On the River Jordan

On the River Jordan

He appeared to them

Cloaked in camel’s hair.

A good news message, he brought a gem,

To turnaround and escape despair.

They came from the City of Peace

And its greater region from afar,

A flood of people never cease

Drenching in the river looking up at the star.

Overwhelmed by his power

To forgive all their sin,

Quickly denied he being that flower,

But revealed the true Forgiver was kin.

“I prepare you for change through water,

I make way for Him who will come.

For you He will go to the slaughter,

The Son of the Father He is from.”

“He Who is to come is mightier than I.

But to the world He will become a scandal,

I unworthy to stoop down and untie,

The straps of His sandals.”

“I baptized Him in the Jordan,

An act in cosmic reverse.

Adornments of glory fell like a cordon,

The great heavenly blessing, not a curse.”

Woody Norman publications

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Waiting

Waiting

“It is difficult to accept that politics, like history itself,

Is a never-ending process in which nothing is ever definitely over.”

Václav Havel

Paris, October 27, 1992

                                                                                                                  

At one end of the great wide spectrum

Some waited for Godot,

As their saving welcome

To freedom from bondage, at minimum a furlough.

This kind of continual waiting

In bondage one learns to cope.

But the idea of Godot is baiting

A falsehood killing hope.

The opposite end of the spectrum

Lives a waiting of another kind.

It is a longing and vocation that beckons

The practice of patience in the heart and mind.

Certain types of waiting have no meaning,

Those of hopelessness and personal inaction

Plant nothing but false leaning,

Wishing for some reversing traction.

The breadth of life requires understanding,

World, Being, and History move on their own.

Impatience makes no mark on their processes,

Patient waiting slowly tarries, sometimes with a groan.

Rational plans move forward

Envision Utopia, a well-documented plan.

Enlightenment thought notwithstanding,

Incapable of controlling and to fully understand.

The art of patient waiting is something to be learned,

Like sowing a seed and watering the land.

There is nothing that impatience could turn

Life’s processes rapidly around and as grand.

1958 School Desegregation in Norfolk City Schools

In an earlier post today I wrote about the passing of Andrew Heidelberg, I wish now to place more detail about the context of that period of history.

Over the years many of my fellow 1962 graduates of Norview High School have kept in touch. Thanks to emails, the Internet and such, communication among us has been fairly easy. Due to this technology those fellow graduates who remained in the Tidewater area throughout their adult lives planned our 50th class reunion. That reunion was well-attended.

Andrew was unable to attend. He was missed and so were many others. In all there were 17 African Americans who entered previously all-white schools in 1958: the three high schools (Granby, Norview, and Maury) and several junior high schools.

From one perspective, the 17 were social test cases. From another point of view, the white students, teachers, and parents were test cases. It was painful for everyone, but for the 17 it was also dangerous. Few knew what might happen, and bad things did happen. Some of the seventeen dropped out and returned to their original schools. Andrew Heidelberg was one of those who stayed.

Though Andrew may have trembled in silent fear, his outward appearance was strong: not defiant, but strong and confident. Quickly he became friends with many. Likewise, many did not hold him in any high regard. These were some of the signs of that era. Many of us 14-year-olds at that time wanted to make good of an unwanted and potentially violent situation.

In 1959 when the closed schools were re-opened by a federal court order, the Norview campus was crowded not only with students but with the press. I, among others, was interviewed by some reporter.Pictures of that day can be viewed on Google Images.

Andrew wrote about his high school experience in a book (see link below). He pursued a successful career as a banker and late in life he began a masters degree program at Old Dominion University. In his book he told of his walk to school and his thoughts while approach the campus in February, He also wrote of his football friends especially on a football game trip to play EC Glass in Lynchburg. His football buddies ate with him in the kitchen of a restaurant because Andrew was not allowed to eat in the public dining area.

History was made that February and Andrew went on to be the engaging personality eliciting the best hopes from his white fellow students. Finally in his senior year he was allowed to play football and became a hero. He was fast. After graduation he played for Norfolk State.

I joined the United States Marine Corps just days after high school graduation. In my final year in the USMC I was stationed at Quantico, Virginia. I was a military musician in the band at Quantico. One day in 1966 there was a college sporting event on base. After playing the national anthem the band marched off the field returning to our barracks. On the march - I was on the left column when I spotted Andrew walking to the athletic field with his NSC teammates. I yelled out his name. He looked into the ranks of the band but could not find his caller.

In 2012 when talking to Andrew on the telephone I asked him if he remembered. A couple of years earlier I had emailed him about the same. He did. I wrote about that moment in my first book (see below).

Andrew Heidelberg, in my opinion, was the face of the history-making Norfolk 17.

Andrew Heidelberg's book

Woody Norman's book

Remembering Andrew Heidelberg

Remembering Andrew Heidelberg

Life was quite different in the year 1958,

Not a century since the end of the war.

‘Separate but equal’ had been law of the land,

The 1954 court declared its 1896 decision lore.

Suddenly change became rapid and real,

And certain states declined to accept.

The Old Dominion was one such commonwealth

Closing certain schools reacting to the ruling dealt.

Instead of us entering Norview High

As a freshman with the world’s promises ahead,

The governor shut down all those selected schools,

The start of that school year appeared dead.

Seven African American students

Assigned to the school,

Were thrust into political spotlight,

Though probably necessary, an awful and unwanted tool.

Andrew, the six, and all others near

Were denied their schooling rights that fall.

But the 1958 school year

Did not stop, but came to a crawl.

Pad locks and door blocks

On the school were fixed,

Because of a certain way of thinking,

That races could not mix.

Alternative schooling took root very fast,

Some churches acted quickly seen as their task.

The Feds and the Dominion worked on a solution,

And in February 1959 schools re-opened with no diminution.

It was rough new day for Andrew and the six,

Walking to school with some trepidation.

Their hearts beat fast

With anxiety, yet with hopeful anticipation.

Not all went smoothly

The four years of school,

But successful in the long,

Would prove the rule.

Andrew died just the other day,

After the Fourth of July

In the year 2015,

A grand old man with whom many identify.

Rest in Peace, Andrew.

 Class of 1962

Norview High School

Norfolk, Virginia

Charlottesville Television Report on Heidelberg death and legacy

A Prophet Without Honor and His Apostolate

A Prophet Without Honor and His Apostolate

He departed from where He was

With fishermen to His hometown.

Teaching on the Sabbath was His cause,

Unexpected amazement by the crowd to His sound.

Though He not a stranger, people overwhelmed by His skill,

How did such wisdom come from His soul?

Only a carpenter, His miracles brought chills

And offended those who thought Him too bold.

No prophet, He certainly knew, is honored at home

By neighbors and family in their unbelief.

He lay His hands on His own

People, to those sick He brings relief.

He went on to other villages and about,

Sending His fishermen out by two

With authority to rout

Impure spirits they knew.

Before their departure

Instructions He gave:

“No bread, no bag, no money,

Enter a house, stay and be brave.”

“To those who offer no welcome,

Nor listen with love,

Shake the dust off you feet,

But leave the spirit of the dove.”

To others the fishermen did preach

To new believers whose lives repent.

Out drove they the demons each,

Anointing sick people, then on to others they went.

Taken from Mark 6:1-13

Arrogance of Supremacy

Arrogance of Supremacy

Of the branch in itself,

The five were a majority.

To render Caesar’s particular ruling,

They lacked cosmic authority.

As a delegated power

From the Creator’s own hand,

Its power intentionally limited

To stability in their land.

But usurpation of the Eternal’s

Planned breath for living,

An arrogance coded journal

Superseded Creation’s giving.

A rump court at best

With no precedence basis,

Changed world history none the less,

Hide on the high bench iconostasis.

We struggle not against flesh and blood,

But against rulers, powers, and authorities.

And so the dark world spreads like a flood,

When only five constitute a majority.