Triad Today

Over the past 60 years, America has seen many great advancements in science, technology, and medicine. Some would say that we’ve also made great strides in race relations, thanks to such groundbreaking events as Brown v. Board of Education, the Voting Rights Act, and the election of an African-American to the highest office in the land. Yet here we are in the year 2015, and the nation is still plagued by racial prejudice, and racial slurs, the latter of which is a tangible indicator of how pervasive the former is. Slurs are spoken by people from all walks of life, some in a private setting, others in front of a national audience. Who could forget Seinfeld actor Michael Richards’ on stage rant at a black heckler? Or Don Imus slinging a slur at the Rutgers women’s basketball team? And then there was the recent utterance by a Cleveland TV news anchor.

Following this year’s Oscar telecast, WJM’s Kristi Capel and Wayne Dawson engaged in an unscripted discussion about Lady Gaga’s musical tribute to The Sound of Music. Dawson, an African-American, praised Gaga’s performance, but then Capel, a white former Miss Missouri, responded, “It’s hard to really hear her voice with all that jigaboo music.” Dawson resisted the temptation to verbally scold Capel, so hundreds of viewers and bloggers did it for him. Within minutes of the broadcast, the Twitterverse was ablaze with criticism of the beauty queen, prompting Ms. Capel to post this apology: “I deeply regret my insensitive comment. I didn’t know the meaning, or that it was even a word.”

For me, Capel’s apology rang hollow. First of all, how can you use a word that you don’t think is a word? Second, every caucasian with half a brain (and that pretty much describes Ms. Capel) should know that the word she used is a hurtful, insulting racial slur against black people. So what was Ms. Capel’s punishment? A paltry three-day suspension. Unfortunately that’s the typical response by employers in such situations. Why? Because unlike specific guidelines that deal with sexual harassment or vacation policy, most companies don’t publish a list of racial slurs which, when uttered, result in immediate dismissal. You’d think such a template would exist, but it doesn’t, at least not universally.

Ironically, while racists are getting away with speaking the actual slurs, journalists (including this writer) are generally told to use an abbreviated version when referring to a slur. The fact that racial slurs are still spoken freely in public and especially in the workplace, while reformers are hamstrung from teaching about those slurs, means we have not been successful in explaining to everyone WHY such words are so offensive. Translation? Political correctness hasn’t really corrected anything. That’s the belief held by a number of notable African-American columnists, authors, and comedians. Randall Kennedy, author of Ni**er warns us about the dangers of not openly confronting that particular racial slur, saying, “To be ignorant of its meaning and effects is to make oneself vulnerable to all manner of perils, including the loss of a job, a reputation, a friend, or even one’s life.”

The same could be said of most slurs which still have a powerful impact because we haven’t done enough to explain them or to punish those who use them. For example, until I researched the derivation of racial slurs, I was ambivalent about whether the Washington Redskins football team should keep its name. But then I learned that part of the origin for that slur comes from a time in the early days of our country when white hunters would actually skin Native Americans. I am no longer ambivalent. And so, it’s not enough to simply say that racial and ethnic slurs are bad, we need to know WHY they are hurtful, both historically and currently.

I urge every corporate HR director to search the Racial Slur Database, the Random House Dictionary of American Slang, and the Urban Dictionary, and compile, then post a list of vile words (and their derivations) which, if spoken will result in an immediate termination of employment for the offending party. Ignorance must no longer be an acceptable reason for the use of slurs. Nor should we continue to accept hollow apologies from people who aren’t really sorry for their language, they’re just sorry they got caught. Racial slurs should be fully understood, discussed, and then posted for all the Kristi Capels of the world to see. Employers will never be able to get rid of the hate in someone’s heart, but they can sure as hell get rid of anyone who spews that hate at work.

Earlier this month, Senator Thom Tillis opened his mouth, inserted his foot, and made North Carolina into a laughingstock. Speaking to the Bipartisan Policy Center in Washington D.C., Tillis suggested that restaurant owners shouldn’t be forced by the government to make their employees wash their hands after a visit to the bathroom. Usually when a politician says something monumentally moronic, his handlers have him do damage control the next day. Not Tillis. Instead, he defended his remarks, and even added, “…let those who are regulated decide whether or not it makes sense.” And what was the senator’s solution for preventing the spread of disease?

According to The DailyMeal.com, Tillis recommended restaurant owners just post a sign, notifying customers that, “We don’t require our employees to wash their hands after leaving the restroom”. “The market”, said Tillis, “will take care of that.” Medical professionals disagree.

On its website, the CDC refers to hand washing as a “Do It Yourself vaccine”, which can prevent the spread of everything from hepatitis, to dysentery and salmonella, all of which can result when food is contaminated with fecal matter. Hand washing also prevents the spread of flu, which, according to the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services, has claimed 170 lives in the Tar Heel state during this season’s epidemic.

Tillis, by the way, was not the only politician who said something stupid about health-related issues over the past few weeks. In light of recent measles outbreaks, presidential hopefuls Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky and Governor Chris Christie of New Jersey both weighed in on the growing controversy over vaccinations.

The Washington Post reported that Christie said parents “need to have some measure of choice”, while Senator Paul told talk show host Laura Ingraham, “While I think it’s a good idea to take the vaccine, I think that’s a personal decision for individuals.”

Unfortunately the utterances of stupid, absurd, and unfounded statements by elected officials is not a new phenomena.

For example, LiberalAmerica.org reports that in January of 2005, former Minnesota Congresswoman Michelle Bachmann said, “If we took away the minimum wage…we could virtually wipe out unemployment completely, because we would be able to offer jobs at whatever level.” Chuckle if you will, but to this day, Congress has refused to pass legislation establishing a livable minimum wage for hourly employees.

Speaking of employment, the Daily Kos reports that in 2013, then powerful Congressman Eric Cantor proposed a ban on paid overtime for hourly workers. And, two years earlier, Wisconsin Congressman Glenn Grothman introduced legislation that would have allowed employers to work their employees seven days a week, with no day off. Then there was Utah Senator Mike Lee who once proposed the elimination of child labor laws.

Politicians also engage in dangerous rhetoric about social issues. IJReview.com still posts the famous 1992 quote from Arkansas Representative Jay Dickey, Jr. who, when referring to how rape inside of a family is not really rape, said, “Incest can be handled as a family matter within the family.” Twenty years later, Dickey’s stupidity was matched by that of Missouri Congressman Todd Aiken who said, “If it’s a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try and shut that whole thing down.”

What’s really frightening about uninformed statements made by elected officials, is that those stupid remarks can help to form public policy. Just imagine the spread of deadly disease that would result if Senator Tillis’s anti-handwashing stance took root. And how many lives would be lost from preventable disease if rhetoric by Christie and Paul influenced legislation to make vaccinations optional?

It’s OK to laugh at and ridicule politicians who say stupid things, but we must also remain vigilant in monitoring what effect those stupid statements might have if taken seriously. Of course the best defense against the spread of ignorance is to wash our hands of ill-informed politicians when they come up for re-election. Unfortunately Senator Tillis was just sworn in, which means we’ll have to listen to him spew his own brand of fecal matter for six more years. As the villain said to Clint Eastwood in the film “Joe Kidd”, “It’s a shitty deal buddy, but it’s all you got.”

There are two things that columnists really love: irony and symmetry. Last week, a story fell into our laps that gave us both.

On February 10, NBC announced that its long-time anchorman Brian Williams was to be suspended for six months without pay. Later that same day, long-time Daily Show anchor Jon Stewart announced his retirement. Williams garnered high ratings and a big salary for his ability to report the truth. Stewart garnered high ratings and a big salary for his ability to satirize the truth. Williams was suspended for exaggerating the news. Stewart retired because he was tired of exaggerating the news. Both Williams and Stewart rose to prominence because of the Iraq war, and now one of them may be out of the news business because of that war.

Shortly after the U.S. invasion of Iraq, Williams was flying in a convoy of Chinook helicopters, some of which were fired upon. Initially he reported the incident accurately, but as the years went by, his story became embellished. According to the Huffington Post, Williams said in 2008 that, “all four of our Chinooks took fire.” But in 2013 he told David Letterman, “Two of our four helicopters were hit by ground fire including the one I was in.” Then on January 30 of this year, while anchoring the Nightly News, Williams said that his helicopter was “forced down after being hit by an RPG.” Unfortunately for Williams, some of the Chinook crew members who flew that mission, were watching the newscast when Brian weaved his tangled web.

A flurry of blog posts by the crewmen followed, with each one disputing that Brian’s chopper had been hit, or that the anchorman had even been anywhere near the danger. Columnists Maureen Dowd, Ben Mathis Lilly, and others reported a post by one crewmember that wrote, “Sorry dude. I don’t remember you being on my aircraft. I do remember you walking up about an hour after we had landed to ask me what had happened.” That and other posts were published in Stars and Stripes, and suddenly Williams found himself backtracking and apologizing.

Initially Williams said he was taking a few days off while NBC investigated his transgression. But news of other embellishments began to surface, including a similar chopper incident over Israel, and a lie he reported during the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. NBC had heard enough, and moved quickly to suspend the face of their news division.

Meanwhile, Rush Limbaugh speculated that Williams’ suspension and Stewart’s resignation were not coincidental, and that NBC might be courting Comedy Central’s main man to replace Williams. In a way Limbaugh’s theory isn’t so far fetched. Stewart is a valuable commodity, especially because of his ability to attract a younger demographic. In fact, NBC had once approached him about taking over the moderating duties on “Meet the Press.” But while Stewart rebuffed the offer to be a real newsman, Williams reportedly asked his bosses at NBC to let him be a real comedian, and succeed Jay Leno on the Tonight Show. The network quashed that idea and hired Jimmy Fallon instead.

On the night he announced his resignation, Jon Stewart said of his friend Brian’s suspension, “Finally SOMEONE is being held accountable for misleading America about the Iraq war.” It was Stewart’s comically biting way of indicting the Bush administration for an illegal invasion, and, at the same time, shaming the networks for never questioning or challenging Bush’s motives. It was also yet another reminder that the ascendancy of both Williams and Stewart will forever be inexorably linked to the 2003 invasion of Iraq.

Immediately following the dual announcements on February 10th, Viacom stock prices took a huge hit, and so did Williams’ credibility. Stewart was so popular that just the thought of his leaving caused a 350 million dollar drop in stock prices. Meanwhile, Williams was so unpopular that he dropped from #23 to #835 on the list of the Most Trusted Americans. That’s 15 points lower than Duck Dynasty’s resident homophobe Phil Robertson.

Translation? Stewart’s stock is on the rise and Williams’ is so low it may never recover. Why? Because Brian committed the ultimate sin for a journalist. Columnist Leonard Pitts tells his students, “Your one indispensable asset is your credibility. If you are not believable, nothing else matters.” Daily Beast news analyst Andrew Tyndall expanded on that theme, saying of Williams’ actions, “The actual lie is a trivial one because it has zero public policy or political implications. But the motive for the lie is really damning. Telling fibs to make yourself look braver than you are? … the moral problems that lie raises are massive.”

Jon Stewart is walking away from a job that pays him over $20 million dollars per year to make up stories, while Brian Williams is being removed from a job that pays him $10 million dollars a year to report the truth. Somewhere along the way, Stewart became the more trusted of the two men, and now we know why.

Williams never let the facts get in the way of a good story. Stewart ALWAYS did.

Appearing before a gathering of the Television Critics Association last month, comedian Billy Crystal was asked to comment on the state of television today.

“I’ve seen some stuff recently on TV in different kinds of shows where the language or the explicit sex is really, you know … too much for me,” Crystal said. “Sometimes it’s just pushed a little too far for my tastes…”

I know how Billy feels. Lately it seems that just about anything goes when it comes to sexual content on television. It wasn’t always that way.

In the 1950s, CBS wouldn’t allow the word “pregnant” to be used when Lucy was “with child,” and censors also wouldn’t allow ample cleavage or belly buttons to be shown. In the early 1960s, television characters that were married on screen still had to sleep in twin beds. I once asked my friend Dick Van Dyke if Rob and Laura Petrie ever had sex. Said Dick, jokingly, “Well yeah. They had a kid, didn’t they?” The point is that the Petries never had sex on camera, yet we still knew that they had affection for one another, and we knew how that affection manifested itself without having to witness it.

By the late 1970s and early 1980s, less was left to the imagination as studios gave us “Jiggle TV,” where stars such as Farrah Fawcett and Suzanne Somers were allowed to bounce around sans bras or wearing skimpy bikinis. Shocking as that was to some viewers, it was nothing compared to audience reaction when, in 1989, thirtysomething showed two gay men in bed. Then came 1993’s premiere of NYPD Blue, in which David Caruso and Amy Brenneman rolled around in the sack with their bare buttocks showing. That scene caused so much controversy that over 50 ABC-affiliate stations refused to air the episode for fear such nudity would violate community standards of decency.

Not surprisingly, though, by the dawn of the new millennium, naked butts were no longer much of an issue. That’s because cable programs bombarded us with all kinds of sexual content. There were lesbian love scenes in Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and later in The L Word. Gay men had sex in Queer as Folk.

David Duchovny and Kim Cattrall had serial sex in Californication and Sex in the City, respectively, and nudity is a regular fixture on Masters of Sex and Girls. TV even showed its first graphic hand job in an episode of the short-lived series Tell Me What You Want. And just recently, Chris Noth went down on Julianna Margulies in an episode of The Good Wife, but the act itself was not shown, just implied.

Leaving something to the imagination is what my generation loved about sex on TV and in the cinema. And perhaps that’s what Billy Crystal meant when he alluded to programs that push the boundaries a bit too far.

Nudity and sex acts can be photographed tastefully, and can be crucial to advancing a storyline, but then again, they can just be graphic and gratuitous.

Of course sometimes, offensive material is just used for comedic purposes and not for titillation. Such was the case with a music video starring Justin Timberlake and Andy Samberg on Saturday Night Live. The video, titled “Dick in a Box,” was about — you guessed it — a dick in a box, sort of. During the video, each man presented a large box to his respective girlfriend, and when the girl opened the box, she was surprised to see that it was empty, except for what we imagined was one of the men’s private parts protruding through a hole in the box. “Box” by the way, is also a term used for describing a receiving part of the female anatomy, and it’s a colloquialism for a TV set. Who would have thought that a box could be so naughty and so entertaining at the same time? The producers of Sex Box, that’s who.

Produced by WEtv (a division of AMC) and adapted from a BBC program of the same name, Sex Box involves two people (of any gender) who have sex inside of a giant box, while a panel of “sexperts” and a studio audience wait patiently for the couple to emerge from the box all aglow. And while Sex Box depicts no on-screen nudity or lovemaking, it does something much more offensive. It exploits sex for ratings.

The producers want us to believe that “Sex Box” has educational value, but I’m not buying it. On the BBC version I viewed, the participants Rachael and Dean were interviewed by the moderators after they had just had sex.

Moderator: So how did you start?
Rachael: By stripping off.
Dean: Then foreplay.
Rachael: Then right into it.

I guess that’s what we call educational discourse about instructional intercourse.

Again, Sex Box doesn’t show actual sex acts, so why all the fuss from parent groups? Perhaps the answer lies in a study by the Rand Corporation, which concludes that “Television in which characters talk about sex affects teens just as much as television that actually shows sexual activity.” Translation? Sex Box can lead to as much unprotected sex, STDs and teen pregnancies as programs that depict graphic sex on screen.

Don’t get me wrong. Old guys like Billy Crystal and me aren’t prudes. After all, we came of age during the pre-AIDS sexual revolution. Nor do we believe in censorship of any kind. It’s just that we come from a generation in which films and television left certain things to our imagination, and we learned about the birds and the bees from our dads, not from a panel of experts on TV.

Yes, television has evolved, and so too have our views about sex. Even so, I still love to watch the box. I just don’t want people screwing in it.

In the entertainment business, a triple threat is someone who can sing, dance and act. It’s also someone who’s accomplished on stage, in film and on television. I guess that makes Ken Berry a double-triple threat because he can do just about everything in any venue.

I first got to know Ken some years ago when I was preparing an event for the Television Academy.

Last month we reconnected to talk about his career.

Born in Moline, Illinois on November 3, 1933, Ken was drawn to performing at an early age. As a teenager his considerable skills as a dancer landed him a spot in the Horace Heidt Youth Opportunity Program, which performed all over America and Europe. After graduating high school, Ken enlisted in the Army, and was stationed at Fort Bragg. It was his first introduction to North Carolina but not his first connection. More on that later.

In the second year of his enlistment, Ken and other soldiers from Special Services Corps toured the country and entertained other troops. It was during that time that he won the All-Army Talent Competition. Thanks to YouTube, you can catch his winning act via The Big Picture, a weekly TV series produced by the Army in the early 1950s.

If you have not seen an athletic dancer do his thing, then treat yourself to this video gem.

Ken’s biggest supporter in those days was Sgt. Leonard Nimoy, the future Mr. Spock, who had already dabbled in acting and knew the ropes in Hollywood.

“I was going to be on the Ed Sullivan Show because Ed put the winners of the AATC on the air every year. And Lennie said, ‘You really ought to get in touch with the heads of the talent departments at major studios, and see if you get any response.’ And I said, ‘I don’t know how to do that.’ So Lennie said, ‘Well then I’ll do it for you,’ and he got two bites — one from Fox, and one from Universal. I can’t remember why, but we settled on Universal, and I went out there after I got out of the Army. I did a screen test that turned out very well I thought, and I don’t usually think that about my work.”

Despite the successful screen test, Ken’s first regular TV series work was still several years away. In the meantime, he continued to hone both his academic and artistic skills.

“I was going to school on the GI Bill. I wanted to stay in school and keep studying because I wasn’t well-rounded, and I wanted to be a better song and dance man. I didn’t have any money, so I took a job in Vegas working with Abbott and Costello. I made a whole $125 a week. They weren’t really getting along, in fact, it was the last time they ever worked together.”

Ken was ready to make his move; though his timing was perfect on stage, it couldn’t have been worse for a career in singing and dancing.

“I realized that the studios weren’t making motion picture musicals anymore. It’s like aspiring to be a basketball player and things are coming along, then you pick up the newspaper, and it says ‘Basketball canceled.’ I couldn’t believe it.”

But while musicals weren’t in demand, Ken’s acting abilities were, and he landed roles on The Ann Southern Show and Dr. Kildare. Then in 1965, Warner Brothers hired Ken to play a bumbling cavalry officer in F-Troop, a spoof of the old West. The role called for a lot of physical shtick, but Ken was up to the challenge. In fact, his pratfalls earned him high praise from his idol Buster Keaton. F Troop was ABC’s second-highest-rated comedy and an instant cult hit, and it outperformed such classics as Gilligan’s Island and Star Trek, the latter of which starred his old sergeant. Despite its popularity, however, F-Troop was canceled after two seasons, presumably because Warner’s new owner, 7-Arts, didn’t want to incur the high costs of producing a series in color. Fortunately for Ken, Mayberry, North Carolina came calling.

“My wife read that Dick Linke was President of the Personal Managers’ Council, so she wrote to him asking if he would watch a Carol Burnett special I was going to be on with Carol, Frank Gorshin and Rock Hudson.”

The letter worked. Linke, who was also Andy Griffith’s manager, took Ken on as a client, and before long Andy hired Ken as the lead in a spin-off series, Mayberry RFD.

“I always knew how lucky I was to get that job,” Berry said. “I think they were scraping the bottom of the barrel, that’s how I got most of my jobs. (laughs)” In the series, Ken played farmer Sam Jones, a widower who was also head of the town council. He was now the straight man for all of the old familiar Mayberry characters, and the show was an instant hit, ranking 4th in the Nielsens, with a 25 rating for the first two seasons. To put it into perspective, Seinfeld usually garnered no more than a 21 rating, and Friends averaged about a 15. If RFD aired today, CBS would have to bring in a Brinks truck to pay Ken each week. Instead, some puny-brained network executive decided to purge all of the so-called rural comedies from its line-up in 1971, and once again, a Ken Berry show was canceled at the height of its popularity.

The following season, Ken hosted his own variety series, titled, appropriately, Ken Berry’s WOW Show! The program was short-lived, but it gave audiences a glimpse of Ken’s prowess as a singer and dancer. In 1974, he appeared on an episode of The Brady Bunch in what was to be a spin-off series, with Ken playing the father of three multiracial children. But Kelly’s Kids never made it onto a network schedule. Afterward, Ken appeared in several films and a number of stage plays, before being cast as the dim bulb son of Vicki Lawrence, in the long running series Mama’s Family.

Today, after six decades in show business, Ken deserves a rest, yet he joked about his retirement, telling me, “I don’t have anything going on until April.”

“What happens in April?” I asked. “Nothing happens in April. I was just kidding,” he said.

Before we ended our conversation, Ken said he had one more thing he wanted to tell me: “When I was stationed at Fort Bragg, I had a strange feeling of being at home in North Carolina. Not long ago I got in touch with a genealogist and learned that the Berry family settled in Orange County. One branch then went South into northern Alabama, and my branch wound up in southern Illinois. But I always did feel at home in North Carolina.”

Praise indeed from the head of the Mayberry town council.

MacMillan defines diversion as “something intended to take someone’s attention away from something you do not want them to concentrate on.” Magicians and illusionists, for example, are masters at creating diversions, and now, it seems, so too is our 44th president. In fact, his latest State of the Union Address was replete with obfuscations and diversions. Here are a few examples.

The President told us that this century began with “a new generation fighting two long and costly wars.” Later in the speech he returned to that theme to brag that, “our combat mission in Afghanistan is over.” Not so says Atlantic correspondent Jim Fallows who claims we actually lost the war in Afghanistan. Speaking with Bill Maher last Friday, Fallows said, “This has been a decade of strategic defeat for the United States. The 2 to 3 trillion dollars we spent in Iraq and Afghanistan might as well have been burned for the good they’ve done.” True, George Bush got us into the Middle East mess and probably should have been tried for war crimes for his role in the deaths of over one million innocent Iraqi civilians, but Obama did nothing to expedite our collective withdrawals from that region, and his delays ran up the totals on casualties and costs. Our Illusionist-in-Chief also didn’t mention that we spend twice as much on our military as the next fifteen countries combined.

According to Mr. Fallows that represents 4 percent of our GDP. And, Obama failed to mention that he has bombed seven different countries since taking office. That’s more than any other president in history. Not bad for a man who received the Nobel Peace Prize for his campaign rhetoric then spent the next six years waging war. Nice diversion Mr. President.

Speaking of senseless casualties, I also loved how concerned Mr. Obama seemed to be about gun violence in America, saying, “I’ve mourned with grieving families in Tuscon and Newtown, Boston, Texas, and West Virginia.”

Hey Mr. President, maybe you wouldn’t have had to mourn in all those cities if you had grown a pair after the first massacre occurred and fought hard for a ban on assault weapons.

Obama apologists say that’s because Congress blocked him at every turn. How soon we forget. Truth is that during his first two years in office, Mr. Obama operated with Democrats in control of both legislative chambers. In January of 2009, the House of Representatives began its 111th session with 256 Democrats and 178 Republicans, while the Senate gave the President a 55 to 41 edge. So thanks for directing our attention away from your policy failures by telling us how much you mourned. That’s not just a diversion, that’s an ironic diversion in extremely bad taste.

One of my favorite diversions during the President’s address was when he talked about the economy. “We have risen from the recession freer to write our own future than any nation on earth,” he said, then later added “We reversed the tide of outsourcing and created 11 million new jobs.” I scarcely know where to begin exposing those illusions. First of all, we have not risen out of the recession. The official unemployment rate may have finally fallen below 6 percent but that doesn’t take into consideration those who have given up looking for gainful employment, nor those who are underemployed. Even worse, of the jobs created since 2008, over 60 percent are low wage jobs. But that’s something the Grand Illusionist doesn’t want us to focus on. And don’t get me started on his claim that we have reversed the tide of outsourcing. Many US companies (including one based in the Triad) are continuing to thrive because of outsourcing.

They shutter plants here, reopen them in third world countries, pay slave wages, then import the cheaper goods back into America at about a 2 percent tariff. That compares to countries such as China and India whose tariffs range from 20 percent to 40 percent. The President slipped up last week when he said, “We need strong new trade deals from Asia to Europe.” I guess his diversionary rhetoric was working so well that he figured he could mention something which he should have fixed long ago. Obama has had six years to repeal or reform bad trade pacts including NAFTA, but he has never taken one step in that direction.

Ironically he also spoke of income inequality in his address, something which has grown under his administration, in large part due to his failure to close the loopholes that are allowing companies to send their jobs overseas. Author Bret Stephens observed “The weird thing is to have a President six years into his office suddenly discover that the middle class has been hard hit for the last six years.” And what’s Obama’s solution for narrowing the income gap? He wants to impose about $320 billion in new taxes on people with money. Speaking on “Real Time With Bill Maher,” Stephens offered a warning about that kind of revenue-raising strategy. “French President Hollande came into office proposing a 75 percent super tax on the rich, not so different from what Obama is proposing. What Happened in France? The economy plummeted, and unemployment rose to 10 percent…”

I’m hopeful that most Americans weren’t fooled by Obama’s smoke and mirrors act. After all, according to Nielsen, his was the lowest rated State of the Union address of the past fifteen years. On the other hand, only a true illusionist can make viewers disappear. And speaking of chasing people away, it is interesting to note that ever since the terrorist attacks of 9/11, whenever the President speaks to a joint session, a select number of congressmen are required to relocate to an unknown site, just in case of a disaster. Who would have guessed that Obama’s speech itself was enough of a disaster to warrant the evacuation.

Former President Jimmy Carter showed up on the set of “The Daily Show” this past week wearing what appeared to be a tubular shaped object around his neck. He was in New York to attend an exhibit at the Museum of Natural History titled “Countdown to Zero: Defeating Disease,” and the tiny prop around his neck was a life saving example of what the exhibit was promoting. The portable pipe filter was developed and distributed under the auspices of the Carter Center and is being used by people in blighted areas such as the South Sudan, where the only available water source is often a stagnant pond full of bacteria and the dreaded Guinea worm. Now, thirsty populations in third-world countries can simply place one of the pipes just below the surface of a contaminated pond, and drink water through the device, which filters out worms and germs. The pipe has reduced incidents of Guinea worm ingestion from several million to just a few hundred.

Carter, a long time peanut farmer, left the Presidency in debt, but in retirement has supported himself and his causes with proceeds from 14 books and with profits from a family land partnership in Georgia. Since 1981, the Carter Center has been on a mission of “Waging Peace, Fighting Disease, and Building Hope,” and Carter’s hands-on activities have included everything from building houses with Habitat for Humanity, to monitoring free elections abroad. Carter’s story inspired me to take a look back at what some other former Presidents have done (and are doing) in their retirement years, and how they have fared financially along the way.

Upon leaving the Presidency, George Washington returned to Mt. Vernon and managed his considerable holdings, including a distillery, which produced its first batch of whiskey on the day he left office. He did very little in the way of public service but did answer President Jefferson’s call to take over the Army again should a war with France start. Calculated for 2012 purchasing power, 24/7 Wall St., which offers “Insightful analysis and commentary for U.S. and global equity investors,” estimates Washington’s net worth was $525 million.

Jefferson and Madison started out with wealth but both encountered heavy debt in retirement, a fate that would befall many of their successors. However, both men continued to serve their country, Jefferson by founding the University of Virginia, and Madison by following his predecessor as President of UVA.

John Quincy Adams managed to hold onto his wealth in retirement, but, in a way, he never retired from public service. After leaving the White House, Adams was elected to Congress where he served until his death.

Like Jefferson before him, Millard Fillmore’s legacy is the founding of a college. That institution is known as the State University of New York at Buffalo.

Fillmore was not a man of great means, nor a particularly strong President, but his commitment to higher education during retirement was a noble endeavor.

Grover Cleveland and Theodore Roosevelt spent their retirement years trying to return to the Oval Office. Cleveland was successful in securing a second, non-consecutive term as President, but Teddy fell short in his independent bids against Wilson and Taft. At least finances weren’t a problem for Roosevelt. 24/7 Wall St. estimates his net worth at $125 million based on 2012 values.

After losing his re-election bid to Wilson, William Howard Taft was appointed as Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court. He was the only Commander in Chief to serve in that capacity after leaving the Presidency.

In a way, Herbert Hoover, a Republican President, was more like Democrat Jimmy Carter when it came to using his retirement years to help improve quality of life for others. In 1947 alone, his war on childhood hunger fed 3.7 million children.

Harry Truman didn’t particularly distinguish himself as a humanitarian after leaving the White House, but his lack of funds did prompt Congress to pass the “Former Presidents Act,” which gave retired Presidents a pension and secret service protection.

Truman received $112 per month, and he managed to clear about $37,000 from his memoirs. He refused to be on any corporation’s payroll, and he never accepted money for endorsements, believing such activities would diminish the office of the Presidency.

As a career military man, Eisenhower never amassed any wealth to speak of, and spent most of his later years playing golf. In that regard, his retirement was akin to that of George W. Bush, who now spends his free time painting animal pictures. Bush’s Dad, however, has distinguished himself as a true statesman since leaving office, often seen joining with Bill Clinton in support of one humanitarian cause or another. And while Bush the elder benefitted from inherited wealth, Clinton made his money the modern way — by giving speeches and writing books. In fact, since 2001, Clinton has earned over $75 million dollars on the lecture circuit, and he received $15 million dollars as an advance on his book, My Life. That, plus his $200,000 per year pension, makes it easy for the former President to be free to travel around the globe for his Foundation.

It’s also a safe bet that President Obama will enjoy similar success after leaving the White House. USA Today estimates Mr. Obama’s current net worth at $10 million, and he will, undoubtedly, add to that by earning astronomical speaking fees beginning in January of 2017. The question is, will the former community organizer from Chicago follow in the humanitarian footsteps of Jimmy Carter, or will he just sit back and paint cats with The Decider? Time will tell.

At a 1962 dinner honoring a group of Nobel Prize winners, President Kennedy observed, “I think it’s truly the most extraordinary collection of talent that has ever been gathered together at the White House, with the possible exception of when Thomas Jefferson dined alone.” It was JFK’s way of recognizing Jefferson’s exceptional talent and versatility. The same case could be made for another Virginia-born genius, my friend Barbara Hall, who once wrote a TV pilot about a female super hero that I’m convinced was autobiographical.

Barbara is the lead singer for a band, author of 11 novels, has been honored by the American Library Association, and was awarded the Humanitas Prize for her television writing. She’s also a lecturer, a dedicated Mom and one of the most successful producers of primetime dramas since the millennium began. Her writing and producing credits include Northern Exposure, I’ll Fly Away, Judging Amy, Joan of Arcadia, Homeland, and most recently, the critically acclaimed Madam Secretary, starring Tea Leoni.

“I was approached by Lori McCreary who runs Morgan Freeman’s company, Revelations Entertainment, and they had an idea to do a TV series about a female Secretary of State,” said Hall. “They had some story ideas, then I came in and fleshed out the show, and we developed it.”

Madam Secretary is Revelations’ first foray into television, and Freeman is pleased with the result. In an email to me, Morgan said of Barbara, “Lori and I have never had a more satisfying, rewarding, and delightful collaborator.”

I first met Barbara when she participated in my “Women in Drama” event for the Television Academy back in the fall of 2000. Last month we spoke by phone about Madam Secretary.

JL: You once told me that you only like to write shows that you would watch. Is that still true?

BH: That’s absolutely true, and sort of why I lay low for awhile, because there just wasn’t anything on the TV landscape that I would want to do or watch.

But then with Madam Secretary, suddenly there was room for a show that I would want to watch.

JL: As producer and show runner, how much writing are you getting to do on the series?

BH: A lot. I wrote the pilot and the first episode, and I wrote episode 14 which will air in February, and I’ll write the last one. But that’s sort of a tricky question because I’m involved in breaking all of the stories and overseeing the story meetings and scripts. I’d like to do more, but the problem is that writing a script takes you out of the loop on everything else.

JL: Television audiences have been dumbed down over the past couple of decades, feasting on shows like Jerry Springer and Honey Boo Boo. With Madam Secretary are you trying to elevate, educate and engage viewers to some degree, or do you just set out to entertain them?

BH: (laughs) Well I want to do both.

But I don’t think you should use the word “educate”, because it’s not school. It’s just that I wanted to work in an arena where there are a lot of interesting stories to tell about a world that people might not understand. And so, really sort of pull back the curtain is more our approach, and show people, because I’ve done the research, and I’ve been able to go into this world to reveal the aspects of government that they might not know about, and they might find interesting at the same time. And, we have a secret plan to entertain them (laughs).

JL: Not too many years ago, trying to get a political show on the air was almost impossible, and now they’re all over the place. Shows like House of Cards, Veep, Scandal, and State of Affairs. And they’re all doing well.

BH: I know, I think it’s cyclical. All that has to happen is for one or two shows to do well in a particular arena, and then it fits into the landscape. It’s not that everybody jumps on the bandwagon, but it’s that everybody has circled around these arenas all the time, and when one or two shows break and make it possible and OK, it gives everyone else permission to write a show now. So certainly I benefitted from that.

JL: Conspiracy nuts might accuse you of using Madam Secretary to bolster Hillary’s next Presidential campaign. How do you plead?

BH: (laughs) Well my comeback to that is there are so many easier ways to get Hillary elected President than to create a TV show about her (laughs). Our show has nothing to do with Hillary at all, but if people are still seeing her in the character, they’re going to have to answer for that. Tea’s character has nothing in common with Hillary except she’s a female Secretary of State, and she’s blonde. I saw that train leaving the station, but there was nothing I could do about it. If you really stop and weigh the conspiracy, though, it doesn’t make any sense. If people understood what it takes to get a TV show on the air, and what a long shot it is for it to be a success, they’d see it’s not a very practical approach to getting someone elected to office.

A long shot maybe, but not so difficult for a female super hero.

(Madam Secretary airs Sunday nights at 8:00 on CBS. Barbara’s music CDs are available from CDBaby.com and her novels are available through Amazon.com.)

An unarmed black man was killed by a white police officer while resisting arrest. The details of the incident were withheld by police for over a week. Later, a judge dismissed murder charges against the cop, and riots ensued, including burning and looting. This wasn’t in Ferguson, Missouri in 2014. It was in Winston-Salem in 1967. I was 13 years old at the time, and I remember riding to church and seeing National Guardsmen positioned on tops of buildings throughout downtown Winston-Salem. The Guard was there to restore law and order, the practice of which, ironically, had caused the civil unrest to begin with. Here’s what happened.

On Oct. 15, 1967, James Eller, an African-American father of four, was seen staggering across a street. Mr. Eller made it to the front porch of his house where several police officers caught up with him, and proceeded to arrest him for alleged public drunkenness. According to police, Eller resisted arrest and the officers tried to subdue him, first by spraying MACE into his eyes. That didn’t work, so patrolman W.E. Owens struck Eller on the head with a blackjack. It proved to be a fatal blow. Police didn’t release details of Eller’s death until eight days later, and it was another four days after that before Owens was suspended. Eller’s widow swore out a warrant against Owens, which according to the Winston-Salem Journal stated that Owens, “feloniously, with premeditation, deliberation, and malice and forethought, did kill and murder one James Eller.” Judge Leroy Sams dismissed the case, and that ruling triggered riots in downtown Winston-Salem.

Winston-Salem Journal and Twin City Sentinel reporters Roy Thompson, Steve Burns, Gene Whitman, Joe Goodman, and Eugene White, and editor Wallace Carroll provided extensive coverage of the riots, which included descriptions of damage to stores along Liberty, North Trade, North Cherry, Claremont, Main, and Fourth streets. Most of the businesses were looted then burned. Mobs particularly targeted jewelry and liquor stores, as well as furniture and appliance stores. Fires broke out everywhere, cars were overturned, bricks were tossed, and shots were fired.

Patrolman E.W. Thorpe described the Nov. 2nd sniper fire to Eugene White in saying, “Guns were reporting everywhere, and you didn’t know who was shooting at who.” Thorpe’s own patrol car was struck by sniper fire at 13th Street and Patterson Avenues. His partner, C.E. Crosby, who fought in the Pacific during WW II, described the rioting as a “small scale war.” Said Crosby, “We didn’t know where to take cover when there was shooting. We were afraid we might try to take cover where the shooting was coming from.”

Mobs also set a fire just behind a Reynolds Tobacco factory on Chestnut Street. The fire was burning near a gas tank, and had Thorpe and Crosby not arrived in time to put it out, there probably would be no Innovation Quarter today.

Twin City Police Chief Tucker told his troops to “take things easy on the mob,” but, he added, “Pull out the heavy stuff. Don’t use it unless you have to, but display it. But STOP it.” Normally, local National Guardsmen are not called upon to defend their own city, but the 200-man Winston-Salem guard was put on alert. Meanwhile, Mayor M.C. Benton and Governor Dan Moore deployed National Guardsmen from Mt. Airy. Most of them patrolled the streets, while others were given roof-top duty. Two of them, Spec 4 Tommy Hennis and PFC Rodney Cooke were positioned atop the Robert E. Lee Hotel.

After a couple of days, all that remained of the “small scale war” were charred buildings and debris in the streets. Order had been restored without loss of life, but there were a number of injuries reported, including to a “negro woman” who had been hit in the head by a brick. Mobs, it seems, are indiscriminant about who they hurt.

The events of Oct. 15, and Nov. 2, 1967, taught us a lot about race relations, the criminal justice system, mobs, and the way Winston-Salem dealt with all of them. Officer Owens probably didn’t mean to kill Mr. Eller, but his unnecessary use of force triggered a firestorm nevertheless. Critics of the time said the officers on Eller’s front porch that fateful day should have used handcuffs instead of mace and nightsticks. The police chief should have gone public within hours of Eller’s death. Judge Sams should have meted out an appropriate punishment for officer Owens. And the rioters should have stayed home. Instead, most of them sought to inflict deliberate damage to local businesses, and some intended to kill cops. One member of a mob was overheard saying to a policeman, “I’m going to get one of you for this.” Burning, looting, and killing is not an appropriate or effective response to police brutality.

In an editorial, Wallace Carroll wrote, “We cannot permit ours to be a city where people are divided against each other by race, and where public safety cannot be taken for granted. No city in America is immune from the passions of these days. But we can overcome them here. We must.”

Late last month, a group of concerned citizens marched along Hanes Mall Boulevard in Winston-Salem to peacefully protest the August killing of Michael Brown at the hands of a white officer in Ferguson, Missouri. It reminded us that while we still have a long way to go to improve race relations, we’ve also made some progress over the past 47 years. Instead of throwing bricks and setting fires, last month’s protesters held up signs. Instead of threatening to kill cops, they sought substantive reform in our nation’s police departments.

Their protests are being heard.

Recently, Forsyth County Sheriff Bill Schatzman ordered body cameras for his deputies, which will usher in a new era of transparency. Hopefully, that will also start a trend throughout the Triad. We also need to be ever-vigilant about representative hiring in local police departments, something at which the town of Ferguson failed miserably.

There will always be rogue cops who break the law, and mobs who use those incidents as an excuse to do the same. But by and large I think the events of 1967 and 2014 demonstrate that Winston-Salem, to paraphrase philosopher George Santayana, has learned from the past, and is not condemned to repeat it.

I’ve heard it said that we should never wish our lives away, yet every year about this time, it’s pretty common to hear someone say, “I wish this year was over already. Next year has got to be better.” I guess that’s how I feel, mainly because I lost my Mom in 2014. But at least with her passing I am left with a lifetime of wonderful memories to cherish. Not so with most of the other memorable events that took place this year. Here, then, in no particular order of sadness or stupidity, is a look back at some of the reasons why I say to 2014, “Good riddance and enough already.”

THE UN-CIVIL WAR

The fatal shooting of Michael Brown by Ferguson Missouri police officer Darren Wilson, and the fatal choking of Eric Garner by New York City patrolman Daniel Pantaleo, ushered in a new era of racial divide unlike anything we’ve seen since the 1960s. Ostensibly because neither of the white officers were convicted, Ferguson was burned and looted, and it’s now open season on police in the Big Apple. Instead of blaming all cops, victims, or mayors, we need to focus on substantive reforms such as body cams and more diverse hiring practices on all police forces. Enough already with civil unrest.

PIGSKIN PIGS

This year we got to see videos of Baltimore Ravens running back Ray Rice punching out his fiance in a hotel elevator, and photos of Minnesota Vikings running back Adrian Peterson’s bruised and battered 4 year old son, after his football dad beat his genitals with a tree branch. Just as we know that all cops are not racists, not all NFL players are guilty of domestic violence. Nevertheless, the League’s image took a hit, in part because team owners and the commissioner were ill prepared to deal with a problem that they had turned a blind eye toward for years. We are told that reforms are in the works, and hopefully public awareness will heighten as a result. Good riddance to domestic abuse.

ASH HOLES

Though Duke Energy executives had known for years that most of their coal ash ponds needed to be repaired, redesigned, or closed, they turned a blind eye to the problem, and the result was a massive leak of toxic coal ash into the Dan River. Initially, Duke Energy’s new CEO, Lynn Good, said customers would have to pay for the cost of the cleanup, but that didn’t go over too well. The company then appeared to cooperate with state and federal officials, and even launched a PR campaign to tell us how much they care about the environment. But the goodwill from that transparent stunt was minimized when Good was grilled by Leslie Stahl, and couldn’t seem to offer a good reason as to why Duke Energy hadn’t simply fixed the pond problems years ago. I’d like to say good riddance to the Dan River spill and hope that Duke Energy will make things right, but after watching the “60 Minutes” interview, I’m afraid Hell will leak over before that happens.

PETER PANNED

Last year we had to suffer through NBC’s live production of “The Sound of Music.” This year we were subjected to the most anemic performance of “Peter Pan” in the history of stage or television. The sets were impressive, but everything and everyone else was an embarrassment. Allison Williams’ pleasant but lightweight voice is okay for Youtube videos and late night talk shows, but not for belting out songs as the Pan. Christopher Walken was badly miscast as Captain Hook, mainly because he played Christopher Walken playing Hook. Meanwhile the flying sequences were second rate and the audio was plagued by too much ambient noise and incorrect microphone placements. If you want to see “Peter Pan” done right, pick up a DVD of Mary Martin’s 1960 live performance on NBC. The production was flawless and so were all of the performances. My advice to NBC is “enough already with the live musicals.” If you can’t do them right, don’t do them at all. Unfortunately, however, today’s television audiences seem to settle for mediocrity, so I’m sure we haven’t seen the last of live plays from the Peacock.

BARACK OBOMBER

As I pointed out in an earlier column, Barack Obama has bombed more countries than any other President, and this from the man who campaigned as an anti-war candidate, and who snagged a Nobel Peace Prize for his philosophy of diplomacy. Now, years later, his aggressive policies have only served to strengthen the resolve of every terrorist group in the Middle East. Obama should return his Nobel Prize and start practicing what he used to preach. Enough already with the bombing, Mr. President.

THE UNAFFORDABLE CARE ACT

The Affordable Care Act was supposed to reform our healthcare system and guarantee coverage for all. True, you can no longer be denied coverage for a pre-existing condition, but Washington buckled to the health insurance lobby and failed to impose a cap on premiums. That means you can buy insurance, but if your family is faced with a catastrophic illness, you may not be able to afford the monthly premiums. Speaking of which, Blue Cross Blue Shield is running roughshod over small business owners and individual policyholders with 2015 premiums expected to increase by nearly 80% in some cases. The Republicans were right. Obamacare must be repealed. In the meantime, enough already with for-profit health insurance companies.

DOUBLE DIPPING AT UNCG

Two UNCG employees were caught operating their own private business out of the University, on University time, and using University equipment. The two men and their supervisor, whom they paid to facilitate their scheme, were fired and arrested as they should have been. The public should have been outraged by the fraudulent actions of the UNCG 3, but thanks to a series of sensationalistic and one-sided articles by the Greensboro News & Record’s Margaret Moffett, the trio was transformed into martyrs. Shame on the UNCG 3 for stealing from taxpayers, and shame on the News and Record for acting as an advocate for three people who didn’t have the balls to start a business with their own resources like everyone else does. Good riddance to the UNCG 3 and enough already with your whining.

STERILIZATION VICTIMS VIOLATED AGAIN

It was bad enough that the state of North Carolina sterilized over 7,000 young people against their will, then kept stalling when it came to approving reparations. But finally after the surviving victims were promised $50,000 each, the state ruled those whose sterilization was authorized by a local board were not eligible for the state payout. How many times do we have to rape these people? Enough already with the degrading quibbling.

PASSING OUR MIDTERMS

The one bright spot in this year’s election cycle was Republican Mark Walker who defeated his Democrat opponent Laura Fjeld, decisively. The two political newcomers were vying for Howard Coble’s seat in Congress after the 30-year veteran announced his retirement. Walker promised early on not to go negative. Fjeld made no such promise and attacked Mark at every opportunity. In the end, Walker never aired or published a single attack ad, thus keeping his promise to stay positive. So good riddance to mudslinging, and to the pundits who said you have to go negative to win.

Here’s hoping that 2015 will be a great year for you and yours, and that twelve months from now, we’ll have no reason to wish away any of it.

As we celebrate and enjoy this holiday season, let’s not forget that there are people beyond our immediate circle of family and friends who could benefit from our love and generosity.

Over the past decade, I’ve been able to showcase scores of community organizations on my “Triad Today”

television show, and in the process, I’ve learned that there are several ways we can help these agencies help others. The first is to donate goods. Second is to donate money. And third is to donate our time. Of course, some nonprofit groups can benefit from all three types of giving. Here, in no particular order, are just a few organizations to which you might lend your support.

SECOND HARVEST FOOD BANK OF NORTHWEST NC

In an economic downturn, many people are either unemployed or underemployed, and that translates into an increasing number of families without money for food. The Second Harvest Food Bank distributes food to churches and nonprofit agencies that feed hungry people in an 18-county area. You can write a check directly to the food bank, and you can drop off non-perishable food items at a number of locations in our area. For more information call 784-5770, or visit hungernwnc.org.

GOODWILL INDUSTRIES OF NORTHWEST NC

Each year, over 45,000 people in Northwest North Carolina are served by workforce development programs that are administered by Goodwill. Those programs are supported in part by the clothing and other items we donate, which are then sold at Goodwill retail stores.

Goodwill also welcomes monetary donations. For more information call 724-3621, or visit goodwillnwnc.org.

SENIOR SERVICES, INC

Senior Services, Inc. operates an Adult Day Care facility, and offers a number of services to elderly citizens and their families. But their signature program is Meals on Wheels. Since 1962, volunteers of all ages have delivered over four million hot lunches to shut-ins, regardless of their ability to pay. Monetary donations are always welcome, and volunteers are always needed. For more information, call 725-0907, or visit seniorservices.org.

CANCER SERVICES, INC.

Their stated mission is “to enhance quality of life for those living with cancer, and to provide the gift of life through education.” Their services include patient advocacy, medication and financial assistance, providing equipment and supplies, offering peer support groups, and much more. 90 percent of funds donated to Cancer Services, Inc. goes directly to providing client services. In addition to money, you can also donate used equipment and supplies. Call 760-9983, or visit cancerservicesonline.org.

GREENSBORO URBAN MINISTRY

The Greensboro Urban Ministry is on the front lines when it comes to providing emergency assistance. Greensboro Urban Ministry provides homeless families in Guilford County a safe, temporary environment. They also operate a food bank, and offer a chaplaincy service. Volunteers are needed to prepare and serve meals, manage shelters, tutor children, and perform a variety of other duties. Monetary donations are also much appreciated. Call 271-5959, or visit greensborourbanministry.org.

HOSPICE

There are number of hospice programs throughout our region, and all of them are in need of volunteers to aid in the care of patients, and to comfort families. Mtn. Valley Hospice, for example, serves a 16-county area in NC and Virginia, offering personalized care to patients at the end of life. Due to the vast geographical area they serve, MVH-PC maintains six regional offices, and operates the Woltz Hospice Home. They also specialize in care for terminally ill children and veterans. To donate money or inquire about volunteering, call 1-888-789-2922, or visit mtnvalleyhospice.org. Other area hospices include:

Hospice & Palliative Care Center in Winston-Salem (888-876-3663, or hospicecarecenter.org); Hospice and Palliative Care of Greensboro (621-2500, or hospicegso.org), Hospice of Davidson County ( 800-768-4677, or hospiceofdavidson.org); and Hospice of the Piedmont (889-3450, hospice-careconnection.org).

THE WINSTON-SALEM FOUNDATION

Thanks to the generosity of donors, the Winston-Salem Foundation is able to issue scores of community grants every year, which go to support a variety of organizations and activities engaged in everything from improving healthcare to promoting economic development. The foundation also awards scholarships. For general information, visit wsfoundation.org. To learn about establishing a charitable trust or special fund, email giving@wsfoundation.org.

PETTY FAMILY FOUNDATION

NASCAR legend Richard Petty and his family support a number of charitable organizations and specialized programs, including Paralyzed Veterans of America and Victory Junction Camp, the latter of which provides an uplifting experience for children with severe disabilities and terminal illnesses. To make a donation or learn more, visit pettyfamilyfoundation.org.

CAROLINA DONOR SERVICES AND RED CROSS

There can be no greater gift at this holiday season than the gift of life, and that’s why you might consider donating blood, and signing a donor card. Either gesture requires only a few minutes of your time, and will almost certainly result in saving someone’s life in the future.

You can reach Carolina Donor Services at 1-800 200-2672, or at carolinadonorservices.org. You can call the Red Cross at 333-2111, or via the Internet at gsoredcross.org.

We all celebrate the holidays in different ways with different traditions and customs. But no matter your religious beliefs, donations of time, money, or goods to area community organizations is vitally important, not just now, but throughout the coming year. It’s also a way for us to expand the circle of people we care about, and that’s something worth celebrating in this season of giving.

There was a time not so long ago when kids looked up to athletes as role models and heroes, but that adulation has been strained as of late. The NFL has been sacked with one scandal after another, while NASCAR races seem to have more fistfights than caution flags. Fortunately, two iconic stars of racing and football, Richard Petty and Ricky Proehl, have stepped forward and teamed up to help improve quality of life for kids and their families this holiday season and beyond.

King Richard is NASCAR’s most decorated star, having won an unprecedented 200 races during a career that spanned more than 20 years. But the Petty legacy was dealt a devastating blow in May of 2000 when Richard’s grandson, Adam, died in a track accident. A few years later, Richard and his son Kyle started the Victory Junction Camp to honor Adam, and make life better for children with severe disabilities and terminal illnesses.

Petty: We’re celebrating our tenth year at the Victory Junction Camp, and with everyone’s help, it’s been really exciting. Victory Junction helps kids who can’t go to regular camp. It gives them a chance to get out and have fun, where they’re not the only one who is afflicted the way they are. It just changes their whole world.

Victory Junction Camp is funded in part by the Petty Family Foundation, which supports a variety of charities from hospice programs to cancer centers.

Petty: We’re about a little bit of everything I guess. Camp is one of our really big deals, but we also do a lot with Paralyzed Veterans of America where we help guys and gals coming back from war who are disabled. We do stuff like that because we’re a family foundation.

These days, Ricky Proehl works as wide receivers coach for the Carolina Panthers, but in his heyday, Proehl was one of the most feared and respected wide receivers in the game, having earned two Super Bowl rings along the way. He also opened Proehlific Park in Greensboro, a comprehensive fitness facility that is well known for its work with kids. The Park offers an after-school program, a basketball league, soccer leagues, physical training, and agility training. In 1995, Proehl expanded that mission when he started the P.O.W.E.R. of Play Foundation.

Proehl: We’ve learned that by showing a child love, acceptance and respect, that we can, in turn, help change their lives. The Foundation teaches the children in our programs through our core values of Play, Opportunity, Work, Excellence, and Respect. We tell them, “You can do whatever you want to do if you surround yourself with good people and make good choices.”

And though Petty and Proehl each help young people, their respective foundations had never joined forces until now. Earlier this year, Steve Hutchinson, CEO of Hutchinson Family Office, got the idea to bring the two sports icons together to help a select group of kids and their families during the holidays.

Hutchinson: Every year we sit down and think about how we want to direct our charitable efforts, and we’ve already worked with Richard and his Foundation, and we learned about Ricky and his Foundation, and it just seemed like a good mix for us, and they fit well.

In a sense, Hutchinson was motivated to help kids because of his own experiences growing up.

Hutchinson: When I grew up, most of my time was spent in the projects of Greensboro, and a lot of our Christmas and holiday gifts came from strangers. So this gives us a tremendous opportunity to give back. It’s important for us to work with Richard and Ricky – get these two foundations together. It’s all about helping the kids, and Christmas is a great time to help the kids.

Working with schools, social services, and other agencies, Proehl, Petty and Hutchinson identified 25 families in dire need of clothing, food, and toys this holiday season. Earlier this month, Richard jump-started the drive by presenting Ricky’s foundation with a check for $5,000, and later this week, Team Proehl will begin distributing donated items to the designated families.

And while this holiday drive is special, the work of the two foundations is never done, and relies on monetary donations throughout the year. I asked Steve, who helps his clients manage their wealth, if giving to these foundations represented a good investment.

Hutchinson: It’s an awesome investment because it’s one of the few ways, particularly with clients we work with, for them to be able to see the value of that donation during their lifetime. It goes a long way toward creating a legacy.

Petty, meanwhile, addressed his comments to the average working man and woman.

Petty: Most of us may not be as well off as we used to be, but we’re so much better off than the majority of people, so why not give back a little?

For more information on how to “give back a little” to these two Foundations, visit ProehlificPark.com and PettyFamilyFoundation.org.