DEC 2020 Blues Vol 36 No. 12 - 36TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION

Walter could live. By

Walter could live. By now the school auditorium could no longer conceal the audible sobs from the audience. Walter continued his story by telling the students that hate is something to be on guard against. He said that you know hate because it destroys while love builds things up. He told a knowing audience how intolerance led to the unimaginable. He reiterated that word. The kids knew that word was especially evil. They learned that word well. He started the conclusion of his remarks by telling the kids to never take for granted the special things in their lives. Their family being the first. Walter lost seventy members of his family in the Holocaust. He told the kids that their parents were doing the best that they could and to ALAN HELFMAN appreciate their efforts. He told them that their little brothers, sisters, and cousins might seem like brats, but the little children looked up to them for guidance. He told them never to take their freedom for granted and to not while away their youth in some jail cell someplace. He told them that sitting in an auditorium and receiving an education from people who cared for them was another thing he was denied as a teenager. He told them that shelter is something that all human beings need and it can be gone if the month’s rent is not paid. He said that his wife often kidded him about the pantry in his house. It was huge and always contained enough food so that nobody he knew would ever starve to death again before his eyes. He told the kids to PROUD SUPPORTER OF THE BLUES FOR OVER 36 YEARS HELFMAN’S RIVER OAKS CHRYSLER JEEP • DODGE • FORD CHRYSLER • FIAT ALFA ROMEO • MASERATI eat properly and to never waste food. Finally, he told the kids to never take love for granted. The love from and for others is God’s greatest gift to all human beings. In the end it will always overturn hate. Love for his father and from his father was what kept his faith in God alive and that gave him the will to live in the saddest circumstances our history has ever endured. Walter told the kids he loved them and he left the stage. Nobody who heard him was ever the same. We lost Walter Kase in 2015 to Parkinson’s, but in a sense we never lose anybody who lives on in the love of our hearts. This holiday season of 2020, I am heeding Walter’s message to not take for granted those things in my life that hold a higher priority, it seems, than they did in the past. Over the last year, I have found out that priorities are things that have to be reevaluated from time to time. Hard times reveal the things that truly matter. Walter’s list is a good one to build upon: freedom, parents, education, family, shelter, food, and, of course, love. As we experience the 2020 holiday season, let us not forget others who may need our help. In John’s Gospel, the sixth chapter, Jesus fed a multitude of over 5000 with a lad’s sack lunch. Jesus didn’t wave a magic wand, his disciples acted as his hands and feet to feed all the people. The miracle wasn’t simply the supernatural event, the miracle was and is that we can be an answer to somebody’s prayers. We can be the hands and feet of God in a needy world. 54 The BLUES POLICE MAGAZINE The BLUES POLICE MAGAZINE 55