Paying It Forward: Giving thanks, blessing others #142
The biblical question, "Am I the keeper of my brother," is a moral obligation not just for physical protection, but also to show love, provide help and contribute to the well being of community.
Jack Browne, Wichita Falls Times Record News edition, Sunday November 30, 2025
I hope you and yours enjoyed your Thanksgiving together with great food while creating lasting memories for young and old.
Gathering over food brings us together. Sharing stories strengthens relationships. Humans are social animals, functioning best as part of a community.
Communities thrive together or fail together.
Locally our region is doing well, leveraging a strong economic engine at Sheppard Air Force Base, blessed with great medical care from birth to death by many entities ranging from United Regional to Hospice.
Our children have excellent educational opportunities from local public, private, and religious affiliated schools with Midwestern State University and Vernon College offering post-secondary education skills to build the valuable employees needed by local businesses.
Our tax base is growing. State coffers offer funds to finance needs like water, education and medical care by leveraging our resources and business successes to ease the individual tax burdens for these services.
Today economic engines of the world are changing as the productivity of Artificial Intelligence (AI) drives companies to reduce staff. Some are driven by understand and planning. Others like lemmings, are cutting staff to satisfy investors.
“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times,” wrote Charles Dickens, in “A Tale of Two Cities” published in 1859 in London.
While writing of Parisian’s experiences during the French Revolution from 1789-1799, his writing equally applied to society’s experiences during the Industrial Revolution of 1760 to 1840.
The French Revolution came about as the gap between aristocrat and commoner grew to the point where 90% of French citizens faced food shortages under King Louis XVI. His Queen, Marie Antionette infamously said, “Let them eat cake.”
Today’s employment picture has more people looking for work than the number of opportunities. Entry level jobs are limited as AI fills many roles that provided the foundational experiences for career growth.
Let’s revisit Dickens, reviewing the entire first sentence and paragraph of his classic:
“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way—in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only.”
In our community, similar paradox exists with the gap between the haves and have-nots growing. Thanksgiving opens the year-ending holiday season as most celebrate the blessings of life, family and friends.
However, many others in our community face the coming winter weather with insufficient resources of food, clothing, shelter and employment.
Consider how your blessings can help others, often with simple changes and minimal impact to the donor.
Forgoing a coffee purchase can brighten another light during Hospice of Wichita Falls, Tree of Lights. Donating food or funds can feed another family during these holidays.
Unused or lightly used clothing helps many without shelter deal with the coming weather changes. Remember the pets at shelters and consider pet food donations or funds as well.
But the most precious thing you can give is time. Time for a blood donation, serving a meal to those seeking food, or even just gathering funds to keep the lights on for the MSU-Burns Fantasy of Lights.
Volunteer with funds, time, clothing, food to make a difference locally, and team with others at your business, church or organization to:
Donate Blood: https://ourbloodinstitute.org/where/donor-centers/wichita-falls-donor-center/
Feed those in need Wichita Falls Area Food Bank https://www.wfafb.org/volunteer
Help the homeless: Salvation Army, https://southernusa.salvationarmy.org/wichita-falls/ or Wichita Falls Faith Mission,
https://faithmissionwf.org
Light the tree: Hospice of Wichita Falls Tree of Lights campaign, https://www.howf.org/get-involved/tree-of-lights/
Share smiles and joy at MSU – Burns Fantasy of https://fol.msutexas.edu/boot-collection-volunteers.php
We are our brother’s keeper, all in this together.
Jack Browne is a community activist and former technology engineer, sales and marketing executive at Motorola and other top tech companies.