a GOOD moral compass

[Tim Y]

I have always held that having a good role model, EARLY in ones life, provided that one takes advantage of that lucky break, can make all the difference in one's life.

I have been blessed with many and all were women. My maternal grandmother Alma: a Christian woman who lived her beliefs with kind works, strong opinions, a staunch belief in the power of an education that she never was able to achieve, and one who never went along with prevailing beliefs just because they were the socially accepted ones. She grew up in rural Alabama and taught me the simple act of being "color blind" to her many African American neighbors. She set up a network in her small town to aide many of her neighbors to get work as maids over the years and many was the times people who were "down and out" would stop by the front door as ask "could I take some food from your garden Miss Alma?" All I had to do was mention, TO ANYONE, in Riverview Alabama that she was my grandmother, and doors would open for me: I visted the Black Baptist church up the street and was invited to sing with them and I was even allowed to be a bat boy at one of the Black league baseball games. I can still hear my mother yelling "explitives deleted" when she heard that when over 200 African Americans wanted to pay their last respects at her funeral, the "socially rigid" would not let them in the front door of her church. Knowing her, if she had been alive, she would have resigned from that church in a moment.

My mother, having grown up in that small town kept the open mindedness and need for education alive. I can recall vividly on one of our visits to Alabama stopping in the New Orleans train station. It was 5 AM, I was sleepy and dragging a big suitcase as she was carrying my baby sister. I sat down at the first available seat and she told me promptly: "Get up, you can't sit there." "I'm tired and want to sit down," I answered back, but she pointed to the signs that said Blacks only. This was 1959 and I was really shocked to see how miserably the people were treated not being able to come into a cafe where we ate breakfast. They were forced to stand in an alley behind and only were allowed to order from outside. As the day wore on and we finally got to change trains, this completely foreign situation had me confused given the lessons both of these women had provided to me.

Both of these wonderful ladies have passed on and only my mom was able to realize that I was the first in our family ever to go to college. Both she and my grandmother had made it such a priority, that I was really convinced that a college education was MANDATORY by law until I was about 12.

Not everyone has the opportunities I have had nor takes advantages of the ones offered, but having mentors who keep you balanced on morally rational goals gets you light years ahead of the crowd.

Recent events give me hope that others have gained the insights that these ladies instilled in me many years ago.

[froggy]

Tim,

Amen

Froggy