What's REALLY Going ON Magazine Volume 1 - Issue #2 | Page 33

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