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THE NEWS SUN
kpcnews.com
The
Star
THE HERALD REPUBLICAN
WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 4, 2013
Sweat equity So this is what sweat equity looks like — a black, fiendish-looking car fit for, well, Batman. The man behind the design for the Caped Crusader’s ride in the movie “Batman Returns” is Carl Casper of Louisville. Casper, a car designer extraordinaire, was in Auburn over the weekend to take part in a special charity fundraiser at the National Military History Center to benefit northeastern Indiana military veterans and their families. Casper won his first nationwide car show in 1961 with a Chevy he’d purchased for $300. This year, he was offered $1 million for that same car, but turned it down, saying the car wasn’t for sale. Known for his artistic MATT genius and attention to detail, Casper also is GETTS involved in designing dragsters and restoring antique carriages. A good sampling of his work can be found at the National Military History Center. Casper was so successful at car shows that he retired from them. He eventually retired from competing in restoration shows for carriages, too. The top national honor for carriage restoration carries his name. A man who worked for a decade in Hollywood? A man who can turn down $1 million for a car? A man considered a genius in his field? You wouldn’t know it from talking to him. He’s as down-to-earth as anyone you’re likely to meet. Brag on himself or his accomplishments? It’s not his style. “I really like to let my work do the talking,” Casper said. His style, obviously is all class. And while downplaying his own genius, Casper will talk about what he refers as the sweat equity that has gone into his career. Casper said he has gone for days without eating or sleeping while working on a project. That’s what sweat equity is, folks, and it may be the most important thing our kids aren’t learning today. Sweat equity is not relying on a great idea to somehow materialize, it’s following through on that idea, no matter how long it takes. Sweat equity, or the lack thereof, may be the difference between the dreamers and those who get things done. Sweat equity is falling and never failing to get back up. Sweat equity is doing it right. Not the fastest way. Not the least expensive way. But doing it right, each and every time. That’s what Casper has built his career around — sweat equity. He said he got his work ethic from his upbringing. He lied about his age to get his first job delivering newspapers in Flint, Mich. He spent part of his life on a farm, which meant delivering papers, then doing farm chores, then going to school. By the time he was 17, he held down three jobs, working on the assembly line for General Motors, at an auto body shop and for an upholstery firm. Working hard became a way of life. But as Casper tells it, he hasn’t worked a day in his life because he has enjoyed what he’s doing. That’s the key, he said, to make your passion your vocation. Throw in some genius and sweat equity, and you have a life well-lived. As his appearance in Auburn attests, Casper is big on charitable work, as well. The church charity he is affiliated with at home in Kentucky served approximately 108,000 meals over the Thanksgiving holiday. His heart is as big as his talent. And he works at both with vigor. A self-made man, well-made. That’s what sweat equity produces.
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MATT GETTS writes an occasional column for this newspaper. He can be reached via email at mgetts@kpcmedia.com.
THE NEWS SUN Established 1859, daily since 1911 The
Star
Established 1871, daily since 1913
THE HERALD REPUBLICAN Established 1857, daily since 2001 President/Publisher TERRY G. HOUSHOLDER thousholder@kpcmedia.com COO TERRY WARD
CFO RICK MITCHELL
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Lewis and Clark joined forces in Indiana accustomed to the woods, and capable of In 1803, President Thomas Jefferson asked Meriwether Lewis to lead an explora- bearing bodily fatigue in a pretty considerable degree.” tion of the Louisiana Territory in search of One of those recruits was Sgt. a Northwest Passage. Lewis invited Charles Floyd, after whom Floyd William Clark to join him. It would County is named. Floyd lived become one of the most famous in Clarksville and was the first partnerships in history, and it started constable of Clarksville Township. in Indiana. His death on Aug. 20, 1804, near “When they shook hands, the Lewis and Clark expedition Sioux City, Iowa, likely from a began,” wrote Stephen Ambrose in ruptured appendix, was the only Undaunted Courage, the best-selling fatality among the 33 members in account of the trans-continental the permanent party of the 1804-06 journey. ANDREA expedition. Lewis was working at that time Two others had Indiana connecas Jefferson’s private secretary in NEAL tions. Pfc. John Shields was the Washington D.C. Clark was living oldest enlisted man at 34 and a with his brother, George Rogers friend of Daniel Boone. His skills Clark, in Clarksville in the Indiana as a blacksmith and gunsmith were Territory. considered critical to the trip’s The two met up in Clarksville on success. Afterwards he settled near Corydon. He died in 1809 and was buried in Little Oct. 14, 1803, and used the Clark cabin Flock Cemetery in Harrison County. overlooking the Falls of the Ohio River as William Bratton was a skilled hunter base camp while making final preparations. who moved to Indiana after the expedition On Oct. 26, the duo and their initial crew and became active in military and governmembers pushed off down the Ohio River ment affairs. By 1822, Bratton and his wife in a keel boat and red canoe and headed lived in Waynetown and had 10 children. In west to St. Charles, Mo., the expedition’s 1824, he was appointed justice of the peace official starting point. in Wayne Township and served as a local “In practical terms the partnership of school superintendent. He died in 1841 and Lewis and Clark may be said to have begun during a 13-day interlude before they set out was buried in the Old Pioneer Cemetery in on Oct. 26,” says Stephenie Ambrose Tubbs, Montgomery County. author of The Lewis and Clark Companion. Indiana’s role in the expedition is often Clark recruited the nucleus of the Corps overlooked by historians, though Clark’s of Discovery from the area around Clarkscabin and the crew’s departure site are popular attractions for Lewis and Clark ville and Louisville after being directed by enthusiasts. The Falls of the Ohio State Park Lewis “to find out and engage some good in Clarksville has an interpretive center hunters, stout, healthy, unmarried men,
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Clark recruited … “some good hunters, stout, healthy, unmarried men, accustomed to the woods, and capable of bearing bodily fatigue in a pretty considerable degree.”
• where visitors can learn not only about Lewis and Clark but also the Devonian fossil beds exposed at the riverbank. The park entry features 10-foot bronze figures of Lewis and Clark mounted on a 16½-ton slab of Indiana limestone. The sculpture depicts the moment when Lewis and Clark greeted each other in Clarksville to begin their 8,000-mile trek. Note: This is one in a series of essays leading up to the celebration of the Indiana Bicentennial in December 2016. The essays focus on the top 100 events, ideas and historical figures of Indiana, beginning with the impact of the Ice Age and ending with the legacy of the Bicentennial itself. Directions to Falls of the Ohio State Park: Take Exit 0 on Interstate 65 and follow the signs to 201 West Riverside Drive, Clarksville. ANDREA NEAL, formerly editorial page editor at the Indianapolis Star, is a teacher at St. Richard’s School in Indianapolis and adjunct scholar and columnist for the Indiana Policy Review Foundation. Contact her at aneal@ inpolicy.org.
Let’s talk turkey about Bleak Friday contaminating the purity of our WASHINGTON — annual day of repose and urging Compared to all others, Thanksus from our respite. giving is a relatively stress-free The once month-long holiday. break between ThanksFree of those things giving and Christmas that separate us — shrinks each year so religious, political and that our last turkey otherwise — Thankssandwich is hardly giving is a day of e digested before consumpluribus unum. In er-itis sets in. Symptoms George Washington’s are well-known and proclamation of 1789, graphic displays are Thanksgiving was designated as a time KATHLEEN in evidence — packed parking lots and human of duty “to acknowledge the providence of PARKER stampedes; shopping baskets overflowing with Almighty God, to obey huge must-haves; debt his will, to be grateful and depression when the for his benefits, and humbly to implore his protection adrenaline subsides. This year the break was and favor … a day of public crunched further by Thanksgivthanksgiving and prayer to be ing’s late date, but the trend of observed by acknowledging turning fall into one, unrelenting with grateful hearts the many shopping season has been signal favors of Almighty God decades in the making. And especially by affording them though we profess to resent the an opportunity peaceably to imposition of perpetual holidays, establish a form of government we seem impotent to resist the for their safety and happiness.” command to consume. How far we have drifted. Black Friday — the perennial, Hear ye, hear ye, all members people-crushing, day-afterof Congress. Thanksgiving sales marathon Thanksgiving is our favorite holiday for more prosaic reasons — is nearly a holiday itself. This as well. No gifts, no costumes, no year, Thanksgiving Day was the new black as several chains flowers, candies or treats to buy. (including Walmart, Best Buy, All we have to do is gather with JCPenney, Toys R Us, Target, friends and family, commune over food and football and, if one Kmart, Sears and even The Gap) planned to open on the day itself. so desires, prayer. What’s not to In so doing, these retailers love about a day like that? further diminished the meaning A few things come to mind: Holiday decorations of Thanksgiving while advancing the notion that time is better up too soon, Christmas trees spent hauling away large-screen lining supermarket storefronts, TVs than engaging in human Christmas carols too early in communion. The bumper-sticker stores. Stress and the pressure to slogan — “He who dies with purchase suddenly are in the air,
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A recent poll found bipartisan aversion to stores opening on Thanksgiving — 65 percent of Democrats, 63 percent of Republicans and 60 percent of independents say stores should be closed. Yet … stores wouldn’t open if there were no demand.
• the most toys wins” — seems to become a cultural mantra as we abandon any pretense of human purpose beyond consumption. Despite the seeming inevitability of these trends, many Americans wish it weren’t so. A recent HuffPost/YouGov poll found bipartisan aversion to stores opening on Thanksgiving — 65 percent of Democrats, 63 percent of Republicans and 60 percent of independents say stores should be closed. Yet as Forbes points out, stores wouldn’t open if there were no demand. When the National Retail Federation asked consumers why they want to shop early, most said it was to spread out their gift budgets or to take advantage of deals too good to pass up. Virtue is in the details, I suppose. According to Accenture’s annual shopping survey, 38 percent of respondents planned to visit four or more stores on Thanksgiving or Black Friday, and more than one-third said they’ll shop before midnight Thursday. (Editor’s note: Did you shop on Thanksgiving Day or Black Friday? Answer the poll at kpcnews.com.) One more tradition reduced
to its commercial value and a few dollars saved at the expense of humility and gratitude seems a price too high for the procurement of more stuff. In the scheme of things, this sense of loss is perhaps undeserving of lamentations, but bowing to commercial greed, especially on our national day of thanks, seems a crime against one of our best founding inventions. If stores erect a sale, they will come. But stores don’t have to. Here’s a revolutionary concept: Instead, why not demonstrate gratitude for our nation by urging its people to spend time with their families, surely the most valuable insurance for a stable future. Profits may take a short holiday, but the reward of living in a culture that values human connection and appreciates, in Washington’s words from the proclamation, “the civil and religious liberty with which we are blessed” — is beyond measure. KATHLEEN PARKER is a syndicated columnist with Tribune Media Services. She can be reached at kathleenparker@washpost.com.