Sponsorship – Butterfly Project — Frankie Woods McCullough Girls’ Academy, Gary, Indiana
http://antidefamationlegacylawadvocates.org/cadeflaw-gary-in-butterfly-project/
Can Anything Good Come Out Of Gary, Indiana?
John Gills Commentary: can there any good thing
come out of Nazareth?
M
ichael Jackson was a resilient humanitarian and
cared about the well-being and happiness of children all over the world. Education was a strong part of
his message to youth around the world. Since his death
there has been many beautiful tributes in his honor;
books written about him; money donated by thousands
of fans and given in his name.
The whole country of Galilee was had in contempt with
the Jews; but Nazareth was so mean a place, that it
seems it was even despised by its neighbours, by the
Galilaeans themselves; for Nathanael was a Galilean,
that said these words. It was so miserable a place that
he could hardly think that any sort of good thing, even
any worldly good thing, could come from thence; and it
was so wicked, as appears from their murderous designs upon our Lord, that he thought no good man could
arise from hence; and still less, any prophet, any person
of great note; and still least of all, that that good thing, or
person, the Messiah, should spring from it: so that his
objection, and prejudice, proceeded not only upon the
oracle in ( Micah 5:2 ) , which points out Bethlehem as
the birthplace of the Messiah; but upon the wickedness,
and meanness, and obscurity of Nazareth.
A
fter almost three years Vanessa Little, CADeflaw
Research Director, whispered what many of us were
thinking but afraid to speak aloud. Why is Gary, Indiana
being left out? What about the students and what are we
doing for them? There are many things required to sustain acceptable education in these schools and we
asked ourselves what could we do as a community,
made up of thousands, to show the children of Gary they
were not forgotten and that they too were loved?
W
e must reinvest in our schools and focus on the
future. Only then will we be able to leave behind a
positive legacy, one that Michael Jackson struggled so
hard to strive toward and one that we can all be proud
of. We must be champions for our children all over the
world, but we must not ignore the children right here in
our backyard.
Artwork by Mimi O’Garren
H
ow cautiously should we guard against popular prejudices? Our integrity should always prevail over
foolish bias, and lead us to a place of discovery for ourselves, which an honest inquirer will always be glad to
admit, even when it brings the most unexpected discoveries. In our research we discovered that many Michael
Jackson fans refused to support anything connected to
Gary, Indiana because they assumed that Michael didn’t
support the people of Gary, Indiana. Many have supposed that he never gave anything back to Gary. How
can we be so sure of that and should we assume that he
would not want us to support the children or the community of Gary, Indiana? To take this viewpoint we would
also have to assume that he never cared about children
at all; and I think we would be absolutely wrong to believe that. Where there was love Michael Jackson was
also there.
W
e’ve read commen ts from fans in the Michael Jackson community and also heard some say “there’s
nothing in Gary”. It made me think of the Nazarene, Jesus, who came from Nazareth. The scripture reads: Can
anything good come out of Nazareth?
John 1:45-46…. Philip findeth Nathanael, and saith
unto him, We have found him, of whom Moses in the
law, and the prophets, did write, Jesus of Nazareth, the
son of Joseph. And Nathanael said unto him, Can there
any good thing come out of Nazareth? Philip saith unto
him, Come and see.
33