works of performance art move through crowds that may be garishly costumed, nude, or wearing pajamas.
“Burning Man” has been going on so long that now original participants have married there (as they do at Pennsic) and now bring children (ditto) who have grown up knowing this as their “other home.”
Much more sedate – at least by comparison – is the Sweet Corn Festival, which is an event you pass through for many, but an actual community for quite a few. Coming right up is the Backwoods Fest at the other end of Buckeye Lake, which I suspect operates much the same way.
And of course there are churches, communities within our communities whose membership is not necessarily so geographic, but gives participants a very real place to belong, to feel connected. Many of our local long-standing churches are family oriented and made up of family members who may not all live right next to each other, but appreciate having a place to come together each week.
Our area welcomes a new faith community this Sunday as a weekly place of worship, even though they’ve been around for quite a few months now. New Life Community, a new church start of the United Methodist Church, is starting every week 10:30 am services Sept. 19 at Lakewood Intermediate School’s auditorium, where the leadership group with Brian Harkness, their pastor, rents space.
This intentional community hopes to offer a place to belong for newer residents, those with perhaps less of a geographic tie to the area, and a style of music and message a bit less traditional than many churches use.
With less than 40% of our area claiming any church affiliation, there’s room at the Crossroads for New Life Community and for all who work to create community on all levels!
For our more elderly residents, the Licking County Aging Program offers a variety of “intentional communities” to seniors and their families. Zerger Hall on Newark’s east end is one of the better known forms of that, but many of their programs, like “Meals On Wheels,” are meant to go on the road.
With the sponsorship of Hebron Christian Church, Jacksontown United Methodist, and the United Methodist Church of Hebron, they will come to the Hebron council chambers on Wed., Sept. 22 at 7 pm to talk about “Medicare Prescription Cards.”
Alice Gordon, a Hebron resident, is Medicare staff person with LCAP, and she is putting together a program for us that may well be repeated at other community locations around the county. For our panel, she’s bringing Shirley Curtis, Diane Leeds, and MaryAnn Draa.
Alice also said she was bringing Larry Fugate, but since that would put two Booster columnists in the same room, we may have to check Ohio Fair Meetings law to see if we can get away with that.
And a final personal note: my own family continues to spread widely across not only the Midwest, but now also the whole country, as is true for many of you. This is probably one of the reasons intentional communities are growing in popularity, with family relationships stretching and thinning. We need those kinds of bonds, and if we have to we create them from scratch. But I am blessed with brothers and a sister I love, even if I don’t see them as much as I’d like.
All of which is to say that I learned by cell phone and e-mail picture that on Labor Day my sister decided to go into labor, and delivered my first nephew and the Little Guy’s first boy cousin, Brady Joseph Christiansen, in Las Cruces, New Mexico. Mother, child, and the loving community around them from coast to coast are all doing well.
Jeff Gill is pastor of Hebron Christian Church and Brady’s uncle; if you have momentous announcements or news of local interest, call 928-4066 or e-mail disciple@voyager.net.
By Jeff Gill
Monarch butterflies are back around the milkweed stands, swooping and drifting and fluttering through my yard, more orange than the now fading marigolds around the slumping tomato vines.
Thanks to friends and neighbors who have mowed my lawn during this broken-armed summer (ooh-rah for Scott and Mike), their consideration has extended to mowing around the milkweed I leave in the back corners, which by this time of the year can be a real pain to avoid.
But sure enough, they helped draw back those orange and black regal Lepidoptera to the Hebron Crossroads. Sadly, there seems to be fewer of them, which matches with what I’ve been reading about the cutting of their home forests in Mexico. This is one of those kind of conservation issues I wish conservatives still put front and center; too many still sound like they think that the ocean is a fathomless depth for absorbing waste and pollution, that there are limitless reaches of sky to pump chemical smog into for dispersal, or that the myriad clouds of monarch butterflies mean that we can spare a few million. Earth has limits that we do well to respect.
Humans have limits, too; limits not only of overwork and activity, but limits of solitude and self-sufficiency. We need each other, even when we get on each others’ nerves. People need community and culture and contact, even more in our crowded but individualized society.
“Intentional Community” is the phrase sociologists give to those times and places we create a place to belong that isn’t a neighborhood or village. Summer sees intentional communities sprouting all over the place, and as summer ends we see fewer of them as we retreat for the winter into our homes and streets.
Camp is a good example, whether a kids camp for a week in cabins or an RV park for a few days. National Trail Raceway has a number of intentional communities through the season: each big weekend becomes one in itself, and the Wednesday nights are a running sort of family all along.
Some very specific examples include the two week “Pennsic War” just east of Ohio near Grove City, PA. Thousands of medieval re-enactors move in and live “in character” wearing robes, roasting meat, jousting and the like. This isn’t open to visitors, it is a planned community that exists for its members, but for two weeks.
Nationally famous, or infamous, is the just completed “Burning Man” festival on a dry lake bed in Nevada each Labor Day weekend. Created by artists and performers from the San Francisco area decades ago, they now create Nevada’s third largest municipality for three days each year, where mobile works of performance art move through crowds that may be garishly costumed, nude, or wearing pajamas.
“Burning Man” has been going on so long that now original participants have married there (as they do at Pennsic) and now bring children (ditto) who have grown up knowing this as their “other home.”
Much more sedate – at least by comparison – is the Sweet Corn Festival, which is an event you pass through for many, but an actual community for quite a few. Coming right up is the Backwoods Fest at the other end of Buckeye Lake, which I suspect operates much the same way.
And of course there are churches, communities within our communities whose membership is not necessarily so geographic, but gives participants a very real place to belong, to feel connected. Many of our local long-standing churches are family oriented and made up of family members who may not all live right next to each other, but appreciate having a place to come together each week.
Our area welcomes a new faith community this Sunday as a weekly place of worship, even though they’ve been around for quite a few months now. New Life Community, a new church start of the United Methodist Church, is starting every week 10:30 am services Sept. 19 at Lakewood Intermediate School’s auditorium, where the leadership group with Brian Harkness, their pastor, rents space.
This intentional community hopes to offer a place to belong for newer residents, those with perhaps less of a geographic tie to the area, and a style of music and message a bit less traditional than many churches use.
With less than 40% of our area claiming any church affiliation, there’s room at the Crossroads for New Life Community and for all who work to create community on all levels!
For our more elderly residents, the Licking County Aging Program offers a variety of “intentional communities” to seniors and their families. Zerger Hall on Newark’s east end is one of the better known forms of that, but many of their programs, like “Meals On Wheels,” are meant to go on the road.
With the sponsorship of Hebron Christian Church, Jacksontown United Methodist, and the United Methodist Church of Hebron, they will come to the Hebron council chambers on Wed., Sept. 22 at 7 pm to talk about “Medicare Prescription Cards.”
Alice Gordon, a Hebron resident, is Medicare staff person with LCAP, and she is putting together a program for us that may well be repeated at other community locations around the county. For our panel, she’s bringing Shirley Curtis, Diane Leeds, and MaryAnn Draa.
Alice also said she was bringing Larry Fugate, but since that would put two Booster columnists in the same room, we may have to check Ohio Fair Meetings law to see if we can get away with that.
And a final personal note: my own family continues to spread widely across not only the Midwest, but now also the whole country, as is true for many of you. This is probably one of the reasons intentional communities are growing in popularity, with family relationships stretching and thinning. We need those kinds of bonds, and if we have to we create them from scratch. But I am blessed with brothers and a sister I love, even if I don’t see them as much as I’d like.
All of which is to say that I learned by cell phone and e-mail picture that on Labor Day my sister decided to go into labor, and delivered my first nephew and the Little Guy’s first boy cousin, Brady Joseph Christiansen, in Las Cruces, New Mexico. Mother, child, and the loving community around them from coast to coast are all doing well.
Jeff Gill is pastor of Hebron Christian Church and Brady’s uncle; if you have momentous announcements or news of local interest, call 928-4066 or e-mail disciple@voyager.net.
Monday, September 06, 2004
Hebron Crossroads 9-12-04
By Jeff Gill
Medicare premiums go up 17%; this is a dilemma, as Howard Dean said at Denison last weekend (see more below if you like politics), that is a Democratic and Republican problem, and will require a Republican and Democratic solution.
Many of us are experiencing wage stagnation or decline due to the annual 15% to 40% increase in health insurance costs that have been with us for. . .well, all my professional life. Americans are staying in jobs with no future or deferring entrepreneurial options (is the Republican party reading this?) to hold onto insurance unreachable otherwise, and state budgets are looking at whacking libraries and school support because Medicare costs are sucking the fiscal oxygen out of the treasury (Dems, can you say anything to your voters about this?).
As our local Hebron Crossroads contribution to this situation, on Wed., Sept. 22, at 7 pm in the municipal complex council chambers, there will be a public program on “Medicare Prescription Cards: What’s The Deal?” Co-sponsored by Hebron Christian Church, Jacksontown United Methodist Church, and the United Methodist Church of Hebron, we invite everyone who is a) on Medicare, b) knows someone on Medicare, or c) plans on getting older. More next week!
Back a couple Wednesdays, I stood with the Little Guy at the corner of Chautauqua and Lancaster in Millersport. There where the Sweet Corn Festival parade turned the corner, 150 units and more, we heard bands and watched the scramble for scattered candy by sprawling kids (LG safely on my shoulders), with festival queens from far reaches of festal Ohio carefully waving with one hand while holding on for dear life to a convertible trunk lid with the other.
With the show’s end out on the streets, our focus went into Lions’ Park. Reporting to my station in Heritage Village, we had a great view from the steps of the Walnut Township building of the Main Stage bandstand and Lakewood Band’s show, which I later heard they did even better down at OU in Athens (but guys. . .the 80’s? do people really want the 80’s back? The 40’s and Woody Herman and Glenn Miller nostalgia I get, but AC/DC? Yet the Def Leppard tune was oddly uplifting. . .).
Almost every night of the festival had a brilliant sunset – is that an oxymoron? – with blue skies and temperate temperatures. That meant starting with the first day, record sales for all the food booths was the norm.
When we took a break to find dinner for my sidekick, I stood in a briskly moving but lengthy line through Hickory Grove, shagbark trunks breaking up the views of snaking files leading to tater booths, waffle stands, and pizza places. Looking around, you might have a biker with a stroller in front of you, a goth arguing with her mother behind you, and a crowned queen in tiara and evening gown walking away balancing four slices of pizza on her arms, mouth clamped on a stack of napkins.
And the now 25 year old Lakewood Band Booster booth! Walking that way through a dim huddle of picnic tables, the view suddenly opens up to reveal the high prow of the roofline with its painted doughnut, cutting through a sea of customers 20 deep in 10 lines. We got our mixed dozen and swam back to the safe harbor of Heritage Village.
Due to some wedding related complications, I never got back to serve as a host later in the week (and missed my annual steak-on-a-stick, which evidently was bad luck for Fisher Catholic since their booth nearly burned down on Friday), but that first night was a fascinating series of conversations with people delighted to see how some simple, basic local history was being preserved.
Mind you, this is what the Millersport Lions do in their spare time when they aren’t maintaining the grounds, their clubhouse, and planning the next Sweet Corn Festival. But for every cheering fan of “Confederate Railroad”, there was a quietly appreciative visitor to the Slater Gas Station or Holliday Covered Bridge.
Congratulations to all the community groups and youth organizations who made a big part of their budget last week, thanks to many volunteers, many more patrons, and the support of the Millersport Lions, without whom none of this would happen.
And remember to give thanks for great weather, which helped set some records for 2004!
Some of you may have seen Sen. John Kerry on his campaign appearance in Newark. In fact, I did too. After meeting with someone in the Tim Horton’s on N. 21st St., I got stuck in the parking lot by a flotilla of police cruisers from, I kid you not, every police department in the county. They sealed off the roadway, and so it was that I got to see candidate Kerry.
20 yards away, at 45 mph, facing away from me, through the tinted glass of a campaign bus. Ah well.
From what I caught on ONN, Kerry was very well oriented to local issues and seamlessly worked them into his stump speech, referencing Longaberger, Owens, Dow, and a variety of challenges felt here in Licking County. His “front porch meeting” sounded like a good move in terms of retail politics, but the wholesale electoral package has yet to look that saleable, as poll numbers continue to indicate.
It was the appearance by Howard Dean that engaged both heart and brain, and reminded me why Kerry is likely to be back checking off items on Teresa’s honeydew list this winter.
Denison can be very proud of student Eric Spengler, who did the introductory task in front of what I estimated as 3000 people in the acoustically challenged Mitchell Center. He summed up the Dean candidacy, the reasons for his continued relevance after the end of his role in the primary campaign, and introduced the former Vermont governor with aplomb and gravitas.
All of which was a fascinating and appropriate contrast to Dean’s fire and intensity.
A brief note is in order here: your columnist is a Bull Moose Republican, waiting for the next Teddy Roosevelt to earn his vote. I’m for free enterprise and property rights, but not when they compromise groundwater. And as Dean pointed out sharply, a balanced budget is required to support any social safety net -- he’s the Dem, for those of you keeping score at home. Capitalism requires a civil society to function efficiently, and that means good public schools controlled locally, basic health care available to all but especially children, and family life affirmed as the basic unit of our common life.
This scribbler heard more on those subjects from Gov. Dean than from Pres. Bush or Sen. Kerry have said put together, and the Lovely Wife can tell you I’ve been looking.
Yet Dean, Kerry, and most of the Democratic apparatus are apparently convinced that the global war on terror is mostly an overreaction (the nicest word they use) to random flailings of discontented dispossessed groups frustrated by the world wide reach of McD’s and Disney. If you believe that, I can see why you might vote for Kerry.
If, on the other hand, you see a dispersed but co-ordinated assault on free societies and liberty by forces of monolithic barbarism and terror – and I do – it is hard to avoid the sense that voting to re-elect Pres. Bush is necessary and important.
Meanwhile, Dems and Bull Moose R’s can work domestically to turn back “No Test Left Behind” (or “No School Board Left Standing,” Dean’s phrase), maintain environmental standards, and find a better national health care policy than making ER’s the federally mandated primary care centers for the poor (which is the national health care policy we currently have -- remember, the question isn’t having a national plan or not; we’ve got one already AND IT DOESN’T WORK for employers or retirees, let alone the general public).
But when we focus on protecting the Olympics and our conventions in the US, we see suicide bombers from an Islamofascist group allied with Al-Qaida bring down two jetliners, blow up a subway station, and kill over 400 in a school in a “first day” takeover attempt, all in Russia. They, like France, thought they’d bought a free pass from the terror mob by taking a more accommodating approach. Both countries now have reason to reassess their choices.
I wish I thought it was safe enough in the world to reassess mine, but I will be casting a rueful vote for George Bush this November.
Cheerful stuff next week, I promise. Plus more on Medicare cards and our program Sept. 22. Just wanted to be honest with y’all, even though I know Licking County and the Hebron area are very likely to vote Kerry, which (contrary to many of my liberal friends fears of Bush’s re-election) won’t be the end of the world.
I just want us to get back to work on making a better world!
By Jeff Gill
Medicare premiums go up 17%; this is a dilemma, as Howard Dean said at Denison last weekend (see more below if you like politics), that is a Democratic and Republican problem, and will require a Republican and Democratic solution.
Many of us are experiencing wage stagnation or decline due to the annual 15% to 40% increase in health insurance costs that have been with us for. . .well, all my professional life. Americans are staying in jobs with no future or deferring entrepreneurial options (is the Republican party reading this?) to hold onto insurance unreachable otherwise, and state budgets are looking at whacking libraries and school support because Medicare costs are sucking the fiscal oxygen out of the treasury (Dems, can you say anything to your voters about this?).
As our local Hebron Crossroads contribution to this situation, on Wed., Sept. 22, at 7 pm in the municipal complex council chambers, there will be a public program on “Medicare Prescription Cards: What’s The Deal?” Co-sponsored by Hebron Christian Church, Jacksontown United Methodist Church, and the United Methodist Church of Hebron, we invite everyone who is a) on Medicare, b) knows someone on Medicare, or c) plans on getting older. More next week!
Back a couple Wednesdays, I stood with the Little Guy at the corner of Chautauqua and Lancaster in Millersport. There where the Sweet Corn Festival parade turned the corner, 150 units and more, we heard bands and watched the scramble for scattered candy by sprawling kids (LG safely on my shoulders), with festival queens from far reaches of festal Ohio carefully waving with one hand while holding on for dear life to a convertible trunk lid with the other.
With the show’s end out on the streets, our focus went into Lions’ Park. Reporting to my station in Heritage Village, we had a great view from the steps of the Walnut Township building of the Main Stage bandstand and Lakewood Band’s show, which I later heard they did even better down at OU in Athens (but guys. . .the 80’s? do people really want the 80’s back? The 40’s and Woody Herman and Glenn Miller nostalgia I get, but AC/DC? Yet the Def Leppard tune was oddly uplifting. . .).
Almost every night of the festival had a brilliant sunset – is that an oxymoron? – with blue skies and temperate temperatures. That meant starting with the first day, record sales for all the food booths was the norm.
When we took a break to find dinner for my sidekick, I stood in a briskly moving but lengthy line through Hickory Grove, shagbark trunks breaking up the views of snaking files leading to tater booths, waffle stands, and pizza places. Looking around, you might have a biker with a stroller in front of you, a goth arguing with her mother behind you, and a crowned queen in tiara and evening gown walking away balancing four slices of pizza on her arms, mouth clamped on a stack of napkins.
And the now 25 year old Lakewood Band Booster booth! Walking that way through a dim huddle of picnic tables, the view suddenly opens up to reveal the high prow of the roofline with its painted doughnut, cutting through a sea of customers 20 deep in 10 lines. We got our mixed dozen and swam back to the safe harbor of Heritage Village.
Due to some wedding related complications, I never got back to serve as a host later in the week (and missed my annual steak-on-a-stick, which evidently was bad luck for Fisher Catholic since their booth nearly burned down on Friday), but that first night was a fascinating series of conversations with people delighted to see how some simple, basic local history was being preserved.
Mind you, this is what the Millersport Lions do in their spare time when they aren’t maintaining the grounds, their clubhouse, and planning the next Sweet Corn Festival. But for every cheering fan of “Confederate Railroad”, there was a quietly appreciative visitor to the Slater Gas Station or Holliday Covered Bridge.
Congratulations to all the community groups and youth organizations who made a big part of their budget last week, thanks to many volunteers, many more patrons, and the support of the Millersport Lions, without whom none of this would happen.
And remember to give thanks for great weather, which helped set some records for 2004!
Some of you may have seen Sen. John Kerry on his campaign appearance in Newark. In fact, I did too. After meeting with someone in the Tim Horton’s on N. 21st St., I got stuck in the parking lot by a flotilla of police cruisers from, I kid you not, every police department in the county. They sealed off the roadway, and so it was that I got to see candidate Kerry.
20 yards away, at 45 mph, facing away from me, through the tinted glass of a campaign bus. Ah well.
From what I caught on ONN, Kerry was very well oriented to local issues and seamlessly worked them into his stump speech, referencing Longaberger, Owens, Dow, and a variety of challenges felt here in Licking County. His “front porch meeting” sounded like a good move in terms of retail politics, but the wholesale electoral package has yet to look that saleable, as poll numbers continue to indicate.
It was the appearance by Howard Dean that engaged both heart and brain, and reminded me why Kerry is likely to be back checking off items on Teresa’s honeydew list this winter.
Denison can be very proud of student Eric Spengler, who did the introductory task in front of what I estimated as 3000 people in the acoustically challenged Mitchell Center. He summed up the Dean candidacy, the reasons for his continued relevance after the end of his role in the primary campaign, and introduced the former Vermont governor with aplomb and gravitas.
All of which was a fascinating and appropriate contrast to Dean’s fire and intensity.
A brief note is in order here: your columnist is a Bull Moose Republican, waiting for the next Teddy Roosevelt to earn his vote. I’m for free enterprise and property rights, but not when they compromise groundwater. And as Dean pointed out sharply, a balanced budget is required to support any social safety net -- he’s the Dem, for those of you keeping score at home. Capitalism requires a civil society to function efficiently, and that means good public schools controlled locally, basic health care available to all but especially children, and family life affirmed as the basic unit of our common life.
This scribbler heard more on those subjects from Gov. Dean than from Pres. Bush or Sen. Kerry have said put together, and the Lovely Wife can tell you I’ve been looking.
Yet Dean, Kerry, and most of the Democratic apparatus are apparently convinced that the global war on terror is mostly an overreaction (the nicest word they use) to random flailings of discontented dispossessed groups frustrated by the world wide reach of McD’s and Disney. If you believe that, I can see why you might vote for Kerry.
If, on the other hand, you see a dispersed but co-ordinated assault on free societies and liberty by forces of monolithic barbarism and terror – and I do – it is hard to avoid the sense that voting to re-elect Pres. Bush is necessary and important.
Meanwhile, Dems and Bull Moose R’s can work domestically to turn back “No Test Left Behind” (or “No School Board Left Standing,” Dean’s phrase), maintain environmental standards, and find a better national health care policy than making ER’s the federally mandated primary care centers for the poor (which is the national health care policy we currently have -- remember, the question isn’t having a national plan or not; we’ve got one already AND IT DOESN’T WORK for employers or retirees, let alone the general public).
But when we focus on protecting the Olympics and our conventions in the US, we see suicide bombers from an Islamofascist group allied with Al-Qaida bring down two jetliners, blow up a subway station, and kill over 400 in a school in a “first day” takeover attempt, all in Russia. They, like France, thought they’d bought a free pass from the terror mob by taking a more accommodating approach. Both countries now have reason to reassess their choices.
I wish I thought it was safe enough in the world to reassess mine, but I will be casting a rueful vote for George Bush this November.
Cheerful stuff next week, I promise. Plus more on Medicare cards and our program Sept. 22. Just wanted to be honest with y’all, even though I know Licking County and the Hebron area are very likely to vote Kerry, which (contrary to many of my liberal friends fears of Bush’s re-election) won’t be the end of the world.
I just want us to get back to work on making a better world!
Saturday, September 04, 2004
I'm posting this from Beliefnet's convention blog by Steven Waldman; with special attention to the closing point --
Red God, Blue God
September 1, 2004 10:30 a.m.
As noted in these pages, the so-called religion gap is actually a church attendance gap. But why does THAT exist?
. . .But it's also time we asked what this God gap says about religion. Conversely, the question is not why less-frequent attenders vote Democratic, but why Democrats are drawn to church less often. Why are progressive houses of worship unable to create an urgent reason for liberal people to show up on Sundays?
Red God, Blue God
September 1, 2004 10:30 a.m.
As noted in these pages, the so-called religion gap is actually a church attendance gap. But why does THAT exist?
. . .But it's also time we asked what this God gap says about religion. Conversely, the question is not why less-frequent attenders vote Democratic, but why Democrats are drawn to church less often. Why are progressive houses of worship unable to create an urgent reason for liberal people to show up on Sundays?
Friday, September 03, 2004
“The Scouter” – Simon Kenton Council Oct. 2004
Licking District Trailmarkers
Looking through my e-mail box (disciple@voyager.net), it must be time to run these little reminders again: “The Scouter” is a great tool for promoting long-range planning and sharing an overview of events past and upcoming. But production and mailing realities mean that information you send me – by the first Thursday of each month, when lovely Editor Bobbi awaits it in Columbus at the council office – must be about events that are 30 to 45 days down the line.
Send me an article about an event on Sept. 1, and I put it in the pipeline Sept. 2; the print/send process goes to work the last week of the month, and should be into the hands of the USPS by Oct. 1, which means many in our district won’t see it until as late as the week of Oct. 11-15. If the event you’re wanting to see in print happens Oct. 23 (just as a for instance), the Scout or Scouter reading about it has less than two weeks to respond.
Add to that the fact that if an error has crept in by my mistake, your error, or a production slip-up: I won’t see it until the next month’s copy has been e-mailed, meaning that corrections are on a two month or more turnaround, by which time folks aren’t always sure what we’re even talking about!
The bottom line is that this page is a great place for announcing plans and registration info two to four months ahead, which means getting your info to me three to five months ahead. It kind of forces you to plan ahead, doesn’t it? But if we want Scouting units in Licking County to participate in what we do as a district, we have to respect that most of them have a year-round plan already in place, and we owe it to them to stay out ahead of their hard work for the youth in their unit.
* * * * * * *
Fall Camporee – Apple Butter Days
[Repeat info from last “Scouter”]
Nov. 5-7 is our Fall Camporee weekend, where with your registrations turned in, your popcorn sold, and your leaders trained, you and your Scouts can come and enjoy the real heart of Scouting, which is “Outing” out at Camp Falling Rock.
Saturday, Nov. 6 will offer a number of special Cub activities, and Friday through Sunday is open to Scouts and Venturers. Mike Dalton will be in touch as the District Activities Committee continues to offer great experiences for your unit program.
* * * * * * *
[insert Bill’s articles on Popcorn and Cub Scout Leader Basic Training]
Down the Trail -- A Closing Word
“Scouting For Boys – the Original 1908 Edition” is now in print from Oxford World’s Classics. Approaching the centenary of the writing of the book that began our Movement, it seems that someone has noticed that the effects of what Robert Baden-Powell put down on paper still live and breathe all around them.
Since the 1948 Scout Field Book was written by “Green Bar Bill” Hillcourt, most Scout publications have been written by committees – and read like it. But the original Scout Handbook was, well, here’s what the Amazon.com book description starts with:
“A startling amalgam of Zulu war-cry and Sherlock Holmes, of practical tips on health and hygiene and object lessons in woodcraft, Scouting for Boys (1908) is the original blueprint and inspiration for the Boy Scout Movement. An all-time bestseller in the English-speaking world, second in its heyday only to the Bible, it is one of the most influential manuals for youth ever published, known and loved around the world. Including all of Baden-Powell's original illustrations, this new critical edition of Scouting for Boys serves up a wonderful hodge-podge of true crime stories, stern moralizing, stock adventure tales, natural history, first-aid tips, advice on observation and tracking, and much more. Readers will find . . . lengthy quotations from adventure fiction--from Rudyard Kipling and James Fenimore Cooper, to Alexander Dumas and Arthur Conan Doyle.”
If you have never read the narrative that was B-P’s match to the kindling of youth organizations, you might want to spend the $20 it’ll cost you to read where it all began. There are snarky comments in a “scholarly” introduction, but even those who intend to critique the roots of a Movement that wears a uniform and rewards achievement, find themselves saluting the spirit within this Scouting program:
“Indeed, the book brims with Baden-Powell's philosophy of life, one that replaces self with service, puts country before the individual, and duty above all. . . Though almost a century old, Scouting for Boys continues to fascinate, surprise, and motivate readers today. It will delight anyone interested in popular culture, Victorian history, and literature for children.”
And I invite you to share your Scouting news with me at disciple@voyager.net, or call 928-4066 and leave your info or call back contact numbers.
Jeff Gill, District PR guy and Chaplain
Licking District Trailmarkers
Looking through my e-mail box (disciple@voyager.net), it must be time to run these little reminders again: “The Scouter” is a great tool for promoting long-range planning and sharing an overview of events past and upcoming. But production and mailing realities mean that information you send me – by the first Thursday of each month, when lovely Editor Bobbi awaits it in Columbus at the council office – must be about events that are 30 to 45 days down the line.
Send me an article about an event on Sept. 1, and I put it in the pipeline Sept. 2; the print/send process goes to work the last week of the month, and should be into the hands of the USPS by Oct. 1, which means many in our district won’t see it until as late as the week of Oct. 11-15. If the event you’re wanting to see in print happens Oct. 23 (just as a for instance), the Scout or Scouter reading about it has less than two weeks to respond.
Add to that the fact that if an error has crept in by my mistake, your error, or a production slip-up: I won’t see it until the next month’s copy has been e-mailed, meaning that corrections are on a two month or more turnaround, by which time folks aren’t always sure what we’re even talking about!
The bottom line is that this page is a great place for announcing plans and registration info two to four months ahead, which means getting your info to me three to five months ahead. It kind of forces you to plan ahead, doesn’t it? But if we want Scouting units in Licking County to participate in what we do as a district, we have to respect that most of them have a year-round plan already in place, and we owe it to them to stay out ahead of their hard work for the youth in their unit.
* * * * * * *
Fall Camporee – Apple Butter Days
[Repeat info from last “Scouter”]
Nov. 5-7 is our Fall Camporee weekend, where with your registrations turned in, your popcorn sold, and your leaders trained, you and your Scouts can come and enjoy the real heart of Scouting, which is “Outing” out at Camp Falling Rock.
Saturday, Nov. 6 will offer a number of special Cub activities, and Friday through Sunday is open to Scouts and Venturers. Mike Dalton will be in touch as the District Activities Committee continues to offer great experiences for your unit program.
* * * * * * *
[insert Bill’s articles on Popcorn and Cub Scout Leader Basic Training]
Down the Trail -- A Closing Word
“Scouting For Boys – the Original 1908 Edition” is now in print from Oxford World’s Classics. Approaching the centenary of the writing of the book that began our Movement, it seems that someone has noticed that the effects of what Robert Baden-Powell put down on paper still live and breathe all around them.
Since the 1948 Scout Field Book was written by “Green Bar Bill” Hillcourt, most Scout publications have been written by committees – and read like it. But the original Scout Handbook was, well, here’s what the Amazon.com book description starts with:
“A startling amalgam of Zulu war-cry and Sherlock Holmes, of practical tips on health and hygiene and object lessons in woodcraft, Scouting for Boys (1908) is the original blueprint and inspiration for the Boy Scout Movement. An all-time bestseller in the English-speaking world, second in its heyday only to the Bible, it is one of the most influential manuals for youth ever published, known and loved around the world. Including all of Baden-Powell's original illustrations, this new critical edition of Scouting for Boys serves up a wonderful hodge-podge of true crime stories, stern moralizing, stock adventure tales, natural history, first-aid tips, advice on observation and tracking, and much more. Readers will find . . . lengthy quotations from adventure fiction--from Rudyard Kipling and James Fenimore Cooper, to Alexander Dumas and Arthur Conan Doyle.”
If you have never read the narrative that was B-P’s match to the kindling of youth organizations, you might want to spend the $20 it’ll cost you to read where it all began. There are snarky comments in a “scholarly” introduction, but even those who intend to critique the roots of a Movement that wears a uniform and rewards achievement, find themselves saluting the spirit within this Scouting program:
“Indeed, the book brims with Baden-Powell's philosophy of life, one that replaces self with service, puts country before the individual, and duty above all. . . Though almost a century old, Scouting for Boys continues to fascinate, surprise, and motivate readers today. It will delight anyone interested in popular culture, Victorian history, and literature for children.”
And I invite you to share your Scouting news with me at disciple@voyager.net, or call 928-4066 and leave your info or call back contact numbers.
Jeff Gill, District PR guy and Chaplain
Tuesday, August 31, 2004
Hebron Crossroads 9-05-04
by Jeff Gill
[ital]“Come unto me, all ye who labor and are heavy laden. . .”[/end ital]
Labor Day is come, and may be gone when many of you read this, worn out from the Sweet Corn Festival or the Buckeye home opener, or a Lakewood Band appearance at OU in Athens (Ohio, not the Olympic one), or hacking down the last wild growth of the summer in advance of autumn’s brown snags and snarls.
We need rest, but early September around the Hebron Crossroads isn’t the time to get it. The Hebron Parent-Teacher Organization fall fundraiser catalogues are out and about; if you see the delighted snowman on a blue cover, know that your purchases help elementary kids for Buckeye Lake, Hebron, and surrounding township areas get field trips, added reading and math enrichment, and other supplies not in the very basic Lakewood schools budget. (And Jackson Elementary, when you do yours, make sure to let me know and I promise to promote y’all, too!)
Final day to turn in for kids and parents is at school, Friday Sept. 10, with orders arriving the week of October 4. We hope to have most of our fundraising needs met through this and the Memorial Day weekend Crossroads Festival, so the rest of the year PTO can help support the staff and teachers in education and involvement.
Any family member of a student at Hebron Elementary is welcome to drop by our first meeting this school year on Tuesday, Sept. 7 at 7:00 pm in the art room around back.
With so much work to do, just done, and going on the weekend of Sept. 11, our “Respond To the Call” service project was hobbled this year by Patriots Day falling on a Saturday. Weddings and fall activities (and the Marshall game in Columbus…sigh) tie up most of our Hebron area co-ordinators, so anyone looking for a chance to do some public service is asked to report that day to Ryan Park in Buckeye Lake, where a day-long project is going on to fix and maintain that park, where many of our Hebron Elementary youth play.
How ‘bout those “Effective” ratings for Lakewood Schools? Our building count is up, more new students, and we are continuing to improve our community wide support of education.
Anyone who says that “Excellent” is out of reach for Lakewood isn’t paying attention: that’s exactly where we’re heading.
One of the effectively excellent things our local students have done is build a display case for the lobby of the municipal complex. The Hebron Historical Society has put a marvelous arrangement of objects with informational cards in the case, telling our story from 1827 to today.
Garrett Boysen, Robert Cundiff, and Earl Kissell may think they’re too old to be a part of history, but they are now. Larry Prater may not think of himself as a history teacher, but that’s what he is as we thank them all for their work. Stop by and look at it and the original plat map, framed next to it, carefully copied and enlarged with some loving work from Dave Morrow and Linda Nicodemus (and they tell me they aren’t done yet).
A few weeks ago, I was walking around in the middle of some of our local history. Right in the heart of Union Township, in a spot carefully hidden right out in the open (and that’s all I’ve got to say about that), is a cemetery that was used from the 1820’s to about the end of the Civil War in 1865.
From my eye, used to casting about across the surface of old historic cemeteries, it seems that the plot allocated for burials filled, and for whatever reasons was closed down. The dates I have are from the stones still visible, of which there are few; many more are horizontal and submerged almost entirely in sod. The remaining space has the lumpiness of old wooden casket burials, with their faint subsidence capped by hummocks that may yet hide the stumps of long-broken sandstone markers.
On the “newer,” mid-1850’s stones, the names are those that haunt the pages of early Union Township and Licking County history: Park, Wells, Holmes, Hughes, Kirkendall. A history book of sorts lay open all around.
[ital]“Blessed are the dead that die in the Lord, for they rest, they rest from their labors.”[/end ital]
In marking Labor Day, as we work ourselves into and out of this interval, stop and stroll through a cemetery, and mark the names and imagine the work, the labor, that built this land of farms and churches and mills and schools. On Hebron’s east edge, at Kirkersville, north of Jacksontown, out by Fairmount, our story is there to be told. Listen closely for it, and you will hear a few pages rustle.
Or if you just have to work some on Labor Day, then shift gears; don’t do your usual chores. . .you could bake bread!
A number of you have asked for my sister’s Indiana State Fair winning recipe for bread, and here it is as she sent it to me, waiting the birth of my first nephew in New Mexico:
Challah Bread
2 pkg. yeast
2 C. warm water
1/2 C. sugar
4 tsp. salt
3 eggs beaten
1 1/4 C. oil
7 C. flour
1 egg
small amt. oil
poppy seeds
Dissolve yeast in water in bowl. Add next 5 ingredients gradually, mixing
well after each addition. Knead on floured surface until smooth and
elastic. Place in greased bowl, turning to grease surface. Let rise until
doubled in bulk. Roll into six 18-inch ropes on floured surface. Braid
into 2 loaves on greased baking sheets. Let rise for 1/2 hour or until
doubled in bulk. Brush loaves with mixture of egg and oil. Sprinkle with
poppy seeds. Bake at 350 degrees for 30-35 minutes.
P.S. Brian (our brother) and I used to throw the dough back and forth during that
kneading stage--we found it really helped :-)
If you just gotta work, have fun with it, right? Either way, may you find rest for heart, mind, or body (ideally, all three!) this weekend.
Jeff Gill is pastor of Hebron Christian Church and an occasional baker of Irish Soda Bread; if you have recipes to share or news of local interest, e-mail disciple@voyager.net or call 928-4066.
by Jeff Gill
[ital]“Come unto me, all ye who labor and are heavy laden. . .”[/end ital]
Labor Day is come, and may be gone when many of you read this, worn out from the Sweet Corn Festival or the Buckeye home opener, or a Lakewood Band appearance at OU in Athens (Ohio, not the Olympic one), or hacking down the last wild growth of the summer in advance of autumn’s brown snags and snarls.
We need rest, but early September around the Hebron Crossroads isn’t the time to get it. The Hebron Parent-Teacher Organization fall fundraiser catalogues are out and about; if you see the delighted snowman on a blue cover, know that your purchases help elementary kids for Buckeye Lake, Hebron, and surrounding township areas get field trips, added reading and math enrichment, and other supplies not in the very basic Lakewood schools budget. (And Jackson Elementary, when you do yours, make sure to let me know and I promise to promote y’all, too!)
Final day to turn in for kids and parents is at school, Friday Sept. 10, with orders arriving the week of October 4. We hope to have most of our fundraising needs met through this and the Memorial Day weekend Crossroads Festival, so the rest of the year PTO can help support the staff and teachers in education and involvement.
Any family member of a student at Hebron Elementary is welcome to drop by our first meeting this school year on Tuesday, Sept. 7 at 7:00 pm in the art room around back.
With so much work to do, just done, and going on the weekend of Sept. 11, our “Respond To the Call” service project was hobbled this year by Patriots Day falling on a Saturday. Weddings and fall activities (and the Marshall game in Columbus…sigh) tie up most of our Hebron area co-ordinators, so anyone looking for a chance to do some public service is asked to report that day to Ryan Park in Buckeye Lake, where a day-long project is going on to fix and maintain that park, where many of our Hebron Elementary youth play.
How ‘bout those “Effective” ratings for Lakewood Schools? Our building count is up, more new students, and we are continuing to improve our community wide support of education.
Anyone who says that “Excellent” is out of reach for Lakewood isn’t paying attention: that’s exactly where we’re heading.
One of the effectively excellent things our local students have done is build a display case for the lobby of the municipal complex. The Hebron Historical Society has put a marvelous arrangement of objects with informational cards in the case, telling our story from 1827 to today.
Garrett Boysen, Robert Cundiff, and Earl Kissell may think they’re too old to be a part of history, but they are now. Larry Prater may not think of himself as a history teacher, but that’s what he is as we thank them all for their work. Stop by and look at it and the original plat map, framed next to it, carefully copied and enlarged with some loving work from Dave Morrow and Linda Nicodemus (and they tell me they aren’t done yet).
A few weeks ago, I was walking around in the middle of some of our local history. Right in the heart of Union Township, in a spot carefully hidden right out in the open (and that’s all I’ve got to say about that), is a cemetery that was used from the 1820’s to about the end of the Civil War in 1865.
From my eye, used to casting about across the surface of old historic cemeteries, it seems that the plot allocated for burials filled, and for whatever reasons was closed down. The dates I have are from the stones still visible, of which there are few; many more are horizontal and submerged almost entirely in sod. The remaining space has the lumpiness of old wooden casket burials, with their faint subsidence capped by hummocks that may yet hide the stumps of long-broken sandstone markers.
On the “newer,” mid-1850’s stones, the names are those that haunt the pages of early Union Township and Licking County history: Park, Wells, Holmes, Hughes, Kirkendall. A history book of sorts lay open all around.
[ital]“Blessed are the dead that die in the Lord, for they rest, they rest from their labors.”[/end ital]
In marking Labor Day, as we work ourselves into and out of this interval, stop and stroll through a cemetery, and mark the names and imagine the work, the labor, that built this land of farms and churches and mills and schools. On Hebron’s east edge, at Kirkersville, north of Jacksontown, out by Fairmount, our story is there to be told. Listen closely for it, and you will hear a few pages rustle.
Or if you just have to work some on Labor Day, then shift gears; don’t do your usual chores. . .you could bake bread!
A number of you have asked for my sister’s Indiana State Fair winning recipe for bread, and here it is as she sent it to me, waiting the birth of my first nephew in New Mexico:
Challah Bread
2 pkg. yeast
2 C. warm water
1/2 C. sugar
4 tsp. salt
3 eggs beaten
1 1/4 C. oil
7 C. flour
1 egg
small amt. oil
poppy seeds
Dissolve yeast in water in bowl. Add next 5 ingredients gradually, mixing
well after each addition. Knead on floured surface until smooth and
elastic. Place in greased bowl, turning to grease surface. Let rise until
doubled in bulk. Roll into six 18-inch ropes on floured surface. Braid
into 2 loaves on greased baking sheets. Let rise for 1/2 hour or until
doubled in bulk. Brush loaves with mixture of egg and oil. Sprinkle with
poppy seeds. Bake at 350 degrees for 30-35 minutes.
P.S. Brian (our brother) and I used to throw the dough back and forth during that
kneading stage--we found it really helped :-)
If you just gotta work, have fun with it, right? Either way, may you find rest for heart, mind, or body (ideally, all three!) this weekend.
Jeff Gill is pastor of Hebron Christian Church and an occasional baker of Irish Soda Bread; if you have recipes to share or news of local interest, e-mail disciple@voyager.net or call 928-4066.
Wednesday, August 25, 2004
Hebron Crossroads 8-29-04
by Jeff Gill
Across the mown field behind Hebron Elementary a few evenings ago, the air was filled with motion. Insects, caught in the slanting light, swam thicker than dust motes in a haymow, an ocean of life suspended above the ground.
With the end of August, the burden of life weighs heavy across treelines and meadows, an overproduction of vine and stem and blossom that now sways low. Green no longer glows brightly, but the swelling tomatoes grow ever redder, and on curling vines some expectant pumpkins along alleys and in nearby fields fill with orange across the once-sickly white towards the stems.
Harvest time is coming, and a day to rest from our labors before then. Labor Day weekend means this week opens the Millersport Sweet Corn Festival (look for the Hebron Crossroads to relocate into Heritage Village near the bandstand!), the 25 year anniversary of the Lakewood Band Boosters Donut Booth, and Buckeye Lake Youth Association waffle cakes . . . plus many other culinary delights.
Corn may be available, too. And every other entrée and side dish your cardiologist warned you about; just park a really long way aways (like in Hebron?) and walk enough so you can eat a bit of everything!
The Hebron Lions join their Laker Lion colleagues with their fry booth, but without Mr. Potato Head himself, Verne Griffith, who took his last pass down National Trail Raceways in a suspiciously “Goldenrod” hued casket recently.
His passing, and the death of Barbara Pierce last week, leave Hebron and Jacksontown respectively poorer, and this column a bit sadder than I’d originally intended, but both gave a gallant meaning to “passing on,” dying after hard struggles with cancer that did not take away their love and good spirits they each tried to maintain for family and friends who gathered around them through the end.
A salute to the staff and volunteers of Hospice of Licking County, who made it possible for Verne to die at home and Barbara to at least be back closer to home at Licking Memorial.
If you want to add to a fitting memorial for Barbara Pierce, make sure to sign and keep with your driver’s license (or have placed on your next license) an organ donor card. The last five years were all gift for Homer & Eileen thanks to someone who did this, and made it possible for Barbara to enjoy a few more years of life and love.
Or if you’ve already done so, you can come by the Hebron municipal complex and give blood Tuesday from 1 to 6 pm. Transplant surgery often requires many units, and sometimes rare blood types (which you may have!) or O- as the universal donor. These regular blood drives are a great way to give of yourself for others, particularly for those who have given so generously of their hearts, their spirits, and themselves for a richer community ‘round these crossroads.
Jeff Gill is pastor of Hebron Christian Church and soon-to-be ten gallon blood donor (not all at once, though!); if you have news or information about community events, call 928-4066 or e-mail disciple@voyager.net.
* * * * * * *
Entertaining Yourself at the 2004 Sweet Corn Fest
By Jeff Gill
Entertainment is not the first thing most folks think about when the subject of the Millersport Sweet Corn Festival comes up.
There’s food (like lots of sweet corn), there’s the midway filled with rides and games, and there’s the parade opening the whole shebang on Wednesday, Sept. 1 at 6:00 pm.
But the Main Stage area is at the center of the festival grounds in more ways than one. Even though the Lions’ Building and Heritage Village are important locations for navigating around the hundreds of food booths and dozens of rides and games, the sounds from the Main Stage are a landmark of their own, crossing all boundaries of the festival and of musical tastes as well.
Many already know that noted country music legend Porter Wagoner is the closing act of the whole festival on Saturday, Sept. 4 at 8:30 pm, but did you know that the Teays River Cloggers were performing Wednesday at 7:30 pm at the Hickory Grove bandstand? Were you aware that The Ragtime Strutters were roving the Festival Park grounds on Thursday? Or had you planned to catch Confederate Railroad on Friday at 9 pm at the Main Stage?
In fact, from high school brass bands to Razzamatazz & Jazz Thursday evening, almost every type and genre of music (and dancing!) you can imagine will be part of this 58th Sweet Corn Festival.
Gospel singers, bluegrass, Charles Slater playing his harmonica from a park bench: you name it, and the Millersport Lions have found a place for it (except maybe “Swan Lake,” but someone may be selling roast duck on a stick in the food booths, which is close, isn’t it?).
Most amazingly, all this entertainment is free ($5 for parking in the area); just walk into Festival Park and follow your ears. Neither the food nor the rides can match that for the family on a budget. You don’t have to buy a set of tickets or shell out anything much more than the time it takes to enjoy a concert or performance.
Beyond the musical performances from local groups and marquee acts, there are entertainments of a variety of sorts available through each evening, such as Ohio Nature Education’s display of live wild animals at the Covered Bridge Entertainment Area, the always interesting corn eating contests at Founder’s Commons Stage. The Hickory Grove Bandstand has a series of cloggers, country dancers, and square dancers right through all four days of the festival, and there are the roving entertainers throughout the grounds.
If you like racing, whether it’s a 5K race to cheer on the runners, an antique tractor pull, or even a Hula Hoop contest, something to see and be fascinated by is going on all the time. As to the Rolling Pin Throwing Contest, perhaps we should just say that men may want to find something else to watch on Friday night.
Porter Wagoner does represent a very exciting entertainment option Saturday; a fellow who once had Dolly Parton as a backup singer in his band and then was smart enough to make her his singing partner clearly has made quite a mark in country and pop music.
“The Green, Green Grass of Home” and “Just Someone I Used To Know” represent just a small part of the music he has made popular across America and around the world. The Sweet Corn Festival will close with everyone having a chance to sing along with some old favorites and hear some new music from this country music icon, whose proudest moment he says was to perform at the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville.
If nothing described here sounds entertaining, there is one more attraction to keep in mind. The Millersport Sweet Corn Festival has offered, since 1947, the very finest in . . . people-watching. You can spend hours and spend not a dime in this compelling, occasionally dramatic activity. Find a good spot to rest, and see the show.
Just remember, someone may be getting a charge out of watching you!
The Millersport Sweet Corn Festival is at Festival Park in Millersport OH at the end of Chautauqua Street west of Main (just follow the lines of cars!). The Millersport Ohio Lions Club has full information on their festival at www.sweetcornfest.com, or call 740-246-5680. Admission is free, with parking in most areas near the park at $5. The proceeds from this four-day community event are a major source of income for approximately eighty non-profit charitable organizations that participate from eight counties in the Central Ohio area. They operate all of the food & game concessions, whose profits go toward their administration and community projects.
* * * * * * *
Hebron Christian Church
(Disciples of Christ)
For the fifth Sunday youth-led worship, Tracy Wildermuth will lead the call to worship, Mattie McCord will offer the invocation, Kalie McCord will share the offering meditation and blessing, and the presiders at the communion table will be Julie McNichols and Amy Brown. The scripture reading from Jeremiah will be from David Scheidegger, Whitney Mason will lead the children’s message, and Josh Halter will give the benediction.
The drama “Unpacking Church Camp” from Pastor Jeff is presented by Crystal Damron, Julie McNichols, Michael Scheidegger, Amy Brown, and Josh Halter, rehearsed by youth advisor Lisa McNichols. Serving through worship are Josh Walters, William Harris, Jessie McNichols, Katie Day, and others in the youth group.
For more info, call 928-4066 or click http://go.to/Hebron_Christian
* * * * * * *
Notes From My Knapsack – Sept. “The Church Window”
Hebron Christian Church
Barbara Pierce was a gift to our church, as well as to her parents Homer and Eileen. She lived out an example of good spirits in the face of challenge and hardship that few of us can ever live up to, but we’d be better off all of us to try.
Eileen remembered over and over during our last few days at the hospice unit in Licking Memorial (and this after many, many weeks in University Hospital) that these last five years have been “a gift,” and indeed they have. The liver transplant, fixing a problem created by one of the many previous surgeries to fix other problems she had throughout her too-short life, made a few of it’s own problems. . .but without it, as Barbara herself would remind me each year on her “second birthday,” she wouldn’t be here.
Just as Shirley Curran asked us to remember her brother on his death by making sure we have advance directives and a living will prepared for the sake of our families, we have a chance here to honor Barbara with a simple act we can do ourselves.
At license bureaus, village hall, the library, or any police or state police office, we can pick up and fill out a donor ID card, to slide behind our driver’s license, affirming that we support organ donation on the occasion of our death. As Christians, we all know that death comes for each of us, even as Jesus experienced death, but that was simply a way-station on the road to eternal life.
So we shouldn’t fear acknowledging that day, and making good use (good stewardship, even?) of what we leave behind physically through our instructions. We can tell those we love what our wishes are, too, so they will know what to decide when we have moved on.
My driver’s license has laminated right into it a logo that indicates my wishes, intentions that now carry the double meaning of also honoring Barbara Pierce’s fortitude and example. I hope yours will, too.
In Grace & Peace,
Pastor Jeff
* * * * * * *
Rally Day – Sept. 12
Outdoor Worship 10:30 am
Strawbale seating on the north yard
(bring lawn chairs if you wish)
All-church Picnic at Noon!
by Jeff Gill
Across the mown field behind Hebron Elementary a few evenings ago, the air was filled with motion. Insects, caught in the slanting light, swam thicker than dust motes in a haymow, an ocean of life suspended above the ground.
With the end of August, the burden of life weighs heavy across treelines and meadows, an overproduction of vine and stem and blossom that now sways low. Green no longer glows brightly, but the swelling tomatoes grow ever redder, and on curling vines some expectant pumpkins along alleys and in nearby fields fill with orange across the once-sickly white towards the stems.
Harvest time is coming, and a day to rest from our labors before then. Labor Day weekend means this week opens the Millersport Sweet Corn Festival (look for the Hebron Crossroads to relocate into Heritage Village near the bandstand!), the 25 year anniversary of the Lakewood Band Boosters Donut Booth, and Buckeye Lake Youth Association waffle cakes . . . plus many other culinary delights.
Corn may be available, too. And every other entrée and side dish your cardiologist warned you about; just park a really long way aways (like in Hebron?) and walk enough so you can eat a bit of everything!
The Hebron Lions join their Laker Lion colleagues with their fry booth, but without Mr. Potato Head himself, Verne Griffith, who took his last pass down National Trail Raceways in a suspiciously “Goldenrod” hued casket recently.
His passing, and the death of Barbara Pierce last week, leave Hebron and Jacksontown respectively poorer, and this column a bit sadder than I’d originally intended, but both gave a gallant meaning to “passing on,” dying after hard struggles with cancer that did not take away their love and good spirits they each tried to maintain for family and friends who gathered around them through the end.
A salute to the staff and volunteers of Hospice of Licking County, who made it possible for Verne to die at home and Barbara to at least be back closer to home at Licking Memorial.
If you want to add to a fitting memorial for Barbara Pierce, make sure to sign and keep with your driver’s license (or have placed on your next license) an organ donor card. The last five years were all gift for Homer & Eileen thanks to someone who did this, and made it possible for Barbara to enjoy a few more years of life and love.
Or if you’ve already done so, you can come by the Hebron municipal complex and give blood Tuesday from 1 to 6 pm. Transplant surgery often requires many units, and sometimes rare blood types (which you may have!) or O- as the universal donor. These regular blood drives are a great way to give of yourself for others, particularly for those who have given so generously of their hearts, their spirits, and themselves for a richer community ‘round these crossroads.
Jeff Gill is pastor of Hebron Christian Church and soon-to-be ten gallon blood donor (not all at once, though!); if you have news or information about community events, call 928-4066 or e-mail disciple@voyager.net.
* * * * * * *
Entertaining Yourself at the 2004 Sweet Corn Fest
By Jeff Gill
Entertainment is not the first thing most folks think about when the subject of the Millersport Sweet Corn Festival comes up.
There’s food (like lots of sweet corn), there’s the midway filled with rides and games, and there’s the parade opening the whole shebang on Wednesday, Sept. 1 at 6:00 pm.
But the Main Stage area is at the center of the festival grounds in more ways than one. Even though the Lions’ Building and Heritage Village are important locations for navigating around the hundreds of food booths and dozens of rides and games, the sounds from the Main Stage are a landmark of their own, crossing all boundaries of the festival and of musical tastes as well.
Many already know that noted country music legend Porter Wagoner is the closing act of the whole festival on Saturday, Sept. 4 at 8:30 pm, but did you know that the Teays River Cloggers were performing Wednesday at 7:30 pm at the Hickory Grove bandstand? Were you aware that The Ragtime Strutters were roving the Festival Park grounds on Thursday? Or had you planned to catch Confederate Railroad on Friday at 9 pm at the Main Stage?
In fact, from high school brass bands to Razzamatazz & Jazz Thursday evening, almost every type and genre of music (and dancing!) you can imagine will be part of this 58th Sweet Corn Festival.
Gospel singers, bluegrass, Charles Slater playing his harmonica from a park bench: you name it, and the Millersport Lions have found a place for it (except maybe “Swan Lake,” but someone may be selling roast duck on a stick in the food booths, which is close, isn’t it?).
Most amazingly, all this entertainment is free ($5 for parking in the area); just walk into Festival Park and follow your ears. Neither the food nor the rides can match that for the family on a budget. You don’t have to buy a set of tickets or shell out anything much more than the time it takes to enjoy a concert or performance.
Beyond the musical performances from local groups and marquee acts, there are entertainments of a variety of sorts available through each evening, such as Ohio Nature Education’s display of live wild animals at the Covered Bridge Entertainment Area, the always interesting corn eating contests at Founder’s Commons Stage. The Hickory Grove Bandstand has a series of cloggers, country dancers, and square dancers right through all four days of the festival, and there are the roving entertainers throughout the grounds.
If you like racing, whether it’s a 5K race to cheer on the runners, an antique tractor pull, or even a Hula Hoop contest, something to see and be fascinated by is going on all the time. As to the Rolling Pin Throwing Contest, perhaps we should just say that men may want to find something else to watch on Friday night.
Porter Wagoner does represent a very exciting entertainment option Saturday; a fellow who once had Dolly Parton as a backup singer in his band and then was smart enough to make her his singing partner clearly has made quite a mark in country and pop music.
“The Green, Green Grass of Home” and “Just Someone I Used To Know” represent just a small part of the music he has made popular across America and around the world. The Sweet Corn Festival will close with everyone having a chance to sing along with some old favorites and hear some new music from this country music icon, whose proudest moment he says was to perform at the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville.
If nothing described here sounds entertaining, there is one more attraction to keep in mind. The Millersport Sweet Corn Festival has offered, since 1947, the very finest in . . . people-watching. You can spend hours and spend not a dime in this compelling, occasionally dramatic activity. Find a good spot to rest, and see the show.
Just remember, someone may be getting a charge out of watching you!
The Millersport Sweet Corn Festival is at Festival Park in Millersport OH at the end of Chautauqua Street west of Main (just follow the lines of cars!). The Millersport Ohio Lions Club has full information on their festival at www.sweetcornfest.com, or call 740-246-5680. Admission is free, with parking in most areas near the park at $5. The proceeds from this four-day community event are a major source of income for approximately eighty non-profit charitable organizations that participate from eight counties in the Central Ohio area. They operate all of the food & game concessions, whose profits go toward their administration and community projects.
* * * * * * *
Hebron Christian Church
(Disciples of Christ)
For the fifth Sunday youth-led worship, Tracy Wildermuth will lead the call to worship, Mattie McCord will offer the invocation, Kalie McCord will share the offering meditation and blessing, and the presiders at the communion table will be Julie McNichols and Amy Brown. The scripture reading from Jeremiah will be from David Scheidegger, Whitney Mason will lead the children’s message, and Josh Halter will give the benediction.
The drama “Unpacking Church Camp” from Pastor Jeff is presented by Crystal Damron, Julie McNichols, Michael Scheidegger, Amy Brown, and Josh Halter, rehearsed by youth advisor Lisa McNichols. Serving through worship are Josh Walters, William Harris, Jessie McNichols, Katie Day, and others in the youth group.
For more info, call 928-4066 or click http://go.to/Hebron_Christian
* * * * * * *
Notes From My Knapsack – Sept. “The Church Window”
Hebron Christian Church
Barbara Pierce was a gift to our church, as well as to her parents Homer and Eileen. She lived out an example of good spirits in the face of challenge and hardship that few of us can ever live up to, but we’d be better off all of us to try.
Eileen remembered over and over during our last few days at the hospice unit in Licking Memorial (and this after many, many weeks in University Hospital) that these last five years have been “a gift,” and indeed they have. The liver transplant, fixing a problem created by one of the many previous surgeries to fix other problems she had throughout her too-short life, made a few of it’s own problems. . .but without it, as Barbara herself would remind me each year on her “second birthday,” she wouldn’t be here.
Just as Shirley Curran asked us to remember her brother on his death by making sure we have advance directives and a living will prepared for the sake of our families, we have a chance here to honor Barbara with a simple act we can do ourselves.
At license bureaus, village hall, the library, or any police or state police office, we can pick up and fill out a donor ID card, to slide behind our driver’s license, affirming that we support organ donation on the occasion of our death. As Christians, we all know that death comes for each of us, even as Jesus experienced death, but that was simply a way-station on the road to eternal life.
So we shouldn’t fear acknowledging that day, and making good use (good stewardship, even?) of what we leave behind physically through our instructions. We can tell those we love what our wishes are, too, so they will know what to decide when we have moved on.
My driver’s license has laminated right into it a logo that indicates my wishes, intentions that now carry the double meaning of also honoring Barbara Pierce’s fortitude and example. I hope yours will, too.
In Grace & Peace,
Pastor Jeff
* * * * * * *
Rally Day – Sept. 12
Outdoor Worship 10:30 am
Strawbale seating on the north yard
(bring lawn chairs if you wish)
All-church Picnic at Noon!
Wednesday, August 18, 2004
Hebron Crossroads 8-22-04
By Jeff Gill
Zooooom. . .
That rush of wind was the summer passing us by; from late spring to early autumn, there was an interval of but a few weeks we could call the summertime.
Monday, Aug. 23, Lakewood schools and most of our surrounding districts start classes. Devotees of St. Murphy are sure that we’ll get our long overdue warm spell with heat and humidity when our kindergarten through third graders are safely ensconced within the un-airconditioned walls of Hebron Elementary.
We will see; they took shorts and t-shirts to band camp at Marengo and put out an emergency call for blankets and sweatshirts the first day, so anything can happen.
I’m going to stall a bit on sharing Hartford Fair results ‘til I’m sure I’ve got everyone I can from around the Hebron Crossroads. Prime Producers and Kith-and-Kin got ribbons for their delightful booth displays, and many local faces were seen around the show rings and barns. More to come. . .
Monday evening on Aug. 23, after school has truly begun, there will be a chance to give our whole community an education, as a dedication is scheduled for the Hebron Historical Society display cases in the lobby of the Municipal Complex, starting at 7:00 pm.
That lobby and the council chamber will host the village Blood Drive, coming ‘round again Tues., Aug. 31 from 1 to 6 pm. The end of summer sees the shelves of central Ohio blood banks pretty bare, with few wanting to stop and donate blood during these vacation-heavy months. If you are fit and healthy, come help your fellow man. . .actually, a fellow man, woman, and child, since each unit often helps as many as three people once processed. We tend to get around thirty donors, which adds up to nearly a hundred humans helped by this simple act.
Y’know, with all the pre-first-day-o’-school preparations (and without fair results), there’s not going to be much more to this column, so let me sign off with this observation from my hometown county fair (and yes, as has been asked, I’m trying to get my sister’s challa bread recipe to print here soon, too).
The Porter County (Indiana) Fair had, along with the 4-H displays and barns, the midway and the rides, some interesting attractions including a sea lion show four times a day, alternating with an elephant performing.
If you walked around behind the elephant enclosure and saw the portable stabling arrangement (not your standard horse trailer), there was a large sign against the back wall in sharply contrasting black and yellow, standing above a rack of very large shovels and rakes.
It read, “Manure Happens!”
Ah, show business.
Jeff Gill is pastor of Hebron Christian Church and a big fan of show business at all ends; if you have glamorous news to share from the stockbarn or swinepens, call 928-4066 or e-mail disciple@voyager.net.
By Jeff Gill
Zooooom. . .
That rush of wind was the summer passing us by; from late spring to early autumn, there was an interval of but a few weeks we could call the summertime.
Monday, Aug. 23, Lakewood schools and most of our surrounding districts start classes. Devotees of St. Murphy are sure that we’ll get our long overdue warm spell with heat and humidity when our kindergarten through third graders are safely ensconced within the un-airconditioned walls of Hebron Elementary.
We will see; they took shorts and t-shirts to band camp at Marengo and put out an emergency call for blankets and sweatshirts the first day, so anything can happen.
I’m going to stall a bit on sharing Hartford Fair results ‘til I’m sure I’ve got everyone I can from around the Hebron Crossroads. Prime Producers and Kith-and-Kin got ribbons for their delightful booth displays, and many local faces were seen around the show rings and barns. More to come. . .
Monday evening on Aug. 23, after school has truly begun, there will be a chance to give our whole community an education, as a dedication is scheduled for the Hebron Historical Society display cases in the lobby of the Municipal Complex, starting at 7:00 pm.
That lobby and the council chamber will host the village Blood Drive, coming ‘round again Tues., Aug. 31 from 1 to 6 pm. The end of summer sees the shelves of central Ohio blood banks pretty bare, with few wanting to stop and donate blood during these vacation-heavy months. If you are fit and healthy, come help your fellow man. . .actually, a fellow man, woman, and child, since each unit often helps as many as three people once processed. We tend to get around thirty donors, which adds up to nearly a hundred humans helped by this simple act.
Y’know, with all the pre-first-day-o’-school preparations (and without fair results), there’s not going to be much more to this column, so let me sign off with this observation from my hometown county fair (and yes, as has been asked, I’m trying to get my sister’s challa bread recipe to print here soon, too).
The Porter County (Indiana) Fair had, along with the 4-H displays and barns, the midway and the rides, some interesting attractions including a sea lion show four times a day, alternating with an elephant performing.
If you walked around behind the elephant enclosure and saw the portable stabling arrangement (not your standard horse trailer), there was a large sign against the back wall in sharply contrasting black and yellow, standing above a rack of very large shovels and rakes.
It read, “Manure Happens!”
Ah, show business.
Jeff Gill is pastor of Hebron Christian Church and a big fan of show business at all ends; if you have glamorous news to share from the stockbarn or swinepens, call 928-4066 or e-mail disciple@voyager.net.
Wednesday, August 11, 2004
Hebron Crossroads 8-15-04
By Jeff Gill
If you see this before Saturday afternoon, Aug. 14, an opening note to lay this paper down where you can find it later, and run down to Hebron United Methodist Church on E. Main between 4:30 and 7 for their Ice Cream Social.
They’ll have the usual array of tasty food, ice cream, and a chance to meet Rev. Penny Drenton, their new pastor. Go ahead, I’ll be here when you get back. (Rustle of newsprint, slam of door.)
***
(Click of door opening, creak of sofa.) All right, now that you’re well fed, let’s talk about the home of fine dining on a stick, the Hartford Fair! Not only fine fair food, but plenty of great weather, a marvelous set of 4-H booths and projects on display (yes, those were plastic water bottles transformed into tropical fish!), and a whole herd – really – of animals shown from around the Hebron Crossroads.
Special congrats to David Cable, Junior Fair Board member from Hebron who got to go to the State Fair after winning the Tractor Rodeo. This is all the more special as his grandfather, John Slater, won the same event at the same age, making it a few years back in Hartford history.
This is one of the delights of the Biggest Little Fair In The World since 1858: family history and continuity and tradition. Like our tradition of getting sick on elephant ears, part of our Gill family heritage. Some families just have a bit more to be proud of, that’s all.
Kindergarten Orientation and Open House at Hebron Elementary is this Thursday, Aug. 19 at 6 pm. Dr. Jeff Geist, our building principal, and members of the kindergarten teaching staff will be in the gymnasium for the opening and in the classrooms to meet parents, grandparents, and guardians with their new school-age charges, as they charge (gently) around the building.
Your friendly neighborhood columnist will be there, disguised as this year’s PTO president, with a few words to share about a new year for our whole building, K through Third Grade, and about our Fall fundraiser which will start in less than two weeks, with a student rally on Friday, Aug. 27. Let’s get it done, and focus on education and improvement through the year with the help of your purchases.
Do you think you’ll hear a bit more the next few weeks about the Hebron PTO fundraiser? As they say in Minnesota, “Yah, youbetcha.”
Back to school for all is Monday, Aug. 23; note the bus stops and the kids waiting in the still well lit dawn, plus the high corn (shoot, the high soybeans!) around the rural intersections. Those big yellow buses will be a’rollin’ hyar soon, and remember to “Stop” when the little red octagon swings out from the side.
Amazing how many people seem vague on what that’s about. Feel free to write down license numbers and share them with your local law enforcement: they’d be happy to help deliver a reminder to those confused drivers.
Many, many little start o’ the school year details to tend to, and little of note to share with y’all at the moment, so I’ll close with this note about health and fitness.
No, not stay off of scooters. But wear your helmet and elbowpads, right?
Seriously, with the end of summer vacation and the start of school, the new schedule is a critical time for kids to make activity a part of their afterschool plan. Others (read: teachers) will tell you more effectively and with stronger incentives than I have just how important doing your homework is when you get home. Let me add a plug for “motion,” a bit before you sit down to study and more after.
With hours of chair piloting behind your child when they get home from a school day, slumping into a seat at home just helps push the Numb Button for the brain as much as the gluteus maximus. Get outside while the days still have an evening and warmth, and get your blood pumping. Pull some weeds (don’t tell me you haven’t any), ride a bike (no scooters? Well…), play hopscotch – whatever. Just move!
And after homework time is done, whether it’s getting the stack of engine blocks moved out of the garage to the shed out back or sitting in the driveway playing jacks, don’t plug your cerebrum into the tube right away. Time enough in the chill darkness of winter to soak up the latest pop culture by passively absorbing flickering images while slumping your spine before the shrine of silliness.
This applies to child, adult, or senior alike. If the late summer/early fall pattern is set with sitting and soaking up TV on returning home, you’ll surely do little else in the dim winter days, either. Start now molding a day around the school schedule with some motion (push-ups, playing catch, chasing fireflies) and the momentum might just carry you into next spring with your pants still fitting. . .unless you’ve grown five inches taller.
So I’ll stop here to go shop for new school clothes for the Little Guy, who seems to have done just that.
Jeff Gill is pastor of Hebron Christian Church and Hebron PTO president this year (for his sins); if you have news of the upcoming Sweet Corn Festival to share or other notes to pass along, e-mail him at disciple@voyager.net, or call 928-4066.
By Jeff Gill
If you see this before Saturday afternoon, Aug. 14, an opening note to lay this paper down where you can find it later, and run down to Hebron United Methodist Church on E. Main between 4:30 and 7 for their Ice Cream Social.
They’ll have the usual array of tasty food, ice cream, and a chance to meet Rev. Penny Drenton, their new pastor. Go ahead, I’ll be here when you get back. (Rustle of newsprint, slam of door.)
***
(Click of door opening, creak of sofa.) All right, now that you’re well fed, let’s talk about the home of fine dining on a stick, the Hartford Fair! Not only fine fair food, but plenty of great weather, a marvelous set of 4-H booths and projects on display (yes, those were plastic water bottles transformed into tropical fish!), and a whole herd – really – of animals shown from around the Hebron Crossroads.
Special congrats to David Cable, Junior Fair Board member from Hebron who got to go to the State Fair after winning the Tractor Rodeo. This is all the more special as his grandfather, John Slater, won the same event at the same age, making it a few years back in Hartford history.
This is one of the delights of the Biggest Little Fair In The World since 1858: family history and continuity and tradition. Like our tradition of getting sick on elephant ears, part of our Gill family heritage. Some families just have a bit more to be proud of, that’s all.
Kindergarten Orientation and Open House at Hebron Elementary is this Thursday, Aug. 19 at 6 pm. Dr. Jeff Geist, our building principal, and members of the kindergarten teaching staff will be in the gymnasium for the opening and in the classrooms to meet parents, grandparents, and guardians with their new school-age charges, as they charge (gently) around the building.
Your friendly neighborhood columnist will be there, disguised as this year’s PTO president, with a few words to share about a new year for our whole building, K through Third Grade, and about our Fall fundraiser which will start in less than two weeks, with a student rally on Friday, Aug. 27. Let’s get it done, and focus on education and improvement through the year with the help of your purchases.
Do you think you’ll hear a bit more the next few weeks about the Hebron PTO fundraiser? As they say in Minnesota, “Yah, youbetcha.”
Back to school for all is Monday, Aug. 23; note the bus stops and the kids waiting in the still well lit dawn, plus the high corn (shoot, the high soybeans!) around the rural intersections. Those big yellow buses will be a’rollin’ hyar soon, and remember to “Stop” when the little red octagon swings out from the side.
Amazing how many people seem vague on what that’s about. Feel free to write down license numbers and share them with your local law enforcement: they’d be happy to help deliver a reminder to those confused drivers.
Many, many little start o’ the school year details to tend to, and little of note to share with y’all at the moment, so I’ll close with this note about health and fitness.
No, not stay off of scooters. But wear your helmet and elbowpads, right?
Seriously, with the end of summer vacation and the start of school, the new schedule is a critical time for kids to make activity a part of their afterschool plan. Others (read: teachers) will tell you more effectively and with stronger incentives than I have just how important doing your homework is when you get home. Let me add a plug for “motion,” a bit before you sit down to study and more after.
With hours of chair piloting behind your child when they get home from a school day, slumping into a seat at home just helps push the Numb Button for the brain as much as the gluteus maximus. Get outside while the days still have an evening and warmth, and get your blood pumping. Pull some weeds (don’t tell me you haven’t any), ride a bike (no scooters? Well…), play hopscotch – whatever. Just move!
And after homework time is done, whether it’s getting the stack of engine blocks moved out of the garage to the shed out back or sitting in the driveway playing jacks, don’t plug your cerebrum into the tube right away. Time enough in the chill darkness of winter to soak up the latest pop culture by passively absorbing flickering images while slumping your spine before the shrine of silliness.
This applies to child, adult, or senior alike. If the late summer/early fall pattern is set with sitting and soaking up TV on returning home, you’ll surely do little else in the dim winter days, either. Start now molding a day around the school schedule with some motion (push-ups, playing catch, chasing fireflies) and the momentum might just carry you into next spring with your pants still fitting. . .unless you’ve grown five inches taller.
So I’ll stop here to go shop for new school clothes for the Little Guy, who seems to have done just that.
Jeff Gill is pastor of Hebron Christian Church and Hebron PTO president this year (for his sins); if you have news of the upcoming Sweet Corn Festival to share or other notes to pass along, e-mail him at disciple@voyager.net, or call 928-4066.
Thursday, August 05, 2004
“The Scouter” – Simon Kenton Council Sept. 2004
Licking District Trailmarkers
From the last reports on School Night Round-Ups to the Fall Camporee/Apple Butter Days at Camp Falling Rock, there’s quite a bit to keep up with, so without any editorial blather, let’s start with:
Popcorn is Poppin’ Out All Over!
Oct. 1 to 28 is the Popcorn Sale window, but first are “Show & Deliver” sales from Sept. 20. If your unit didn’t get popcorn info at the Fall Program kickoff or Roundtable (first Tuesdays, 7:15 pm, Central Christian on Mt. Vernon Rd. in Newark!), call Mary Rose Lewis, our newest Popcorn Kernel with Tressa Kroll on the Popcorn Corps. Mary Rose can be reached at 345-1306 (home) or 345-4336 (work).
Pick-up for the “early” Show & Deliver sales is at the Alltel Building on Hopewell Drive (across from Park Lanes in Heath) Oct. 2 from 8 am to Noon. Unsold material – including broken cases this year! – can be returned Oct. 30 at Alltel from 9 to 11 am.
Orders for the Popcorn Sale in general need to be in by Oct. 28 (mark that date, Oct. 28!!), with pick-up Nov. 20 from 8 to Noon at – you guessed it! – Alltel, our good corporate partner. Bring checks to that location, dated to Dec. 6, to receive your unit’s order.
* * * * * * *
Fall Round-Ups and School Nights
Most of you will see this after the bulk of Cub Scout registrations for the new program year are turned in; Sept. 20 is the date Bill Acklin, our Membership Chairman, and Tim Bubb, School Night Chairman, would like to have all results for units, especially Cub Packs.
Many Boy Scout units have an open house early in the school year, along with Venture Crews (Randy Crothers will be working with those 14 to 21 year old young men and women this year as they continue to grow across Licking County). Whatever your branch of Scouting, if you have new Fall registrations, we need to get them on Scouting rolls, with insurance, and receiving great membership bonuses like . . . this newspaper!
Call Bill at 344-1502 if you have results yet to report on getting “The Scouter.”
* * * * * * *
From the Commish:
October 5 Roundtable will be devoted to Charter Renewal Training. Hopefully we’ll have all the information about the “new” on-line recharter process. I and my commissioners will be there “in force” to answer your questions. See you there.
Yours In Scouting, Mike Deeslie
* * * * * * *
Boy Scout Leader Basic Training
If you have Boy Scout new leaders, or leaders needing training, contact Mike as noted above, or Jim Francis at 366-7677 about “BSLBT” (however you pronounce it).
Dates are held on Sept. 11 & 12, and the full weekend with outdoor experience Oct. 8, 9, & 10.
* * * * * * *
Fall Camporee – Apple Butter Days
Nov. 5-7 is our Fall Camporee weekend, where with your registrations turned in, your popcorn sold, and your leaders trained, you and your Scouts can come and enjoy the real heart of Scouting, which is “Outing” out at Camp Falling Rock.
Saturday, Nov. 6 will offer a number of special Cub activities, and Friday through Sunday is open to Scouts and Venturers. Mike Dalton will be in touch as the District Activities Committee continues to offer great experiences for your unit program.
* * * * * * *
Down the Trail -- A Closing Word
Some recent publications I had threatened to discuss in this space two months ago (July/August) will wait, as we have so much of immediate interest to share. But a note from the Round-Up Training: Bill Acklin and Trevor Gamble, our District Chairman, reminded all of us that, of youth eligible in Licking County for Cub Scouting, 1 in 5 or 20% are registered. Their goal this year is to get our “density” figure up to 1 in 4, or 25%.
Right along with that, may I offer that to reach that goal, we need to get as close as we can to 100% of eligible youth getting an invitation to a Scouting unit. We’ll never see anything close to 100% density, but each young person in Licking County deserves to hear about the opportunity to learn and grow through outdoor education, leadership development, and values training in the Scouting program.
Ask your local fast food joint to put on their sign for a week the date of your local “Round-Up,” send your info to your local correspondent in those free weeklies around the county, put up a sign in your place of worship or service group’s hall, and make sure to invite a child on your street and their parents to try out Scouting for themselves.
The personal invitation, in the end, is the one that matters the most.
And I invite you to share your Scouting news with me at disciple@voyager.net, or call 928-4066 and leave your info or call back contact numbers.
Jeff Gill, District PR guy and Chaplain
Licking District Trailmarkers
From the last reports on School Night Round-Ups to the Fall Camporee/Apple Butter Days at Camp Falling Rock, there’s quite a bit to keep up with, so without any editorial blather, let’s start with:
Popcorn is Poppin’ Out All Over!
Oct. 1 to 28 is the Popcorn Sale window, but first are “Show & Deliver” sales from Sept. 20. If your unit didn’t get popcorn info at the Fall Program kickoff or Roundtable (first Tuesdays, 7:15 pm, Central Christian on Mt. Vernon Rd. in Newark!), call Mary Rose Lewis, our newest Popcorn Kernel with Tressa Kroll on the Popcorn Corps. Mary Rose can be reached at 345-1306 (home) or 345-4336 (work).
Pick-up for the “early” Show & Deliver sales is at the Alltel Building on Hopewell Drive (across from Park Lanes in Heath) Oct. 2 from 8 am to Noon. Unsold material – including broken cases this year! – can be returned Oct. 30 at Alltel from 9 to 11 am.
Orders for the Popcorn Sale in general need to be in by Oct. 28 (mark that date, Oct. 28!!), with pick-up Nov. 20 from 8 to Noon at – you guessed it! – Alltel, our good corporate partner. Bring checks to that location, dated to Dec. 6, to receive your unit’s order.
* * * * * * *
Fall Round-Ups and School Nights
Most of you will see this after the bulk of Cub Scout registrations for the new program year are turned in; Sept. 20 is the date Bill Acklin, our Membership Chairman, and Tim Bubb, School Night Chairman, would like to have all results for units, especially Cub Packs.
Many Boy Scout units have an open house early in the school year, along with Venture Crews (Randy Crothers will be working with those 14 to 21 year old young men and women this year as they continue to grow across Licking County). Whatever your branch of Scouting, if you have new Fall registrations, we need to get them on Scouting rolls, with insurance, and receiving great membership bonuses like . . . this newspaper!
Call Bill at 344-1502 if you have results yet to report on getting “The Scouter.”
* * * * * * *
From the Commish:
October 5 Roundtable will be devoted to Charter Renewal Training. Hopefully we’ll have all the information about the “new” on-line recharter process. I and my commissioners will be there “in force” to answer your questions. See you there.
Yours In Scouting, Mike Deeslie
* * * * * * *
Boy Scout Leader Basic Training
If you have Boy Scout new leaders, or leaders needing training, contact Mike as noted above, or Jim Francis at 366-7677 about “BSLBT” (however you pronounce it).
Dates are held on Sept. 11 & 12, and the full weekend with outdoor experience Oct. 8, 9, & 10.
* * * * * * *
Fall Camporee – Apple Butter Days
Nov. 5-7 is our Fall Camporee weekend, where with your registrations turned in, your popcorn sold, and your leaders trained, you and your Scouts can come and enjoy the real heart of Scouting, which is “Outing” out at Camp Falling Rock.
Saturday, Nov. 6 will offer a number of special Cub activities, and Friday through Sunday is open to Scouts and Venturers. Mike Dalton will be in touch as the District Activities Committee continues to offer great experiences for your unit program.
* * * * * * *
Down the Trail -- A Closing Word
Some recent publications I had threatened to discuss in this space two months ago (July/August) will wait, as we have so much of immediate interest to share. But a note from the Round-Up Training: Bill Acklin and Trevor Gamble, our District Chairman, reminded all of us that, of youth eligible in Licking County for Cub Scouting, 1 in 5 or 20% are registered. Their goal this year is to get our “density” figure up to 1 in 4, or 25%.
Right along with that, may I offer that to reach that goal, we need to get as close as we can to 100% of eligible youth getting an invitation to a Scouting unit. We’ll never see anything close to 100% density, but each young person in Licking County deserves to hear about the opportunity to learn and grow through outdoor education, leadership development, and values training in the Scouting program.
Ask your local fast food joint to put on their sign for a week the date of your local “Round-Up,” send your info to your local correspondent in those free weeklies around the county, put up a sign in your place of worship or service group’s hall, and make sure to invite a child on your street and their parents to try out Scouting for themselves.
The personal invitation, in the end, is the one that matters the most.
And I invite you to share your Scouting news with me at disciple@voyager.net, or call 928-4066 and leave your info or call back contact numbers.
Jeff Gill, District PR guy and Chaplain
Wednesday, August 04, 2004
Hebron Crossroads 8-08-04
by Jeff Gill
Hartford Fair -- you think of sunny skies, sudden downpours, stock barns and amusement tents, midway rides and demolition derbies.
OK, and from the Hebron Crossroads area, you think of a long, long drive, farther than it would take to get to the Ohio State Fair. But Licking County is the second largest land-area county in the state, so what do you expect?
Through next Saturday, out past Croton north of Johnstown, this "Independent" Fair, not a county fair, will host our county 4-H displays (including this area's Prime Producers booth), county entries in quilting, gardening, and pie baking. But don't call it a county fair! County champions in swine, beef, and equestrian competition will be declared: since parts of Knox and Delaware Counties participate, don't call it a county fair. This is the Hartford Fair, bub, and don't you forget it. And a proud tradition it is, too.
Last week the family was on vacation, and we got to spend a day at my own childhood county fair, the Porter County (Indiana) Fair, their 154th edition. This is one big honkin' county fair, larger than many state fairs (we were always told), with sights to see like 20 "farm scene" entries in the 4-H barn.
For all the kids entering projects from 4-H in fair judging, i can't help but mention my sister Debbie. For four years she entered a dress and a food item in the county fair, winning a "participated ribbon."
Then she won not only the county "Grand Champion" awards, but went on to the Indiana State Fair, gaining both a "Reserve Grand Champion" for her challa bread but a "Grand Champion" for the outfit she handmade.
This is cool enough for a high school kid, but my real point is that she then went on to get a PhD in apparel merchandising and interior design, became a college professor, and travelled with her work on fabric and fashion to New York, Paris, and Milan, not to mention Nazca, Peru to evaluate ancient Inca textiles from the Andes.
All because she kept on entering the county fair with her 4-H projects. From dusty fairgrounds to exotic mountaintops: it can happen, trust me! I've seen it with my own eyes.
Speaking of watching the skies, if not the mountaintops (Sunset Hill west of Hebron doesn't count), the night of August 11 & 12 offers the Perseid meteor shower. These nighttime streaks of blazing light are the last hurrahs of dust from Comet Swift-Tuttle, a regular visitor to our heavens, peeled off that ice ball around 1862, now burning up in Earth's atmosphere.
Early in the evening of Aug. 11 to the east and after 2 am the morning of Aug. 12 more to the west you should see 40 or more meteors per hour, with a few less most of the evenings leading up to those nights and just after.
Fanning out of the constellation Perseus (hence the Perseids), these dashes of light in the darkness show how the cosmos and this planet continue to trade material and influence through the long ages. Go out Wednesday night, lay out a sleeping bag to the northeast, and lie down with your head to the southwest. If you can trace the course of the Milky Way, you'll see the main track the Perseids will follow.
Hebron Christian Church is pleased to welcome the Land of Legend Barbershop Chorus, directed by John Tegtmeyer, to their worship Aug. 15 at 10:30 am. You may well have heard them already, as these men travel all over Licking County during the summers, sharing the gift of their music with congregations in communities large and small. Good to have you all in Hebron, thanks to Kent Herreman!
All of us pray that there are no further terrorist attacks in the US, and many suspect that the next one is inevitable nonetheless. With a recent increased level of alert in the financial district of New York City, i'm reminded of the remarkable monument on the very steps of the New York Stock Exchange, right under the gaze of George Washington's statue across the way marking the first inauguration of a US president.
"The Ohio Company," a stock venture organized by a Cutler, one of the families ancestral to the Dawes clan just up Route 13, is remembered where 212 years ago a group of stockbrokers began yelling at each other with strange hand motions. The hand motions are now computer trades, and the yelling is often into wireless headsets, but that marker recalls a day only recently past when the fate of adventurers and tracts of wilderness were settled by a simple exchange of stock.
May the New York Stock Exchange continue on uninterrupted, and may the carving honoring "The Ohio Company" stand unmarred for many years to come.
Jeff Gill is pastor of Hebron Christian Church, and owner of no stock himself; if you have tips on buggy-whip futures or swampland in the Sahara, or news of local interest, call 928-4066 or e-mail disciple@voyager.net.
by Jeff Gill
Hartford Fair -- you think of sunny skies, sudden downpours, stock barns and amusement tents, midway rides and demolition derbies.
OK, and from the Hebron Crossroads area, you think of a long, long drive, farther than it would take to get to the Ohio State Fair. But Licking County is the second largest land-area county in the state, so what do you expect?
Through next Saturday, out past Croton north of Johnstown, this "Independent" Fair, not a county fair, will host our county 4-H displays (including this area's Prime Producers booth), county entries in quilting, gardening, and pie baking. But don't call it a county fair! County champions in swine, beef, and equestrian competition will be declared: since parts of Knox and Delaware Counties participate, don't call it a county fair. This is the Hartford Fair, bub, and don't you forget it. And a proud tradition it is, too.
Last week the family was on vacation, and we got to spend a day at my own childhood county fair, the Porter County (Indiana) Fair, their 154th edition. This is one big honkin' county fair, larger than many state fairs (we were always told), with sights to see like 20 "farm scene" entries in the 4-H barn.
For all the kids entering projects from 4-H in fair judging, i can't help but mention my sister Debbie. For four years she entered a dress and a food item in the county fair, winning a "participated ribbon."
Then she won not only the county "Grand Champion" awards, but went on to the Indiana State Fair, gaining both a "Reserve Grand Champion" for her challa bread but a "Grand Champion" for the outfit she handmade.
This is cool enough for a high school kid, but my real point is that she then went on to get a PhD in apparel merchandising and interior design, became a college professor, and travelled with her work on fabric and fashion to New York, Paris, and Milan, not to mention Nazca, Peru to evaluate ancient Inca textiles from the Andes.
All because she kept on entering the county fair with her 4-H projects. From dusty fairgrounds to exotic mountaintops: it can happen, trust me! I've seen it with my own eyes.
Speaking of watching the skies, if not the mountaintops (Sunset Hill west of Hebron doesn't count), the night of August 11 & 12 offers the Perseid meteor shower. These nighttime streaks of blazing light are the last hurrahs of dust from Comet Swift-Tuttle, a regular visitor to our heavens, peeled off that ice ball around 1862, now burning up in Earth's atmosphere.
Early in the evening of Aug. 11 to the east and after 2 am the morning of Aug. 12 more to the west you should see 40 or more meteors per hour, with a few less most of the evenings leading up to those nights and just after.
Fanning out of the constellation Perseus (hence the Perseids), these dashes of light in the darkness show how the cosmos and this planet continue to trade material and influence through the long ages. Go out Wednesday night, lay out a sleeping bag to the northeast, and lie down with your head to the southwest. If you can trace the course of the Milky Way, you'll see the main track the Perseids will follow.
Hebron Christian Church is pleased to welcome the Land of Legend Barbershop Chorus, directed by John Tegtmeyer, to their worship Aug. 15 at 10:30 am. You may well have heard them already, as these men travel all over Licking County during the summers, sharing the gift of their music with congregations in communities large and small. Good to have you all in Hebron, thanks to Kent Herreman!
All of us pray that there are no further terrorist attacks in the US, and many suspect that the next one is inevitable nonetheless. With a recent increased level of alert in the financial district of New York City, i'm reminded of the remarkable monument on the very steps of the New York Stock Exchange, right under the gaze of George Washington's statue across the way marking the first inauguration of a US president.
"The Ohio Company," a stock venture organized by a Cutler, one of the families ancestral to the Dawes clan just up Route 13, is remembered where 212 years ago a group of stockbrokers began yelling at each other with strange hand motions. The hand motions are now computer trades, and the yelling is often into wireless headsets, but that marker recalls a day only recently past when the fate of adventurers and tracts of wilderness were settled by a simple exchange of stock.
May the New York Stock Exchange continue on uninterrupted, and may the carving honoring "The Ohio Company" stand unmarred for many years to come.
Jeff Gill is pastor of Hebron Christian Church, and owner of no stock himself; if you have tips on buggy-whip futures or swampland in the Sahara, or news of local interest, call 928-4066 or e-mail disciple@voyager.net.
Friday, July 23, 2004
The Church Window
Hebron Christian Church newsletter – August 2004
Notes From My Knapsack
With the closing weeks of July, I’m thinking about the Armstrong boys. As I write this before we go to Lake Michigan and a visit to Valparaiso, Lance Armstrong is looking like he will win the Tour de France for a record sixth time, and the world recalled the 35th anniversary of Neil Armstrong’s “one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind” July 20, 1969.
They aren’t related to each other (as far as I know) and they aren’t related to anyone in Hebron (ditto), but the connections to us are real and all around. Lance is winning his big number 6, all coming after recovering from a very aggressive form of cancer and going through chemo. How many do we know in our congregation and community who have or are about to face such a battle, and we can give thanks for such a public witness to how much quality living can come after a malignant diagnosis.
Neil is an Ohio boy, one we can be proud of in many ways. But there’s something that happened on July 20, 1969 that few are aware of. Armstrong’s associate in the Lunar Module, Buzz Aldrin, was an active layman in his Houston area Episcopal congregation. Few knew until his published memoirs and then through Tom Hanks's Emmy- winning HBO mini-series, “From the Earth to the Moon” in 1998, that one of the first acts performed on the Moon’s surface was his taking communion prepared for him by his home church and carried in his personal allowance. "The First Communion on the Moon" is also significant as the most far-flung act of worship ever, done 235,000 miles from Earth, shared by the only two occupants of that entire world.
Colonel Aldrin, with an earned doctorate in astrophysics from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), was acknowledged as the most highly educated of the first astronauts; he was a "true scientist," yet respected by peers as an unabashed Christian. Michael Collins, the pilot of the Command Module circling the Moon, had taken communion along with him from the Episcopal National Cathedral for that day as well. To have recalled the importance of including communion in their risky venture, and prepared carefully to allow the possibility of having communion amidst all the other mass of detail: that’s heroism of a very special sort.
“HeroQuest” was the theme for our Hebron Community VBS hosted at the Methodist Church this year. Last week, young and old were reminded of “heroic virtues,” versus the qualities of celebrity. With “strength, courage, determination, daring, and love” a new view of what a hero can be was taught and shared and shown. Names like Esther and Phillip came to life.
We will always need heroes; the only question is what kind of hero will we choose to follow, to imitate – what kind of hero others will see us honor. Which is what our weekly worship in the name of Jesus Christ is all about!
In Grace & Peace, Pastor Jeff
PS – Don’t forget that the first day of school this year is August 23; it can sneak up on you.
* * * * * * *
Youth Activities
The day leading into the opening VBS session Friday night, July 30, all 6 to 12th grade youth are invited to join at the church at 10 am to help paint the garage doors off Cully St. They’ll go on to a quick lunch and a pool party at McNichol’s Mtn., and those not off to Band at 5 pm are welcome to assist with VBS.
Friday, Aug. 6, we’ll head off to Wyandot Lake for a day of aquatic fun and intensive hydrotherapy for pregnant youth advisors. More details will go out on the phone tree or at the painting day.
And Tues., Aug. 10 there will be many of our younger church youth up at the Cloverbud Barn Tour with the Hartford Fair, starting at 3 pm. Many of our families will be up there all or part of Aug. 8 through the 14th. Those who aren’t, may well be at Band Camp the same week!
Then there’s the Sweet Corn Festival. . .
* * * * * * *
Outdoor Worship and Picnic
“Rally Day” marks the return of a regular schedule of one Sunday service and multiple church school classes at 9:30 am (instead of the other way around!). On Sept. 12, the first Sunday after Labor Day, we will gather for worship on the north side of the building, with straw bale seating (or what you bring to sit upon) and some special music for the occasion.
A potluck picnic will follow right after the benediction, so bring your basket one more time before you pack it away for the fall, and be ready to eat hearty!
* * * * * * *
Note to Editor: For general notes, Sharon Scheidegger was Troop 33 unit leader for the week at Camp Falling Rock, along with Scouts from Kirkersville, Pataskala, Newark, Granville, and Utica.
Pastor Jeff will be teaching a class for eight weeks in Reynoldsburg on Saturdays through late Aug., Sept. & early Oct. on “Disciples’ Theology of Worship” to our regional licensed lay ministers.
* * * * * * *
Hebron Christian Church newsletter – August 2004
Notes From My Knapsack
With the closing weeks of July, I’m thinking about the Armstrong boys. As I write this before we go to Lake Michigan and a visit to Valparaiso, Lance Armstrong is looking like he will win the Tour de France for a record sixth time, and the world recalled the 35th anniversary of Neil Armstrong’s “one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind” July 20, 1969.
They aren’t related to each other (as far as I know) and they aren’t related to anyone in Hebron (ditto), but the connections to us are real and all around. Lance is winning his big number 6, all coming after recovering from a very aggressive form of cancer and going through chemo. How many do we know in our congregation and community who have or are about to face such a battle, and we can give thanks for such a public witness to how much quality living can come after a malignant diagnosis.
Neil is an Ohio boy, one we can be proud of in many ways. But there’s something that happened on July 20, 1969 that few are aware of. Armstrong’s associate in the Lunar Module, Buzz Aldrin, was an active layman in his Houston area Episcopal congregation. Few knew until his published memoirs and then through Tom Hanks's Emmy- winning HBO mini-series, “From the Earth to the Moon” in 1998, that one of the first acts performed on the Moon’s surface was his taking communion prepared for him by his home church and carried in his personal allowance. "The First Communion on the Moon" is also significant as the most far-flung act of worship ever, done 235,000 miles from Earth, shared by the only two occupants of that entire world.
Colonel Aldrin, with an earned doctorate in astrophysics from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), was acknowledged as the most highly educated of the first astronauts; he was a "true scientist," yet respected by peers as an unabashed Christian. Michael Collins, the pilot of the Command Module circling the Moon, had taken communion along with him from the Episcopal National Cathedral for that day as well. To have recalled the importance of including communion in their risky venture, and prepared carefully to allow the possibility of having communion amidst all the other mass of detail: that’s heroism of a very special sort.
“HeroQuest” was the theme for our Hebron Community VBS hosted at the Methodist Church this year. Last week, young and old were reminded of “heroic virtues,” versus the qualities of celebrity. With “strength, courage, determination, daring, and love” a new view of what a hero can be was taught and shared and shown. Names like Esther and Phillip came to life.
We will always need heroes; the only question is what kind of hero will we choose to follow, to imitate – what kind of hero others will see us honor. Which is what our weekly worship in the name of Jesus Christ is all about!
In Grace & Peace, Pastor Jeff
PS – Don’t forget that the first day of school this year is August 23; it can sneak up on you.
* * * * * * *
Youth Activities
The day leading into the opening VBS session Friday night, July 30, all 6 to 12th grade youth are invited to join at the church at 10 am to help paint the garage doors off Cully St. They’ll go on to a quick lunch and a pool party at McNichol’s Mtn., and those not off to Band at 5 pm are welcome to assist with VBS.
Friday, Aug. 6, we’ll head off to Wyandot Lake for a day of aquatic fun and intensive hydrotherapy for pregnant youth advisors. More details will go out on the phone tree or at the painting day.
And Tues., Aug. 10 there will be many of our younger church youth up at the Cloverbud Barn Tour with the Hartford Fair, starting at 3 pm. Many of our families will be up there all or part of Aug. 8 through the 14th. Those who aren’t, may well be at Band Camp the same week!
Then there’s the Sweet Corn Festival. . .
* * * * * * *
Outdoor Worship and Picnic
“Rally Day” marks the return of a regular schedule of one Sunday service and multiple church school classes at 9:30 am (instead of the other way around!). On Sept. 12, the first Sunday after Labor Day, we will gather for worship on the north side of the building, with straw bale seating (or what you bring to sit upon) and some special music for the occasion.
A potluck picnic will follow right after the benediction, so bring your basket one more time before you pack it away for the fall, and be ready to eat hearty!
* * * * * * *
Note to Editor: For general notes, Sharon Scheidegger was Troop 33 unit leader for the week at Camp Falling Rock, along with Scouts from Kirkersville, Pataskala, Newark, Granville, and Utica.
Pastor Jeff will be teaching a class for eight weeks in Reynoldsburg on Saturdays through late Aug., Sept. & early Oct. on “Disciples’ Theology of Worship” to our regional licensed lay ministers.
* * * * * * *
Thursday, July 22, 2004
Hebron Crossroads 8-01-04
By Jeff Gill
35 ThingsThe latest internet infection isn’t a computer virus, it’s a game inviting webloggers (or “bloggers” in web parlance) to answer these questions for themselves, post ‘em on yer blog, and send to friends. . .or enemies, as the case may be.
With http://knapsack.blogspot.com not quite a blog as much as a dumping site for my text materials, I’ll still while away a lazy summer day and threaten to waste part of yours with “35 Things,” starting. . . now!
1. WHAT COLOR ARE YOUR BEDROOM WALLS? Colonial white.2. WHAT BOOK ARE YOU READING NOW? N.T. Wright's The New Testament and the People of God. Have I mentioned I’m a pastor?3. WHAT'S ON YOUR MOUSE PAD? A Columbus Zoo menagerie.4. FAVORITE BOARD GAME? Bored by such games, I am, but “Candy Land – Pooh edition” has been a favorite with the Little Guy.5. FAVORITE MAGAZINE? Atlantic Monthly, followed closely by National Geographic.6. FAVORITE SMELL? Fresh-brewed coffee.7. FAVORITE COLOR? Forest green.8. LEAST FAVORITE COLOR? Blue-green institutional wall paint.9. HOW MANY RINGS BEFORE YOUR ANSWERING MACHINE PICKS UP? Four. 10. MOST IMPORTANT MATERIAL THING IN MY LIFE? Material? Our house, I suppose. We love it.11. FAVORITE FLAVOR OF ICE CREAM? Vanilla with fresh fruit on top.12. DO YOU BREAK THE SPEED LIMIT DAILY? Possibly; who’s asking?13. DO YOU HAVE A STUFFED ANIMAL IN YOUR ROOM SOMEWHERE? Nowadays, we’re more a hard plastic humanoid figure underfoot household.14. STORMS - COOL OR SCARY? Cool, way cool.15. FAVORITE DRINK? Starbucks red-eye with a shot of hazelnut flavor (it’s a coffe drink, people). 16. WHEN IS YOUR BIRTHDAY? August.17. FAVORITE VEGETABLES? Green peas, just like Thomas Jefferson – although the resemblance ends there. 18. IF YOU COULD HAVE ANY JOB, WHAT WOULD IT BE? Columnist and book reviewer, which describes being a parson pretty well, too.19. IF YOU COULD HAVE ANY COLOR HAIR, WHAT WOULD IT BE? Sandy brown is fine, thanks.20. HAVE YOU EVER BEEN IN LOVE? Yes.21. TOP THREE FAVORITE MOVIES (IN ORDER)? Ow.....I can't rank them. Three of my favorites would be Holiday Inn, Casablanca and Local Hero. 22. DO YOU TYPE WITH YOUR FINGERS ON THE RIGHT KEYS? No, especially recently. 23. WHAT'S UNDER YOUR BED? Nothing; my Lovely Wife is a neat fre. . .tidy person.24. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE NUMBER? 5. Or 4. Maybe 3. 1 is fine, and 2 is nice. How do you have a favorite number, anyhow?25. FAVORITE SPORT TO WATCH ON TV & IN PERSON? Baseball in person. On TV, very little; golf if the course looks nice and they turn up the bird noise.
26. WHAT IS YOUR SINGLE BIGGEST FEAR? Leaving my son behind somewhere (no, not yet, thanks for asking).27. FAVORITE CD OF ALL TIME & RIGHT NOW? Auugghh. Why did I start this? There’s a Michael W. Smith praise music CD called “Worship” that I play too much these days, and of all time is probably a Mahler symphony, but don’t ask me which one. Or Billy Joel’s “The Stranger.”28. FAVORITE TV SHOW OF ALL TIME & RIGHT NOW? Fawlty Towers, all time, or “Northern Exposure.” (“Twin Peaks” on Prozac, high dosage). Currently, “Weather on the Eights” at The Weather Channel. 29. HAMBURGERS OR HOT DOGS? Hamburgers, unless Hebrew Nationals are available.30. THE COOLEST PLACES YOU'VE EVER BEEN? Colonial Williamsburg, and the Mount of Olives at sunset over Jerusalem.31. WHAT WALLPAPER AND/OR SCREENSAVER IS ON YOUR COMPUTER RIGHT NOW? Rembrandt’s “The Old Philosopher At His Studies.”
32. DOES MCDONALD'S SKIMP ON YOUR FRIES & DO YOU CARE? To quote a colleague: “A counter guy tried it once. They buried him at dusk.”33. FAVORITE CHAIN RESTAURANT(s)? Olive Garden gets so much abuse for Italo-hokery, but it works for us. We loved Eat n’ Park in western PA; perhaps they’ll expand west someday.34. IF YOU HAVE A BOY (OR HAVE ANOTHER BOY) WHAT WOULD YOU NAME HIM? Nathaniel (see “Little Men” for background). 35. IF YOU COULD LEARN TO PLAY ONE INSTRUMENT OVERNIGHT, WHAT WOULD IT BE? Oboe. Guitar would be more useful, but what a great space-filling sound an oboe solo is.
Now YOU play. . .
Jeff Gill is pastor of Hebron Christian Church and also a believer in the phrase “de gustibus non disputandum.” If you have quotes from Horace or news of local interest, call 928-4066 or e-mail disciple@voyager.net.
By Jeff Gill
35 ThingsThe latest internet infection isn’t a computer virus, it’s a game inviting webloggers (or “bloggers” in web parlance) to answer these questions for themselves, post ‘em on yer blog, and send to friends. . .or enemies, as the case may be.
With http://knapsack.blogspot.com not quite a blog as much as a dumping site for my text materials, I’ll still while away a lazy summer day and threaten to waste part of yours with “35 Things,” starting. . . now!
1. WHAT COLOR ARE YOUR BEDROOM WALLS? Colonial white.2. WHAT BOOK ARE YOU READING NOW? N.T. Wright's The New Testament and the People of God. Have I mentioned I’m a pastor?3. WHAT'S ON YOUR MOUSE PAD? A Columbus Zoo menagerie.4. FAVORITE BOARD GAME? Bored by such games, I am, but “Candy Land – Pooh edition” has been a favorite with the Little Guy.5. FAVORITE MAGAZINE? Atlantic Monthly, followed closely by National Geographic.6. FAVORITE SMELL? Fresh-brewed coffee.7. FAVORITE COLOR? Forest green.8. LEAST FAVORITE COLOR? Blue-green institutional wall paint.9. HOW MANY RINGS BEFORE YOUR ANSWERING MACHINE PICKS UP? Four. 10. MOST IMPORTANT MATERIAL THING IN MY LIFE? Material? Our house, I suppose. We love it.11. FAVORITE FLAVOR OF ICE CREAM? Vanilla with fresh fruit on top.12. DO YOU BREAK THE SPEED LIMIT DAILY? Possibly; who’s asking?13. DO YOU HAVE A STUFFED ANIMAL IN YOUR ROOM SOMEWHERE? Nowadays, we’re more a hard plastic humanoid figure underfoot household.14. STORMS - COOL OR SCARY? Cool, way cool.15. FAVORITE DRINK? Starbucks red-eye with a shot of hazelnut flavor (it’s a coffe drink, people). 16. WHEN IS YOUR BIRTHDAY? August.17. FAVORITE VEGETABLES? Green peas, just like Thomas Jefferson – although the resemblance ends there. 18. IF YOU COULD HAVE ANY JOB, WHAT WOULD IT BE? Columnist and book reviewer, which describes being a parson pretty well, too.19. IF YOU COULD HAVE ANY COLOR HAIR, WHAT WOULD IT BE? Sandy brown is fine, thanks.20. HAVE YOU EVER BEEN IN LOVE? Yes.21. TOP THREE FAVORITE MOVIES (IN ORDER)? Ow.....I can't rank them. Three of my favorites would be Holiday Inn, Casablanca and Local Hero. 22. DO YOU TYPE WITH YOUR FINGERS ON THE RIGHT KEYS? No, especially recently. 23. WHAT'S UNDER YOUR BED? Nothing; my Lovely Wife is a neat fre. . .tidy person.24. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE NUMBER? 5. Or 4. Maybe 3. 1 is fine, and 2 is nice. How do you have a favorite number, anyhow?25. FAVORITE SPORT TO WATCH ON TV & IN PERSON? Baseball in person. On TV, very little; golf if the course looks nice and they turn up the bird noise.
26. WHAT IS YOUR SINGLE BIGGEST FEAR? Leaving my son behind somewhere (no, not yet, thanks for asking).27. FAVORITE CD OF ALL TIME & RIGHT NOW? Auugghh. Why did I start this? There’s a Michael W. Smith praise music CD called “Worship” that I play too much these days, and of all time is probably a Mahler symphony, but don’t ask me which one. Or Billy Joel’s “The Stranger.”28. FAVORITE TV SHOW OF ALL TIME & RIGHT NOW? Fawlty Towers, all time, or “Northern Exposure.” (“Twin Peaks” on Prozac, high dosage). Currently, “Weather on the Eights” at The Weather Channel. 29. HAMBURGERS OR HOT DOGS? Hamburgers, unless Hebrew Nationals are available.30. THE COOLEST PLACES YOU'VE EVER BEEN? Colonial Williamsburg, and the Mount of Olives at sunset over Jerusalem.31. WHAT WALLPAPER AND/OR SCREENSAVER IS ON YOUR COMPUTER RIGHT NOW? Rembrandt’s “The Old Philosopher At His Studies.”
32. DOES MCDONALD'S SKIMP ON YOUR FRIES & DO YOU CARE? To quote a colleague: “A counter guy tried it once. They buried him at dusk.”33. FAVORITE CHAIN RESTAURANT(s)? Olive Garden gets so much abuse for Italo-hokery, but it works for us. We loved Eat n’ Park in western PA; perhaps they’ll expand west someday.34. IF YOU HAVE A BOY (OR HAVE ANOTHER BOY) WHAT WOULD YOU NAME HIM? Nathaniel (see “Little Men” for background). 35. IF YOU COULD LEARN TO PLAY ONE INSTRUMENT OVERNIGHT, WHAT WOULD IT BE? Oboe. Guitar would be more useful, but what a great space-filling sound an oboe solo is.
Now YOU play. . .
Jeff Gill is pastor of Hebron Christian Church and also a believer in the phrase “de gustibus non disputandum.” If you have quotes from Horace or news of local interest, call 928-4066 or e-mail disciple@voyager.net.
Monday, July 19, 2004
To all whom it may concern -- Greetings in Christ's Name!It was a quiet week in Badger Camp, my hometown. . .Here are the less narrative-driven details summing up the week, but be ye forewarned that any further questions are likely to evoke a lengthy monologue filled with colorful characters.Badger Total: 94*Camper total: 74DoC campers: 58UCC campers: 16male campers - 29; female campers 43Staff total: 20*3 director/resource; 10* counselors; 7 CITsmale counselors - 5; female couns. - 5*male CITs - 2; female CITs 5*Badger used a staff counselor, female, who was a lifesaver,as you can tell by the skew female-to-male in registrations.Even so, we had two cabins with doubled CITs, which was marginally acceptable to me as we had some 2nd year CIT ladies.Badger Camp occupied 11 cabins; 5 male & 6 female,in 4 family groups.Our average camper # per cabin was 6.7; however, it was6 per cabin male, vs. 7.3 for female cabins. Two more cabins'worth on our two hills, or about 14, would still be feasible, but the gender skew and difficulty in getting counselors who arebetween 18 and 50 means staff planning will still mean totalratios of staff to campers like our 20 to 74, which may seem high until you break out the figures. Our dependence on under18 staff, a point of serious concern to me, is mitigated by theincreasing interest in the program, which means Jeanelle and i can pick and choose. Given that i believe we will be requiredin the near-future to have two adults (however defined) in eachsleeping area (Camp Christian, please note!), this is at least apartial step in a good direction.We continue to work towards a goal of 85-90 campers in 13 cabinsand 6 family groups; but 19 registrations coming in two to four days before i drive down Honeycreek Road makes it hard to plan --highly punitive late fees are more and more imperative for the Partnership Camp system to work! $305 for registrations arriving less than two weeks before starting day strikes me as perfectly fair, especially when you consider the amount of overnight mailing, phone calls in midday, and other *actual expenses* (including needing to overload your CIT count in anticipation of last-minutefolk).
And that's what happened at Badger Camp, where all the female staff were strong, all the male staff good-looking, and the children were assuredly above-average!In Grace & Peace,Jeff GillHebron, Ohiohttp://go.to/Hebron_Christianhttp://knapsack.blogspot.com
And that's what happened at Badger Camp, where all the female staff were strong, all the male staff good-looking, and the children were assuredly above-average!In Grace & Peace,Jeff GillHebron, Ohiohttp://go.to/Hebron_Christianhttp://knapsack.blogspot.com
Hebron Crossroads 7-25-04By Jeff Gill
This is turning into quite a summer for Ray Bradbury fans, and I hope a good one for Mr. Bradbury himself.Mars has not one, but two rovers exploring the planet and sending back pictures from a place that will long bear the imprint of “The Martian Chronicles.” NASA and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory have a great deal to be proud of with those devices working now over twice their rated life-span, and the Cassini probe successfully passing through Saturn’s rings on the way to Titan.But Ray Bradbury is known for not only science fiction set on distant worlds, but for imaginative fiction set on a planet that may be ours, around a twisted corner or down a dark future, oddly lit by brightly ominous sunshine.“Something Wicked This Way Comes” is written across the top of the newest Harry Potter movie poster, and since it comes from Shakespeare by way of Macbeth they have every right to borrow that line. Those words, though, will always make me think of Bradbury’s tale of the dark day that the circus --- Cooger & Dark's Pandemonium Shadow Show --- came to the village of Green Town, Illinois. Set in a Midwest not unlike the area around our own Hebron Crossroads, two boys find their lives taking dramatic and terrifying turns on the edge of adolescence.And then there’s the fairly unoriginal “Fahrenheit 9-11,” swiped not too cleverly and without permission from “Fahrenheit 451,” a title taken in turn (and brilliantly) from the burning point of paper, describing a dystopian future with a bright glimmer of hope set into the ending, the sort that Stephen King has to learn to write if he’s ever gonna make a reader of me.Bradbury himself has protested the admittedly legal, if somewhat unethical title sideswipe of Michael Moore’s movie, with only deafening silence in response. Too bad, because if Moore really wanted to both scare people and make them think, he could make no better friend than Ray Bradbury. “S is for Space” (which has almost no stories in that collection taking place in outer space) left a mark on my youthful imagination that remains to this day, admitting and looking directly at the darkness in everyday life, gazing calmly through it to the possibility of further horizons beyond.Preacher note: Bradbury was, in a younger day himself, part of the crew of screenwriters on “King of Kings,” a cheesy Biblical epic of about 40 years back, but with one of the best endings of any Bible pics I know out of Hollywood. It delighted me no end to learn that the ending came from Ray, who had an idea when the veteran scriptwriters got bogged down in how to wrap up their tale of Jesus: let’s use one of the endings from the . . . ummm . . . Bible! The others were underwhelmed by the idea, so he went home, got out a Bible, wrote an ending from the close of John’s Gospel, and came back to the studio, not telling them where he got it.They loved him, said it was a brilliant solution to the finale, and told him he had a bright future in the bizness. Bradbury decided to commit to writing books and short stories instead, and we’re all lucky he did.
“Something Heroic This Way Comes” could be the title for the Hebron Community Vacation Bible School on Friday, July 30 from 6 pm to 8:30, and Saturday, July 31 from 10 am to 4 pm. The title selected by the host church this year is actually “HeroQuest,” with stations looking at the heroic virtues of strength, courage, determination, daring and love. Hebron United Methodist Church on East Main Street is the site, and Hebron Christian Church is assisting.Children Kindergarten through 5th grade are invited to participate, while older youth can be group escorts through the activity stations, where the young people will learn through story, song, and activity about the Biblical figures who make good examples for those five heroic virtues.From the VBS materials, HeroQuest is "designed to give children an understanding of what makes an ordinary person a hero. ... Children will come to know that being a true hero has nothing to do within the super heroes they read about in comic books or see in the movies. What makes an ordinary person a hero is that person's heart." Sounds like a message that any of our children would benefit from!If you want more info, call or drop by either Hebron United Methodist (928-2471) or Hebron Christian (928-4066), or just e-mail me at disciple@voyager.net.
This is turning into quite a summer for Ray Bradbury fans, and I hope a good one for Mr. Bradbury himself.Mars has not one, but two rovers exploring the planet and sending back pictures from a place that will long bear the imprint of “The Martian Chronicles.” NASA and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory have a great deal to be proud of with those devices working now over twice their rated life-span, and the Cassini probe successfully passing through Saturn’s rings on the way to Titan.But Ray Bradbury is known for not only science fiction set on distant worlds, but for imaginative fiction set on a planet that may be ours, around a twisted corner or down a dark future, oddly lit by brightly ominous sunshine.“Something Wicked This Way Comes” is written across the top of the newest Harry Potter movie poster, and since it comes from Shakespeare by way of Macbeth they have every right to borrow that line. Those words, though, will always make me think of Bradbury’s tale of the dark day that the circus --- Cooger & Dark's Pandemonium Shadow Show --- came to the village of Green Town, Illinois. Set in a Midwest not unlike the area around our own Hebron Crossroads, two boys find their lives taking dramatic and terrifying turns on the edge of adolescence.And then there’s the fairly unoriginal “Fahrenheit 9-11,” swiped not too cleverly and without permission from “Fahrenheit 451,” a title taken in turn (and brilliantly) from the burning point of paper, describing a dystopian future with a bright glimmer of hope set into the ending, the sort that Stephen King has to learn to write if he’s ever gonna make a reader of me.Bradbury himself has protested the admittedly legal, if somewhat unethical title sideswipe of Michael Moore’s movie, with only deafening silence in response. Too bad, because if Moore really wanted to both scare people and make them think, he could make no better friend than Ray Bradbury. “S is for Space” (which has almost no stories in that collection taking place in outer space) left a mark on my youthful imagination that remains to this day, admitting and looking directly at the darkness in everyday life, gazing calmly through it to the possibility of further horizons beyond.Preacher note: Bradbury was, in a younger day himself, part of the crew of screenwriters on “King of Kings,” a cheesy Biblical epic of about 40 years back, but with one of the best endings of any Bible pics I know out of Hollywood. It delighted me no end to learn that the ending came from Ray, who had an idea when the veteran scriptwriters got bogged down in how to wrap up their tale of Jesus: let’s use one of the endings from the . . . ummm . . . Bible! The others were underwhelmed by the idea, so he went home, got out a Bible, wrote an ending from the close of John’s Gospel, and came back to the studio, not telling them where he got it.They loved him, said it was a brilliant solution to the finale, and told him he had a bright future in the bizness. Bradbury decided to commit to writing books and short stories instead, and we’re all lucky he did.
“Something Heroic This Way Comes” could be the title for the Hebron Community Vacation Bible School on Friday, July 30 from 6 pm to 8:30, and Saturday, July 31 from 10 am to 4 pm. The title selected by the host church this year is actually “HeroQuest,” with stations looking at the heroic virtues of strength, courage, determination, daring and love. Hebron United Methodist Church on East Main Street is the site, and Hebron Christian Church is assisting.Children Kindergarten through 5th grade are invited to participate, while older youth can be group escorts through the activity stations, where the young people will learn through story, song, and activity about the Biblical figures who make good examples for those five heroic virtues.From the VBS materials, HeroQuest is "designed to give children an understanding of what makes an ordinary person a hero. ... Children will come to know that being a true hero has nothing to do within the super heroes they read about in comic books or see in the movies. What makes an ordinary person a hero is that person's heart." Sounds like a message that any of our children would benefit from!If you want more info, call or drop by either Hebron United Methodist (928-2471) or Hebron Christian (928-4066), or just e-mail me at disciple@voyager.net.
Wednesday, July 07, 2004
Hebron Crossroads 7-18-04
By Jeff Gill
Mandatory; zero tolerance; banned; across the board; no exceptions.
Y’all were quite tolerant of my rant a few weeks back about the trend to social developments like smoking bans in all public spaces or mandatory sentencing guidelines in criminal cases. To repeat: I loathe cigarette smoke, physically and personally, and think court judgments should be swift, certain, consistent, and grim. But without human judgment, however flawed, we pre-empt common sense anywhere by penalizing folks for not using common sense everywhere.
But an interesting question was raised with me about something like “universal service.” What did I think about that?
Actually, the interesting dilemma I have here is that I think it would be great if absolutely everyone did it, and the best way to ruin universal service is to. . .yep, make it mandatory.
For instance, a public service requirement for high school graduation has been popular in some areas recently. May I say that spending time on a work trip, mission experience with a church, or service project at home or away is one of the most life expanding, uplifting and enlightening things a young person (or old: remember Miz Lillian in the Peace Corps in her 80’s?) can do.
But making it an obligation for absolutely everyone carries the seeds of decay for the entire ideal. First off, the sense that one chooses to do something they don’t have to do is lost. Remember how you felt when you went to the closet to get out the vacuum unasked and use it, and a voice comes around the corner “Oh, would you run the sweeper while you’re in there?” You have this crestfallen moment of losing that chance to be seen as doing something “over and above.”
And not everyone serves usefully in the same context. The match of one’s gifts to need can be a tricky recipe to cook up; universal service programs, of necessity due to the scale of numbers and projects, tend to lapse into a “hole and peg” kind of mentality. Putting someone to work in a context they regret and resent can create the opposite of what voluntary service does in a person’s heart, narrowing and embittering their view of others in the world.
Many folks with very good intentions have said that the country and our young would be well served by requiring a term of mandatory service, a year or two in the military, in urban or rural teaching, in medical assistance with hospitals or trail clearing and repair in our parks. My own view is that we should have such a program, for Ohio or nationally, to promote and facilitate such service, and could add meaningful incentives without making it paid make-work as opposed to volunteerism.
But mandatory? No. Ask any sergeant about the differences between a draftee army (bless ‘em all!) and the all volunteer services of today. I’ve supervised work crews of volunteers who had some sad sacks (usually drug along unwillingly by a friend) and a crew of court-ordered public servers which had a participant who loved the work and stayed late: but generally, mandatory makes for mopes and malcontents.
Do I wish everyone wanted to volunteer to help others? Sure do. Let’s encourage that, not require it, and set the first example ourselves.
Next week, a few VBS notes in Jacksontown and Hebron (I’ll bet they still need some volunteers!) and some updates on the Hartford Fair (Aug. 8, starting late this year), band camp (same day), and the dreaded words “Back To School.” Well, dreaded by some, anyway.
Jeff Gill is pastor of Hebron Christian Church and does a little volunteering himself; if you have service opportunities to promote or news of local interest, call 928-4066 or e-mail disciple@voyager.net.
By Jeff Gill
Mandatory; zero tolerance; banned; across the board; no exceptions.
Y’all were quite tolerant of my rant a few weeks back about the trend to social developments like smoking bans in all public spaces or mandatory sentencing guidelines in criminal cases. To repeat: I loathe cigarette smoke, physically and personally, and think court judgments should be swift, certain, consistent, and grim. But without human judgment, however flawed, we pre-empt common sense anywhere by penalizing folks for not using common sense everywhere.
But an interesting question was raised with me about something like “universal service.” What did I think about that?
Actually, the interesting dilemma I have here is that I think it would be great if absolutely everyone did it, and the best way to ruin universal service is to. . .yep, make it mandatory.
For instance, a public service requirement for high school graduation has been popular in some areas recently. May I say that spending time on a work trip, mission experience with a church, or service project at home or away is one of the most life expanding, uplifting and enlightening things a young person (or old: remember Miz Lillian in the Peace Corps in her 80’s?) can do.
But making it an obligation for absolutely everyone carries the seeds of decay for the entire ideal. First off, the sense that one chooses to do something they don’t have to do is lost. Remember how you felt when you went to the closet to get out the vacuum unasked and use it, and a voice comes around the corner “Oh, would you run the sweeper while you’re in there?” You have this crestfallen moment of losing that chance to be seen as doing something “over and above.”
And not everyone serves usefully in the same context. The match of one’s gifts to need can be a tricky recipe to cook up; universal service programs, of necessity due to the scale of numbers and projects, tend to lapse into a “hole and peg” kind of mentality. Putting someone to work in a context they regret and resent can create the opposite of what voluntary service does in a person’s heart, narrowing and embittering their view of others in the world.
Many folks with very good intentions have said that the country and our young would be well served by requiring a term of mandatory service, a year or two in the military, in urban or rural teaching, in medical assistance with hospitals or trail clearing and repair in our parks. My own view is that we should have such a program, for Ohio or nationally, to promote and facilitate such service, and could add meaningful incentives without making it paid make-work as opposed to volunteerism.
But mandatory? No. Ask any sergeant about the differences between a draftee army (bless ‘em all!) and the all volunteer services of today. I’ve supervised work crews of volunteers who had some sad sacks (usually drug along unwillingly by a friend) and a crew of court-ordered public servers which had a participant who loved the work and stayed late: but generally, mandatory makes for mopes and malcontents.
Do I wish everyone wanted to volunteer to help others? Sure do. Let’s encourage that, not require it, and set the first example ourselves.
Next week, a few VBS notes in Jacksontown and Hebron (I’ll bet they still need some volunteers!) and some updates on the Hartford Fair (Aug. 8, starting late this year), band camp (same day), and the dreaded words “Back To School.” Well, dreaded by some, anyway.
Jeff Gill is pastor of Hebron Christian Church and does a little volunteering himself; if you have service opportunities to promote or news of local interest, call 928-4066 or e-mail disciple@voyager.net.
Hebron Crossroads 7-11-04
By Jeff Gill
Next Saturday, July 17, Licking Baptist Church on Beaver Run Road will hold a “Summer Fun Festival” for the community. From 9 am to 5 pm they plan games, music, food, door prizes, and activities for all ages at their new worship center west of Canyon Road on the south side of Beaver Run Road.
A craft show will be part of the event, says Mark King, and you can call him at 928-4618 for more info. Lonnie Aleshire is pastor, and I’ll bet he’d love to see you at church on Sunday, too! But this “Summer Fun Festival” is simply an event open to all for fun and fellowship.
As you drive out to Licking Baptist, it’s time for my annual note about “corn corners” in the Hebron Crossroads area. “Knee high by the Fourth of July” long ago became a bit of an anachronism in this modern age of hybrids and early planting; knee high on a giraffe, maybe. As high as an elephant’s eye? You got it now, and not just in Oklahoma.
For all of us, farmers and non-farmers particularly, this means that some stretches of road and a number of intersections will suddenly undergo a dramatic change in visual terrain. A spot where you could see for miles can be a blind spot, screened by a thick curtain of corn stalks, even as our mind still thinks “bump the brake and floor the gas.”
Since it happens just a few weeks a year, most of us don’t remember well how this can shape our landscape. Keep it in mind, and be careful out there, OK?
Recuperating from my combo elbow fracture/surgery/ghastly flu bug, coffee has spent some time off my list, an experience normally restricted to alternate Lenten seasons.
What my stomach has more happily tolerated is tea, and Earl Grey in particular has hit what little spot I still had. Twinings Earl Grey (I’m sure the brand Jean-Luc Picard drinks on the Enterprise, lo these many centuries ahead) is still in the dull yellow and dark brown trimmed box I first saw in a college care package decades ago. There was some measure of comfort just in seeing that yellow rectangle and particular typeface.
It got me to thinking about colors and packaging and food, and how we’ve gone from making our mental food associations with particular strong individual colors – rich green corn stalks, deep blue blueberries, bright red tomatoes – to packaging choices of more elaborate color schemes.
Brown wrapping with orange accents says Heath bar from across a room, and makes my tongue think of toffee. Honey yellow and bright yellow on a tall box says Cheerios, and you can almost taste the oats before you open the box, but white background with red says to me, anyhow, Special K.
Particular color pairings have been so effectively conditioned into some of us that. . .well, it doesn’t matter if the ad meant something else or if I’m looking into a toy box for blocks, but if I see turquoise and orange, I think fried clams at HoJo’s: don’t you?
Do you have color/food associations? Is this a quirk of the Gill hardwiring, or do certain flavors leap to mind when you see certain color combos? Zip off your thoughts to disciple@voyager.net, and we’ll print a few.
This Sunday night, on PBS, “A Thief of Time” airs on Mystery. It marks the third time an attempt has been made to film a Tony Hillerman novel. Proof that movie making is an art, not a science, the wonderful mysteries Hillerman has written set in some of America’s most beautiful landscapes, the desert Southwest, and with a central role to two Navajo Tribal Police officers giving a natural conflict between modern and traditional life, have been in their first two movie versions. . .awful. “The Dark Wind” was almost unwatchable, and “Skinwalkers” had to be inexplicable to someone who hadn’t read the book.
The trailer on WOSU looks good, but we’ve all been burned by those, haven’t we? I recommend giving it a chance, though, since the material – book and setting – is so rich and marvelous, and the actors starting with Wes Studi as Joe Leaphorn look well cast and intriguing.
Better yet, if you haven’t built up a backlog on your summer reading pile yet, may I recommend a few Tony Hillerman mysteries? If you’ve never read any, I envy your ability to read them for the first time; I can assure you that they reward re-reading, too.
Jeff Gill is pastor of Hebron Christian Church and would love to visit the Colorado Plateau again; if you have other books to recommend as substitutes for vacations away or news of local interest, call 928-4066 or e-mail disciple@voyager.net.
By Jeff Gill
Next Saturday, July 17, Licking Baptist Church on Beaver Run Road will hold a “Summer Fun Festival” for the community. From 9 am to 5 pm they plan games, music, food, door prizes, and activities for all ages at their new worship center west of Canyon Road on the south side of Beaver Run Road.
A craft show will be part of the event, says Mark King, and you can call him at 928-4618 for more info. Lonnie Aleshire is pastor, and I’ll bet he’d love to see you at church on Sunday, too! But this “Summer Fun Festival” is simply an event open to all for fun and fellowship.
As you drive out to Licking Baptist, it’s time for my annual note about “corn corners” in the Hebron Crossroads area. “Knee high by the Fourth of July” long ago became a bit of an anachronism in this modern age of hybrids and early planting; knee high on a giraffe, maybe. As high as an elephant’s eye? You got it now, and not just in Oklahoma.
For all of us, farmers and non-farmers particularly, this means that some stretches of road and a number of intersections will suddenly undergo a dramatic change in visual terrain. A spot where you could see for miles can be a blind spot, screened by a thick curtain of corn stalks, even as our mind still thinks “bump the brake and floor the gas.”
Since it happens just a few weeks a year, most of us don’t remember well how this can shape our landscape. Keep it in mind, and be careful out there, OK?
Recuperating from my combo elbow fracture/surgery/ghastly flu bug, coffee has spent some time off my list, an experience normally restricted to alternate Lenten seasons.
What my stomach has more happily tolerated is tea, and Earl Grey in particular has hit what little spot I still had. Twinings Earl Grey (I’m sure the brand Jean-Luc Picard drinks on the Enterprise, lo these many centuries ahead) is still in the dull yellow and dark brown trimmed box I first saw in a college care package decades ago. There was some measure of comfort just in seeing that yellow rectangle and particular typeface.
It got me to thinking about colors and packaging and food, and how we’ve gone from making our mental food associations with particular strong individual colors – rich green corn stalks, deep blue blueberries, bright red tomatoes – to packaging choices of more elaborate color schemes.
Brown wrapping with orange accents says Heath bar from across a room, and makes my tongue think of toffee. Honey yellow and bright yellow on a tall box says Cheerios, and you can almost taste the oats before you open the box, but white background with red says to me, anyhow, Special K.
Particular color pairings have been so effectively conditioned into some of us that. . .well, it doesn’t matter if the ad meant something else or if I’m looking into a toy box for blocks, but if I see turquoise and orange, I think fried clams at HoJo’s: don’t you?
Do you have color/food associations? Is this a quirk of the Gill hardwiring, or do certain flavors leap to mind when you see certain color combos? Zip off your thoughts to disciple@voyager.net, and we’ll print a few.
This Sunday night, on PBS, “A Thief of Time” airs on Mystery. It marks the third time an attempt has been made to film a Tony Hillerman novel. Proof that movie making is an art, not a science, the wonderful mysteries Hillerman has written set in some of America’s most beautiful landscapes, the desert Southwest, and with a central role to two Navajo Tribal Police officers giving a natural conflict between modern and traditional life, have been in their first two movie versions. . .awful. “The Dark Wind” was almost unwatchable, and “Skinwalkers” had to be inexplicable to someone who hadn’t read the book.
The trailer on WOSU looks good, but we’ve all been burned by those, haven’t we? I recommend giving it a chance, though, since the material – book and setting – is so rich and marvelous, and the actors starting with Wes Studi as Joe Leaphorn look well cast and intriguing.
Better yet, if you haven’t built up a backlog on your summer reading pile yet, may I recommend a few Tony Hillerman mysteries? If you’ve never read any, I envy your ability to read them for the first time; I can assure you that they reward re-reading, too.
Jeff Gill is pastor of Hebron Christian Church and would love to visit the Colorado Plateau again; if you have other books to recommend as substitutes for vacations away or news of local interest, call 928-4066 or e-mail disciple@voyager.net.
Thursday, July 01, 2004
Licking District Trailmarkers Aug 2004
Our Scouting year, like the school year, starts in September, which really means August if you want to stay on top of your game – and not end up behind all year long!
We have some great planning and training events coming up in the next few months; don’t miss these opportunities to not just keep up, but get ahead.
* * * * * * *
Fall Program Kickoff
Newark Public Library Mtg. Room
Tues., Aug. 17 – 5 to 7 pm
This event, for all Cubmasters, Scoutmasters, and unit program chairs, includes Popcorn Sale info, leadership training updates, and a chance to meet people with programs from all over Licking County who want to help your Scouts succeed.
The Membership team, led by Bill Acklin, will offer a training break with a sample “model boy talk” for those going into elementary classrooms and community groups to offer Scouting through an invitation to a School Night for Scouting.
Also included are activity options from Buckeye Lake, Flint Ridge & Newark Earthworks State Memorials, Licking Park District to Dawes Arboretum and the Ohio Nature Education folks. At the Kickoff you can reach in one place people from one end of our district to the other. . .plus talk to almost any of our district leadership as the fall program year gets started.
Drop by, have some coffee or pop, and tour the tables, ask questions, and best yet get some answers, whether on charters, youth religious awards, or how to tie a one-handed bowline. See you there!
* * * * * * *
Popcorn Kernels On Call!
Tressa Kroll, our long-serving District Kernel (Colonel? Commander?), has been joined by an assistant kernel, Mary Rose Lewis of Pack 75. They will offer a Unit Popcorn Kernel training at the next Roundtable from 6:15 to 7:15, before the RT starts.
“Show & Deliver” popcorn has to be ordered by Sept. 20 (info also available at the Fall Program Kickoff), with pick-up Oct. 2 from 8 am to Noon.
The Council Wide Popcorn Sale is officially Oct. 1 to 29, with publicity support for your unit sales in media all over central Ohio. It’s a great fundraiser for your Scouting program and helps the entire council support our camps and activities!
* * * * * * *
Membership Recruitment Schedule
“School Night” training was moved earlier to Aug. 3 from the 10th due to the later date of the Hartford Fair (starting Aug. 8 this year!), still at the Alltel Building, with pizza at 6 and training from 6:30 to 8 pm.
August 24 - September 2 -- Boy Talk “Warm Up—Information” fliers sent to boys’ home from school in their beginning of the school year packets.
August 24 - September 9 -- Boy Talks and School Night rallies to be held
September 2 & 11 -- Packs turn in new boy’s applications and new leader’s applications (turn-in night locations TBA)
* * * * * * *
Cub Day Camp & Scout long-term Camp report
Almost 300 Cub Scouts went to Camp Falling Rock in June for Cub Day Camp. There was plenty of water for the creek walks, and enough sunshine to help make the program a success for packs all over Licking District and some from beyond.
If troop and crews have reports of their time at any long-term camp this summer, please send info to disciple@voyager.net, and we’ll share that next month (remember the Scouter deadline is the first Thursday of each month). Some digital photos may be usable as well!
* * * * * * *
Encouraging Scouting News From Iraq
(full story at http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=38761)
On the shores of the Tigris River sits 40 acres of prime real estate which recently was home to a compound used by Saddam Hussein's secret police. . .Now, a retired U.S. Navy commander is leading the charge to turn the remnants of the police camp into a first-class camp and training facility for Boy Scouts in Iraq, and have Scouting flourish once again in the region.
Chip Beck, a former Scout himself and father of one, accepted the Pentagon's call to serve in Iraq as a civilian advisor with the Coalition Provisional Authority, and found in Baghdad a large number of fellow workers who also happened to be involved with Scouting.
"Scouting is perceived with tremendous excitement and receptivity, because it's been here for 50 years. It's got its own Iraqi face to it," Beck said . . . "We in America sometimes tend to think that the Boy Scouts of America [is] the only Scouting organization in the world, when in fact it is one of 217.
The Boy Scouts originally were established in Iraq in 1954, but suffered repression with Hussein in power.
"Under Saddam, he had restricted their independence and movement. They couldn't travel outside the country to go to other jamborees, and international Scouts couldn't come here," Beck said. "Saddam didn't control the Scouts the way he wanted to. He started his own youth movement which was really corrupt."
But Beck says older Scout leaders, men in their 50s and 60s who had been trained with international Scout standards, kept their honor and dignity in the wake of deterioration caused by Saddam.
"They came through it kind of battered and tattered, I'd say, but with their head held high. Now we're trying to get 80 young leaders under the age of 35 – 40 men, 40 women from all over the country – to go to Cairo and be trained in a two-week professional Scouting leadership and program-management course. They're all excited about this!"
Beck says there's been no resistance to his effort, as he works with the Iraqi Center for Reconciliation, which includes leaders from the region's diverse ethnic and religious backgrounds.
"All of them agree that Scouting is good for their young people, their communities, themselves, the country. It promotes what I call universal values. It doesn't have to be American or British or Jordanian or South African or anybody's beliefs. It's something every decent person in the world can agree on. These are the values of right and wrong."
Beck is hoping to raise some $4.5 million dollars to rebuild the damaged secret-police camp as the national headquarters of the Iraqi Scouts.
And while he admits there is still violence afoot throughout the nation, he's optimistic it can be quelled.
"We can do it. There's more people out here in Iraq that want to see their own society succeed and need our help than there are those who want to destroy, but those with guns can also make a loud statement. It's the quiet ones that need to do the work more effectively."
(Editor's note: Those wishing to donate to the Iraqi Scouting effort can make checks out to: World Friendship Fund, PO Box 152079, Irving, Texas 75015 Include the notation "Iraqi Scouting" in the memo.)
* * * * * * *
President Reagan, born the year after Scouting began in the US, was never a member of BSA as a youth, but as a leader there was never any doubt of his support for the ideals we shared. At the Reagan Library during the initial public procession past the flag-draped casket, even CNN couldn’t be cynical about a whole Scout troop, standing and saluting.
Quoted from the New York Times of 8 June 2004:
“Also filing by his coffin on Tuesday were members of Boy Scout Troop 316 of Santa Clarita. Nick Jarvis, an 18-year-old Eagle Scout, said that he admired Mr. Reagan based on what he had read and heard about him.
"He had the courage to step up and lead us as a nation," Mr. Jarvis said. "All this makes me feel that my vote counts if we elect the right people to office."”
* * * * * *
Our Scouting year, like the school year, starts in September, which really means August if you want to stay on top of your game – and not end up behind all year long!
We have some great planning and training events coming up in the next few months; don’t miss these opportunities to not just keep up, but get ahead.
* * * * * * *
Fall Program Kickoff
Newark Public Library Mtg. Room
Tues., Aug. 17 – 5 to 7 pm
This event, for all Cubmasters, Scoutmasters, and unit program chairs, includes Popcorn Sale info, leadership training updates, and a chance to meet people with programs from all over Licking County who want to help your Scouts succeed.
The Membership team, led by Bill Acklin, will offer a training break with a sample “model boy talk” for those going into elementary classrooms and community groups to offer Scouting through an invitation to a School Night for Scouting.
Also included are activity options from Buckeye Lake, Flint Ridge & Newark Earthworks State Memorials, Licking Park District to Dawes Arboretum and the Ohio Nature Education folks. At the Kickoff you can reach in one place people from one end of our district to the other. . .plus talk to almost any of our district leadership as the fall program year gets started.
Drop by, have some coffee or pop, and tour the tables, ask questions, and best yet get some answers, whether on charters, youth religious awards, or how to tie a one-handed bowline. See you there!
* * * * * * *
Popcorn Kernels On Call!
Tressa Kroll, our long-serving District Kernel (Colonel? Commander?), has been joined by an assistant kernel, Mary Rose Lewis of Pack 75. They will offer a Unit Popcorn Kernel training at the next Roundtable from 6:15 to 7:15, before the RT starts.
“Show & Deliver” popcorn has to be ordered by Sept. 20 (info also available at the Fall Program Kickoff), with pick-up Oct. 2 from 8 am to Noon.
The Council Wide Popcorn Sale is officially Oct. 1 to 29, with publicity support for your unit sales in media all over central Ohio. It’s a great fundraiser for your Scouting program and helps the entire council support our camps and activities!
* * * * * * *
Membership Recruitment Schedule
“School Night” training was moved earlier to Aug. 3 from the 10th due to the later date of the Hartford Fair (starting Aug. 8 this year!), still at the Alltel Building, with pizza at 6 and training from 6:30 to 8 pm.
August 24 - September 2 -- Boy Talk “Warm Up—Information” fliers sent to boys’ home from school in their beginning of the school year packets.
August 24 - September 9 -- Boy Talks and School Night rallies to be held
September 2 & 11 -- Packs turn in new boy’s applications and new leader’s applications (turn-in night locations TBA)
* * * * * * *
Cub Day Camp & Scout long-term Camp report
Almost 300 Cub Scouts went to Camp Falling Rock in June for Cub Day Camp. There was plenty of water for the creek walks, and enough sunshine to help make the program a success for packs all over Licking District and some from beyond.
If troop and crews have reports of their time at any long-term camp this summer, please send info to disciple@voyager.net, and we’ll share that next month (remember the Scouter deadline is the first Thursday of each month). Some digital photos may be usable as well!
* * * * * * *
Encouraging Scouting News From Iraq
(full story at http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=38761)
On the shores of the Tigris River sits 40 acres of prime real estate which recently was home to a compound used by Saddam Hussein's secret police. . .Now, a retired U.S. Navy commander is leading the charge to turn the remnants of the police camp into a first-class camp and training facility for Boy Scouts in Iraq, and have Scouting flourish once again in the region.
Chip Beck, a former Scout himself and father of one, accepted the Pentagon's call to serve in Iraq as a civilian advisor with the Coalition Provisional Authority, and found in Baghdad a large number of fellow workers who also happened to be involved with Scouting.
"Scouting is perceived with tremendous excitement and receptivity, because it's been here for 50 years. It's got its own Iraqi face to it," Beck said . . . "We in America sometimes tend to think that the Boy Scouts of America [is] the only Scouting organization in the world, when in fact it is one of 217.
The Boy Scouts originally were established in Iraq in 1954, but suffered repression with Hussein in power.
"Under Saddam, he had restricted their independence and movement. They couldn't travel outside the country to go to other jamborees, and international Scouts couldn't come here," Beck said. "Saddam didn't control the Scouts the way he wanted to. He started his own youth movement which was really corrupt."
But Beck says older Scout leaders, men in their 50s and 60s who had been trained with international Scout standards, kept their honor and dignity in the wake of deterioration caused by Saddam.
"They came through it kind of battered and tattered, I'd say, but with their head held high. Now we're trying to get 80 young leaders under the age of 35 – 40 men, 40 women from all over the country – to go to Cairo and be trained in a two-week professional Scouting leadership and program-management course. They're all excited about this!"
Beck says there's been no resistance to his effort, as he works with the Iraqi Center for Reconciliation, which includes leaders from the region's diverse ethnic and religious backgrounds.
"All of them agree that Scouting is good for their young people, their communities, themselves, the country. It promotes what I call universal values. It doesn't have to be American or British or Jordanian or South African or anybody's beliefs. It's something every decent person in the world can agree on. These are the values of right and wrong."
Beck is hoping to raise some $4.5 million dollars to rebuild the damaged secret-police camp as the national headquarters of the Iraqi Scouts.
And while he admits there is still violence afoot throughout the nation, he's optimistic it can be quelled.
"We can do it. There's more people out here in Iraq that want to see their own society succeed and need our help than there are those who want to destroy, but those with guns can also make a loud statement. It's the quiet ones that need to do the work more effectively."
(Editor's note: Those wishing to donate to the Iraqi Scouting effort can make checks out to: World Friendship Fund, PO Box 152079, Irving, Texas 75015 Include the notation "Iraqi Scouting" in the memo.)
* * * * * * *
President Reagan, born the year after Scouting began in the US, was never a member of BSA as a youth, but as a leader there was never any doubt of his support for the ideals we shared. At the Reagan Library during the initial public procession past the flag-draped casket, even CNN couldn’t be cynical about a whole Scout troop, standing and saluting.
Quoted from the New York Times of 8 June 2004:
“Also filing by his coffin on Tuesday were members of Boy Scout Troop 316 of Santa Clarita. Nick Jarvis, an 18-year-old Eagle Scout, said that he admired Mr. Reagan based on what he had read and heard about him.
"He had the courage to step up and lead us as a nation," Mr. Jarvis said. "All this makes me feel that my vote counts if we elect the right people to office."”
* * * * * *
Tuesday, June 29, 2004
Hebron Crossroads 7-04-04
By Jeff Gill
John Adams, writing to his beloved Abigail from the Second Continental Congress in 1776, said of the resolution declaring America’s independence from Great Britain, that this day should in future years “be celebrated by pomp and parade, with shows, games, sports, guns, bells, bonfires, and illuminations from one end of this continent to the other. . .”
He was talking, of course, about July the. . .Second. The resolution was signed by most of the delegates on July the. . .Eighth.
But on the Fourth of July, the document was read in public for the first time: good enough! Let the pomps and illuminations freely fly along with our flags!
A few drips of news, then a flood of opinion.
Locally, we’ve had some unexpected and tragic deaths, including a few young adults and children. As a help to Lakewood area parents, teachers, and family members, the school district will hold an evening event this Tuesday, July 6, at 7:00 pm in Lakewood Middle School on “Helping Students Cope With the Loss of a Friend/Classmate.” If you would like to hear more about how to help students deal with the loss of someone they knew, then this panel discussion is for you.
This professionally led program is free and open to the public. Like the Monday morning reading program at Hebron Elementary, this is another reminder that your Lakewood School District staff is working year-round for you, even when school itself is not formally in session.
Good news for Buckeye Lake Village, and they’re due some: Congressman Bob Ney has asked for $350,000 in federal funds to help the village water project move to the next level. Congratulations to Mayor Frank Foster and others who did the leg work and put forward a coherent proposal that made it possible for Mr. Ney to pull the ends together and tie them up in a bow.
Our entire area will benefit from an economically healthier Buckeye Lake, and municipal water is a vital next step to that kind of stability and solid development.
And from the subterranean to the cosmic. . .if you find space at all fascinating, then you want to point your web browsers for the next week at http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov for the ongoing updates on the Cassini/Huygens spacecraft and probe.
The unmanned scientific craft will be going “up” through a gap in the rings of Saturn as you receive this, and then will loop ‘round and ‘round the planet making close approaches to the moons of Saturn like Titan and Enceladus. Cassini is already so close to the solar system’s second largest planet that it can no longer take pictures of the entire sphere, but only segments across the viewfinder.
Now, back to earth, and on into the treacherous vast wastes of. . .my opinions.
Columbus, that neighbor of ours to the west you may have heard of, recently made a controversial move through their board of health and city council. Smoking is now banned in all public places, plus within 20 feet of entrances.
To what I suspect will be the amazement of many of my friends and acquaintances, I think this is ridiculous. Really.
A word of background: I am horribly allergic to cigarette smoke, and not only do not smoke, but feel my sinuses slamming shut like a bank vault (a bank vault with a severe drainage problem, that is) and my eyeballs protruding from their sockets just on getting a goodly whiff downwind of a smoker’s exhalation. As a pastor, I’ve spent way too much time praying with families who are watching a beloved family member die by inches and half-drawn breaths. I’ve listened to folk in tears as they admit their shame and disgust in not being able to stop smoking. More recently, I’ve heard nurses tell me as my shattered elbow was inspected post-surgery that smokers usually take twice as long to heal in skin and bones, aside from the illnesses they obviously cause.
Hear where I’m comin’ from?
Nevertheless. To ban smoking from public buildings, yes. To ban or severely limit smoking in public spaces where large numbers of people come and gather, and where folks likely have little choice about coming occasionally or bringing children, OK. (I’m thinking grocery stores, banks, large retail outlets, etc.)
But if a business wants to test the market for ash-befouled goods or blue-hazed atmosphere, whether eating, drinking, bowling, or any other such establishment where you or I could go our whole lives and never enter if we choose not to, I stand concerned if not outright in opposition. Somewhere south of this new ordinance, a line got crossed. I’m not certain where I’d put that line, but. . .
The problem is basically one of zero-tolerance, mandatory, no exceptions thinking, which I believe is actually a phenomenon of not thinking. The ages old complaint “there’s no common sense anymore” isn’t new (Hammurabi, Cicero, and John Adams all complained of it), but there’s also a chicken-and-egg side to the problem. If we start acting and judging and regulating on the assumption that no one can use judgement and common sense, then people will continue living down to that expectation, and past it a bit.
I disagree with mandatory minimum sentencing: not because I think we have a surplus of restrained, reasonable judges (far from it), but because you change the entire courtroom dynamic of trial and sentencing (or plea bargain and probation) when the final phase is simply a checklist for the functionary in black robes to follow.
I disagree with almost every schoolhouse zero tolerance protocol I’ve ever heard of: not because every school superintendent or administrator is a paragon of Solomonic wisdom (ask Licking Valley), but because some kids need the book thrown at them, and others need a book handed to them during a judiciously applied suspension, and we need to back up our administrators when they try creative ways to redirect what is often high spirits and hormonal overload. Will some parents threaten lawsuits if penalties aren’t cookbook identical across the board? Sure, and that’s where we need school boards with common sense and steel vertebrae as well.
And I disagree with mindless universal protocols for medical care overseen by a clerk with an MBA on a phone three states away, versus the wisdom of an MD who has my broken arm and X-rays right in front of their face. Oh, you thought I forgot about HMO’s from last week’s column, did you? Youbetchabuddy I remembered!
A person, with multiple fractures through bone (yes, it was stabilized, and yes, it was a closed fracture, meaning I wasn’t bleeding on the carpeting) confirmed by X-ray and an ER doc, has to go to their PCP before visiting the OS who immediately schedules you for an OR PDQ? You know we’re talking about HMO’s when there are that many acronyms in a couple of paragraphs.
I also vocally disagree with no exceptions to “may I have your phone number” when making a purchase or “please provide your home address” when purchasing tickets for performance events or “enter your household income” registering for access to web sites (I get “why” the zip code question, and will comply with that, but no further!). If there’s no room in the computer system for sales clerk discretion for customers who don’t want to share personal information to see a movie or buy a cable, I owe it to that business to keep my economic activity from overburdening their oddly prioritized time.
For all of these situations, what I welcome are choices that allow the market to shape policy in tandem with the public good, but with the public good defined as starting with individual freedom, not ending with liberty as a luxury we get to keep if it doesn’t conflict with an assortment of other “expert defined” goods.
Personally, if I never have to enter another smoky bowling alley or nicotine stained eating establishment, the better. And if packs o’ smokes were taxed to cover the actual measurable costs of the medical care associated with cigarettes, we’d likely have fewer smokers and less cost-shifting insurance bureaucracy.
But telling Ma’s Diner or Choo-choo’s Pool Hall to ban smoking starts to edge over into territory that in turn is way to close to a land where a friendly government official asks to review my Sunday sermons for their “positive thoughts quotient.”
Let’s use some common sense and know when we’re free to just stay out of each other’s airspace, without any enforcement or officialdom needed. Keep your cancer sticks downwind, I’ll avoid smoke-filled businesses while going about with the Little Guy, and if you don’t want to listen to me preach, you can just turn the p. . . . .
Jeff Gill is pastor of Hebron Christian Church and observer of Saturn’s rings and Jupiter’s moons; if you have an astronomical question for these clear, cool summer nights or news of local interest, call 928-4066 or e-mail disciple@voyager.net.
By Jeff Gill
John Adams, writing to his beloved Abigail from the Second Continental Congress in 1776, said of the resolution declaring America’s independence from Great Britain, that this day should in future years “be celebrated by pomp and parade, with shows, games, sports, guns, bells, bonfires, and illuminations from one end of this continent to the other. . .”
He was talking, of course, about July the. . .Second. The resolution was signed by most of the delegates on July the. . .Eighth.
But on the Fourth of July, the document was read in public for the first time: good enough! Let the pomps and illuminations freely fly along with our flags!
A few drips of news, then a flood of opinion.
Locally, we’ve had some unexpected and tragic deaths, including a few young adults and children. As a help to Lakewood area parents, teachers, and family members, the school district will hold an evening event this Tuesday, July 6, at 7:00 pm in Lakewood Middle School on “Helping Students Cope With the Loss of a Friend/Classmate.” If you would like to hear more about how to help students deal with the loss of someone they knew, then this panel discussion is for you.
This professionally led program is free and open to the public. Like the Monday morning reading program at Hebron Elementary, this is another reminder that your Lakewood School District staff is working year-round for you, even when school itself is not formally in session.
Good news for Buckeye Lake Village, and they’re due some: Congressman Bob Ney has asked for $350,000 in federal funds to help the village water project move to the next level. Congratulations to Mayor Frank Foster and others who did the leg work and put forward a coherent proposal that made it possible for Mr. Ney to pull the ends together and tie them up in a bow.
Our entire area will benefit from an economically healthier Buckeye Lake, and municipal water is a vital next step to that kind of stability and solid development.
And from the subterranean to the cosmic. . .if you find space at all fascinating, then you want to point your web browsers for the next week at http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov for the ongoing updates on the Cassini/Huygens spacecraft and probe.
The unmanned scientific craft will be going “up” through a gap in the rings of Saturn as you receive this, and then will loop ‘round and ‘round the planet making close approaches to the moons of Saturn like Titan and Enceladus. Cassini is already so close to the solar system’s second largest planet that it can no longer take pictures of the entire sphere, but only segments across the viewfinder.
Now, back to earth, and on into the treacherous vast wastes of. . .my opinions.
Columbus, that neighbor of ours to the west you may have heard of, recently made a controversial move through their board of health and city council. Smoking is now banned in all public places, plus within 20 feet of entrances.
To what I suspect will be the amazement of many of my friends and acquaintances, I think this is ridiculous. Really.
A word of background: I am horribly allergic to cigarette smoke, and not only do not smoke, but feel my sinuses slamming shut like a bank vault (a bank vault with a severe drainage problem, that is) and my eyeballs protruding from their sockets just on getting a goodly whiff downwind of a smoker’s exhalation. As a pastor, I’ve spent way too much time praying with families who are watching a beloved family member die by inches and half-drawn breaths. I’ve listened to folk in tears as they admit their shame and disgust in not being able to stop smoking. More recently, I’ve heard nurses tell me as my shattered elbow was inspected post-surgery that smokers usually take twice as long to heal in skin and bones, aside from the illnesses they obviously cause.
Hear where I’m comin’ from?
Nevertheless. To ban smoking from public buildings, yes. To ban or severely limit smoking in public spaces where large numbers of people come and gather, and where folks likely have little choice about coming occasionally or bringing children, OK. (I’m thinking grocery stores, banks, large retail outlets, etc.)
But if a business wants to test the market for ash-befouled goods or blue-hazed atmosphere, whether eating, drinking, bowling, or any other such establishment where you or I could go our whole lives and never enter if we choose not to, I stand concerned if not outright in opposition. Somewhere south of this new ordinance, a line got crossed. I’m not certain where I’d put that line, but. . .
The problem is basically one of zero-tolerance, mandatory, no exceptions thinking, which I believe is actually a phenomenon of not thinking. The ages old complaint “there’s no common sense anymore” isn’t new (Hammurabi, Cicero, and John Adams all complained of it), but there’s also a chicken-and-egg side to the problem. If we start acting and judging and regulating on the assumption that no one can use judgement and common sense, then people will continue living down to that expectation, and past it a bit.
I disagree with mandatory minimum sentencing: not because I think we have a surplus of restrained, reasonable judges (far from it), but because you change the entire courtroom dynamic of trial and sentencing (or plea bargain and probation) when the final phase is simply a checklist for the functionary in black robes to follow.
I disagree with almost every schoolhouse zero tolerance protocol I’ve ever heard of: not because every school superintendent or administrator is a paragon of Solomonic wisdom (ask Licking Valley), but because some kids need the book thrown at them, and others need a book handed to them during a judiciously applied suspension, and we need to back up our administrators when they try creative ways to redirect what is often high spirits and hormonal overload. Will some parents threaten lawsuits if penalties aren’t cookbook identical across the board? Sure, and that’s where we need school boards with common sense and steel vertebrae as well.
And I disagree with mindless universal protocols for medical care overseen by a clerk with an MBA on a phone three states away, versus the wisdom of an MD who has my broken arm and X-rays right in front of their face. Oh, you thought I forgot about HMO’s from last week’s column, did you? Youbetchabuddy I remembered!
A person, with multiple fractures through bone (yes, it was stabilized, and yes, it was a closed fracture, meaning I wasn’t bleeding on the carpeting) confirmed by X-ray and an ER doc, has to go to their PCP before visiting the OS who immediately schedules you for an OR PDQ? You know we’re talking about HMO’s when there are that many acronyms in a couple of paragraphs.
I also vocally disagree with no exceptions to “may I have your phone number” when making a purchase or “please provide your home address” when purchasing tickets for performance events or “enter your household income” registering for access to web sites (I get “why” the zip code question, and will comply with that, but no further!). If there’s no room in the computer system for sales clerk discretion for customers who don’t want to share personal information to see a movie or buy a cable, I owe it to that business to keep my economic activity from overburdening their oddly prioritized time.
For all of these situations, what I welcome are choices that allow the market to shape policy in tandem with the public good, but with the public good defined as starting with individual freedom, not ending with liberty as a luxury we get to keep if it doesn’t conflict with an assortment of other “expert defined” goods.
Personally, if I never have to enter another smoky bowling alley or nicotine stained eating establishment, the better. And if packs o’ smokes were taxed to cover the actual measurable costs of the medical care associated with cigarettes, we’d likely have fewer smokers and less cost-shifting insurance bureaucracy.
But telling Ma’s Diner or Choo-choo’s Pool Hall to ban smoking starts to edge over into territory that in turn is way to close to a land where a friendly government official asks to review my Sunday sermons for their “positive thoughts quotient.”
Let’s use some common sense and know when we’re free to just stay out of each other’s airspace, without any enforcement or officialdom needed. Keep your cancer sticks downwind, I’ll avoid smoke-filled businesses while going about with the Little Guy, and if you don’t want to listen to me preach, you can just turn the p. . . . .
Jeff Gill is pastor of Hebron Christian Church and observer of Saturn’s rings and Jupiter’s moons; if you have an astronomical question for these clear, cool summer nights or news of local interest, call 928-4066 or e-mail disciple@voyager.net.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
