“Do the next thing”

I watched the movie “Meet John Doe” a couple weeks ago. I saw it a few years ago then bought a copy to keep. I thought how startling the timing was to be hearing such a speech and realized it was timeless. I’ve pasted this from americanrhetoric.com and am so grateful that they had it all typed up for me!!!

Read and be inspired; Merry Christmas!!

Ladies and Gentlemen, I am the man you all know as John Doe. I took that name because it seems to describe — because it seems to describe the average man, and that’s me — and that’s me.

Well, it was me — before I said I was gonna jump off the City Hall roof at midnight on Christmas Eve. Now, I guess I’m not average any more. Now, I’m getting all sorts of attention, from big shots, too — the mayor and governor, for instance. They don’t like those articles I’ve been writing. (more…)

It’s good to see that those in which the spirit of charity and helping has “lain dormant for these last eight years” (Keep the poor in your hearts Michael Tucker-Friday 11/21/08) may finally have someone to inspire them! It will be great to have new folks join those who have already been so inclined for many years now. If a leader can do that, there is hope for us after all. The value of a volunteer is unsurpassed!

I hope, however, that this impetus to volunteering and self sacrifice remains a product of inspiration and personal responsibility. Heaven help the country that institutes service via mandate, regulation or obligation. If volunteerism and sacrifice take on that quality we will lose a foundational facet of our free society. If that happens, our country will be in danger of losing its heart.

Let us watch closely to be sure our volunteering doesn’t follow the path most valued in a previous writers letter, (Changing U.S. Policies, Rosalie Paul, 11/14/08.) Her belief states that most volunteerism should come not necessarily in the form of feeding the hungry in our midst or trash picking from the sides of the roads but more importantly in the form of promoting and demanding policy change. To wish that all or most volunteerism should revert from caring for the basic needs to changing policies is to create a mob of debaters while the hungry are left looking for someone else to help them.

(To be printed in the Wednesday, 12/10/08 Opinion page of The Times Record newspaper.)