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Once in awhile, someone will come along who has wisdom that blesses your life if you take the time to listen to what they have to say. With this page, I would like to make a tribute to my High School Drama and Public Speaking teacher, Mr. Dale Hogue, who was one of my teachers from 1975-1977 at Bell Gardens High School, in Bell Gardens, California. Most of you know that from reading my testimony, I didn't have a great childhood and there were few teachers who took the time to try to point me in the right direction, who actually seemed to care about me as a person. One such teacher was Mr. Dale Hogue. That is why I took him for two different classes a day for two years. I actually wanted to learn something and felt like I did in his classes. A lot of teachers could care less about a student, and they just come into class, write something on the board, tell the students to sit down and shut up and let the book teach them. That is not teaching and that type of person has no business in a classroom. They would be better suited flipping burgers at McDonalds somewhere instead of being entrusted to mold and shape young lives. Yes, I was a leather jacketed hood and trouble maker. I smoked dope right along with my Marlboro or Kool cigarettes, drank beer, got in rumbles (fights), and recruited for the Ku Klux Klan. I mouthed off to teachers in classes, but not to Mr. Hogue. I had respect for him. He actually made me feel like I was part of the class, and that the class needed MY input, if you could believe it! Oh yes, there was a couple of times that he made me take off my sunglasses and he checked my eyes. He knew I was higher then a kite from smoking dope, and could have sent me to the office, but he didn't. He allowed me to stay in class in hopes that I might learn something like there is more to life then smoking dope, which gets you nowhere in life. When other's looked at me and saw a loser, Mr. Hogue seemed to look at me and seen potential. I will give you a for instance. When I first started taking Mr. Hogue's Public Speaking class, one of the first assignments he gave us was to give a speech. I stood in front of the class, and attacked Jews, Blacks, Asians, Mexicans, and Liberals, advocating "white power" and told the students that white people needed to support the Ku Klux Klan. I went on to say that this country needed Gov. George C. Wallace in the White House, and that we needed to return to segregation. Of course many of my fellow students, especially the Hispanics, and one girl in particular who was Jewish, was highly upset at my inflammatory remarks. Mr. Hogue took to the floor after I finished my speech, and instead of sending me to the office as other teachers had done, he made it perfectly clear that he did not agree with me, but that he was going to enjoy having me in his class for the year, as he had never had a "redneck" in his class before. He encouraged the students to pay close attention to me whenever I would be called upon to give a speech in the future. He explained that we needed to hear other viewpoints, even if we found them to be repugnant , because as we prepared for life, not everyone would have the same opinion as everyone else. He said that perhaps by having someone like myself in class, the students could learn how to prepare to deal with people like me that would come along in life. Good point. In Public Speaking, as well as Drama, he actually got every student involved and made them feel they were part of what was going on, and that their opinion mattered. His classes were fun, enlightening, challenging, as well as educational. So many teachers looked at me and saw a hoodlum on the outside. Mr. Hogue didn't. He looked at me and saw potential, and did his best to change me from a racist hoodlum, to a decent non-bigoted member of society, that could actually do something positive in this life instead of continuing on the path of negativity that I had chosen. The classroom that Mr. Hogue once taught in at Bell Gardens High School, still stands today, but there is a different teacher there and a new generation of students. There is nothing left of our days there, but the ghosts of our memories. At the time of this writing, it is 26 years later. I am now middle aged and Mr. Hogue is still around and retired now. I was recently blessed to find him on www.classmates.com. I wrote to him and he remembered me and began to write back. I am thankful that I was given the chance to e-mail him to let him know just how much I appreciated him. There are a lot of teachers who go through their careers teaching thousands of students, but to have very few of those students let them know how much they are appreciated, and what their teaching actually meant to them. He may not have won the Pulitzer Prize, or went on to become President of the United States, but he will always be remembered by those of us who really appreciated having him as our teacher. Mr. Dale Hogue, I salute you, Sir! This page serves as a Tribute to one of the greatest teachers ever, Mr. Dale Hogue. Below are some of his recent emails to me. These are written by him and are copyrighted. None of the poems, letters, or emails may be reproduced without FULL CREDIT given to their author, Mr. Dale Hogue. I hope these inspire you as he continues to inspire me a quarter of a century later!. Johnny Lee Clary **Below is a letter I received from Mr. Hogue's son Bob, which proves that Mr. Hogue was not only a great teacher, but he practiced what he taught at home and his wisdom proved a HUGE success for his son! The tree of Knowledge bears the noblest fruit!
Dear John,
Thank you for
your wonderful tribute to my father, Dale Hogue. Although I
don't recall meeting you, I first had the opportunity to meet several of
his students when I was in 5th grade and he was teaching at Montebello
Intermediate (in the mid 1960's). Dad was running for City
Council at the time and he got some of students so enthused with the
political process that they willingly came out to help him campaign.
I'll never forget how much they appreciated the fact that an adult
actually treat them with respect (and truly cared about their own
futures). Dad didn't win, but he made a huge impact on one young
person--me.
As an adult, I have privately
tried to pass on some of his teachings to my own children (and
publicly through several of the magazine articles that I have written
in Hawaii.) And a couple of years ago, I took a page from his
political playbook and ran for office. Today, I have the title
of Senator Bob Hogue, Minority Floor Leader in the Hawaii State
Senate. More importantly, I can proudly call myself Dale Hogue's
son.
Aloha and Thanks
again,
Bob Hogue
Kailua, Hawaii
I am a retired high school teacher.
From 1954 through 1996, at different times during these 42 years, I
taught high school English, American Literature, Speech and Drama and
History of the United States. I taught students of every
stripe: good ones who wanted to learn and worked extremely hard,
average ones who learned when I pushed the right buttons and got them
interested in what I was teaching, and poor students who sat in my
class with a closed mind and dared me to teach them anything that they
might find worth their time and effort. I liked them all, some a
bit more than others, but I gave all of them the same chance to learn.
Some of my former students are doctors, some are lawyers, some are
businessmen and businesswomen, some are teachers, some are carpenters,
some are plumbers, some are painters, but all of them turned out to be
good American citizens. Many of them keep in contact with me via
e-mail, many of them call me on the phone from time to time, many of
them come to my house for a visit. If you are interested in
some of the poems and essays that I have written you may read them on
this page.
Email Mr. Hogue: dalenale@juno.com
Mr. Hogue's Feature Article:
*To Be Or Not To Be A Patriot--That
Is the Question*
by
Dale Hogue
A patriot is a person who is devoted to and
ready to support or defend his or her
country. A patriot can be a nationalist
or loyalist. A patriot can be a flag-waver,
jingo or a jingoist or, even, a chauvinist.
Most people like being called a patriot
while others haven't quite made up their minds
whether being a patriot is good or
not.
Consider the words jingo, jingoist or
chauvinist for a minute or two. These words
may cause one to shy away from being a patriot
if they are going to be called by a
name that one doesn't encounter very often in
every day conversations. I will give
you some information about the meanings
of these words, but it's going to be up
to you to decide if you want to be known as a
jingo, a jingoist, a chauvinist or even
a patriot.
A jingo is a supporter of a policy favoring going
to war in order to solve any misunderstandings, misconceptions,
misinterpretations or misgivings about a
problem that can't be settled in a civilized
manner.
"By jingo" is a mild oath. In
as much as I don't use mild oaths, I'm not quite
sure what "by jingo" means when used
as mild oath! I think it just might mean something like
"by God", but I wouldn't swear to it. Now, a
person who is a
jingoist is considered by some people to
be a blustering patriot or a warmonger.
It has been my experience, that not too many
people want to be considered a
warmonger or, a blustering anything, let alone
a blustering patriot. He or she
is thought of as a belligerent person
who is filled to the brim with bellicosity.
Bellicose people are eager to
fight at a drop of a hat. They are considered, by
victims of this bellicosity, as bullies.
I've never met anybody who wanted to
be called a bully--at least not to his face.
So, you see, if you are pugnacious
then, if people are smart, they don't want to
rattle your cage very often, if at all.
It's no accident that our national symbol is a
bald eagle. Eagles by nature are
birds of prey who have keen eyesight and
powerful flight. They don't take to
being riled up or teased by any other bird or
by any animal, including humans.
They become bellicose when they are agitated. If
you throw a rock at one of
these birds, it will fly away, but
if you continue to throw rocks in a manner
that appears to the eagle that you mean to do
it harm, then you can count on
it becoming hawkish, voracious and madder
than hell at you. If it gets to this
stage, I would suggest that you back off and
reconsider your actions. Eagles
will attack you and kick your ass--so to
speak.
A chauvinist is a person exhibiting
chauvinism. Chauvinism is exaggerated or
aggressive patriotism. A chauvinist shows
excessive or prejudiced support or
loyalty for one's cause. In short, he or
she is a patriot who will kick your ass
if you continue to throw rocks or
bombs or bullets at him or her. Which is
what President Bush intended to do to
Saddam Hussein and all terrorists who
associated themselves with Iraq--whether they
had WMDs or not.
Now, my friend, it's up to you. Do you
want "To be or not to be a patriot?"
Dale Hogue November 15, 2005
**Black or Colored or
African-American?
Perhaps you remember
reading my most recent letter to New York
Times Op-Ed columnist Bob
Herbert--or not. Anyway, I generally write
letters to any columnist whom
I feel has written a good column. Not all
columnists put their e-mail
address out there for just anyone to send
comments about their writing,
but Bob does, so, from time to time, I
fire off an e-mail note to let
him know just how his latest column had set
with me.
Inasmuch as Bob is an
avowed leftist, you can imagine what I write
concerning his political
views. However, earlier this week Bob wrote an
interesting column about his
experiences growing up black in America.
I enjoyed the column and let
him know that I thought it was the type of
column he should write more
often. In this particular column, Herbert
referred to his family and his
friends as being African American.
While I found this
particular Bob Herbert column interesting and
well written, his reference to
being an African American kind of put me
off. I'm not fond of calling
Americans by hyphenated names, so I did
some thinking on the subject
and I tinkered a bit with a follow up letter
that I plan to send him when
the time is ripe. What follows is the result
of some of the tinkering I've
done on the subject of hyphenated names
and my thoughts on the topic
that columnist Bob Herbert wrote about
in that particular
column--choices.
I've sent this letter
to you before I send it to him. Now, consider
this: some "blacks" who call
themselves African Americans get a bit
touchy when it comes
to words making reference to their skin color,
so I might be on shaky ground
here, but I am determined to have my
say even if this essay is not
politically correct among members of that
political party way over there
on the left side of the American political
spectrum.
Those Americans
who happen to have darker skin are not African
Americans. Most of these
African Americans have never been to Africa in
their life and have no
intention of ever going there. Also, far too many of
these African Americans have
no clue as to the history of Africa. Some of
them have no idea where Africa
is located on the map. Only a very few of
have ever been to Africa.
Most so-called African Americans are as much
a stranger to the customs of
the African continent as they are to some of
the customs of white America.
At one time the Spanish
referred to them as Negroes--meaning people
who are black. Some of these
southerners called them niggers for no other
reason than that was the way
the word Negro was pronounced by them.
For some reason, known only to
white American liberals, the word nigger
has become a word that
is insulting to those whose skin is darker than the
rest of us.
Whatever the case,
Negro, nigger, black or colored are some of the
descriptive terms used by both
black Americans and white Americans to
describe those whose ancestors
were, for centuries, brought from Africa
to be slaves first to the
Spanish explorers, then to the French, then to the
English and finally to the
Americans who set the slaves free some eighty
years after we became a
nation.
Why should I call
these people African Americans? As far as I am
concerned, they are Americans
who happen to be just a little bit darker
than I am. If these people
are called African Americans, why am I not
called a European American?
So what is the big deal? My skin just
happens to be whiter than the
skin of black Americans but not as white
as Michael Jackson's skin who
is considered an African American! Go
figure!
If some of us are so
hell-bent on pointing out distinctions between us
and them, why not call them
Ebony Americans or Americans who are
lucky enough to have
a beautiful sun tan in a rich ebony color. They can
call us Americans, whose skin
is a lighter than theirs, Whitey or Ivory
Americans!
Whatever the color of
one's skin, some of the Ebony Americans are
concerned about the fact
that not all of the Ebony youths are taking
advantage of the golden
educational opportunities that are offered to all
of them on a silver
platter. These young Ebony people can enroll in the
same public and private
schools as Ivory youths and can learn whatever
is being taught in some of
these colorless classrooms, that's if they work
as hard as the other
students.
Just think about this for a
moment, these Ebony kids have exactly the
same opportunity as kids of
any color to work at being the person that
they want to be. Ebonites can
spend their days in a classroom learning
study skills that will help
them to learn those skills they must know to
master all the information
that is taught to them. You know, information
we all need in order to learn
the skills we must have in order to get good
jobs in one trade union or
another. Or, if they work harder, they can get
the good grades that are
needed to qualify them for those colleges and
universities that prepare them
for this profession or that one. Wouldn't
you think that it's hard to
beat that kind of opportunity?
They can learn to obey the
laws set forth by God (and overturned by
the Supreme Court) or they can
learn to obey the laws of the USA, like
the rest of us. They may even
learn which law is which. If they don't,
it's not because they
can't, it's because they refuse to.
In these United States
there are black Americans who have learned
how to be doctors, artists,
con-artists, lawyers becoming politicians,
merchants,
sales people, teachers, tailors, carpenters, painters, and a
thousand other work skills
that allow them to make a living at more
jobs than you can shake a
stick at. They need to know that there's
many lawful ways to make a
good living in this country. However,
if these Ebony children
won't take advantage of these educational
opportunities, it's the fault
of the child, not the fault of the American
educational system.
The elders in
the Ebony community realistically believe that young
people who want to learn,
can make something of their lives, that is,
if they are willing to work as
hard as the very best students in school.
However, too many young
Ebonites don't see all the opportunities in
the same way as their elders.
And that, my friend, is the rub!
Now, with all the
information that I have already given you, I must
point out
that this Whitey won't blame Ivory Americans for those
failures that Ebony
children will carry around as baggage, for it's a
lack of passion for everything
in school beyond playing basketball
that creates problems for
these young people.
However, these tough
problems, made tougher by a surly attitude
that parents must combat in
order for them to do the job that they
should be doing---making
their Ebony children realize that getting
ahead in our society depends
on putting forth the right amount of
effort in order for them to
create that good life that is desired by all
those who take
advantage of their educational opportunities, you
know, the one that is
offered to all America's children regardless of
color, race, creed or ethnic
background.
You can bet that most of
the countries in Africa don't offer their
beautiful Ebony children the
type of educational opportunities they
get in the United States of
America, free of charge, no less. Ebony
children of America are given
the power to choose their own future
and it's up to them to choose
wisely and carefully.
Dale Hogue July 8, 2005
Subject: Some Celebrities Owe Americans An Apology.
I'm sure that most
of the celebrities, and I'm including
the Dixie Chicks, who have made remarks that are anti-Bush,
anti-American and anti-war comments, in the last couple of
months really do believe that they should not be penalized
for making these remarks. Some Americans think differently!
Like little children, they believe that they can say any
thing with impunity simply because they are celebrities who
are in show business. Unfortunately for them, celebrities are
asked to pay a higher price than the ordinary guy or gal who
makes what many Americans believe are unpopular remarks
on controversial subjects at inopportune times.
If their remarks have made the ticket buying customers
angry at them, then they must understand that the same rights
that allowed them to spout off belongs also with those who pay
for these tickets.
When a celebrity is in a high profile profession, it is not
the smartest thing in the world to make remarks that are going to
come back to bite them in the ass. Crying about
a black list just
makes some of the ticket buying public even more disgusted with
them. It's not the way to win friends and influence people.
These celebrities, including the Dixie Chicks, had their say
without really thinking about how the public might react to their
remarks and they are going to be feeling the heat for a period of
time. I suggest that they might find that it is better to
keep their
mouths shut and their opinions to themselves and hope that
the
public will forget what they said even if, at the moment,
they appear
not to be in a forgiving mood.
Dale Hogue April 25, 2003
=========================================== ***BEHIND A RAINBOW'S END*** I've learned- ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Pro-Choice or Pro-Life--What should
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