There's no place for trashy women on this blog. Period.
So let's talk about some real women.
Rosalind Burns Gammon- Mother of University of Georgia fullback Von Gammon. Von was killed in a tragic accident in the game versus the University of Virginia in 1897. Mrs. Gammon petitioned Governor William Atkinson to veto a rapidly passed bill that would have banned the sport from all publicly funded schools in Georgia. Not only did she lobby her congressman and the governor, she successfully stopped the law and encouraged reforms that would make football safer for the players. This was 24 years before women could legally vote in Georgia.
Martha McChesney Berry - The founder of the Berry Schools (Berry College). She started a school for mountain children that grew into one of the finest educational institutions in the United States. She drew in donations from businessmen, presidents, celebrities and even the Queen of England so that poor children could have an opportunity to get an education they otherwise could never afford.
Harper Lee- Born in Monroeville, Alabama (just trust me, there really is a Monroeville and no, you don't know where it is.) In 1926, she is known for writing what is quite possibly the greatest book in all of American Literature. This lady has been awarded the Pulitzer Prize and the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Her book is also one of the most frequently banned books in the country - which, of course, means it is really good.
Nancy Morgan Hart - Affectionately known as "The Warwoman", this smallpox survivor was a resident of northeast Georgia during the Revolutionary War. The legend, which seems to have been since confirmed, states that she killed two British soldiers after they demanded that she prepare them a meal. She held their four companions at gunpoint until her husband and his friends arrived and hung the remaining redcoats. Many other legends about Hart are told to this day.
I could keep going, telling stories of Margaret Mitchell, Juliette Gordon Low, Emma Sansom, Helen Keller, and on and on and on. Women that write, think, act, defend, read, create, succeed, excel and provide. They do this because of something inside them. They have value that they add to the world and we are all better for it. Here's an opportunity to shine a spotlight on women and some encouragement to encourage girls to do something significant and meaningful with their life.
The magnificent thing about this is that I have only mentioned Southern women in this post. There are women like this all over this nation, even all over the world. Where is the spotlight? Where is the attention? Where are the parents pointing their daughters toward these women as role models? Where are the parents showing their sons "real women" and encouraging them to seek out these types - the women who can be meaningful mates, friends, life-long companions, mothers? Where?
I, for one, am encouraging my sons, teaching them how to recognize a lady and how to be a gentleman. My wife is right there with me. She is not only telling them but is also providing an example for them to follow.
So females, get out of the bathroom, tuck in those duck lips and quit "twerking". It isn't unique, it isn't significant and it sure isn't new. They don't call it the "world's oldest profession" for nothing. Yes, you're grown and can do what you want. I just hope that sometime soon you'll want to do something that matters.
Tuesday, August 27, 2013
Thursday, August 22, 2013
Ugly (Redux)
I've decided that, in the wake of current events, it is appropriate to revisit an old topic again. I think that it is important in these times to really connect with what is happening in Syria, Egypt and other nations (including Libya) and our role in the turmoil that is growing rampant in our world.
A few years ago, I wrote about a book that really impacted me and opened my eyes in many ways. http://allthebiscuitsingeorgia.blogspot.com/2010/06/ugly.html I want to re share some of my previous thoughts and reflect on where our nation has arrived since then.
After the assault on our embassy in Libya and the subsequent actions in other nations in that region, I thought about how ugly things were growing and about the ugliness that was at least partially to blame. The book I'm referencing was published in 1958 and since that date we have learned almost nothing about foreign policy in this nation. In fact, we might be more incompetent than we were then.
There is plenty of blame to go around. The current administration has done an abysmal job in this area. Hillary Clinton was a nightmare as secretary of state and will only be worse if elected president. In her defense, she was trying to manage to operate in a climate that was bitter from decades of mismanagement of US foreign policy.
As I recall my reading of "The Ugly American" and the uphill battle that so many characters in that book had to fight to try to enact the types of policies that would make our international efforts effective and endear people to our nation I wonder what similar attempts are being thwarted by incompetence back home today.
US response to their attempts not only undermined their efforts but also assisted the efforts of our rivals. The book was written by former members of the foreign service and was based on actual events. It was written as a warning of what could happen if we did not change our course. That was pre-Viet Nam. Reading this book helped me see just how preventable that war could have been.
When I hear the stories about Chris Stevens, the ambassador that the Obama Administration abandoned in the Benghazi attack, it reminds me of Gilbert MacWhite. His approach and the relationship he was establishing with the people of Libya held so much promise for our future relations with that nation. At least MacWhite was only fired.
The issue that I'm writing about is not a Republican problem and it is not a Democrat problem. It is an American problem as both parties have done terrible in foreign policy planning, organization and implementation. And it is a problem that is not going to change so long as people are not moved by dead people in the streets of Damascus or Cairo. When we realize that our shortcomings overseas are a direct consequence to our failure to realize that "all men are created equal" and that the founding axiom of our nation is true worldwide. We need some serious attention placed on what is going on. We don't need to get a bunch of our folks killed but we need to find ways to put an end to the killing that is going on and we need a course of action that will actually be effective overseas.
It's time to seriously ponder these issues and the effects they have on us all.
A few years ago, I wrote about a book that really impacted me and opened my eyes in many ways. http://allthebiscuitsingeorgia.blogspot.com/2010/06/ugly.html I want to re share some of my previous thoughts and reflect on where our nation has arrived since then.
After the assault on our embassy in Libya and the subsequent actions in other nations in that region, I thought about how ugly things were growing and about the ugliness that was at least partially to blame. The book I'm referencing was published in 1958 and since that date we have learned almost nothing about foreign policy in this nation. In fact, we might be more incompetent than we were then.
There is plenty of blame to go around. The current administration has done an abysmal job in this area. Hillary Clinton was a nightmare as secretary of state and will only be worse if elected president. In her defense, she was trying to manage to operate in a climate that was bitter from decades of mismanagement of US foreign policy.
As I recall my reading of "The Ugly American" and the uphill battle that so many characters in that book had to fight to try to enact the types of policies that would make our international efforts effective and endear people to our nation I wonder what similar attempts are being thwarted by incompetence back home today.
US response to their attempts not only undermined their efforts but also assisted the efforts of our rivals. The book was written by former members of the foreign service and was based on actual events. It was written as a warning of what could happen if we did not change our course. That was pre-Viet Nam. Reading this book helped me see just how preventable that war could have been.
When I hear the stories about Chris Stevens, the ambassador that the Obama Administration abandoned in the Benghazi attack, it reminds me of Gilbert MacWhite. His approach and the relationship he was establishing with the people of Libya held so much promise for our future relations with that nation. At least MacWhite was only fired.
The issue that I'm writing about is not a Republican problem and it is not a Democrat problem. It is an American problem as both parties have done terrible in foreign policy planning, organization and implementation. And it is a problem that is not going to change so long as people are not moved by dead people in the streets of Damascus or Cairo. When we realize that our shortcomings overseas are a direct consequence to our failure to realize that "all men are created equal" and that the founding axiom of our nation is true worldwide. We need some serious attention placed on what is going on. We don't need to get a bunch of our folks killed but we need to find ways to put an end to the killing that is going on and we need a course of action that will actually be effective overseas.
It's time to seriously ponder these issues and the effects they have on us all.
Friday, August 16, 2013
Kickoff
So the weather is acting up. Cooler air is moving in and it is really feeling like Fall. Highs in the 70's in mid August? Yep. Fall.
Local high school teams are starting their scrimmages tonight, I'm getting updates from the SEC and my own Jacksonville State about counting down the days to kickoff, my baby brother has been working through a training camp internship with the World Champion Baltimore Ravens and even my own son has been busy getting the new season started.
Happy days are here again.
Ok, so a lot of folks might wonder just how a bookworm such as myself came to value the glorious combat of the gridiron so dearly. The sport has made its enemies over the years. So much of academia hates the attention and the amount of money that goes into this sport and the often unfair emphasis that is placed on it. I understand. And I feel that there are many times that the sport is abused.
But let me tell you how this can go right.
In the late fall of 1992 I walked off a football field as a player for the last time. My head hurt as bad as it ever has. I was tired and somewhat sad considering the game had not gone very well for my team. A good friend walked with me to the locker room and spoke encouraging words to me - not goofy cliches but stuff that really mattered and meant something. It was real.
I've never since needed any of the fundamentals that the coaches taught me. My career path went way different than originally expected and I never truly coached a down of football. While I can still remember all my hand signals and assignments, I've never needed that information.
But I've used what I learned from my coaches every day of my life. On my job, in my marriage, raising my boys - because I learned much more than fundamentals of a sport. I leaned abut setting goals and working toward them. I learned about working in the context of a team and putting the teams goals before my own. I learned about not making decisions that will let your teammates down. I learned about picking up a down teammate - about understanding and being understood. I leaned about working hard, even when...no especially when you don't feel like it. I leaned about consequences and rewards, about being a leader and a follower.
And so much more.
You don't think about those things on game day. They don't always talk about it in the pregame show. Football players are often thought of as dumb jocks, barbaric Neanderthals roaming the earth looking to break things and avoid education. And sometimes that's accurate. And not every player is as blessed as I was to play for excellent coaches in high school and then work for excellent coaches in college - men that taught me much more about the world than they did about football.
This is why I get excited about football. (Well, that and watching Jadeveon Clowney knocking a Michigan football helmet from Tampa to St. Pertersburg.) I want my son to have the chance to learn the things that I learned. It is good to see other boys being mentored and taught. There is a serious educational factor to the game and in that area boys become men, not because they can violently separate less capable players from their equipment (although this is interesting and does help) but because of the lessons learned and the experiences gained.
And then there's the tradition. Mascots, fight songs, rituals of one form or another, storied rivalries. The attachments caused by these traditions somehow connect the game to our soul. When you hear a slogan, a chant or that one tune, you attention is caught and you are trapped in its influence. And that is why, to this day, every hair on my body stands on end - each one hoisted on high by its very own goose bump any time the Jacksonville State Marching Southerners play Salvation. Knowing those guys are hitting the "WIN" sign on the way out to the field stirs emotions even more.
Yes. Yes I am ready for some football.
 |
| In the Fall Georgia boys learn about life on the gridiron |
Happy days are here again.
Ok, so a lot of folks might wonder just how a bookworm such as myself came to value the glorious combat of the gridiron so dearly. The sport has made its enemies over the years. So much of academia hates the attention and the amount of money that goes into this sport and the often unfair emphasis that is placed on it. I understand. And I feel that there are many times that the sport is abused.
But let me tell you how this can go right.
In the late fall of 1992 I walked off a football field as a player for the last time. My head hurt as bad as it ever has. I was tired and somewhat sad considering the game had not gone very well for my team. A good friend walked with me to the locker room and spoke encouraging words to me - not goofy cliches but stuff that really mattered and meant something. It was real.
I've never since needed any of the fundamentals that the coaches taught me. My career path went way different than originally expected and I never truly coached a down of football. While I can still remember all my hand signals and assignments, I've never needed that information.
But I've used what I learned from my coaches every day of my life. On my job, in my marriage, raising my boys - because I learned much more than fundamentals of a sport. I leaned abut setting goals and working toward them. I learned about working in the context of a team and putting the teams goals before my own. I learned about not making decisions that will let your teammates down. I learned about picking up a down teammate - about understanding and being understood. I leaned about working hard, even when...no especially when you don't feel like it. I leaned about consequences and rewards, about being a leader and a follower.
And so much more.
You don't think about those things on game day. They don't always talk about it in the pregame show. Football players are often thought of as dumb jocks, barbaric Neanderthals roaming the earth looking to break things and avoid education. And sometimes that's accurate. And not every player is as blessed as I was to play for excellent coaches in high school and then work for excellent coaches in college - men that taught me much more about the world than they did about football.
This is why I get excited about football. (Well, that and watching Jadeveon Clowney knocking a Michigan football helmet from Tampa to St. Pertersburg.) I want my son to have the chance to learn the things that I learned. It is good to see other boys being mentored and taught. There is a serious educational factor to the game and in that area boys become men, not because they can violently separate less capable players from their equipment (although this is interesting and does help) but because of the lessons learned and the experiences gained.
And then there's the tradition. Mascots, fight songs, rituals of one form or another, storied rivalries. The attachments caused by these traditions somehow connect the game to our soul. When you hear a slogan, a chant or that one tune, you attention is caught and you are trapped in its influence. And that is why, to this day, every hair on my body stands on end - each one hoisted on high by its very own goose bump any time the Jacksonville State Marching Southerners play Salvation. Knowing those guys are hitting the "WIN" sign on the way out to the field stirs emotions even more.
Yes. Yes I am ready for some football.
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