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Do You Have the Courage
to Speak Up Against Domestic Terrorists?
Poppy Doc was a fine country doctor in central
Illinois. He worked tirelessly to save his
community from the Great Influenza in 1918, likely
the deadliest plague in history. The extremely
virulent influenza virus killed an estimated 50 to
100 million people in the space of just six months.
But Poppy Doc was a practical man of reason. He
insisted that his farming community follow his
hygiene protocols and even made the stubborn
farmers stop their work and go to bed to save their
lives. And it did. Poppy Doc Welch was invited to
speak at medical conventions about his success for
decades.
However, Dr. J. W. Welch
fought a second blight that hit his rural community
that he was never invited to speak about. His town,
like many towns back then, did not allow people of
African descent to live within the city limits. A
family came to Doc Welch's clinic one Saturday
morning. A young mother with two toddlers and their
very sick father stood humbly at the doorway. Poppy
Doc was a son of a son who treated Union and
Confederacy wounded without prejudice and insisted
on boiling his instruments, although he was
severely chastised for his behavior. Doc Welch did
what was right and treated the man and as he often
did - refused any payment. The family drove on in
their rattle trap car and Poppy though little of
it.
But others thought a great
deal about it. Word spreads like dry grass fire in
small towns and soon his beloved community knew the
whole shocking story. On Sunday evening Poppy Doc
was called out to the porch of my great, great
grandmother's large white farmhouse. A makeshift
cross burned in the yard. Sparks flew in the hot
summer breeze, briefly catching and eerily ignited
the tips of the huge pine trees that flanked the
yard. My mother, a child of six, was not easily
contained by her own regal mother as she fought for
position to see what was happening. A small crowd
of men, perhaps a dozen, stood in the grass beyond
the cross. Heavily robed, the moonlight caught the
angles and curves of their hooded faces.
"Don't treat any more
Niggers, Doc." they shouted.
Poppy Doc was the kindest
man I have ever known. But that night he stood on
his front porch and his 6'3" large frame leaned
over the porch railing. Words to make a sailor
proud flowed from his barred teeth and he told them
he would treat any man, woman or child he damn well
wanted to. He then proceeded to call each man out
by name, recognizing them from their boots, or
voice or body frame.
"Charlie, I will not be
delivering your wife's baby." "Jack, I will let
that foot of yours rot off before I help you again,
now take that cross off my lawn and don't come back
here, ever."
The stupid men pondered
their situation only briefly, knocked down their
handiwork and dispersed. Poppy Doc's teeth still
snarled when he retold the story to me a generation
later as I sat curled on his lap, my favorite
resting place.
In the past week I have
listened to Pastor Don Clowers of Dallas, the
keynote speaker at a graduation ceremony who faced
a shotgun and had his revival tent riddled with
bullets because he cut down the rope dividing his
church in half, one side for whites and one side
for blacks. Then today, I received a mailing from
Southern Poverty Law Center
http://www.splcenter.org that said "Children are
not born to hate. They're taught." Morris Dees
offers a teaching program, called Teaching
Tolerance that ensures "amidst the storms of
injustice and racial and ethnic hatred there exists
a beacon of hope." Can these men be fighting the
same poisonous ignorance that my Grandfather cursed
on his front porch?
Could we, as rational
humans, make room for everyone or must we scramble
to take the most, the fastest. Volunteers and low
paid individuals on the ground fight for equality
in opportunity, safety, food, health care,
education and shelter for the poorest. But where is
the tax money? In our recent past, America was
easily distracted from the truth and real
priorities of our time. America is the world's
worst glutton of CO2 emissions, biggest polluter
and enjoys the best of everything while the
majority of the world suffers. Does the rest of the
world have reason to dislike our behavior? Instead
of dealing with essential issues, our crooked
politicians get us very excited about secondary
causes and social problems that temporarily fire up
the people and keep them busy arguing among
themselves with no leadership to a resolution.
Meanwhile, those same politicians are busy slipping
in self-serving bills, making fortunes, starting
wars, or torturing captured, but untried people.
This is America?
Many racist, selfish and
greedy "domestic terrorists" operate on a
philosophy that their immigrant relatives have more
rights then another's immigrant relatives. Hate
crimes, intolerance and prejudice is shifting to
Mexican immigrants and distracting the American
people from urgent work that needs to be done. A
prolonged fight at home again is stupidity and a
diversion from what really needs to change in
America. Simply set up a new, tighter policy for
immigration and enforce it, starting today. Leave
families alone that are living here now, consider
them grandfathered in because we can not waste time
on the issue. Mexican immigration is a splinter,
while we are dealing with a heart attack. Our
energies need to return to the essential work of
keeping America safer and the planet from
overheating.
James William Welch, M.D.
was a patriot, his son served as a doctor in WW2,
as was his grandson, Jimmy Will, who served hard
duty in a submarine. But I think that Poppy Doc
would be on his front porch today if he could,
cursing and outraged at the incompetence at the
helm of American decisions. Billions of dollars are
wasted while grass root programs that fight hatred
in the next generation go unfunded. Such
shortsightedness ignores the wisdom of educating
women of the world about freedom, historical facts,
health and science because women will spread
tolerance and peace to their children, rather than
watch them slaughtered and maimed in endless wars.
There must be an alternative to killing men who
disagree with us. Could war be won through
compromise, new leadership and diplomacy instead of
killing hundreds of thousands of innocent
people?
The hot embers in the tall
pine trees may soon warn of severe bad weather
instead of just bad attitudes. Will you speak out
now for the future of your children and their
children? Americans can reset their priorities for
their tax dollar. Change must happen quickly and we
must stand shoulder to shoulder with each other
regardless of skin color, heritage or political
party. Perhaps knowing Poppy Doc's story will give
you strength to lead us out of war and into sane
progress and a sustainable future, because he is an
example of a real leader, a person of courage,
sanity and morality.
©2009, Molly
Barrow
* * *
Dr. Molly
Barrow holds a Ph.D. in clinical psychology and is
the author of the new book, Matchlines:
A revolutionary New Way of looking at relationships
and making the right choices in
love. She is an
authority on relationship and psychological topics,
a member of the American Psychological Association
and a licensed mental health counselor. Dr. Molly
has appeared as an expert on NBC, PBS, KTLA, and in
O Magazine, Psychology Today, Newsday, MSN.com,
Match.com, Women's Health and Women's World. Please
visit: www.askdrmolly.com
or Take the new relationship compatibility test,
Match Lines Systems for Successful Relationships
for Singles, Couples and Business at
www.DrMollyBarrow.com.
Molly has a radio program, Your Relationship
Answers at www.blogtalkradio.com/drmollybarrow
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