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Show Lehi Free Press New Utah! - Wednesday, November 25, 1998 - Page 2 Opinion bountiful harvest this A Words from Thanksgiving past These are secular times, when the mention of God in public life is frowned upon as being politically incorrect. But it hasn't always been that way. There were times in this great nation when we knew whom we were giving thanks to on Thanksgiving Day. We offer these words from George Washington, who was President of the United States when he issued a proclamation in 1789, setting aside a day of national thanksgiving and prayer. That's right the President of the United States actually recommended that people pray, and he was never charged with, mixing state and religion. Here are some excerpts from this historic document: "... Whereas both Houses of Congress have, by their joint committee, requested me 'to recommend to the people of the United States a day of public thanksgiving and prayer, to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many and signal favors of Almighty God, especially by affording them an opportunity peaceably to establish a form of government for their safety and happiness:' "Now, therefore, I do recommend and assign Thursday, the 26th day of November next, to be devoted by the people of these States to the service of that great and glorious Being who is the beneficent author of all the that was, that is, or that will be; that we may then all unite in rendergood ing unto Him our sincere and humble thanks for His kind care and protec tion of the people of this country previous to their becoming a nation; for the signal and manifold mercies and the favorable interpostions of His providence in the course and conclusion of the late war; for the great degree of tranquility, union, and plenty which we have since enjoyed; for the peaceable and rational manner in which we have been enable to establish constitutions of government for our safety and happiness, ... and, in general, for all the great and various favors which He has been pleased to confer upon us. "And also that we may then unite in most humbly offering our prayers and supplications to the great Lord and Ruler of Nations and beseech Him to pardon our national and other transgressions; to enable us all, whether in public or private stations, to perform our several and relative duties properly and punctually; to render our National Government a blessing to all people by constantly being a Government of wise, just, and constitutional laws ..." This year might not be a bad time to remember that on that Thanksgiving day more than 200 years ago, the inhabitants of a young nation knew to whom they should give thanks and also what they expected of the men they had recently elected to serve them under the authority of their new Constitution. Let's take Washington's words to heart as we celebrate Thanksgiving on this Thursday, the 26th day of November. A lot to be thankful for It's a tradition at our house to go around the table as we prepare to say grace on Thanksgiving and have each person present mention a few things they're thankful for. The list always includes the usual home, food, clothes fa etc. Anticipating that event got me thinking. As I look back on my life, I can see some things I'm thankful for which usually don't readily come to mind. One of my former players who returned from his mission a couple of weeks ago reminded me the other day of the importance of a grateful heart. In that spirit, here s a tew thoughts that came to me: Mm graterui ior parents wno sometimes said no. Of course I didn't think it was so great at the time, but as I look back now, it's easy to see that they really had my best interests at heart. Having a baseline set of standards about which no discussion or negotiation was possible at our house, the creed included giving your full effort in everything you do, never lying, cheating or stealing, and standing up for what you believe to be right, among other things gave me a tremendous advantage over my more liberally raised peers that I never appreciated at the time. Now, as I can survey what has become of us over this stretch of adulthood, I can see that those core principles have anchored me in every storm and have allowed me to build more standards of my own to hold me, while many people I dearly love have floundered, groundless. Many of them are still adrift, being blown hither and thither by every passing wind, be it breeze or tempest. I'm grateful for teachers who pushed until it hurt. Possessed of some inborn ability and some extraordinary opportunities, I had a tendency to be able to get high grades in school, sometimes without a lot of effort. The best teachers I had, from kindergarten through college, recognized this early on and wouldn't allow me to get away with it. Besides that, they often taught me things that had implications far beyond the confines of the classroom. Two examples may suffice. The first was a teacher I never actually had in school, my Aunt Delores. I once showed her an essay I'd written of which I was particularly proud. I was very interested in the subject and had done a lot of extra work on it, earning what I believed was an appropriately high grade. She read it, paused for a moment, then said, "This is very good, but I wouldn't have given you this grade because it doesn't fulfill the assignment." She was right; as I often did, I had made the assignment fit what I wanted to do, not the other way around. I'm grateful to her because that one casual comment helped me break a habit for which my college professors would have massacred me, if it had persisted that long. a nm ,,ii' r mi ti in,) in i The second was my eighth grade English teacher, Mr. Krai. He was young and inexperienced, but he had a way of making his points that stayed with you. The most important lesson he ever taught me had to do with language. One day, when two boys crossed the line of acceptable word use, as junior high students will, Mr. Krai said, "Remember that foul language is the sign of people with a limited vocabulary." I have. I'm grateful to have had the opportunity to serve my country. When I idejoined the Army, I was a starry-eye- d alist who believed that if we wanted to change our institutions, we needed to do it from the inside out, and that was my plan. I didn't make a dent in the service, but it made plenty in me. For one thing, my training helped finish the job of instilling genuine discipline in me, previously begun by my best teachers and coaches. It is a researched fact that fully half of high in II nmmiii in i n A 309-50- above-averag- e principal factors that make a difference. For another, it gave me an even deeper appreciation for the freedoms we all enjoy and the price so many have paid to preserve them. As I saluted the flag in full dress uniform shortly before the end of my enlistment, I knew that privilege was one of the sweetest things about serving, and one I would really miss. I can't hear the National Anthem now without remembering that moment or feeling tears welling up in my eyes. Most of all, I'm grateful for children my own, and the thousands who have filled my classrooms or my team rosters over the years. Bearing the title of parent, teacher or coach supposedly sets us up as a model for the youth we come in contact with, but I can say without equivocation that I'm certain I've learned far more from the children all of them than I ever taught them. My own children have forced me to still imperfectly the acquire virtues of patience, kindness, tolerance and unswerving love. My students have demanded that I remain intellectually alive, and keep learning so I could keep teaching. My players have taught me many things, but perhaps the most important was the truth of the slogan, "They don't care how much you know until they know how much you care." It's my hope that these few thoughts of mine may trigger a review of your own abundant blessings. May each of you enjoy a deeply grateful Thanksgiving. NEWSPAPER ASSOCIATION & I think we may have found a new if any tradition can Holiday tradition be considered "new." At least, it could be a tradition in the making. Joyful Noise, a marvelous play by BYU faculty member Tim Slover, is playing at BYU's Pardoe Theatre this holiday season. I don't even know if tickets are still available this year. But given just half a chance this captivating play has the potential to become an annual favorite. The play premiered earlier this year at BYU. It didn't take a genius to realize that the production would have tremendous appeal at Christmas, so it has been revived just in time for the holidays. I'll be surprised, not to mention disappointed, if it's not back next year about the same time. Unlike most Christmas productions, Joyful Noise isn't about Christmas. And that's a plus. One of the problems with many of our holiday favorites is that they are about Christmas as an event or a season, and not about Christ. A Christmas Carol, for example, focuses on the good things Christmas does to people not the good Christ can do for them. Instead, this play is about the writing and producing of one of the most impor- - Thanks for good news Editor: This is a month of thanksgiving and I have much for which to be grateful. After reading the recent Lehi Free Press, I'd especially like to express my appreciation to the women in the Lehi 2nd Ward for their wonderful humanitarian service. Three cheers for Doris and her crew! Many of the wards in Lehi are also participating in similar activities on a regular basis. Thanks to the folks at New Utah! for featuring such GOOD news. I remember when we started the humanitarian projects at our Stake Women's Conference years ago, and everyone was ready to help where needed. It was wonderful to see the willing response then and now. Rose Ann Gun-the- r has nothing but praise for the efforts of our Lehi women. Rose Ann has been, and continues to be, a role model to us all as she gives of her time and resources in organizing humanitarian aid. Sincere thanks and appreciation to you, Rose Ann, for your example! I'd also like to express my admiration Deadlines 9 News 3 Brett Bezzant Managing Editor Marc Haddock City Editor Subscription price $24 59 West Main American Fork, Utah 84003 show making its debut during my impressionable teenage years, I not only watched the program, but watched my parents, who were the same age as Archie and Edith, and their reactions and comments. Gloria and Mike, although a little older in that program than what I was in real life, seemed to represent my generation. Reruns of those programs don't mean as much to me these days. One channel featured old All in the Family episodes, but they didn't have the same effect on me as they did back then. Everyone tries to be more politically correct, at least to some degree, and I would like to think that one doesn't hear as many derogatory ethnic slurs as one did back then. But the real difference is that I am not sharing it with my parents. A friend said that he likes the game Cribbage, and explained that the reason he does is because he had a bonding experience with his father through that game. The same thing happened when my father taught me how to play the game, the expeand we shared and rience every time I could talk him into playing a game with me. Like it or not, though, times have changed, and the world has indeed become smaller. We are very much a part of the international scene, and yet one thing doesn't change: the basic unit is still the family. At this particular Thanksgiving, I have so very much to be grateful for, especially for my dear wife and children and the incredible support and love they give to me. Does it sound like I have just rambled around from one subject to another? You will understand the real message of this column if you will read the beginning letters of each paragraph and you will see why I am truly blessed. putting scripture to popular music as profane, with the story of Susanna Gib- ber. Cibber was a famous London musical theater performer until she wasj involved in a notorious sex scandal that ,i ftnW tant pieces of sacred music, Handel's was the talk of London. Cibber hopes that by performing in Messiah, she might regain her stage career. Throw in selfish actress Kitty Clive, who is as determined to prove she is not "common" as she is to keep Cibber off the stage, and the Bishop Henry Egerton, who is determined to stop Handel's performance of Messiah at all costs, and you have the makings of Messiah. Not strictly about the birth of Christ, Handel's most famous oratorio embraces the birth, life and after-lif- e of Christ. But it is performed each year at Christmas time, and so has become an intriguing story. associated with the holiday. In the end, Joyful Noise has a lot to However, it isn't just the Messiah consay about the power of Christ and his nection that makes this production a message to change people's lives a lot candidate to become a Christmas clasmore than most of the silly, overly sentisic. That's because Slover uses the story mental Christmas stories that bombard of the writing of Messiah as a frameus during the holiday season. work to tell a bigger story that of the Want to get your Christmas season human pursuit of forgiveness and per- off to a good start this year? Go see Tim sonal redemption. Slover's Joyful Noise, and youll get a In Joyful Noise, Slover masterfully good taste of what Christmas is really intertwines the story of Handel's strugabout. And that's why I think we in Utah gles to write his masterpiece, and then to produce it against the wishes of the Valley are witnessing the birth of a holiLondon clergy who view the act of day tradition at BYU. Reader's Forum Circulation Publisher Jewtalijews ly Joyful Noise: The beginning a Christmas tradition Telephone Numbers Advertising member of NATIONAL er All in the Family was another program in our house. With the .in school students with test results never realize their potential. I have come to see that a lack of personal i.e., the ability to continue discipline to work until a job is properly done or a desired result achieved is one of the NewUtah! (ISSN No. (U.S.P.S. No. Here it is, the end of November, and I still haven't accomplished some of the things I had planned to do this year. A few years ago, we purchased some accounting software for the computer where we could keep track of all of our expenses and income, and really see he can play the delightful computer the state of our financial affairs, not to games that teach him phonics, memory skills and hand-ey- e mention the balance of our checkbook. coordination. Reader Rabbit has as much impact Perhaps we thought that first year that we would wait until the beginning on him as Big Bird these days and it of the following year to get started on seems so natural to him that I am amazed. it. Senior citizens who use computers Putting it off .until after the followamaze me, too. Although I am sure ing tax season became our next milestone, and we vowed that on April 16 there are still many older people who we would begin anew and really get are troubled by all the newfangled gadserious about the minute details of gets today, those who are willing to be where the money was coming from and taught some new tricks can find great where it was going. joy in using computers. A colleague at work tells me how he Yeah, right. Tax time came and and his mother send back and went, so did Mother's Day, Father's forth to each other every day. Day and summer vacation. All too soon it was Labor Day, and Researching genealogy, often a our good intentions went straight down hobby of the empty-nestor retiree, can be done at home these days, with the tubes. Not that we didn't keep busy with more and more technology promised for the hectic pace of our own schedules, the future. No more driving to the combined with growing children whose genealogy library and having to sit activities seem to multiply in quantum hunched over microfilm for hours. Soon, the genealogy enthusiast will be leaps. Nevertheless, there was still that able to tap into databases from their nagging feeling that we really ought to own homes. Yet, there was something to be said get to the task we had assumed would for family time around the radio. I be so easy. I think that the advent of computers remember envying the Walton family has led people into a false sense of secu- on television when I saw them sit around together and become positively rity. Just because a computer is capable of doing many different routine jobs enchanted with music, comedies, and balancing a checkbook or keeping track even the news. of a Christmas card list we still have Thirty years ago, television was the to do the work that helps the computer same for me. My parents and I would do its work. enjoy The Ed Sullivan Show, The JackVideo display terminals may soon be ie Gleason Show, What's My Line and to Generation X what radios were to To Tell The Truth. On other occasions, my father arid I my parents' generation. The family would share, in a sense, the camamay soon gather around the computer, not just to hear news from a disembodraderie of watching Gunsmoke or Perry ied voice, but to actually witness and Mason reruns. To my surprise, they even enjoyed Bewitched when it was an maybe even participate in what hapevening show, perhaps more because pens around the globe. Even my four year old is familiar we were watching it together as a fam- with the computer. He eagerly asks if iiy- Published weekly by 1521-685- Thanksgiving Russ Daly per year Periodicals Postage Paid at American Fork, Utah POSTMASTER: tend address change to 59 West Main, American Fork, Utah 84003 Classified Advertising . . .Tuesday, noon Display Advertising News Monday, 5 p.m. Monday, 2 p.m. Missionaries Monday, 2 p.m. Weddings Sports Community Calendar Letters to the Editor . Obituaries . . Monday, 2 p.m. Monday, 10 a.m. .Monday, 10 a.m. .Monday. 10 a.m. .Tuesday, 11 a.m. and thanks to the great young people at Lehi High School for their high goals and achievements. I enjoy reading the Pioneer Profile by Brenda T. Peterson each week; especially when I know the young person being featured. Hats off to all who are making a sincere effort to make the most of their teen years. You CAN achieve when you are willing to work. Many thanks also to their teachers, coaches and mentors. The descendants of David Evans, first bishop of Lehi, have recently begun the search for all of his descendants. Many live in Lehi and throughout the valley, but there are an estimated 22,000 to 30,000 throughout the world. We're planning and grand gathering and statue of this founding pioneer for the year 2001. It's a huge task, but thanks to the time, energy, enthusiasm and resources of some of the best people n the world, who just happen to live right here in Lehi, we're going to pull it together. The world is full of good people. I'm very grateful to live among some of the very best of them! Marilyn Nielsen Commissioners' pay raise Editor: The Utah County Commission has scheduled three public hearings on both their proposed $64 million budget and raises for elected county officials. Less than three weeks after the election and they "thank" voters with a proposed budget and salary increase! Not only that, they schedule the lone evening hearing at 5:30 p.m. on Thanksgiving Eve, Nov. 25, the busiest travel day for many of our students and families! Obviously, a few "turkeys" will not be in the kitchen but still fattening themselves at the public trough! Please! Let all citizens of Utah County remain attentive and vigilant to the goings on around us. Attend one or more of these hearings in the County Commission Chambers in the County Administration Building, 100 E. Center, Provo. The first order of business for any public servant must no longer be self-servin- Daniel P. Gray Springville We welcome letters to the editor. All letters must include the author's name (printed AND signed) and a telephone number. We reserve the right to edit letters for clarity, punctuation, taste and length. Letters are welcome on any topic. HOW TO REACH By Mail P.O. Box 7, American Fork, UT 84003 In Person 59 W. Main, American Fork US By Fax 756-527- 4 By editornewutah.com POOR |