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Hold
Your Head Up
From
the anguished remembrance of a son came words Virginia can heed as it
struggles to make ends meet.
Almost
a year ago those coming to pay their respects filled
the St. Paul's MemorialChurch
in
Charlottesville
and
spilled out onto the lawn and sidewalks along University
Avenue. It was a
bright Monday in late October that turned hot.
Family and friends of Emily Couric sat inside and
stood outside with AlbemarleCounty
residents,
public officials and
University
of Virginia
leaders
and students. The hundreds came and stayed for
almost two hours to remember and to celebrate the
life of a woman so intelligent and so engaging as to
make almost anything good seem possible.
Emily
Couric had been a journalist, an author, a school
board member and a state senator in
Virginia
since 1995
before losing an heroic battle against cancer. If
you were a Democratic partisan, her death was a
great loss. To many Republicans, the Senator
Couric's drive and genuineness, which translated
into popular appeal, posed a threat. Republicans
feared a Lieutenant Governor, even a Governor in the
making. But those who viewed Emily Couric with
partisan blinders on missed the true appeal, the
real contributions of the woman. Through her example
and her exhortations Emily Couric inspired each of
those she met to "Hold your head up."
"Hold
your head up" didn't occur spontaneously to
those in St. Paul's or to those crowded into the
shade of the big magnolia tree outside, nor even to
a U.S. Representative, who arrived late and chose to
remain standing on the lawn rather than interrupt
the services by fumbling his way inside. It wasn't
evident when Mary Chapin Carpenter sang,
"Morning has broken, like the first
morning" or when famous younger sister Katie
Couric shared memories, such as how Emily chaperoned
Katie's teenager years.
The
inspiration came from Emily Couric's son, Jeff
Wadlow, struggling with the loss of his mothe -- the
one, he said, who always helped him through rough
spots such as this. Deep in sorrow before a church
full of men and women struggling with their own
emotions, he wondered aloud, "Who will help me
though this now?" And then Jeff related how
each school morning of his wobbly teenage years his
mother would look out the window at his skulking
walk from the house to school and call out,
"Hold your head up!" And he would raise
his head then, he said, and so he would again now.
"Hold
your head up," we all know from our own
mothers, is shorthand for maintaining an energetic,
positive worldview. Be aware of the world around
you. Don't fixate on yourself. Consider the
possibilities of the future. Look where you are
going. Care for those around you. Learn to make
things better. These all are implicit in that simple
advice from a mother to a son. They are good guides
now for Virginians worried by drought, unemployment,
bond issues, transportation referendums, a 401 (k) or
shootings here, maybe in Iraq.
Almost
a year after that service, Virginians in every
region, regardless of their life's work, can draw on
such encouragement. Virginia
leaders
charged with making ends meet in state government
can use a healthy dose in the week and months ahead.
Then-candidate Mark R. Warner and dozens of state
Senators and Delegates heard the anguished
remembrances of Jeff Wadlow that afternoon. Virginia
holding its head up as we make difficult budget
choices will help balance the cruelty of judging by
numbers alone.
Budget
politics, particularly record-drops-in-revenues
budget politics, has that warping effect. Budget
politics reduces every part of human endeavor,
including government services, to a budget number.
Budget politics makes knowing the cost of everything
possible, but it does not facilitate an
understanding the value of anything. Establishing
and extending value takes a deeper engagement of
intelligence and compassion..
Reciting
the number of state employees laid off won't tell us
much about the new burdens those families will be
expected to bear in a lifeless economy. Counting the
money saved in government spending won't describe
the difficulties awaiting those who need more than
the diminishing health services they will get. The
changes in university tuition and course offerings
that result cannot capture the frustrations of
potential college students as they find out their
opportunity to get into the college or course of
their choice is gone.
Yet
these values, not just the costs should be at the
heart of the discussion laid out this week by Gov.
Warner. These values should be the hallmark of the
response from leaders of the General Assembly. To be
sure, working with warm, living values is harder
than working with cold, impersonal numbers. But
leaders and citizens alike should take a minute to
think beyond budget and revenue numbers to get
ready. Consider the soaking rain last week that is
helping end a drought. Take some pride in Nobel
prize winners John Fenn in chemistry at Virginia
Commonwealth University and Vernon Smith in
economics at George Mason Universities. Reflect on
the connections and programs you've helped build in
your own schools. Celebrate Virginia Tech going to
6-0 with their football run over Boston College.
Holding your head up, Virginia, will help budget
decisions reflect our values, not just some numbers.
And
how is Jeff Wadlow, now a 26-year filmmaker in
California, doing? Maybe you saw the news in
September that he won $1 million in prize money at
the Toronto International Film Festival to finance
his next film project. His head definitely was up as
Aunt Katie saluted him a few days later on the
"Today" show.
--
Oct. 14, 2002
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