One Person Does Make A Difference

"We are confronted primarily with a moral issue. It is as old as the Scriptures and as clear as the American Constitution, "President John F. Kennedy, Inaugural Address.

The moral clarity of President Kennedy's statement speaks to us today just as concisely as it did 44 years ago. President Kennedy was calling upon the better Angels amongst us to understand and respect the need for equality and the value that each human life in our nation had as part of the collective of the whole of our society. He felt as millions of us do today, that we are summoned forth from the comfort of our backyard barbeques, our television remotes that dart back and forth between Trading Spaces, 24-Hours, The Apprentice and who is sleeping with who in whatever is America's newest replacement for Peyton Place adult evening soap box drama.

Do we even notice anymore when a neighbor down the street goes off to war and doesn't return home again, like Medal of Honor winner Army SFC Paul Smith, who was awarded the Medal of Honor posthumously for his heroic sacrifice, protecting the lives of 100 soldiers before he died in combat? He made a difference, but did you notice if your neighbor returned, if your co-worker returned, or if your fellow parishioner did?

Most of those who appear reasonably disengaged from their surroundings would rightly claim, that they're too busy to spend what little time they have in sacrificing it for neighbors they do not know, for causes they would never volunteer for; after all it doesn't pay, so why bother? They are not selfish as much as they come by this disengagement honestly. There is not history in their "family culture" to care about helping anyone but themselves. Their parents did not do it; their grandparents may have suffered from the same virus as well.

When President Kennedy issued his famous patriotic remarks "Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country," those disengaged American's parents were probably answering Kennedy's call for involvement through their raised beer can or martini glass, and uttering "What're you going to pay me?"

The Pope made a difference and his individual transformation of our world and his influence on the young people of our nation was a clarion call to the soul of America, which is each and every one of us. He reminded us that we were not disconnected from each other, but rather shared a common bond and a common respect for the life and welfare of each and every person in our nation. This is as the Pope put it the ultimate test of our nation's greatness.

Yet, are these disengaged Americans the majority? Do they make up the great silent members of our society who are reflected in polls demonstrating less concern for the life of a human dying by starvation than whether or not their pet received their next round of shots, or heaven forbid they have to come to the sad conclusion that the pet has to be put to sleep, because the quality of the pet's life is over...but starving the pet would not only be unmerciful, it would also be illegal.

So what are we left with in our nation of laws and of national traditions and of pithy speeches from political leaders who urge us to say how each of us can make a difference, but all too many Americans run from that clarion call in the opposite direction, unless it is last call for a round of drinks.

I happen to believe that our youth is our nation's salvation. They are coming to understand the wonderful inheritance and the beautiful fabric of which the Constitution's premise is built. The individual does matter. We are seeing countless examples of young people in elementary, junior high, high school and college classes displaying their unselfish desire to make America better and nobler based upon a clearly felt ardent call. These young people claim an individual proprietorship in America's philosophical premise that one person can make a difference.

So, when you read about polls that show the opposite just look out your back window and see the shrinking number of neighborhood kids who are not hanging out, but are turning into America's next greatest generation.

While those disengaged Americans are on their outside decks answering those polls, the engaged young people and their parents...are out on your community watch...they are volunteering in a student community service projects, they are spending weekends sitting with an elderly neighbor, volunteering at a senior home, helping a fellow farmer repair a tractor, mowing a senior citizen's lawn, beautifying a community park, planting flowers for a church project, and literally a thousand other family or individual civic, faith-related or business-sponsored community projects....why because, their "family's Culture" has the tradition of caring, of building a more viable community through an involved citizenry and after all ..more importantly it is part of how they were raised. It is how the post 9/11 new America is being raised as well.

How did it happen? What actually happened when our values for involvement were suddenly being terra-formed, literally morphing into a new type of movement? Maybe it was President Bush's call to the Armies of Compassion. Just maybe it was that our children decided to take their religious teachings they received in their places of worship and decided to put those values into practice.

Or just maybe they got it from you...They proved they were listening when you said over the dinner table or perhaps while you were volunteering at a Soup Kitchen on Thanksgiving, ..."it is American to give a helping hand...It is American to volunteer to give back to your community...it is American to stand up for the 'little guy'... It is American to stand for life."

Just maybe they were listening, and their teachers were listening when you decided to not just complain about how schools were not doing more, but you actually got involved with the teachers and other parents, and even donated some of your children's old books to the neighborhood community center library.

I was once reminded by a White House official who was involved in developing a list of Presidential appointees, that the President valued those in America who had a long history of involvement measured in years and decades, rather than in a convenient momentary slice of time.

She said that it clearly demonstrates a lot about a person's character by the type of involvement they had in their community and demonstrated the true essence of that person. According to this official it speaks volumes about their true commitment to keeping intact the fabric of the place where they call their home. She added that it also added a sort of patriotic varnish to the finish you want to display to the nation and the world.

I firmly believe that it is far better that we leave those societal disengaged Americans to their own self absorbed designs because it is far better that they keep their conduct and philosophical beliefs to themselves than to spread their attitudes amongst the general population and therefore inject the "negativity virus" into the public discourse.

Samuel Adams, a Revolutionary War patriot agrees with that type of American who would rather be a disengaged American. "If ye love wealth greater than liberty, the tranquility of servitude better than the animating contest for freedom, go home and leave us in peace. We seek not your council nor your arms. Crouch down and lick the hand that feeds you, and may posterity forget that ye were our countrymen." --Samuel Adams

Our liberty, our freedom is inextricably tied to the child down the street or at the next farm or the family you provide the mentoring to may make the difference in becoming the next critical vote on a federal appeal's court could make the difference in saving the life of another innocent like Terri Schiavo.

"With a good conscience our only sure reward, with history the final judge of our deeds, let us go forth to lead the land we love, asking His blessing and His help, but knowing that here on earth God's work must truly be our own," President John Kennedy,

I say don't worry about the disengaged Americans. In the end, they will only have to answer to their own night terrors, and those fortunate Americans to have cared...we will be satisfied that we made God's work on Earth our own.

Kevin Fobbs is President of National Urban Policy Action Council (NuPac), a non-partisan civic and citizen-action organization that focuses on taking the politics out of policy to secure urban America's future one neighborhood, one city, and one person at a time. View NuPac on the web at www.nupac.info. Kevin Fobbs is also Outreach Communications Vice Chairman of the Michigan Republican Party and daily host of The Kevin Fobbs Show on News Talk WDTK - 1400 AM in Detroit as well as co-founder of the Jackson, MI-based American Conservative Values Television Network. Listen to The Kevin Fobbs Show at www.wdtkam.com. daily3-4 PM, On-line and call-in nationwide to make your opinion count toll-free at 800-923-WDTK(9385).

I used to dream about stuff like this.

Funny thing, the MSM is full of stories of some kid who fought cancer and survived.

They don't air any stories about the 2,000 who tried but didn't.

The hardest thing about reality is that it's pretty damn hard.

I'm off to write a thank you note to my neighbor down the street, just back from the war...

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