Straight Paths- They should have spoken up and said something

“They should have spoken up and said something"

Loren Hardin

The Ashland Beacon

            Carolyn was admitted to hospice when she was sixty-nine years old with Parkinson's disease. Her husband, Charlie, reminisced, "I’ve known Carolyn since we were in the first grade. We graduated from high school in 1962 and got married in 1968. Carolyn wanted to get married so bad because she thought that she couldn’t live without me." By the expression on Carolyn’s face, I’m pretty sure that the shoe had been on the other foot. Charlie continued, "So we had a talk. I told her that I wouldn’t go anywhere that I wouldn’t want her to go; I wouldn’t associate with anyone I wouldn’t want her to associate with and that I wouldn’t do anything I wouldn’t want her to do; and that I expected her to do the same. And it’s worked out pretty good for us. We’ve had a wonderful marriage."

  Charlie declared, "My motto was always, ‘Work like you are going to live forever and live like you are going to die tomorrow.’" Had Charlie unquestionably complied with his supervisor’s orders on one certain workday, he may not have lived to see the next. I’ll let Charlie explain: "I worked at Copeland’s Refrigeration for twenty-four and a half years. We manufactured condensers and compressors for refrigeration units. We had assembly, welding, soldering and teardown departments; and I knew how to do all the jobs. When a unit was returned because of malfunctioning it was the teardown department’s job to dismantle it so the parts could be tested; and if they were still good, they would be reused.

One day the superintendent told me to loosen the solders on the units with a torch and I told him, ‘I’m not going to do it’. And he asked me, ‘Are you defying a direct order?’ I told him, ‘Yes I am’. He asked me why and I told him, ‘Because I want to live. If I understand correctly when you heat Freon to a certain temperature it turns into phosgene gas’ He left and came back about a half hour later and said, ‘You’re right, don’t do it!’"

             I did some research that confirmed that Charlie was right. Phosgene gas is a highly toxic substance that was discovered by Fritz Haber, German scientist in 1916 and used in chemical warfare in World War I. It was eighteen times more powerful than the chlorine gas that Germany was previously using. And several HVAC websites talked about the risk of accidental exposure when working on air conditioning units.

             What if Charlie hadn’t spoken up and said something that day. What if Charlie had assumed that his supervisor knew what he was talking about; and did what he was told? 

     Charlie’s story reminds me of an analogy Dr. Ben Carson shared in his book "One Nation" (2014). I’ll paraphrase: "There was a young successful business owner who bought his mother exotic gifts for Mother’s Day. One year he bought her two expensive parrots that could sing, dance and talk. He wanted to surprise her, so he had them delivered and waited a couple of weeks then called her to see how she liked them, and she exclaimed, ‘They tasted really good, son’. Shocked, he replied, ‘Mom, you didn’t eat them did you! Those birds were expensive, and they could sing, dance and talk!’ Then she replied, ‘Well son, then they should have spoken up and said something." Dr. Carson suggests that if we succumb to political correctness; if we don’t speak up for what we believe in, then like those expensive parrots, we’ll get eaten alive.

             A.W. Tozer in his book, "Keys to the Deeper Life" (1957), expressed his concerns about the church in his day, “The voice of the turtle dove was rarely heard in the land; instead, the parrot sat on its artificial perch and dutifully repeated what he had been taught and the whole emotional tone was somber and dull … scarcely anyone appears to have the discernment or the courage to turn around and lean into the wind, even though the truth may easily lie in that direction.” 

             "The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing." (Edmund Burke, 1729-1797)

             "You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt loses its flavor, how shall it be seasoned? It is then good for nothing …" (Matt 5:13-16).

             Loren Hardin was a social worker with SOMC-Hospice for twenty-nine years. He can be reached at 740-357-6091 or at lorenhardin53@gmail.com. You can order Loren's book, "Straight Paths: Insights for living from those who have finished the course," at Amazon and Barnes and Noble.