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Dr.Richard Bashore and the volunteer spirit
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I was a bit at a loss what to write about today. There are a few national things I could revert to. Local things are a bit quiet. Then I opened my e-mail. As a writer for community newspapers, I get my assignments by e-mail mostly.
One today asked me to do a remembrance piece on a local chiropractor. He was identified as the occupant of a capsized boat found on a local lake. Remembrance pieces are like obituaries except you put in a lot of personal stories etc.
This one is one I could add personal thoughts but you try not to do that in print media. So, I'll express some personal views here. Read the Parkland and Northwestern Press (as I hope you do every week--mail subscriptions are available) for the full remembrance.
I first met Dr. Rick Bashore by telephone.
I was in my early days of reporting and I got a call from my editor asking me to contact this doctor using the super secret secure lines and to talk to him about an event taking place at the church that Friday. I had to be very hush-hush because of worries about protestors.
I wondered what it was. Could it be abortion-related? That brings out protestors. Maybe he had cloned a cow. After all, this is rural county around here.
No, he was sponsoring a dinner for The Wounded Warriors, a group of young kids who lost arms and legs and hearing and eye sight and other things in the Gulf War. It was not to be a celebration of war. It was to be a celebration of life, youth and that spirit that continues even if you have lost a limb or eyesight or any other physical part of your being.
Sure, people protest at such things, but why? Well, there were no protestors and the large fire trucks displaying American flags combined with the police escort meant it would not be hush-hush. The second event would see Warriors come in by military chopper. So much for low-key.
I met Rick Bashore in person that night in 2007 when he had the first Wounded Warrior dinner. He looked every part the Marine, down to the shiny head and the build. He carried himself like a Marine. He organized the event with military precision.
Everything was planned. Arrival. Appetizer reception. Dinner. Departure to Celtic Fest. The next day would see a paintball skirmish and whitewater rafting. Before you ask, the paintball was discussed and cleared with the military and the doctors and everyone but the Pope before it was scheduled.
Yes, that military training paid off. Except, Rick Bashore was never in the military. I don’t know if he favored the war or not. He wasn’t a right-winger reliving his days in ‘Nam through these poor young kids. He was simply a country doctor who thought that he should do something to give back to those who had given so much to our country.
It was the amazing part of the story. He conceived of and organized these dinners out of a sense of duty and a desire to help. He coerced (maybe too strong but not likely) others into doing the same, mobilizing his church (and they do love to throw a party) and his pastor and local merchants to make the event astounding. I was so taken that I took over 1300 photos in 2 years at these events and must have distributed a dozen discs to different groups that wanted them.
We often try to do things to be civic-minded or charitable and you wonder about the results. If we make our difference in this world by making a difference in the lives of others, then Dr. Richard Bashore made his difference with these two Wounded Warrior events but I doubt it was limited to them.
At the second event, Celtic Fest was not running so the after-party was at the Fogelsville Fire Company. Rick had mobilized them to help out and they did. It was amazing the response of volunteer fire companies and police at these events.
That after party included music and drinking, even a little beer pong, and a score of young wounded vets bonding with a score of older Pennsylvania Germans in the fire hall. It was good for the vets. It was good for the people. It reminded us all that whatever you thought of the war; there was this human aspect that you could not ignore.
I have covered other Wounded Warrior-type events. A local Avon rep decided to take care packages and offer facials to patients in the D.C. area military hospitals. She and her group drove through an ice storm to get there. She remembered the female wounded vets as well, an often overlooked group.
They are all part of this volunteer spirit that is still alive, that desire to give back. It is the spirit that drives volunteer fire companies. Why does anyone volunteer to give up time and even pay to run off and fight fires?
It is the spirit that builds rural parks and recreation areas that depend upon volunteers and dozens of Eagle Scout projects. It is the spirit that runs benefit pancake breakfasts for a young family with a cancer-stricken child.
That spirit is alive and well. A local County Executive candidate has called for an end of state-mandated welfare programs and a reliance on personal and private initiative. I am not sure we have enough of the volunteer spirit to do it but I like the concept.
It is the reason those of us working in community news work in community news. It isn’t the pay. It isn’t the fame of being “the newspaper guy.” It is the ability to make a difference and to give back.
We have lost that in this country. We ask what our country can do for s rather than asking what we can do for our country. Didn’t we listen to JFK? It is about time.
It is time that we stop looking at someone in need and ask “Why doesn’t the government help them out” and time we start asking “What can I do?” or “What can my church or civic group do?”
We have lost that in this country. We think Amish barn raisings are quaint reminders of a bygone day. They are not. Need a barn? Simple, the whole community comes together and builds one. No low-income house credits, no FHA bailout, nothing. Next week, you help someone else build their barn.
For most of us, civic duty and social action is something the government does or we see the Lions or Kiwanis or Rotary do. Churches do it. Organized groups do it.
But, social responsibility starts with us. Those others are just safety nets when enough of us aren’t around to help.
So, today, help an old lady across the street, assist someone in need, do something to pay back the efforts of others. Do it as a remembrance of all those Dr. Bashores out there who saw someone they thought they could help or pay back for service and actually went out and did it.
It is what makes us a civilized society. It s what puts the compassion in conservatives and the responsibility into liberals. Don’t look to Washington or Harrisburg but ask “what can I do to make a life better today?”
It won’t add to the deficit but it will add to your surplus of good Karma.
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