Curtis H Cline – A Great Father and Role Model

This collage covers the early life of my father.  Curtis Cline enjoyed his parents, siblings and grandma Kline while growing up in a beautiful two-story home on the outskirts of Morehouse, Missouri.  He excelled in in his school work, especially mathematics, and wanted to go to college but the Great Depression stopped that dream.  He made All-State in Football and men who knew him from Morehouse High School, and Southeast Missouri said he could have played in the pros. 

Curtis loved his wife, Marie, and their three children and was very faithful to God and the First Church of the Nazarene.  He enjoyed teaching boys Sunday School class and stayed in touch with several of the boys after they graduated and left Sikeston.  Curtis Cline was the Sunday School Superintendent for a few years too.  Most of all, he loved working his mind and body.  He also loved food.  When he went somewhere with the family, often he took his bookkeeping with him because there was not enough time, he said, to get it done if we took time off to do leisurely things.  I remember him leaving the house at dawn and returning after the sun went down.  He was happiest when he was working or eating.  He was also happy when he was with family.  Often, he took his family with him when he drove one of the trucks to spread limestone, and to make collections.  Our family enjoyed eating out at restaurants too and some weekends, several families from church took the Tiptonville (TN) Ferry from below Charleston, MO over to Tennessee to eat catfish.  I enjoyed the ferry ride but I have never enjoyed fish or any food that comes out of the water.  I enjoyed the hush puppies.  I remember the restaurant in Tiptonville was on Kentucky Lake and most of the dining area was screened-in.  Of course, back then there was no air-conditioning.

My father was an excellent role model.  Every Wednesday, he came home at noon, went into the master bedroom, shut the door and prayed for one house.  He also fasted lunch every Wednesday.  Late in life, when he went to the nursing home in Sikeston, I received a call from the Director of the home complaining that he refused to each lunch on Wednesdays.  They tried everything but he would not eat.  They had to document it and could receive bad reviews from the State of Missouri if he did not eat.  I laughed and told her that was part of his religious belief and practice.  I had to send her a note in writing asking that he be excused from eating lunch on Wednesdays.  

He had one speed, fast.  He was funny, without trying to be, he was compassionate and had a temper now and then.  Once the temper exploded, he forgot about what made him mad within minutes.  He held no grudges and was honest as the day is long.  I feel privileged to have been the daughter of Curtis H. Cline.

Next week, I will talk about his middle to late life.

Make It Easy For People to Do Good

One of my many goals is to see all fifty state capitols in my lifetime.  I have seen thirty-four.  On a trip to St. Paul, Minnesota, I visit the state house.  I was impressed with what the people elected to write around the rotunda of that beautiful building.  They quoted one of Daniel Webster's coined phrases - “The proper function of a government is to make it easy for the people to do good, and difficult for them to do evil."                                                                                                           

We cannot have "government of the people, by the people, for the people", without the active participation of those people.   The very essence of democracy is participation.  Back in the 1800s when Henry Clay and Daniel Webster were in the Senate, people with differing opinions debated the issues.  However, they did not try to destroy the other person as they do today.  Many of us are disappointed with the elected officials in Washington, but we need to proactive, in a respectful way, by communicating our wishes and expectations. 

It is time for the far right and the far left to re-learn how to debate and disagree without trying to destroy others, show contempt, and disrespect. We may not agree with everything President Obama does, but he is our elected leader, and we need to respect his position and not degrade, demean, debase, cheapen and devalue him as a person, but especially as our president.  If things continue in the direction they are now, I fear that the disrespectful tone will deteriorate, degenerate and destroy our form of government, as we now know it.  We must reverse the negative and destructive manner of communication.  We must remember that both sides of the political spectrum are Americans first, then they are Republican, Democratic or Tea Party affiliated.

If we are unhappy with Washington bureaucrats, then vote them out!  A swiping change in elected officials would do wonders for our country.  We need citizens representing us, not career politicians and lawyers.  The problem I have seen is that everyone agrees with the statement, EXCEPT, it does not apply to "their" federal Senator or Representative.  Continued re-election is why we have the mess we have today.  We keep re-electing OUR officials and they are embedded in their jobs and worry more about re-election than those they were elected to serve.  

Let us once again elect citizen representatives, make it easy for them to do good, and difficult for them to do evil.  Lastly, let us encourage more diplomacy, and less grandstanding in Washington.  This idea of showing respect applies to the news media too.  Please participate in our governmental process and above all VOTE for the person you feel is best qualified.  Do not side with one side of the political pendulum before examining BOTH candidates running for office.  Daniel Webster was a wise man.  We must protect politicians from themselves, as well as us.  History has proven that too often more than eight years in Washington turns good men into negative, divisive, and too often corrupt.  Let America’s political system return to being diplomatic, not destructive, selfish, and tactless.  Our form of democracy is worth it. 

Margaret Cline Harmon