Wise Up (12-28-09)

Wise Up: Good Deeds

"¢ Someone asked syndicated columnist Connie Schultz, "œWhen did you think your opinion mattered?" She knows the exact time she realized that. She was a sophomore at Kent State University, taking a political science course from a professor named Trudy Steuernagel, who spoke to Ms. Schultz after she had participated in a debate in class. Ms. Steuernagel told her, "œYou should speak up more in class. You have something to say." Ms. Schultz says, "œI can quote her exact words because I wrote them down on an index card and posted it over my desk for the rest of my college career."

In 2008, many years later, she wrote Ms. Steuernagel a note thanking her for her words.

In 2009, Ms. Steuernagel died violently. She was murdered by her autistic son, whose name was Sky Walker. In a safe, she left a letter that revealed that she knew that she might die that way. The letter stated, "If this letter has been opened and is read, it is because I have been seriously injured or killed by my son, Sky Walker. I love Sky with my whole heart and soul and do not believe he has intentionally injured me. I have tried my best to get help for him and to end the pattern of violence that has developed in this home. I believe my best has not been good enough. That is my fault, not Sky's... I do not want him to be punished for actions for which he is not responsible."

Sky was incompetent to stand trial. A judge ruled that Sky had killed his mother, and probably until he dies, Sky resides in a locked facility.

"¢ Abe Pollin owned the Washington Wizards, having changed its name from the Bullets, a name he considered offensive. Abe was not frugal when it came to helping other people. In 1984, he read a Washington Post article that stated that in Africa 40,000 children died each day from malnutrition. He called the Post to ask if the article was correct. It was, so he called UNICEF (The United Nations Children's Fund) and said, "I want to help. I will do anything." He became an honorary chairman of UNICEF. In 1997, he opened the Verizon Center, which he built with $200 million of his own money, and which revitalized a bleak area of Washington, D.C.

After Linda Pollin, his daughter, died at age 16 of congenital heart disease, he opened the Linda Pollin Memorial Housing Project in Washington, D.C. Just before he died in November of 2009, he gave all of his employees a Thanksgiving bonus. He also made sure that the staff of the Washington Wizards would be able to leave work early because of the holiday. And he sent his wife of 64 years, Irene, a bouquet of yellow roses.

"¢ Gayle Spellman, an 81-year-old widow in Lenexa, Kansas, once visited a Target store to buy some groceries, but she discovered that she had left her credit card and checkbook at home. She told the grocery clerk, "This is not going to ruin my day!" She was right. The grocery clerk set aside the three bags of groceries until Ms. Spellman returned with money to pay for them, but in the Target parking lot, a woman came up to her and said, "Here are your groceries." At first, Ms. Spellman believed that the woman had thought that she had forgotten the groceries, so she said, "Thank you, but I have not paid for them." The woman replied, "I did." The woman declined to give Ms. Spellman her name, but Ms. Spellman told her, "God bless you." She also wrote about the good deed in a letter to the editor of the Kansas City Star.

"¢ In 1918, Julian Johnson wrote an article titled "Charles, Not Charlie" for Photoplay. In it, he mentioned that an actor had died suddenly the previous winter in Los Angeles, but fortunately he had left behind no debts, some money in the bank, and wealth enough to support his family until his children grew up. However, Mr. Johnson went on to say that this was not the reality. He writes, "I am one of three people who know that the poor fellow had squandered all he made, had $2.67 in cash, no insurance, and owed half the tradesmen in town. Charles Chaplin righted all this, and not even the widow knows!"

"¢ Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn made a remarkable gift to the Queen of England. Mr. Ellington and Mr. Strayhorn composed the "Queen's Suite." Mr. Ellington then paid the cost of three sessions in a recording studio, recorded the musical piece, and made exactly one album from a master tape. To make sure that it was a gift exclusively for the queen, he destroyed the master tape and he never performed the musical piece in public. (After he died, the piece was released to the public and it has been performed in public.)

"¢ When actress Sharon Stone was starting work in the movie "Casino," director Martin Scorsese asked her what her favorite film was. Hearing that it was the animated version of "The Jungle Book," he told her that he had a print of that film. Actual prints, as opposed to videotapes or DVDs, are rare, and Ms. Stone asked if she could have it if she did a good job in the movie. After filming was completed, she went to her trailer and discovered the cans of film of the movie stacked in her chair.

"¢ When Christopher Paul Curtis, author of the children's book "Bud, Not Buddy," was 10 years old, he opened the door of his home and found a group of strange men outside. He remembered his father's rule about not opening the door to strangers, and worried, but the men were people from the factory where his father worked. His father spent months tutoring them in math, so that they could get better-paying jobs at the factory.

"¢ In 1938, jazz trumpet soloist Charlie Shavers composed "Undecided" and sold it for a small amount of money to music publisher Lou Levy. "Undecided" became a hit, and Mr. Levy did the remarkable good deed of giving the tune back to Mr. Shavers.