Before My Face

"For David speaketh concerning him. I foresaw the Lord always before my face... Acts 2:25.

More times than not, I have failed to see the face of God through other people, events and
circumstances as I travelled the busy road of life. Yet, there are times I have caught a
glimpse of the face of God before me. But when I looked back in search of these times,
I found three I had taken time to write about, all in 1994.

Sunday, March 7, 1994, on hearing the University of Arkansas-Pine Bluff Choir in
Cincinnati, I wrote in my diary, "I saw God today in the melodious voices of the
vesper choir. O, how my heart burst forth with joy."

Good Friday, April 1, 1994, on attending Good Friday Services at Sacred Heart Church,
I wrote, "I saw God today in the veneration of the cross and the symbolic act of the
priest kissing the Blessed Christ Jesus who died for my sins."

Easter Sunday, 1994, I penned these words: "Today, I saw God-
In the unexpected snow flurries as I journeyed to Easter Sunday Service.
In the power of the choir and trumpets proclaiming Christ's resurrection.
In the innocent faces of the children who participated eagerly in the children's sermon.
In the eighteen easter lillies that decorated the sanctuary.
In the pulsating energy in the hand of Ruth Pressley as we held hands during the
Prayer for the Community.  In the beauty of the lyrics,
God give me a clean heart that I may follow thee.

Sometimes, we do not see the face of God because of lack of spiritual consciousness
or insight, inattentiveness to spiritual matters, preoccupation and distraction with
matters of the ego. I have been guilty of all of these.

In 1998, I went on a mission trip to Mexico with Borderlinks through the Synod of
the Covenant, Presbyterian Church, USA. A memory that remains with me is spending
the night on a cold concrete floor in a colonia with a family of seven who gladly shared their
little earthly possessions.  I was blessed. Love was all around me. The presence of God was before
my face.

Reflections on Receiving the Ohio NASW Region VII, Lifetime Achievement Award, March 26, 1997

Friends and Colleagues, Good Evening

I'd like to thank the Awards Committee for selecting me for this honor, the Lifetime
Achievement Award.

I'd like to thank all of you who came out tonight (Magnolia Room, Miami Valley Hospital)
to share in this event.

I'd like to pause, remember and give thanks to those who were mentors along my
professional journey who enabled my professional growth and career.

Special remembrances to the professors at AU (Atlanta University) and the then Dean
of Social Work, Whitney M. Young, who exhorted the students to stand on the side of
the poor and the oppressed. And who gave me early lessons in advocacy that I
successfully advocated against the professors' wisdom and decision to place me at
Duke University Hospital for my Block Field Placement, but at Cook County Hospital
in Chicago. It was called Advocating for the Right to Self-Determination.

Remember, when I entered graduate school in 1957, there was no Title 18 or Title 19
to the Social Security Act, which we know as Medicare and Medicaid. The South was
still a racial caste system.

But, long before I arrived on the scene of that hallowed seat of learning (AU), whose
motto was "I'll find a way or make one," I had learned by example, from a special
person the importance of standing up for your beliefs, and the consequences. That
person was my father, Willis J. Turner, who had a fourth grade education. And, who
lost his job with the with the Department of the Army at the Pine Bluff ( Arkansas)
Arsenal, during WWII, when he refused to be reassigned to the production of
yellow gas. And, was threatened with military conscription. March 31st will be the
eighth anniversary of his death. So special remembrances, Dad.

Special remembrances to the Director, Josephine Taylor, and her Assistant Director
of Social Work at Cook County Hospital who taught by example-who advocated
for compassionate care of homeless men, described as "skidrowites," long before
we had homeless programs.

Special remembrances to Dr. Marie Oswald, the Chief of Social Work at the Dayton
V.A. Medical Center, who gave me my first professional job, and was a mentor, and
rightfully referred to as the Dean of Social Work in Dayton.

Thanks to all those along the way who gave me organizational jobs, yes tasks within
NASW,  even, though I said many times, "Why me?" But, the tasks taught me the
importance of giving service to the professional organization.

Thanks to all of you who provided needed support and helped me along the way in
this wonderful profession of Social Work, which I would choose all over again.

I would like to address briefly a few challenges for the profession:

Credentializing vs Professionalizing
For new social workers in the profession, we need to be mindful of the importance
of professionalizing in the values of the profession, as well as credentializing. Social
Work is not a job! It is a commitment to compassionate service.

Hate Crimes
Hate crimes are increasing in our country. Thus, our national NASW theme, for this
year, focuses on Racial and Ethnic Harmony. Acts of youth violence and violence
towards women are major problems. Our challenge, as a profession, is to work
creatively to change violent acts into peaceful interaction and relationships.

Welfare Reform
For the first time since the New Deal, the Roosevelt Administration of the 1930s,
our country does not have an income policy which supports the economic well
being of poor children and families. Aid to Families with Dependent Children
(AFDC) has been abolished with the passage of the Personal Responsibility and
Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996.

Child poverty is a major problem.
Children are the poorest age group in the country.

Feminization of poverty is real.
A child's chance of being born into poverty is related to the make-up/demographics
of the family. If you are an African-American child in a family headed by a
female, there is a higher risk of being in poverty. If you are an African-American
female, you are four times more likely to have a low wage job. Poor women, poor
women of color, will be pushed off the Welfare rolls into low paying jobs. Rarely,
do these low paying jobs provide health care benefits. Already, there are forty million
Americans without health care benefits. And, these women will be facing little or
no assurance of child care benefits and a hostile economic environment where down-
sizing and plant closings is the order of the day.

Our challenge, as Social Workers, is to rekindle the debate about access and opportunity
to a liveable wage job, health and child care for those who will fall through the non-
existent safety net. Lasly, no matter what the temptations, seductions, we are not to
abandon the vulnerable and the poor in our society.

Willis J. Turner U S Army Arsenal Badge Number 59512

In 1942, my father walked off his maternal grandmother's farm,

near Grady, Arkansas where he was a tenant farmer subsequent

to a "dispute" with her following the spring planting. He

temporarily left behind my mother and I, saying he was "going

to town to find work" and would "be back" for us.

He journeyed to Pine Bluff in the adjacent county, the county

seat of Jefferson County, a distance of about  twenty-

four miles, paritally by foot and hitch- hiking. There, he took

up residence with his Uncle Jonas on Mulberry Street, his

maternal grandmother's oldest son, and soon found employment

at the Pine Bluff US Army Arsenal as a laborer "laying rail-

road tires."

My mother and I soon joined him and my mother later became

employed at the Arsenal, commonly referred to as "The

Bombing Plant," during the war years as women were needed

in the work force on the bomb assembly production lines due

to the shortage of men during World War II.

One day in 1942, my father, a big strapping man, over
six feet, was approached by his foreman with the

command to follow him. The foreman took him him to

an area he immediately identified as the "Yellow Gas" Area.

He told my father to go in there to work. My father's reply

was, " No Sir, I ain't going in there to work." My father was then

taken to the foreman's office and commanded to sit

outside and think about it. About two hours later, the foreman

approached him again but my father would not change his

mind. Consequently, my father was ordered off the base

an escorted by the "MP," Military Police. In their haste, they

neglected to retrieve his picture identification badge.

Footnotes:  US Army Badge Number 59512 was donated to

the  National Afro-American Museum and Cultural Center

at Wilberforce, Ohio.

"Yellow gas," was a common term for a chemical warfare agent,

dichlorodiethyl sulfide, which was produced at the Pine Bluff

Arsenal. The Pine Bluff Arsenal was a toxicological center of

the United States Army.

The dispute between my father and his grandmother was over

her lack of recommendation to Mr. Gocio, local merchant,

to supply him credit.

him credit. 

Mom's Wisdom

On October 19, 1996, I interviewed my mother. Here is the
wisdom she conveyed.

"I turned eighty years old on August 26th. I was born in 1916 in Grady, Arkansas.
I was the oldest of seven children. My mother, father and grandmother were
long livers. They lived to be in their 80's and 90's.

When I'm asked, What do I owe my long life to?  I say keeping busy. I always
stay busy. I was taught idleness is the devil's workshop. But more than the
trouble idleness can get you into, it robs you of your mind and enjoying life.
Even when I'm not feeling good, I go outside and work in my flowers and
vegetable garden each day. It makes me feel better. It brightens my spirit.
I love to dig in the dirt, under the open sky, and admire my pretty flowers
and see things grow. Keep busy.

If you're worried about yesterday and tomorrow, stop. Live today. Eat right.
Eat plenty of vegetables. I put on a pot of green vegetables everyday and
call someone to share them with. I was raised on a farm. We grew our own
vegetables and ate them everyday. And, I still do.

To the young folks, I'd say be obedient to your parents and stay off drugs.
I also say help anyone you can. You will be blessed and so will they."

A Mother's Day Tribute to my Mother

I thank you mom for all the times you made me get up to watch the sun rise.
  I learned about the magnificent glory of God and the order of the universe.                                                                                                                                                                                                        

I thank you mom for all the times you made me help in the vegetable garden
and canning for the winter.
I learned about nature and the future which depended on the harvest.

I thank you mom for all the times you made me sit in church on Sunday.
I learned about God and self-discipline, even if the sermons were
boring, as they sometimes were.

I thank you mom for all the times you stood your ground and dared
to say no when my pleas and whines were not in my best interest.

I thank you mom for all the times you made me work by your side.

I learned to give a full day’s work, even if the wages were unfair.
I learned responsibility and the work ethic.

I thank you mom for making me the person I became.
You were always my guardian angel.

I thank you most for your unconditional love.
I was blessed to be touched by you.

Love is Good Medicine

                                                   

                                                    By G. T. Turner Finney

In 1991 Fred Singer’s book, Change Your Mind, Save Your Life, arrived in the mail. The book focused on the mind, body health-connection. What fascinated me about the book were the 28 Life Cards which captured the essence of psychological research into health and longevity and the Ode to the Centenarian.

       Life Card #12 is attached to my refrigerator door. It states simply:

Love your parents, Love your spouse, Love your children, Love your work,
Love your friends, Love your community, Love God.

In a romantic sense, we are inundated by the idea of love in songs, soap

operas, movies, and romantic novels. Love is highly valued. Everybody wants
love. Couples search for it through marriage. It’s like a quest for the Holy Grail. Yet, half of all U.S. marriages end in divorce. Does this mean the divorcing couples fell out of love? Did they look for love in the wrong places?

 To love is a tall order. Christians are instructed: to love God with all our heart, soul, and mind, (Matthew 22:37) to love our neighbors as ourselves (Mark 12:31), and to love our enemies. (Luke 6:35) Do we really know how to do this? Do we have the capacity? Where do we learn? What is love?

The American Heritage Dictionary defines love as an intense affection for another

person based on familial or personal ties. When I engaged a friend and professional colleague, Nick, in a dialogue about love, he shared with me his understanding of love
from a spiritual sense as “the giving away of ourselves to others without expecting anything in return. We have to see and feel love from within, he said. “Love is the feeling of the presence of God within who is the embodiment of love. Love comes from a spiritual relationship with God who first loved us. As a result we are able to love people as they are.” Obviously, my friend is speaking about God inspired unconditional love.

 To gain a broader perspective, it is necessary to consider other views and

dimensions of love. The renowned psychoanalyst, Erich Fromm, in
 The Art of Loving, provides insight into five objects of love: maternal love,
brotherly love, erotic love, self-love, and love of God. Fromm describes

motherly/fatherly love as unconditional love. “A mother loves her children just because they are her children, not because they are good, obedient, or fulfill her wishes.”  Brotherly love is non-exclusive love, the kind the Bible speaks of when it says “love thou neighbor as thyself.”  Erotic love is a “craving for complete fusion with one other person.” It is exclusive and deceptive because sexual attraction can be mistaken for love. To love someone is not just a strong feeling.

It is a decision, it’s a judgment. It’s a promise. Self-love is “respect for

one’s integrity and uniqueness, it is not narcissism or selfishness.”

 What is significant about Fromm’s work is the intertwining of faith

with love and the profound statement “he who is of little faith is of little love.”

and recognition of lifelong effects of motherly love on the personality.

Fromm states that one can distinguish among children and adults

who only “got milk and those who got “milk and honey.”  Milk symbolizes care and affirmation. Honey symbolizes an attitude of happiness, sweetness and love of life.

 The Bible gives us many facets and images of love:

love edifies, love endures forever, love casts out fear, love covers

a multitude of sins, love is patient and kind, love is the fulfillment

of the law, love is as strong as death. God is love.

Love is the greatest gift elegantly and poetically stated

 in I Corinthians 13:13 “And now abideth faith,

hope, love, these three but the greatest of these is love. Jesus

commanded his disciples to love one another as He loved them.

So, if we love one another God lives in us and his love is

perfected in us. (1 John 4:12)

Yes, love does have therapeutic properties and indeed is good medicine.

Children who grow up in loving, nurturing, and stable homes “usually

grow up to to be happy, healthy and long-lived adults.”

Researcher David McClelland of Harvard University has found

evidence that people who love and care about others have a stronger

immune system, and recover faster from illnesses. Other researchers

tell us that parental love is “preventive medicine and that when

administered in infancy acts as a vaccine to boost our self-esteem,

protect us against diseases, strengthen our egos against disappointments,

failure, rejection, and immunize our psyches against a world that

will assault us.”

 It is no accident that the Divine Creator placed us in families with

parental and kinship ties. Now suppose what would happen if every

child was loved and taught to love by example? Fromm invites us to

visualize the many possibilities of exposing our youth to people who

are loving, have integrity, courage, and concentration. 

  

During my days as a mental health therapist, I remember a psychiatrist

paraphrasing Sigmund Freud, “Everyone needs something to love, something

to do and something to hope for.”  The facts are love, work (a sense of purpose),

and hope sustain life. I would add faith described by Emil Brunner as the

origin of hope and embrace the idea that “work is love made visible.”

  To love is the highest spiritual experience one can obtain through faith. It depends

on our capacity to give up our narcissism, ethnic and racial prejudices, the

things that separate us from each other and God. It requires us to be open

to others, to grow, and to change.

We shouldn't get rid of Black History Month

The February 8, 2012 Dayton Daily News posed the question, "Do we still need Black History Month?" to its readers.

Here is my response, published in the February 16, 2012 Letters to the Editor, titled We shouldn't get rid of Black History Month.

Re the question, "Do we still need Black History Month?": The
need for Black History month remains the same as when Dr.
Carter G. Woodson founded Black History Week in 1926. There
is still public education funding disparity where black kids
live, racial wealth disparity, and under-representation of
African-Americans in history books.

Black History Month promotes and enhances, in a significant
and concentrated way, African-Americans' historical and
cultural awareness.

To end Black History Month would be a misguided act.
No racial or ethnic minority can leave the teaching and
dissemination of its history solely to others.

Even with Black History Month, countless African-
Americans had never heard of the contributions and
achievements of the Tuskegee Airmen until the
recently released movie "Red Tails." I suspect the
same lack of knowledge existed for Caucasians,
Hispanics and Asians in this country.

Yes, people are more aware today of the historical
contributions of African-Americans and that is
because of Black History Month. Schools in African-
American communities could do a better job of
teaching black history if they had more funding.

If Black History Month went away, it would be like
the darkness overcoming the light. Black History
Month is a wonderful way to celebrate African-American
history and the richness of diversity in America.