You might be surprised by who will help
By Clint Day
for gwinnettforum.com

(Editor's note: former State Sen. Clint Day may surprise you with these words we thought many of you would benefit by reading.--eeb)

NORCROSS, May 8 -- Compassionate Conservative? Actions speak louder than words!

Several years ago while I was serving in the Georgia State Senate, a good friend of mine was serving in the Georgia State House. He had a life-threatening emergency with his wife. She had been suffering with severe headaches and the Atlanta doctors "poked and probed" to discover why she was in such great pain.

The doctors finally found she had a tumor in a part of her head near her brain and optic nerve that was extremely difficult to remove. She also had the questions of whether it was a benign or cancerous tumor.

They literally searched the country to find the best doctor in the world to remove this type of tumor. To their surprise, they found a Syrian-born doctor based in Little Rock, Ark. who performed this surgery several times a day with healthy results. (Some of you may be asking, "Can anything good really come from Little Rock after the Clintons?")

The husband and wife would be out of work during the surgery and recovery so I stepped in to try and help. I sent letters to the Senate and House members asking for their assistance to help this family financially.

To my surprise and disappointment, my so-called "liberal Democrat friends" came through with a lot more support than my so-called "Compassionate Conservative Republican friends" did. Oh yeah, did I tell you my friend in the House was a Republican?

There is another friend of mine that about four years ago was a successful pastor in a small African American church. He was an up-and-coming minister with star potential. He was married to a beautiful lady and they had three great kids.

Then, like Job, he was stricken with bad health (diabetes). He lost his wife, job, money, honor, feet, and friends. Several of us are trying to help him fight his way back.

The ancient Hebrew writer, John, wrote "If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him? Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with action and in truth."

There are times when we Compassionate Conservatives need to help give a man a fish, instead of just teaching him how to fish, because his circumstance my keep him from fishing.

We need to remember when we have a job, money, a house, good health, our family and friends, we are truly blessed. The real question is how many friends do we have when we have no job, money, house, health or family? This is an opportunity for a Compassionate Conservative to step in and help (remembering it could be you or me in such a situation).

Actions speak louder than words!

-30-