Jones speaks at Chez Hope luncheon

Rep. Sam Jones was guest speaker at Chez Hope’s Unity Day Luncheon held Thursday in association with the Fit, Fun & Fabulous campaign.
Jones noted that shelters and services such as Chez Hope survived state funding cuts. “Because when you get right down to it, how much better can you get than no one was killed as a result of domestic violence for two years,” he said. “That’s a perfect record, that’s a no-hitter and nobody got to first base.”
He commended Chez Hope’s board, staff and volunteers in aiding battered individuals in a professional and thorough, as well as compassionate, manner.
Jones said that after the Las Vegas shooting incident, “I was thinking, living in a small town, I think there’s some defenses against that kind of thing happening. Because you know your neighbor—sometimes you know too much about your neighbor and sometimes they know too much about us—but sometimes you can see it coming. Sometimes you can see someone struggling, someone’s behavior change, and it’s not out of the ordinary for a neighbor or a family member to see it, pull them on the side. Sometimes just talking does the trick.”
Society cannot afford to neglect such situations, or neglect “our youth. When I think about some of the violence that we’ve had in our community recently in the last year, with children 15 or 16 running around with 9mm (handguns), I don’t remember a time like that. Also, when you look at the ball fields, the summer programs today, it’s a fraction of the kids that used to be there. Not because they’re not here, but because they’re doing other things. The boys and girls clubs are gone, the tutorials are gone, the after-school help is pretty much gone. So where do youth go? Well, they go to the corner, they go to the street, they go behind some person who’s self-appointed leader of the lot, someone who’s going the wrong way on a one-way street.”
He promised to keep up on any bills that will affect Chez Hope or any other local government or organizations.
Jones concluded with, “The Good Samaritan was passing down the road and there’s someone who has been robbed, brutalized and near death. Many people come by and pass, they’re just too busy, don’t want to get involved, they don’t care. People of his own sect, his own religion, just pass him by. The Good Samaritan, who was neither of his sect or his religion, felt pity and stopped and helped him, got him to an inn, paid for him, and tried to revive him.
“But that’s not the whole story. He also told the innkeeper he had to go to town, but I’m going to give you the money to do this. But if it ends up costing more, I’m going to stop and square that up with you too.
“I think the calling of Chez Hope is the Good Samaritan hope of the day. It’s often thankless, they work unseen, but the effects of it are a community like this where we don’t have bars on our windows, we have the right to carry a gun but we generally do not because we don’t feel like we have to, we have good strong law enforcement here that integrates itself with the people and the institutions of the community, and I think we just have great affection for each other.”