Advocacy

Youth Advocacy

As I see it, one of the crucial problems with our young people today, is that they have no goals. They are looking for the easy way out. To compound the problem, parents are afraid to take control...afraid to be parents.

Those of us who are concerned, should step up to the plate and emphasize the goals and the challenges of success, with loving firmness, education and skills training. Graduating from high school in society today without the necessary life and technical skills, mentoring, and not taking my advice: "the right ATTITUDE VS. ALTITUDE!" -- is a surefire way to fail. This lack of skills, positive mentoring and creativity is why so many of our youth are out on street corners turning to drugs and alcohol, stealing, conducting themselves in self-destructive patterns and partaking of a host of other societal ills and poor judgments. Misguided, they believe such decisions also make for "easy money" at a time of a short supply of jobs. Some of these "youth," believe it or not, are 30 to 40 years old and still living at home!

Strong self-esteem is the answer to many of these poor decisions that serve to only culminate in high stress, mental illness, and disappointing life experiences that keep us all down.

The bottom line is that our young people today need to set goals. They need positive role models to help them -- often when no positive role model exists in their lives. Don't forget: "It takes a community to raise a child."

To our young people: Listen to your parents because when they are gone, believe me, life gets tougher!

At eleven-years old, my mother died. When I was twenty years old, and ironically on the same day that I stepped onto the plate in the major leagues -- September 23, 1968 -- I lost my father. I KNOW the importance of parents. I KNOW the importance of community.

Young people please learn to accept and have faith in what your parents have to say and where they lead you, because your parents have already been through it! Your parents are not going to lead you in the wrong direction. If your parents can't give you the help you need, find a mentor! There are people in the community who will help you. I had help. I learned to listen.

If you're out there on the road without a map and you lose your way, there are other roads that will lead you to the right place. The road can be crooked sometimes, but if you get on the right road and try with all your might to stay on the highway and off the service road -- then you have a good shot at being successful and making your life the best that it can be!

Senior Citizens

I have always been a staunch proponent and advocate of senior citizens. They are amazing and if you listen to their stories, you will learn phenomenal life skills. I've learned immensely from them. I learned to listen, not only "to them," but "from them."

During my life-skills development, I realized that the early death of my parents has made me sensitive to the plight of senior citizens and sensitive to how much we young people need them and take them for granted. As I often say, I didn't have the chance to see my parents as senior citizens or to have had the opportunity and blessing to hear them for many years. Most of all, to have listened to them and put into place what they may have advised. In my wide travels, I have seen firsthand, senior citizens struggling to do the things that they used to do and still want to do even more than that, and the frustration with wanting to do even more, but experiencing the limitations of age and illness. With God's grace, one day, we will all be seniors. We will hope someone will listen to what we have to say.

As rich as is our nation, we need a good national health care plan for our seniors. We need a system that will provide good prescription drug help to our seniors. Many senior citizens today cannot afford the prescription drugs they need. Our government, our politicians, our communities and culture, should be one that holds as top priority -- the utmost care of our senior citizens. I am a firm believer that when people have paid their dues, they should be taken care of. In any organization -- whether it's a corporation or caring community, when you're an elder and you've paid your dues, you should sit at the top. The same thing should apply to our senior citizens.

Unfortunately, our young people, it seems to me, also have a tendency, and perhaps the audacity, to "kick senior citizens to the curb," i.e. ignore them and give up on them. Sometimes, our youth have simply followed the example of their own parents and their other relatives in shunning seniors by NOT LISTENING TO THEM. I have a serious problem with that because senior citizens have paid their dues, and they should be taken care of, period. Children -- of whatever age -- have a tendency to have "temporary amnesia." They forget that they were raised by those same seniors. Now, rather than take care of them at home when at all possible, they put them in nursing homes. My values, and my position as a deacon in my church, compels me to frequently visit senior citizens in nursing homes. More times than I care to realize, I find that their families rarely come to visit them. Many times, their families don't know their needs. Many times, their families don't know their challenges. Many times, their families don't care. Their families have "kicked them to the curb." I have a problem with that. I make it a point to touch and pray with every senior I visit. I try to leave them with a sense of feeling good about the prayer and with a sense of hope. I leave them with the sense that I listened to what they had to say. I learned from them. I leave them with a sense that I am giving back.

War Veterans

As a patriotic person, I had the wonderful opportunity to serve in the Army National Guard. Every time I hear "God Bless America," it sends chills through me. I firmly believe that anybody who has fought for this country -- from it's inception, through the Civil War, the two World Wars, Korea, Vietnam, and in any American conflict anywhere on the globe -- when these men and women come back home, they should not struggle to survive. They should not struggle for subsistence: how they are going to live, how, or when, they will get a job, or how to get job training or health benefits. My beliefs on veterans is very similar to my values regarding our senior citizens: When you fight for this country and return, there should be compensation. Compensation means benefits to take care of these brave people, give them the proper living conditions -- which they often lost by choosing to serve. We cannot be "The land of the free and the home of the brave," if we fail to take care of our own - our servicemen and women. It is time for us, as a nation, to show these veterans, and our soldiers who serve now, the RESPECT they deserve. We need to do it now, especially for our World War II veterans who are now passing on. I hold a special place in my heart and mind for the veterans of the Vietnam War. Why? Because those soldiers are, simply, of my generation. I think, as veterans, they suffer the most. I attended school with dear friends who lost their lives in what has been called, "America's thankless war" and I must remember them. Like our seniors, our veterans have paid their dues and we need to listen to them. We need to learn from them. We need to give back.

Senior Olympics

I have had the opportunity over the past 4 years to be involved in the Senior Olympics in Scioto and Pike County, Ohio. I am asked each year to participate and to speak. I find that the opportunity Senior Olympics offers to me is awesome and one of the most humbling experiences of my life.

Seniors from all over Ohio come in wheelchairs, wielding canes, and some are walking with intense difficulty. But they continue to compete with superb sportsmanship and endurance. What also amazes me is that these seniors are the very people who've opened the doors to our athleticism and our national pastime of enjoying sports. We would have no baseball, or all inclusive, equal national sports, if it weren't for the hard work of our seniors. Seniors, again, have given so much, and in so many areas of our lives. They have handed us success. We just have to use it. Some of the seniors I see each year are people who were hands-on mentors to me in my major league career. When I return to the Special Olympics Games the following year, some of my Special Olympic seniors, and other senior friends, have passed on -- the same seniors I saw "kicked to the curb" by their families.

We need to be motivated to do the right thing. We need to go out and show our seniors that we care for them. That we're "there" for them, as they have been "there" for us.
What I really enjoy about speaking to our seniors is their enthusiasm! They might be aged and disabled, but they're smiling and positive in the face of chronic pain and often looming fatal illnesses. I think that the healthy among us, are the ones always complaining. We need to stop complaining and take the initiative to go to nursing homes to see our senior citizens. There is no reason why we should not commit to this, because after all, we may be in that same situation -- looking for someone to take care of us in our Golden Years. When I get there, God willing, you can be sure that I will love for someone to come out to one of my events, see me shoot a basketball, or hit a baseball, see me play shuffle board, or play checkers. And Listen to me. It is the fellowship, spirit and faith of our seniors that I have enjoyed, and that has me fighting back tears as I see their plight.

The Stars and Stripes and the Star-spangled Banner move me to tears too, especially in this day and age, but it's the endurance of our seniors, in the face of loneliness, physical pain and life challenges, that moves me even more as they belt out in strong, proud voices, our national anthem.

The Special Olympics is a worthwhile cause and one that deserves our support. The participants are part of this great country -- all have served, some are parents, and some are grandparents, some are mentors. But one thing is for sure, they are all brave individuals that have taught me about courage. I love and support each and every one of them!