For all intents and purposes, the two stories were not related. But in the end, they really were.
One was about a young man in Fordyce who was hailed as a hero for turning the other cheek. In a locker room as he was trying to change clothes, another team member kept harassing him and pushing him and taking swings at him. But the young man, Daniel Warner, would have none of it. I’m not in the mood for this, he said. What were the other teammates doing? Recording it all on their cellphones for later distribution, of course, but not actually doing anything to stop what was going on.
When the videos went public, they struck a nerve, and before it was over, Warner had been pulled into a crowded gymnasium at Fordyce High School where students chanted his name, the band played, the mascot revved up the crowd and celebrities took time out to honor him.
If there was ever a learning opportunity for a social ill — bullying — this was it.
The soul-searching moment came when Kevin Kelly of Fox 16 quizzed the audience about their experience with bullying. He asked, have you seen it happen? Have you experienced it yourself? And have you been the bully?
Independent reporting for Pine Bluff & Jefferson County since 1879.
Kelly then offered that last group the opportunity to find the person they had harassed and say they were sorry. The gym erupted in hugs and high fives and apologies.
The other story was about a man who spends his days standing on street corners preaching. He is dressed in white, and his wife joins him, sitting some distance from him as he professes his faith in Jesus and urges listeners to consider Christ’s message.
The Rev. Larry Walker lives in Little Rock but goes all over the state in his RV, at his own expense, to spread the gospel. He bothers no one. And, really, if people don’t want to hear what he has to say in the short time they are idling at Walker’s intersections, all they have to do is roll up their windows.
While he was street preaching in Pine Bluff recently, a black SUV drove past him, and a passenger shot Walker with a plastic BB, striking him very close to his left eye. Had the pellet hit his eye, he could have been blinded.
We can imagine the shooter getting a good laugh at seeing the preacher react to being hit.
Walker was back at his location on the Pine Bluff street a week later and was once again preaching, having turned the other cheek. No bands played. No crowds roared his name. No mascot or celebrities were present. There was just a man who wants the world to be a better place.
The 72-year-old Walker and the 14-year-old Warner are generations apart, but they are connected by their experiences. The public accolades the grownups in the gym staged for Warner will most assuredly be remembered by those students in the gym that day. Bullying there and elsewhere is being called out today for what it is, and by calling it out, we can all assess it and guard against it. The mantra now is if you see something, say and do something.
To do nothing, which is how bullying was dealt with forever, is to see the unabated schoolroom bully grow up to become an adult bully, harassing neighbors and co-workers, drivers on the road, his wife and children and yes, even street preachers.
In doing something, Fordyce and the others notch some victories in the struggle between good and bad. Perhaps, a generation or two from now, a street preacher will be left to his own words and will not be attacked by someone who never learned the difference between right and wrong. That should give us all something to pray for.