Master CraftsMon - Aired Monday, December 5, 2005 at about 11pm CST - Segment 1
Master CraftsMon - Aired Monday, December 5, 2005 at about 11pm CST
Segment 1
Last week was the first program of this show. No one listened of course, because I did not advertise it. The recording of the program should be out on my web site, but the recording turned out to be subpar. No one went out to my blog read the entries and made comments. That was my mistake, because I did not repeat the web address throughout the program. Ah, well that is a problem I shall have to address at some point.
Right now... this instant, you who are listening can assume that you and I are the only ones around. Yes, just the two of us. You can listen to what I have to say or you can ignore me. I am but a voice from the velvet black calling to you across the gulf of our mutual incomprehension. Very soon, if you turn me off, it will just be me talking to myself. That is not a new experience for me.
Let me assume that you are going to go out to my blog and make comments. I will tell you a story to allow you time to do that.
I read a short book published in 1978 called Jesse by Jesse Owens. It's a spiritual biography. Most people have forgotten who Jesse Owens was. Jesse Owens wasn't just a great African-American. He wasn't just a great Black American. He was a great American. To say that he was great within the Black community is to belittle his accomplishments, yet what he did in his life was more impressive to me than what he is remembered for.
James Cleveland Owens was born in Alabama about 75 miles from Birmingham in 1913. His father was a sharecropper. Some White guy owned the land and Jesse's family farmed it. And I do mean, that the entire family farmed the land. Everyone was up at dawn and out in the fields doing something to make sure the crop came in. From the sale of the crop money was put aside for the winter. There was some profit, but never much. The boss would provide housing, seed and pretty much everything else... for a price. With the sale of the crop, Jesse's father had to settle up with the boss for all these necessities that were extended during the growing season.
One year, Jesse's parents fell behind and the boss wanted to take the mule they owned. They protested that they would never be out of debt, if he took the mule. That was pretty much the last straw. Jesse's mother demanded of her husband that the entire family move North and dump this horrid existence. While the two of them were arguing about it, a neighbor wandered by and told them that the couple living on the next plot of land had committed suicide. The other couple had no kids to help farm and they were... never going to have a good life, so they killed themselves.
The next day Jesse's family gave up the mule to the boss to settle all past debts and moved to Cleveland, Ohio.
Life in the city was MUCH better. The family made enough so that they had meat every week. I know, that sounds absolutely weird, but that is how Jesse looked at it in his book. While his family lived in Alabama, they had meat only on the birthdays of the children. That meant ten times per year... Different times. We cry about how awful it is for the poor today, but nothing like the 1920's and 1930's.
The big deal here is that Jesse's father was illiterate and over forty when they made the move to Cleveland. Henry Owens could not get a steady job. He was too old and... that's the way it goes. Just as before ALL the family worked. Jesse's mother and oldest sister worked as maids. The other kids worked for pennies running errands and whatever would pay. Those pennies added up and they were living much better than in Alabama. It was tough on Henry Owens not being the main breadwinner, but he did what was best for his family.
Jesse Owens took up track in the fifth or sixth grade. The coach of the local high school track team, Charles Riley, taught gym for the elementary school. Coach Riley offered him a chance for the high school track team, if he would get ready. Every morning Jesse would go and do running exercises with Coach Charles Riley. When he was in high school, he moved up into varsity track. Now here is something I consider exception. When Jesse was ready to graduate, he had his pick of colleges. The number of scholarships was staggering. He asked the coach which one of the scholarships he should accept. Coach Riley told him that he should take... none. He advised him to work his way through college, otherwise he would never appreciate his college degree. And that's what he did... He worked three jobs to pay for college. He'd always wanted to go to college and there he was.
Jesse Owens married at sixteen. The two of them did not live as man and wife until much later. Ruth was something special. Jesse had asked her to marry him when they in fourth grade together and she had agreed. It wasn't until they were sixteen before they actually did it.
When Jesse was accepted at Ohio State University, he asked them to give his father a job should one open up. He worked three jobs to make money to attend. A year later a groundskeeper/maintenance man job became available. After fifteen years of working at odd jobs, Henry Owens was able to work at a steady job.
Jesse Owens excelled at Ohio State in track and qualified for the Olympics of 1936. At this late date, that accomplishment cannot be easily understood, because it is so common for Blacks to do that nowadays. The Summer Olympics of 1936 took place in Berlin, Germany. The Olympics were supposed to be a vindication for Adolf Hitler's vision of the Master Race. The Germans were supposed sweep the gold medals and proclaim to the world that they were the best. Jesse Owens got in the way by winning four gold medals and made Hitler look stupid. Hitler was not good with that. He never acknowledged that Jesse had won.
That pretty much sums up Jesse Owens' life as far as most people in this country are concerned. Not so fast. Jesse Owens died in 1980. What he did with his life between 1936 and 1980 impresses me more than the four gold medals.
When Jesse got back from the Olympics, everybody and his dog wanted to party with him in New York City. They wanted be next to him. There was a parade where someone ran up and handed him a bag. Jesse put it aside. Much later in the day, he looked in the bag and it had $5000 which was a huge amount of money back then. He wired $2500 home as a down payment for a house for his parents, then he used the other $2500 as a means to hunt for a job with these fat cats he was partying with. The problem was that the fat cats were lying. They didn't have a job for him, even though he had three years of college in a time when that was something special. Jesse's wife went home trying to tell him that these people were scoundrels. He wouldn't give up. Finally, though... he had to admit that his wife was correct. He paid off the last night of his hotel room and went back to Cleveland.
The next year was pretty awful. Jesse had to take a $28/week play ground attendant job, then an even more awful job racing horses as an advertisement for a Negro League Baseball team. Then these two promoters showed up and offered him a partnership in a cleaners business, called... Jesse Owens Cleaners. From one cleaners, there were two, then 8, then too many to count. The money rolled in. Jesse paid off the mortgage of his parents house, then bought one for himself. He finished the last year of college. During that time from 1937 to 1939, Jesse was a bit upset with his partners, because he was mostly in advertising, not management. His wife finally told him to confront them or stop complaining.
He went down to demand that he be included in the management of the company and discovered that they had run off. His partners had run up massive debts and gotten behind in paying... just about everybody. They had taken out loans in his name and they were just gone. When all the dust cleared, Jesse owed $114000. Get a grip on that number. This was 1939. $114000 was the equivalent to over $1M today. What would you have done? What would most of the track stars of today have done faced with a partner running off with the cash? Most people would have declared themselves victims, declared bankruptcy and gotten on with their lives. Particularly the sports stars of today. I believe most of the stars of today would scream that they were a victim of racism and they were not responsible for the debt and... it would get silly after that. A media circus would ensue.
What did Jesse Owens do? Well, first he took a six hour walk with the worry churning around in his mind. He had no answers. Toward dawn, he went and asked his dad what to do. They talked and there just was no answer. Finally his dad said, "Let's go over and pray about it." They were Baptists. Few Baptists get down on their knees and pray in church. They went over to their church, got down on their knees and prayed. Nothing came to them. After a while, they got up. As they walked out the door, Jesse put a dollar in the poor box. His dad stopped him and said, "Is that your last dollar?" Jesse did that thing you do when your search for cash. You know, feel your pockets, check inside your coat, double-check your wallet. Anyway. He came up empty. His dad said, "That's the answer. That was your last dollar. We'll go to the bank and tell them that you'll make payments the rest of your life."
Jesse goes, "Daddy, there's only one chance in a million they'll go for that."
"Son, you asked me for a solution. You have a better one?"
So they went back to his father's house and figured out that Jesse needed to make a $50 payment per week for life. It was going to be tough, but doable.
Jesse and his father dressed up in their Sunday best, went to the bank and presented the plan. The banker. Mr. Melville, sat back for a minute and thought about it, then said, "You'll have to excuse me. for a little while. I have to call a couple of people before I can give you an answer." After about 45 minutes, he returned and accepted the offer. Jesse signed a gazillion papers and then it was over. It looked like he had signed away his life in order to protect his good name.
Jesse asked the guy why they had gone for the deal. He said, "People think of bankers as cold and inhuman, but the main part of our business is lending money to people. It all comes down to whether they're honest or not, whether they'll pay us back. So it's a very human business, and we wouldn't last very long if we didn't choose the right people. So what matters most is not how long you'll take or how hard it is, but how good a bet you are to pay it back. We think you're a good bet." Then he said hesitantly, "There's one more thing. I'm half Jewish... How could I ever not trust the man who beat Hitler?"
Jesse said, "Thanks... but Hitler is not beaten."
Mr. Melville said, "I know, but he must be beaten. The unfree... have to be beaten."
So that's what he did. He started making payments.
Sunday, December 7, 1941 came and we were at war the next day. Jesse Owens called a friend in the military that Sunday night and said that he wanted to help. Someone else higher up called him and... on Tuesday, he was shaking the hand of Franklin Delano Roosevelt in the in the White House.
They gave him a job of integrating Blacks into workforce at Ford Motor Company. Jesse loved the job, because few blacks had been employed in the auto industry up until the War. Now Blacks had good paying jobs with work worth doing. Plus... Jesse's new job paid well. By Spring, 1945, Jesse had paid off his $114000 debt to the bank. Why? Because his honor demanded it of him.
After the War, Jesse Owens started an advertisement agency. He did promotions for clients. Endorsements... whatever you want to call it. He traveled. He had a good life. He raise two good girls. He spoke to a large number of people and touched their lives by his commitment to excellence.
When he was 53, Jesse discovered that his accountant had not paid his taxes for... four years. He almost went to jail on that one. The judge let him off with just the payment of back taxes and interest. Make no mistake, he could have gone to jail, but he didn't... because the judge knew that Jesse Owens had honor.
Oh, I know... That story means nothing to you. Jesse Owens is just a name that rings a shallow bell. To me he represents what is good in America. He reached the peak of his life at the Berlin Olympics, but when he came back home, he raised his family, he worked hard and he made his community a better place. He didn't ask for handouts nor for a pass on bad behavior. What of the track and field stars of today? Would any of them have the strength of character of a Jesse Owens? I wonder at that. We'll be revisiting Jesse Owens occasionally.
Segment 1
Last week was the first program of this show. No one listened of course, because I did not advertise it. The recording of the program should be out on my web site, but the recording turned out to be subpar. No one went out to my blog read the entries and made comments. That was my mistake, because I did not repeat the web address throughout the program. Ah, well that is a problem I shall have to address at some point.
Right now... this instant, you who are listening can assume that you and I are the only ones around. Yes, just the two of us. You can listen to what I have to say or you can ignore me. I am but a voice from the velvet black calling to you across the gulf of our mutual incomprehension. Very soon, if you turn me off, it will just be me talking to myself. That is not a new experience for me.
Let me assume that you are going to go out to my blog and make comments. I will tell you a story to allow you time to do that.
To be the best, you must run with the best
You must compete with the best
You must commit yourself to BEING the best
AND... you must fail as many times as is necessary to STAY the best
--- Jesse Owens 1936
I read a short book published in 1978 called Jesse by Jesse Owens. It's a spiritual biography. Most people have forgotten who Jesse Owens was. Jesse Owens wasn't just a great African-American. He wasn't just a great Black American. He was a great American. To say that he was great within the Black community is to belittle his accomplishments, yet what he did in his life was more impressive to me than what he is remembered for.
James Cleveland Owens was born in Alabama about 75 miles from Birmingham in 1913. His father was a sharecropper. Some White guy owned the land and Jesse's family farmed it. And I do mean, that the entire family farmed the land. Everyone was up at dawn and out in the fields doing something to make sure the crop came in. From the sale of the crop money was put aside for the winter. There was some profit, but never much. The boss would provide housing, seed and pretty much everything else... for a price. With the sale of the crop, Jesse's father had to settle up with the boss for all these necessities that were extended during the growing season.
One year, Jesse's parents fell behind and the boss wanted to take the mule they owned. They protested that they would never be out of debt, if he took the mule. That was pretty much the last straw. Jesse's mother demanded of her husband that the entire family move North and dump this horrid existence. While the two of them were arguing about it, a neighbor wandered by and told them that the couple living on the next plot of land had committed suicide. The other couple had no kids to help farm and they were... never going to have a good life, so they killed themselves.
The next day Jesse's family gave up the mule to the boss to settle all past debts and moved to Cleveland, Ohio.
Life in the city was MUCH better. The family made enough so that they had meat every week. I know, that sounds absolutely weird, but that is how Jesse looked at it in his book. While his family lived in Alabama, they had meat only on the birthdays of the children. That meant ten times per year... Different times. We cry about how awful it is for the poor today, but nothing like the 1920's and 1930's.
The big deal here is that Jesse's father was illiterate and over forty when they made the move to Cleveland. Henry Owens could not get a steady job. He was too old and... that's the way it goes. Just as before ALL the family worked. Jesse's mother and oldest sister worked as maids. The other kids worked for pennies running errands and whatever would pay. Those pennies added up and they were living much better than in Alabama. It was tough on Henry Owens not being the main breadwinner, but he did what was best for his family.
Jesse Owens took up track in the fifth or sixth grade. The coach of the local high school track team, Charles Riley, taught gym for the elementary school. Coach Riley offered him a chance for the high school track team, if he would get ready. Every morning Jesse would go and do running exercises with Coach Charles Riley. When he was in high school, he moved up into varsity track. Now here is something I consider exception. When Jesse was ready to graduate, he had his pick of colleges. The number of scholarships was staggering. He asked the coach which one of the scholarships he should accept. Coach Riley told him that he should take... none. He advised him to work his way through college, otherwise he would never appreciate his college degree. And that's what he did... He worked three jobs to pay for college. He'd always wanted to go to college and there he was.
Jesse Owens married at sixteen. The two of them did not live as man and wife until much later. Ruth was something special. Jesse had asked her to marry him when they in fourth grade together and she had agreed. It wasn't until they were sixteen before they actually did it.
When Jesse was accepted at Ohio State University, he asked them to give his father a job should one open up. He worked three jobs to make money to attend. A year later a groundskeeper/maintenance man job became available. After fifteen years of working at odd jobs, Henry Owens was able to work at a steady job.
Jesse Owens excelled at Ohio State in track and qualified for the Olympics of 1936. At this late date, that accomplishment cannot be easily understood, because it is so common for Blacks to do that nowadays. The Summer Olympics of 1936 took place in Berlin, Germany. The Olympics were supposed to be a vindication for Adolf Hitler's vision of the Master Race. The Germans were supposed sweep the gold medals and proclaim to the world that they were the best. Jesse Owens got in the way by winning four gold medals and made Hitler look stupid. Hitler was not good with that. He never acknowledged that Jesse had won.
That pretty much sums up Jesse Owens' life as far as most people in this country are concerned. Not so fast. Jesse Owens died in 1980. What he did with his life between 1936 and 1980 impresses me more than the four gold medals.
When Jesse got back from the Olympics, everybody and his dog wanted to party with him in New York City. They wanted be next to him. There was a parade where someone ran up and handed him a bag. Jesse put it aside. Much later in the day, he looked in the bag and it had $5000 which was a huge amount of money back then. He wired $2500 home as a down payment for a house for his parents, then he used the other $2500 as a means to hunt for a job with these fat cats he was partying with. The problem was that the fat cats were lying. They didn't have a job for him, even though he had three years of college in a time when that was something special. Jesse's wife went home trying to tell him that these people were scoundrels. He wouldn't give up. Finally, though... he had to admit that his wife was correct. He paid off the last night of his hotel room and went back to Cleveland.
The next year was pretty awful. Jesse had to take a $28/week play ground attendant job, then an even more awful job racing horses as an advertisement for a Negro League Baseball team. Then these two promoters showed up and offered him a partnership in a cleaners business, called... Jesse Owens Cleaners. From one cleaners, there were two, then 8, then too many to count. The money rolled in. Jesse paid off the mortgage of his parents house, then bought one for himself. He finished the last year of college. During that time from 1937 to 1939, Jesse was a bit upset with his partners, because he was mostly in advertising, not management. His wife finally told him to confront them or stop complaining.
He went down to demand that he be included in the management of the company and discovered that they had run off. His partners had run up massive debts and gotten behind in paying... just about everybody. They had taken out loans in his name and they were just gone. When all the dust cleared, Jesse owed $114000. Get a grip on that number. This was 1939. $114000 was the equivalent to over $1M today. What would you have done? What would most of the track stars of today have done faced with a partner running off with the cash? Most people would have declared themselves victims, declared bankruptcy and gotten on with their lives. Particularly the sports stars of today. I believe most of the stars of today would scream that they were a victim of racism and they were not responsible for the debt and... it would get silly after that. A media circus would ensue.
What did Jesse Owens do? Well, first he took a six hour walk with the worry churning around in his mind. He had no answers. Toward dawn, he went and asked his dad what to do. They talked and there just was no answer. Finally his dad said, "Let's go over and pray about it." They were Baptists. Few Baptists get down on their knees and pray in church. They went over to their church, got down on their knees and prayed. Nothing came to them. After a while, they got up. As they walked out the door, Jesse put a dollar in the poor box. His dad stopped him and said, "Is that your last dollar?" Jesse did that thing you do when your search for cash. You know, feel your pockets, check inside your coat, double-check your wallet. Anyway. He came up empty. His dad said, "That's the answer. That was your last dollar. We'll go to the bank and tell them that you'll make payments the rest of your life."
Jesse goes, "Daddy, there's only one chance in a million they'll go for that."
"Son, you asked me for a solution. You have a better one?"
So they went back to his father's house and figured out that Jesse needed to make a $50 payment per week for life. It was going to be tough, but doable.
Jesse and his father dressed up in their Sunday best, went to the bank and presented the plan. The banker. Mr. Melville, sat back for a minute and thought about it, then said, "You'll have to excuse me. for a little while. I have to call a couple of people before I can give you an answer." After about 45 minutes, he returned and accepted the offer. Jesse signed a gazillion papers and then it was over. It looked like he had signed away his life in order to protect his good name.
Jesse asked the guy why they had gone for the deal. He said, "People think of bankers as cold and inhuman, but the main part of our business is lending money to people. It all comes down to whether they're honest or not, whether they'll pay us back. So it's a very human business, and we wouldn't last very long if we didn't choose the right people. So what matters most is not how long you'll take or how hard it is, but how good a bet you are to pay it back. We think you're a good bet." Then he said hesitantly, "There's one more thing. I'm half Jewish... How could I ever not trust the man who beat Hitler?"
Jesse said, "Thanks... but Hitler is not beaten."
Mr. Melville said, "I know, but he must be beaten. The unfree... have to be beaten."
So that's what he did. He started making payments.
Sunday, December 7, 1941 came and we were at war the next day. Jesse Owens called a friend in the military that Sunday night and said that he wanted to help. Someone else higher up called him and... on Tuesday, he was shaking the hand of Franklin Delano Roosevelt in the in the White House.
They gave him a job of integrating Blacks into workforce at Ford Motor Company. Jesse loved the job, because few blacks had been employed in the auto industry up until the War. Now Blacks had good paying jobs with work worth doing. Plus... Jesse's new job paid well. By Spring, 1945, Jesse had paid off his $114000 debt to the bank. Why? Because his honor demanded it of him.
After the War, Jesse Owens started an advertisement agency. He did promotions for clients. Endorsements... whatever you want to call it. He traveled. He had a good life. He raise two good girls. He spoke to a large number of people and touched their lives by his commitment to excellence.
When he was 53, Jesse discovered that his accountant had not paid his taxes for... four years. He almost went to jail on that one. The judge let him off with just the payment of back taxes and interest. Make no mistake, he could have gone to jail, but he didn't... because the judge knew that Jesse Owens had honor.
Oh, I know... That story means nothing to you. Jesse Owens is just a name that rings a shallow bell. To me he represents what is good in America. He reached the peak of his life at the Berlin Olympics, but when he came back home, he raised his family, he worked hard and he made his community a better place. He didn't ask for handouts nor for a pass on bad behavior. What of the track and field stars of today? Would any of them have the strength of character of a Jesse Owens? I wonder at that. We'll be revisiting Jesse Owens occasionally.
posted by aRandomTexan at
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