Saving the earthlings!

Many years ago, I recall a comic book story of a town weakling. Today, maybe he would be called a “wuss”, (Google, a weak or ineffectual person).  For now, we will just call this person Jimmy. I think Jimmy was a pretty common name for the people in the news. Jimmy Piersall, Jimmy Clanton, Jimmy Olsen, Jimmy Rogers, Jimmy Carter, Jimmy Dean and maybe a GMC Jimmy. Anyway, my comic book Jimmy wasn’t destined to be so great as the above mentioned. He was the typical, get sand kicked in his face, kind of kid.  Just a thought, where in the world did all that sand come from?? We had cement and grass! 

Well here we are, back on Jimmy’s street and the kids are saying bad things about him. Bullies are picking on him; the girls don’t exactly see him on a white horse and he is just having a bad week.

Unbeknown to Jim, he is being watched by a couple space people who just dropped in to see what it was going to take to conquer the earth. The two Martian’s are peeking from behind a tree ,,,,,,,,,,, I expect they left their space ship out of town as parking in front of the City hall would make it just a little conspicuous.

Oh, by the way, I am not sure if there were any other planets represented with bad guys back than and I don’t mean to discriminate, but I’m going with Martian’s, as it worked for H.G. Wells in 1898.

So, they, the Martians are watching Jimmy and see him as a not only weak but the perfect person to carry their sinister demands of Earth’s total surrender, to the Whitehouse. They approach him and make their demands. Over the next few days he thinks about it and realizes any attempt to go to the Whitehouse with a story like this,,,,, Well you can guess.

After doing a lot of sweating and pondering for a few days, Jimmy ,,,,,,,,  Might have had something to do with Wheaties,,,,,,,,,, gets some courage. On his next rendezvous with the space people he tells them he has done their will and gives them a time and place, a specific night and his own town, to return with all their spaceships and paraphernalia.

The Fourth of July rolls around and here is Weakling Jimmy, lighting and shooting off fireworks along with every other living and breathing person in town.  The town bully and of course pretty girls see him and say, “oh my, Jimmy is a lot braver then we thought, lighting off all those scary, dangerous fireworks”. What the bully, the girl, the rest of the town and the rest of the world don’t know, this is the night, Old Jim told the space varmints to return and when they, the Martians, see all the fireworks from space, they figure the Earth is armed and ready, maybe a bit premature, but they turn tail and head back to,,,, Home.

This little comic book story was written back in a time when life was a bit simpler, driving was a bit simpler, cooking was simpler, and I suppose we would be considered much simpler.

Today is the fourth of July and not only why the memory of this little story comes to mind but the reflection of so many unsung heroes.

I work, am a co-coordinator, by-stander, observer and most of the time, not sure what I am, of a homeless shelter. I have had the privilege of seeing so many unsung heroes by just being there.

I am writing this because so much more is needed but not only needed but those who do so much need to be recognized.  We don’t have parties, parades, wall hangings or anything like that right now for our volunteers as we need all the resources just to keep up and we are not doing that all that well.

The way the shelter went last winter, someone or a couple would bring in a meal shortly after we opened around 6pm. The meals were incredible, usually homemade, quality and quantity, thoughtful and most considerate. So many people came from a long way off and not always in the best of weather to do what they could to provide nourishment to Lenawee Counties homeless.

Two people would volunteer to stay for the first shift, sometimes talking with, playing cards, helping serve, answering questions or most important, just listening. Two people would relieve the earlier couple and stay until morning, being there for wake up and having the terrible job of reminding the homeless, that they could only stay until 8am, and because of circumstances, they had to leave, often going out into snow or freezing rain.

Some of our volunteers are retired but not all and that does not necessarily make the job any easier. Working or retired, it seems today we all have more to do than we can accomplish and are forced to give somethings up.

We recognize our volunteers give up a lot and hope in the near future we can at least have a place a little more conducive to their comfort, as well as the needs and comfort of our homeless people.

There are those who give monetarily, sometimes giving more than what one would expect. I can only assume that they not only recognize the need but understand that Christmas Feeling of giving something right.

All of this to more or less ask you to not only keep us on your mind, but to say thank you Lenawee County for all the unsung heroes you provide.

This was written several years back. Why is it so hard for us to see and understand what is really needed? It seems we design our hero’s, based only on what we think we see or what we want to see. Than the easiest thing for us to do is say, “we can go, they have it all under control”.