It is August, 1994 on Detroit’s west side.  A young black man is in need of drug money.  In her award winning essay “Who Shot Johnny, A day in the life of Black America” attorney and author Debra Dickerson describes the man as “A non-job-having, middle-of-the-day malt-liquor-drinking, crotch- clutching, loud-talking brother with many neglected children born of many forgotten women. He lives in his mother’s basement with furniture rented at an astronomical interest rate, the exact amount of which he does not know. He has a car phone, an $80 monthly cable bill and every possible phone feature but no savings. He steals Social Security numbers from unsuspecting relatives and assumes their identities to acquire large TV sets for which he will never pay.”  Debra Dickerson’s essay can be found in its entirety at:  www.debradickerson.com/articles/johnny.htm

To satisfy his drug habit the man attacks an 81-year old black woman in her home.  He leaves her with abrasions to her face and chest.  He takes $53 for his trouble, leaving her beaten and in pain.  Later the woman will say of the man, “I pray for this young man and the conditions in our country that have made him this way. Despite the violence and crime in our society, we should not let fear overwhelm us. We must remain strong.”  What kind of a woman prays for the drunken fool who beats and robs her?  Surely she must have been weak and submissive.  Or was she?  Perhaps she was steely in her resolve and wise in her observations.

Around 5:15 p.m. on December 1, 1955, she was strong enough to refuse an order from a Montgomery, Alabama bus driver to give her seat to a white man.  When arrested and ordered to pay a fine of $10 plus $4 in court costs, she was bold enough to refuse, choosing instead to be booked, fingerprinted and put in jail.  With the publicity her case generated a young minister named Martin Luther King Jr. organized a boycott of Montgomery city buses.   With one defiant act of a humble seamstress, the civil rights movement in America had begun.

Rosa Parks remained active in the civil rights movement after she and her husband Raymond moved to Detroit in 1957.  She served as a receptionist and office assistant to US Congressman John Conyers, retiring in 1988 at the age of 75.  Rosa passed away at the age of 92 on October 24, 2005.

Montgomery, Alabama was not a pleasant place to be if you were black in 1955.  Rosa’s decision to simply sit and refuse to move took tremendous courage.  Like a man named Gandhi, who had secured independence for India only 8 years earlier, Rosa’s strength was in her quiet, non-violent determination.  The law stating that the first 10 rows on the bus were reserved for whites only was unjust and Rosa knew it.  Virtually everyone in Alabama also knew it.  All it took was one young lady to stand up to the system by simply remaining seated.  Within months the US Supreme Court overturned the Montgomery statute and within years racial discrimination would be legally banished in the United States of America.

Rosa’s lesson for each of us is simple.  When we see injustice we should speak out.  When we witness irresponsible acts of vandalism, crime, or careless disregard for the health and safety of others we should not remain silent.  Most of the time, despite their bold behavior, perpetrators simply need to be verbally reprimanded and they will back down.

Regarding the man who beat and robbed Rosa Parks, Betty DeRamis, then a columnist for the Detroit News, wrote in her opening paragraph on the 1994 incident:  “Some half-drunken fool robbed and roughed up Rosa Parks, bruising a whole branch of American history and punching the freedom struggle in the face.”

To find out more about Rosa Parks I recommend the following link:

http://www.achievement.org/autodoc/page/par0bio-1

Introduced in episode # 3 “Johnson Family Feud”, Susan Johnson is the epitome of the suburban, mid-30’s, housewife.  Susan and her husband Craig have healthy parents, wonderful kids, a good income, plenty of friends, and a fine new home.  When one considers what is wrong in a person’s life, the conclusion would be that there is absolutely nothing is wrong in Susan’s life.  Like most of us, she sweats the small stuff, but her life is perfect…almost.

An avid golfer, Susan has been taking lessons for three years from the golf pro, Bill Haley (no relationship to the legendary rocker).  While in his twenties Bill spent a couple of years in obscurity on the professional golf tour.  He arrived in Hubbard twenty-five years ago to take the golf pro job at the Hubbard country club.  In his early fifties he is single, educated, well traveled, has an incredible sense of humor and has aged well.  Many of the female golfers at the country club have a crush on Bill and Susan is no exception, but she has subordinated her fantasies to her marriage and family.  After all, common sense dictates that perfect lives may be interrupted by exciting thoughts, but they are not to be jeopardized by acting on primitive impulses.

Still, she can’t get him out of her head.  When he stands behind her to correct her golf swing his body comes in contact with hers.  One day there was an innocent touch of her hand in the pro shop.  She thought about it for a week.  She tries not to compare him to her husband Craig, but that doesn’t help.  Craig is a great guy, but he is so rigid and serious.  Bill is smooth and funny; his presence just flows over and into her.  He makes her laugh like Craig never could.  When he looks at her his glance is caring and penetrating.  She feels his eyes pouring over every detail in her face.  Lately she has been dreaming about him often and has secretly wondered what it would be like to be constantly in Bill’s presence.

These are really dangerous feelings and she knows it.  They are potentially destructive to her husband Craig and her children, Megan and Ethan.  They can ruin her reputation and that of her family.  She owes it to them to be strong and resist her inner feelings, but she can’t get this guy out of her head for an instant.  She tells herself that she must be loyal, but she also knows that she will only go around once in this life.  She loves her husband and her children, but she is bored.  She has time on her hands when Craig is at work and the kids are in school.  She wants Bill Haley.

On a pleasant Thursday afternoon in October, Susan drove over to Milwaukee to confide in Angela, her long-time college roommate.  Presumably happily married with one child, Angela is a straight shooter.  Susan knows that Angela will respect her confidence and not tell another soul.  As Susan describes her dilemma, her face tightens with tension while Angela’s lips ease into an understanding smile.  You see, Angela is already right in the middle of her own affair with a co-worker at her place of employment.  Furthermore, she is unapologetic about it.  Cheating on a husband is just a fact of life, she says.  Adultery, according to Angela, is something that is bound to occur in our modern world.  After all, nature contains no monogamous mammals, says Angela, and humans are no exception.  Angela tells Susan that anyone who believes that a man and a woman should live together their entire lives is either backward or unrealistic.  Welcome to Angela’s brave new world, Susan Johnson.

Initially after returning to Hubbard, Susan reacted negatively to Angela’s lifestyle.  “How can she be so irresponsible and uncaring?” she thinks.  “How can she be that kind of a person?”  Yet next Tuesday is another golf lesson with Bill and she would be kidding herself if she said she wasn’t looking forward to it.

Tuesday is a beautiful autumn day.  Susan arrives early at the pro shop, about fifteen minutes before other golfers normally arrive.  Bill is in the back room straightening out the clubs and checking the inventory.  Uncertain about how he feels about her, Susan approaches and greets him from a distance.  He asks her to help him stack some shoeboxes on the shelves and she obliges, standing next to him.  As she lifts one of the boxes she feels his arms around her waist.  She turns her head to the side, both astonished and expectant.  He kisses her and she extends the favor.  All of a sudden the little bell hanging on the front door rings and they instantly separate, luckily unobserved by the first customer.  Her heart pounds.  She is in ecstasy.  Soccer mom Susan Johnson has stepped across the messy divide.

Last week an earthquake in Pakistan killed tens of thousands.  Last year’s tsunami in the Indian Ocean was even more devastating, killing an estimated 275,000 people.  Hurricane Katrina resulted in the loss of roughly 1,000 souls and tens of billions of dollars damage on the Gulf Coast and New Orleans.  The rain finally stopped this week in New England after eight days of flooding.  It seems that every time we turn on the television there is some kind of major disaster.  In the absence of an earthquake or hurricane we are barraged with coverage about serial killers or sex offenders.  The world seems to be going to “hell in a handbasket”.  Is God paying us back for our unfaithfulness to him?  Are we on the eve of Armageddon?”

When the tsunami hit Indonesia, a handful of Muslim leaders claimed that the tidal wave was God’s way of killing sinful Western tourists who were enjoying the immoral resorts, hotels, and dance clubs on the affected beaches.  Let me get this right.  If this is true, God decided to kill roughly a quarter of a million righteous Muslim villagers so that he could extinguish perhaps 5,000 non-Muslim western sinners.  Strange, indeed.

While I can find no public statements to this affect, I’m sure that quite a few Americans have entertained equally misguided thoughts that the tsunami and the recent quake in Pakistan might have been God’s way of sending a message to Islamic extremists about their sinful ways.

Country singer Randy Travis has recently stated his belief that the recent hurricanes are God’s way of telling Americans that they are not heeding the lessons of the bible, are leading sinful lives, and need to repent.  If we accept Travis’ conclusion God again appears to be acting illogically.  After all, if God was really trying to get the sinners, it is curious the bars and perverse clubs in the French quarter were undamaged in the hurricane.

In my opinion these disasters are a part of the natural world…period.  When the plates below the ocean shift, there is an earthquake or a tsunami.  When warm waters whip up a hurricane, wind and flooding occurs.  Earthquakes, tsunamis, floods, and tornadoes have been occurring for millions of years.  Sometimes these disasters occur in cycles, but for the most part there is no credible evidence that there is a long-run upward trend in this activity.

I believe that perceptions of an upward trend in disaster activity are largely the result of improved media coverage made possible by technological improvements like high-speed Internet and satellite phones.  When anything happens virtually anywhere in the world, it is known everywhere within seconds.  In addition, the media is guilty of irresponsible and sensationalized reporting.  Early in the Katrina disaster the Mayor of New Orleans claimed that there were 10,000 dead in his city.  This claim was repeated over and over again on the news, yet the actual death toll was around 900.

Each day in lobby of our historical society they flip the page of an old newspaper so that the public can see what was happening exactly 50 years ago.  About ten years ago I noticed an article from 1945.  Buried on the bottom of the front page was a short paragraph about the deaths of 50 elementary school students and their teachers from a boiler explosion in rural Michigan.  If a tragedy like this occurred today it would be covered detail by bloody detail on FOX news for the next 48 hours.  CNN would be interviewing educational leaders and boiler experts.  The President would release a note of sympathy, and on and on.  The bottom line is that we are more aware of tragedy today because it is in front of our faces constantly.  The trend of tragedy is not up, we are just more aware of tragedy when it occurs.

I’m in complete agreement with Randy Travis’ opinion that we sin too much and should be more righteous.  This is certainly true for me and perhaps for you as well.  However, I don’t believe that there is any cause and effect between sin and tragedy.  Bad things happen to good people while some of the world’s worst scoundrels prosper and plunder till the end of their days.  The path to a good Christian, Muslim, Buddhist, Jewish, or Hindu life is left for all of us to work out individually.  In the meantime, my advice to those of you who are worried about God’s wrath is to simply turn off the tube once in a while and try to do something constructive.  You’ll quickly notice how happy and positive your days can become!

As October nears it has finally started to cool down in Hubbard.  The unusually hot summer and a sticky, humid September have given way to cooler evenings and good sleeping weather.  Most folks from places like Kiln, Mississippi don’t realize that Wisconsin can get really hot and humid in summer; it just doesn’t last as long.  Dave, the resident wise man of Hubbard, claims that in the 70’s he witnessed a temperature of 105 degrees. Even Lake Shady was like bathwater that summer.

Just when you think that summer will last forever and winter will never again return, you wake up one morning to go out and get the newspaper and there it is; that familiar shot of cold air.  Alas, the memories of wind chill and frozen noses starts to return and you realize that it is time to get the furnace checked.  Within a month the water valve to the outside faucets will have to be closed and the garden hoses will have to be drained and put away.  The paint in the garage will have to go to the basement so it doesn’t freeze.  The window air conditioners will have to be removed and stored and the storm windows will have to be installed.  The 7-horse snow blower will have to be started to make sure it is operating properly.  It is time to face the inevitable.

While next six weeks are a time of preparation, they are also usher in a season that is immensely enjoyed in Hubbard.  Fall!  The air is crisp, the humidity is low and the leaves reach their peak color about the second week of October.  In addition to the fall weather, Wisconsinites, particularly persons of the male variety, find another reason to live each September, a new season for their beloved Green Bay Packers!  In the minds of Hubbardonians the Packers aren’t just another NFL team; they are the quintessential, historic, classic football team.

No one would have guessed that on August 11, 1919 when Curly Lambeau and George Calhoun gathered in the Green Bay Press-Gazette building on Cherry Street, to “get up a football team”, that an NFL franchise would be the result.  The Indian Meat Packing Company donated team jerseys and this is why the team was called the “Packers”.  Through some weird transactions over the years the Packers have evolved as a publicly owned corporation.  No one can sell the Packers and no one can buy them.  Better yet for Wisconsinites, no one can ever move the team to another city.  If the Packers didn’t have history on their side; if they weren’t the longest standing team moniker in professional football and hadn’t been around to play teams like the Chicago Bears (founded 1921) and New York Giants (founded 1925), a small city like Green Bay would never have been considered for an NFL franchise.  Furthermore, the Packers have earned their place in history by winning more championships (12) than any other team in professional football.

So far this year the Packers are 0-3, so the residents of Hubbard will be forced to rely on glorious Packer history to see them through what may be a difficult season.  Brett Favre, that tough old bird from Southern Mississippi, may be in his final year.  While no one in the Packer front office will own up to it, this is a “rebuilding” year for the Packers.  Packer fans will have to suffer.  The distress may continue for a long time after Favre hangs up his shoes, but one thing is for sure; even if the Packers have successive losing seasons Lambeau Field will be sold out game after game.  The estimated waiting time for a season ticket is over 50 years.

Bill Harnack and his son Marcus are avid packer fans.  Despite his working-class wages at the local foundry, Bill splurges every year to buy two tickets to a game at Lambeau.  Bill’s wife Betty, god bless her, helps pay for the tickets by selling produce from her large vegetable garden.  The Harnacks don’t have any connections, so they buy their tickets on Ebay, Stub Hub, or on other Internet ticket sites.  They have to pay as much as three-times face value from the scalpers, but even at $150 a ticket it is money well spent.  The Harnack family will eventually have to succumb to additional financial pressure as Timmy, the second oldest son, has been begging dad to go to the game as well.  Last year, as Bill and Marcus walked out the door wearing their Packer Santa hats, Bill saw a tear in Timmy’s eye.  Looks like whatever the sacrifice, it will be time to buy three tickets this year.

Marcus and Bill usually go to hallowed Lambeau field in December, dressed in their blaze orange hunting outfits.  After parking the car around 9 a.m. they tailgate in the east parking lot where beer and bratwurst abound.  Some claim that beer swilling has a cold-numbing effect on Cheeseheads, which is just as well because by game’s end Bill and Marcus have spent at least six to seven continual hours in the cold.  Needless to say, the warm car feels pretty good on the way back to Hubbard.

Watching the Packers when it is ten degrees with a stiff wind is a sign of manhood for Bill and Marcus.  After all, they are warriors.  Unlike the folks in that unnamed state to the west that sit in short sleeved purple jerseys in their heated dome, Bill and Marcus are adamant that football was meant to be played in God’s great outdoors.  Though they won’t admit it, Bill and Marcus respect Chicago Bear fans because of their insistence that the renovated Soldier’s field should remain an open-air stadium.  After all, when the cold winds of December strike the upper Midwest and ice forms on the roads and bridges, Bear and Packer fans, buoyed by inspiration from the likes of George Halas, Curley Lambeau and Vince Lombardi, wouldn’t accept football any other way.