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(This article was previously published in the Upson Home Journal )

 

In 1989, an interesting topic was discussed at a graduation ceremony that I attended at Georgia Southwestern College in Americus, when my wife was getting her 6 year certificate in Early Childhood Education. The speaker’s topic was "Born to Raze Hell". It was amusing because the speaker was a former Methodist minister, and it is rare to hear this type of topic geared to any audience. However; as the meat of the speech came forth, it was apparent that it had a different twist than one would assume.

Love, beauty, and hope was the theme used to tear hell down. As we know, hell is something that causes agony, pain, and disturbance. The speaker reminded us that Richard Speck committed one of the worst crimes of the century. As you recall, he died in prison. He had been given life after murdering eight Chicago student nurses in the early 70s. When he was found after committing the crimes in a shot house semi-comatose from a drug overdose, one the first things nurses noticed when rolling up his sleeve was a tattoo that said: "Born to Raise Hell." It was evident that he felt that was his mission in life.

Where does this attitude start? We still have many people who feel this way. A person does not get to this point overnight. No, they are not born like this. Usually these people and the Rob Damner’s of this world have grown up with severe deficits in the areas of love, beauty, and hope. To know how to love, we must all be able to experience it. There are many people who have not had this opportunity. Many have been reinforced in seeing the bad or ugly and not the beauty of things.

So tearing hell down was the topic for this graduation speech. Razing hell is something that we should all want to be about. On my way to work not long ago, I was momentarily distracted from some serious road hypnosis by watching a school bus stop and pick up three kids. As my thoughts were focused on these precious children and what their lives would possibly evolve into, I caught the mother from the corner of my eye, lovingly watching them board the bus for another day of school. This mother exemplified love, beauty and hope for the future of her children. These ingredients are so necessary in razing hell.

This made me think of a relationship with my daughter, Karen. She was 17 and a junior at Mt. DeSales High School in Macon when this article was written.. She was an honor student with straight A’s all the way through school. She is pretty, musical, has a great personality, and I realize how lucky I am to have her. I am sure that she has many times felt shortchanged by her dad but you know it is my dream that she was born to Raze Hell. Love, beauty, peace, and happiness are some of the attributes that hopefully she has learned from her role models. Excuse me for bragging on her, but I am extremely proud of her and wanted to take this opportunity to say it this way.