Our great state of Arkansas leads the nation in one category that I dislike very much. We lead the nation when it comes to food insecurity. This means that thousands of our citizens go to bed hungry every night. Now most adults can fend for themselves, but not our children, as far too many of them do not have nearly enough to eat. This breaks my heart. It will take some time, but I am going to do my best to get a great majority of the newspapers across America to run this column. When this idea succeeds, it will be through our state press associations, as they coordinate all newspapers activities in their respective states. This is how I can get the word to their newspaper subscribers, or readers, in each state across our country.
When I first began this new focus titled “How to Plan Your Days,” I asked each of my readers to take a pair of scissors and clip out each weekly column and keep them in a file folder as this would give you 52 of these each year. You can believe me when I tell you that I plan to have some terrific thoughts and ideas as we go along. My wife Janis tells me that I am wasting my time to do this, but I disagree, mainly because I happen to believe that my readers (meaning you) are a cut above the rest and you feel as strongly as I do when it comes to food insecurity and other very important issues. I belong to the school of thought that says, you never know what you can do unless you try.
When it comes to food insecurity, there is one central reason why far too many people go hungry every day. This reason is simple: they don’t have any or at least enough money. This despite the fact that our governments, both federal and state, have a great number of programs to help poor people. The main reason why people are poor is illiteracy, they can’t find and hold a good job that pays enough to provide for their needs, and some people are just plain lazy and do not want to work. Now, we are getting there, and if you help me, we will do something about it. We must begin when a child is in pre-school, and this is why we are having great success with our bookcase project.
As a quick aside, I am a college dropout, but I did not stop learning. Fate smiled at me when I took the Dale Carnegie course and had the late Bob Gannaway as my instructor. He had no idea how much he was helping me when he invited me to go into business with him to distribute the Earl Nightingale Attitude Motivation Programs. Earl was an omnivorous reader and had recorded the wisdom of the ages on cassette. As I called on schools across our state, I listened to these tapes each day while traveling. I got a really good education, and the rest is history. I will end today’s column by asking you to get involved in helping me do something about the hunger problem in America and helping yourself at the same time. I will help you develop your own life plan. Please drop me a note to let me know you are on board.
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(Jim Davidson is an author, syndicated columnist, and Founder of the Bookcase for Every Child project. For a personalized copy of Jim’s latest book “Keep Your Fork” send $25 (includes P&H & TAX) to Jim Davidson, 2 Bentley Dr. Conway, AR 72034.)