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CHAMPION—November 30, 2015

The ceremonial sumptuous annual feasts of gratitude and great fellowship of family and friends has been accomplished again for another year.  The everyday wonderful food and precious fellowship will go on as it does day in and day out all year long over here on the Bright Side.

Thanksgiving preempted the Vanzant Bluegrass Jam last week.  As the weekly session resumes this Thursday, it will be much changed by the absence of Norris Woods.  His sudden passing is a loss for the whole community.  The last jam before Thanksgiving was a lovely one.  The room was full to capacity with many musicians, elbow to elbow in a great circle—fifteen or more of them—with Norris and his easy smile beaming out over the whole room.  The music was sublime.  If there had to be a last one for this good-natured gentleman, this one was ideal.  It is sweet and sad.  This time of year, when it gets dark so early, by six o’clock on Thursdays, when the pot luck supper is about on the table, the Vanzant Community Building is lit up in a glittering invitation that can be seen from a distance; up several roads, across open fields, doubtlessly from space, and surely from heaven.  Bring a dish.  Bring your instruments and your fine voice.  Or just bring your love of music and appreciation of this lovely community.  Champion has the best neighbors.  The Champion News has a facebook page and on it is a video made by the Midwest Bluegrass Directory.  It is nine minutes of a jam that occurred on July 26, 2013.  See the man with the banjo and the smile.

Ms. Helen Batten, the secretary at Skyline R2 School, kindly shares the birthdays of the Skyline students and staff with The Champion News.  December starts off with Michael Hall, a prekindergarten student, and his birthday on the 5th.  Paul Boyd keeps the school running as the maintenance man and has his birthday on the 7th.  Ms. Karen, Skyline’s Nurse, celebrates on the 9th.  Other people celebrating these days include inveterate peacenik, Bobette Spivey, whose birthday is on the 5th.  She is Hanna’s grandmother and Hanna shot her first deer this year.  Her grandparents are grinning about it, because Hanna loves deer meat.  Biblical scholar, Ed Bell, who herds cattle, builds houses and plays music, celebrates on the 6th, as does an award winning film maker, Zak Godshall, who teaches film at Louisiana State University and keeps close company with a stunning bright star of a Champion great niece.  Chris Tharp, an innovative artist, philosopher, builder and great cook, has his day on the 8th.  Richard Johnston, who grew up over on Fox Creek and successfully wooed one of the Upshaw sisters, started celebrating the 9th of December as his birthday in 1955.  He is a metallurgical specialist and all around nice guy.  The world is full of people—going on seven billion now.  It is a joy to acknowledge the lives of some of the good ones by celebrating their birthdays.  Champions wish you all happy days, you fine folks!

Depending upon where a person looks, he can find anything he wants to hear about anything.  The Champion News has gleaned several uplifting quotes this week.  Tommy Lee Jones said, “Kindness and politeness are not overrated.  They’re underused.”  Gandhi said, “Earth provides enough to satisfy every man’s needs, but not every man’s greed.”  “Fear does not prevent death, it prevents life,” said Naguib Mahfouz.  Abraham Lincoln said, “America will never be destroyed from the outside.  If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves.”  That was a simplification of a speech he made titled, “The Perpetuation of our Political Institutions.”  A presidential candidate assassinated in 1968, said, “There are people in every time and every land who want to stop history in its tracks.  They fear the future, mistrust the present, and invoke the security of a comfortable past, which in fact, never existed.”  He also said, “When you teach a man to hate and fear his brother, when you teach that he is a lesser man because of his color or his beliefs or the policies he pursues, when you teach that those who differ from you threaten your freedom or your job or your family, they (you) also learn to confront others not as fellow citizens but as enemies.  We must admit the vanity of our false distinctions among men and learn to find our own advancement in the search for the advancement of all.  We must admit in ourselves that our own children’s future cannot be built on the misfortunes of others.  We must recognize that this short life can neither be ennobled nor enriched by hatred or revenge.”  Nelson Mandela said, “We owe our children, the most vulnerable citizens in our society, a life free of violence and fear.”

Those quotes are helpful in mitigating some of the anxiety perpetuated by fear mongers that suggest that the military leadership is being manipulated to allow fascists regimes to overtake the nation, that our Second Amendment rights are in jeopardy, or any number of other fear laden scenarios manufactured by outfits like “Before It’s News.”  BIN started out to be a citizen journalism outfit; however, sadly it was hijacked by conspiracy theorists and is now an outlet for an ‘unabashedly unhinged’ take on word events and religious prophesy.  They make their money advertising survivalist supplies.  Anyway, it is almost funny that the very folks who are so fearful of the notions of Alinsky’s ‘Rules for Radicals’ have absolutely, perhaps knowingly, embraced them and disseminated them.  Those rules, simply put are:  if people separate themselves into groups that dislike each other and fear each other, then they are more easily manipulated.  The best hope for a good outcome lies in taking action.  Register to vote.  Inform yourself.   Participate in determining your future.  “Let mutual love continue.  Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers for by doing that some have entertained angels without knowing it,” said Paul to the Hebrews.  Respectfully, these are opinions and suggestions of The Champion News.  Take it for what it is worth.

The Recreation of the Historic Emporium over on the North Side of the Square in Downtown Champion is situated on the broad avenue named Lonnie Krider Memorial Drive.  His birthday was December 4th, and he was another kind man who made great music and loved his neighbors.  The Wednesday meeting last week included some interesting stories, some well-maintained antique firearms for examination, some well received cookies, bandaged knuckles and someone telling Elmer, “You stink!”  That was just because he had managed to soak himself with gasoline at the pump.  He came in anyway and sat down and stunk up the place.  His friends suggested that he go change, that he might get high smelling the gas, that his skin might get burned, that he might catch on fire.  But he sat and visited and had his lunch.  Several hours later, people stopping in were still acutely aware of the odor of gas in the meeting room.  Next Wednesday may tell the tale.  Come down to the wide, wild, wooly banks of Auld Fox Creek to tell your tale or tell it to TCN, Rt. 72 Box 367, Norwood, MO 65717 or champion@championnews.us.  Here is a tale that Norris told.  “Life is like a mountain railway, with an engineer that’s brave.  We must make this run successful from the cradle to the grave.  Heed the curves and watch the tunnels.  Never falter, never fail.  Keep your hands upon the throttle and your eye upon the rail.”  That is good advice for Champions—Looking on the Bright Side!