Behind the Mike

Teachers are a lot like our men and women in the military. Both groups perform some of the most valuable services in society and yet each is among the poorest compensated and least appreciated groups. Why is this?

We take these heroes and sheroes for granted. My son, Cory and his wife Casey are both school teachers as well as Viviana, the wife of Christopher, another son. All could have easily have made much more money in another profession, but like millions of other teachers across this country, they chose this profession. You could say the same thing about the women and men who chose the military. As Tom Brokaw once said, “It’s easy to make a buck. It’s a lot tougher to make a difference.”

In September of 2005, on the first day of school, Martha Cothren, a social studies school teacher at Robinson High School in Little Rock, Arkansas did something not to be forgotten. On the first day of school, with the permission of the school superintendent, the principal and the building supervisor, she removed all of the desks out of her classroom.

When the first period kids entered the room they discovered that there were no desks. “Ms. Cothren, where are our desks?” the children asked. She replied, “You can’t have a desk until you tell me how you earn the right to sit at a desk.”

They thought, “Well, maybe it’s our grades.” She replied, “No, it’s not your grades.”

“Maybe it’s our behavior.” She told them, “No, it’s not even your behavior.”

And so, they came and went, the first period, second period, third period. Still, no desks in the classroom.

By early afternoon television news crews had started gathering in Ms. Cothren’s classroom to report about this crazy teacher who had taken all the desks out of her room.

The final period of the day came and as the puzzled students found seats on the floor of the desk-less classroom, Martha Cothren said, “Throughout the day no one has been able to tell me just what he or she has done to earn the right to sit at the desks that are ordinarily found in this classroom. Now I am going to tell you.”

At this point, Martha Cothren went over to the door of her classroom and opened it.

Twenty-seven United States veterans, all in uniforms, walked into that classroom, each one carrying a school desk. The vets began placing the desks in rows, and then they would walk over and stand alongside the wall. By the time the last soldier had set the final desk in place the children started to understand, perhaps for the first time in their lives, just how the right to sit at those desks had been earned.

The teacher said, “You didn’t earn the right to sit at these desks. These heroes did it for you. They placed the desks here for you. Now, it’s up to you to sit in them. It is your responsibility to learn, to be good students, to be good citizens. They paid the price so that you could have the freedom to get an education. Don’t ever forget it.”

Ms. Cothren was awarded Teacher of the Year for the state of Arkansas in 2006.

The task of excellent teachers is to stimulate ordinary people with extraordinary efforts. The challenge is not to get great students to perform great; the challenge is to get ordinary kids to rise to extraordinary levels of performance.

These great educators teach from the heart, not the head. They tug and push at you to move you to the next plateau, sometimes using a sharp stick called reality. That’s what Martha Cothren did.

Teachers lighten the burden of others by educating children. Teaching is not a lost art; our regard for those who do it has lost its tradition. These brave women and men sacrifice income and opportunity to perform one of the noblest acts in society today.

Take the time today to thank those who teach your children or grandchildren. Take the time to thank those who touched your heart as they opened your mind to new ideas.

I often tell stories on the platform of extraordinary people who overcome adversity in their lives. Many of these inspirational people were born into their circumstances and had no choice but to fight through it.

What about those of us who create our own obstacles with bad choices? Just because we did it to ourselves doesn’t mean we deserve the fate we’ve created in our lives.

I often use stories out of the sports world to amplify the importance of overcoming adversity. The remarkable story of Wilma Rudolph comes to mind. A poor, African-American child from a family of 17 children was born with Polio. It was further complicated with double pneumonia and scarlet fever at the age of four. She went on to win three Gold medals in the 1960 Olympics in Rome. Her story turned out well, but others weren’t so blessed.

When Jim Peters came into the stadium in Vancouver, British Columbia in the Olympic Games he had a 21 minute lead over his closest competitor in the grueling marathon. He collapsed 17 times on the track from the lactic acid in his muscles, leaving him 200 yards short of the finish line and a Gold Medal.

Life deals us the cards of our circumstances. We can fight or we can flee. Animals who are threatened can fight or they can flee. Every morning in Africa, a gazelle wakes and knows that it must evade the crushing teeth of a lion to live another day. And every day, a lion wakes knowing that if she can’t run down the gazelle, she and her cubs might starve. Regardless, each must wake to the reality of running the moment they wake up.

Modern day stress triggers the fight-flight mechanism in our own lives, driving nerve cell firing to occur, releasing adrenaline, noraadrenaline and cortisol into our bloodstream. These can drive other dramatic changes. We react physically and psychologically with “fight” or “flight” as we search our environment “for the enemy.”

This process bypasses the rational mind where our more well thought out beliefs exist, moving us into an “attack” mode. That state of alert causes us to perceive almost everything in our world a possible threat to our survival. Everything appears as a possible “enemy.” Something as necessary as airport security or any other perceived threat in our lives can be seen as an “enemy.” Fear becomes the lens through which we see our world.

The only way to counter this is to cultivate positive attitudes and beliefs which can rescue us from the survival mode. You have to activate the rational mind and compartmentalize the stresses that are driving the fears.

Making clear choices based on our beliefs help us to motivate ourselves. No one else can motivate you. As a so-called “motivational speaker,” I’m probably the only guy in North America who doesn’t believe that you can motivate anybody to do anything they don’t want to do. Motivation is internal, not external.

And yet, all people are motivated by something. The person who stays in bed rather than getting up and going to work or school is more motivated to stay in bed. They might be negatively motivated but they are nonetheless motivated. People actually do things for their reasons, not for yours or anyone else’s.

The modern day saber tooth tigers of stress and strain in our lives trigger many of our choices, causing us to respond aggressively or to over-react. It’s counterproductive to punch out your boss (flight response). We can do two things: (1) we can change our external environment which is our reality or (2) we can change our perception about that reality.

Since we can only control our half of a relationship, we must choose appropriate responses to these saber tooth tigers that stress us. Physical exercise is one way. Close the door and do 25 pushups, which, admittedly I would have a problem doing, but it gets your mind off the stressor. Meditate and do stress reduction exercises in your mind to bridge the stress gap.

Exercise increases our natural endorphins, which help us to feel better. When we feel better, me make better decisions.

My youngest son, Christopher, is a Registered Nurse by profession, following in the footsteps of his mother and grandmother, both of whom were part of one of the noblest professions in the world.

My admiration for nurses and, for that matter, the entire medical community is matched only by my fear of anything that bleeds or hurts.  Let’s cut to the chase; I’m a big chicken when it comes to medical stuff.  I zoom right by that medical channel on television.

It’s weird.  I don’t mind watching a lion eat some poor animal alive on the National Geographic channel but I’ve mentally blocked the medical stuff totally.  I’ve been fortunate to be married to a nurse and am the father of one as well, but my fears of their world cause my skin to crawl.

My own mentor in life was my grandfather, Elias S. Mack, Sr.   He defined fear as an “absence of knowledge, a lack of information.”  Okay, the more I know about medical stuff, the more I fear it.

Christopher has a variety of terrific nursing stories.  He works a weird shift at an Orlando Emergency Room, reporting in around the middle of the afternoon and working to the early morning hours of the following day.   He loves it because there is a minimal amount of traffic to and from at those hours of the day.

The bad news is that he sees some pretty disturbing stuff on his shift. When I was 19 years old, I worked as a jailer for the Lexington County Sheriff’s Department in Lexington, SC.  We used to have an expression that was 100% correct… full moon equals a full house!

What causes people to lose it when the moon is full?  Christopher, who we have affectionately nicknamed Gutt, says the same thing applies to his ER.  You can set your watch by it.

The gory stuff that Gutt tells me about is fascinating, but the saddest stories are those about the young and the helpless, the poor and the disenfranchised.  Many of these people naturally gravitate to the Emergency Rooms for their care because they have no health insurance and frankly have no other place to go.

My friend Dr. Peter Morrow heads up the St. Thomas Aquinas Medical Clinic, a free clinic sponsored by my local Catholic Church.  I do some work behind the scene for the clinic, writing thank you letters and doing some public relations stuff.  I have enormous admiration for the 75 doctors and 150 nurses that lend their time, talent and treasure to this cause.  In some cases, this is the only salvation for many of the patients that stand in line for hours to see these wonderful volunteers.

Since the medical staff in the clinic is protected by something called Sovereign Immunity, they can practice medicine without fear of being sued.  And since they are volunteering their time, they can spend as long as they would like with each patient without fear of punching a clock or making some daily quota.  In other words, they actually get to practice medicine.

The heroes and sheroes that staff these volunteer clinics around the country have a special place reserved for them in heaven.  Like all the care givers of the world, they bring more than medical knowledge to the scene.  It’s in their title- “care giver.”

The saddest and yet most fulfilling moments of Christopher’s day is when he faces the improbable task of bringing comfort to a tiny crack baby whose mother has abandoned him.  “He just wants someone to hold him and tell him everything is going to be alright,” says my son, “even when I know the odds against him are enormous.”

How can a mother abandon a helpless child?  Drugs make people do desperate things and sadly the victims are the most helpless amongst us.  When I’m about to rise from my sleep at 3:30 in the morning as I do most every day of my life, I am heartened by the thought that my son just completed another shift down at the ER and that he gave a moment of warmth and love to some poor creature who may never experience that ever in his or her brief life.

Each week I get the honor of being the ball boy for the St. Cloud Bulldogs.  Like thousands of southern towns, football is a religion here in St. Cloud, partly because of how serious all the participants take the process.

There gridiron heroes that get all the ink are the players and coaches, but there are literally hundreds of others that make the events so gala. Rarely are they ever mentioned in passing, not just at St. Cloud but at every high school in the nation.

The safety of the athletes is one of those things most fans take for granted.  Make no mistake, the coaches and the players don’t.  The trainers, be they paid staff or student trainers, take their responsibilities very seriously.  They are schooled in what to look for in the way of injuries and concussions.

Occasionally they are mentioned by the press box announcers, which is nice, but beyond the occasional atta-boy or atta-girl they get at home, they are the invisible cast members on the sidelines.

And then there are the cheerleaders and their advisors. If football is a religion, cheerleading is a passion that dwarfs the religion, at least here in St. Cloud.  The Bulldog faithful are routinely cheered on by dozens of the prettiest young women in all of Florida.

It’s not uncommon to see more cheerleaders that football players on the sidelines and these gals pretty much foot their own bill for the privilege of participating.    At a recent Senior Night, there were hundreds of beautiful girls on the Bulldog sideline. The school invited the cheerleaders from the Pop Warner levels to participate as well.  You won’t have to worry about running out of cheerleaders anytime soon.

I defy you to find a harder working group of people than the St. Cloud Bulldog Band and the Band Boosters.  This is not incidental to St. Cloud.  Every other high school band in the nation is the same way.   These kids practice for scores of hours each week to ready themselves for the big game.  Beginning in the summer, they march for hours on end in the 100 degree plus heat.  They spend their Saturday’s washing cars selling goodies to raise enough money to pay for their equipment and uniforms.  No, you will never outwork any band member anywhere in the country.

The marching bands take the field for pre-game ceremonies after practicing for hours earlier in the afternoon, including a pre-game pep rally.  They return to mid-field at halftime to put on a show that fans have come to take for granted.  All game long they play team fight-songs and inspirational music to entertain the fans and players.  And when the game ends and most have left, they return for a post-game show that sometimes is sadly watched only by the parents of these unsung heroes and sheroes.  They aren’t disrespected; they are simply taken for granted.

Almost never mentioned is the chain crew that works the sidelines of every game in the nation.   As the ball boy for the Bulldogs, I always go to the “white cap” (the Head Referee) to introduce myself and to get him to approve the game ball.    They usually look at me with some pity in their eyes the first time around (as if to say… “Are you sure you can handle this old man?”) until they realize that I don’t take plays off.  Once I’ve worked with a crew, they never have to counsel with me a second time.

And I never have to introduce the chain crew, because they know that the men who work the St. Cloud Chain Crew have been on the job for years and don’t require any instruction.  They are as dependable as the sunrise.

Finally, but certainly not least, are the boosters, volunteers, play-by-play announcers, coaches and fans. St. Cloud, like my old home town back in Lexington, SC, travels well.  It’s not uncommon for Bulldog fans to outnumber the host team fans when we play road games.

One of the legacies of now departed Coach Mike Short was his insistence that his players walk the Bulldog sideline after every victory or defeat to high-five the fans along the bleachers as a show respect and appreciation.  It was a classy act by a classy coach, who will be missed.

Does golf need Tiger Woods more to return to their ratings hey-day or does NASCAR need Dale Earnhardt, Jr. the most? A profound argument could be made that both sports are suffering in the ratings arena for the lack of or absence of efforts about the two sports super stars.

An overpowering argument could be made that from a financial perspective, golf is taking an intense hit with the absence of Woods. His self-imposed exile could cost him millions in endorsement dollars and winnings. But when you take away golf’s acknowledged “cash cow” it could deliver a death blow to the PGA tour, TV network ratings, corporate sponsors and a number of other entities that depend on Woods’ success on the links.

The jury is out on how much golf has lost because of Woods’ absence today and misdeeds of yesterday. One thing is for sure; ask any PGA professional golfer and they’ll tell you in a heartbeat that their earnings are greater today BECAUSE of Tiger Woods, not in spite of him. The immediate impact for his competitors is that future purses will be smaller, no matter who is winning.

Woods’ vanishing act directly impacted every tournament he missed with ticket and sponsorship sales down 15% to 20% across the board. One could make the argument that Woods himself is the biggest loser of all in this situation, costing him an estimated $18 million to $25 million per year as well as a favorability rating that has plummeted again from 52 points to 33% in a USA Today/Gallup Poll, down from 85% favorability in June 2005.

Couple his absence with an economy that basically sucks and you have a Perfect Storm in golf terms. It’s just not the same game without a superstar like Woods.

NASCAR, on the other hand, has a unique dilemma. Many blame Junior for NASCAR’s three year ratings decline. It’s been almost that long since he’s won an event, but is it all Junior’s fault?

Most of us rednecks who follow NASCAR have our favorites and we tune out when our guy becomes part of a grill on another driver’s car. That’s natural; why continue watching when your guy is in the garage. Earnhardt Jr. is easily NASCAR’s most popular driver, obviously not because of his winning record but because of his dad’s winning record.

One could make the argument that NASCAR’s true decline began with Dale Sr. was killed at Daytona over a decade ago. There was a period of time where people got behind Junior and thus NASCAR’s ratings enjoyed a bump for the sympathy vote. But Dale Jr. is not Dale Sr.

With the absence of other good guy/bad guy personalities on the NASCAR scene, it’s easy to see why people have turned their back on the sport. Their hero is not producing, and there seems to be no secondary hero. For that reason, it’s easy to understand why NASCAR is more profoundly affected than the PGA tour… but not by much.

In the end, both sports need to reinvent themselves with new younger talent that offers a new set of heroes to follow. Both seem to have some great candidates in the loop but I’m not holding my breath for another Tiger Woods to suddenly appear on the links.

NASCAR, on the other hand, already has such a powerful superstar in Jimmie Johnson, who has dominated the Sprint Cup scene for the past five years winning it all five times in a row. Instead of energizing the sport, he simply further demoralized the ratings. “Plain vanilla” is the best way to describe the lackluster Johnson.

No one can put a finger on it. He’s good looking, married and a father, charismatic and well-spoken… in short a young man who is every sponsor’s dream. He’s everything that we average NASCAR rednecks are not. Yes, he was raised in a California trailer park; maybe that’s the problem; it was a California and not a North Carolina trailer park.

Basically, he’s boring and just plain. It’s hard to love him and unless you work for Lowes, his primary sponsor; it’s easier to hate him for his success. People are tired of seeing him win it all. Go figure; they loved Tiger for winning all the big ones and they hate Jimmie for the same reason. Aren’t we fickle?