Ron Scogin writes on ‘The Power of the Pencil’

With all the news circulating the world today--the many different news outlets and informational avenues--we, many times, find it hard to believe them all. As the world started changing over the last several years, most all of us have found that news has been hard to swallow.
As for myself, a southern born and raised senior citizen, I have found there is a lot of satisfaction between the pencil and paper. My life over the last 10 years has found me sitting at my dining room table putting what is on my mind onto lined writing sheets. My life has been filled with my raising, my God and my family.  This is to include my brothers and sisters of the church.
Each morning, I find myself waking well before dawn with thoughts and issues that will not allow me to sleep anymore, and I will rise to start my day. The day never starts until I have thanked my God for giving me another one.
When rising from the bed, I always find myself opening my phone news to see if there have been any new events I must take into consideration as I start that day. Since I work on my farm during the day, I will always check the weather. From there, I will read the main headlines, checking the world events.
Many people do not realize, if you can understand it correctly, you will not only see which way the world is headed, but which way God is guiding it. To most people, those world events, as well as our own nation’s events, start with words of explanation by writers as to what is happening.
We, in most all cases, have reporters and editors sitting at their desks pressing buttons that put our issues onto the screen for this world to read. But let me bring to life all the reality of it. Before we had those buttons, in centuries before, we had pens with ink and pencils with graphite.
The pencil, with an approximate development date of the 1560s, was established by using a strange substance from an uprooted ash tree clinging to the roots. The shepherds of those days found it to be a great marking material for their sheep.
This quickly became a material that was wrapped with paper, string or twigs. And as one unknown writer of the early 1600s said, ‘It was a pleasure taking notes with that new material.’
I also found another of his statements very interesting. “For you may rub out againe when you will with the crums of new wheate bred,” he wrote.
The pencil we know today was established with wadd (graphite), in England in the 1700s. It was also used to rub guns and weapons to stop rusting.
With all this being brought to life, the pencil actually gave life to words.
Another one of my favorite statements is from this country’s greatest man, George Washington.
Spread throughout the news of that day were these words: “It is better to offer no excuse than a bad one. It is better to be alone than in bad company. If freedom of speech is taken away, then dumb and silent we may be lead, like sheep to the slaughter.”
You will notice the last part of that statement was placed on paper, by pen or pencil, in thought of Biblical writings. However, I do want to elaborate upon this one fact: what we say, write and publish concerning the news--it must, I say, must--be real and true.
As I go on, I return to the news I consume every day. I find within that news so many false writings using the worst of literature. What do these news media companies do? Where do they get some of their writers? I’m not sure it’s from an education department of a well-organized and grounded school system. I often find more sense coming from my young grandchildren than I do many of those writers. At least when I walk away from my grandchildren, a grounded and common-sense conversation has taken place. Maybe that’s because of how they have been raised.
We, today, are facing the greatest war against our news media. I find that with all the incorrect information I read, it is better to pick up my local newspaper. At least here we will find truth in what we consume as readers. Why? Because we can firsthand get real news because it comes from where we live.
Without going a lot further with my pencil, I want to say, as George Washington said in one of his writings, “We cannot leave out the influence of our Creator of the universe, whose divine interposition was so frequently manifested in our behalf.”  
Let me say this as I understand what He was writing: Our Creator stepped into the events, and directed an outcome that brought us to this great country. Events such as the battle after Washington crossed the Delaware in the Revolutionary War, the Civil War where slavery was abolished and events in our World Wars that proved God had been present.
We have the Deity of the One who will not allow His words to go unchecked and unfulfilled. This is to say through Him--all pen, penciled or button-pushed words must be explained in truth.
I want to say to the local newspapers: keep on printing the real and true news. Fake news button pushers, pens and pencils writers--get it right.  Write and print the truth. You must get it right, because whether you are caught by man or not, our Creator is writing down what we read, and He never forgets. I’m not sure if He uses a pen or a pencil, but I do know He is recording it. Truth is what our children need.
I want to thank my local hometown Journal-Record for the privilege to place my penciled thoughts here about one of the world’s greatest influencers--the news.
We truly are what we read.
(Editor’s note: A man of many trades, Ron has been a home builder and a public works director, and has experience in waste water and street departments. He also worked with an insurance adjusting firm, covering all “lower 48 states.” In his retirement, he has found enjoyment in farming, pastoring for Restoration Community Church and doing theological writings on the Bible. This is his first guest column for the Journal-Record. Ron has been married to his wife, Gloria, for 53 years. They live in Hamilton in the church parsonage. near Marion County Lake. Their daughter, Heather, is married to Gary Phillips III and there are three grandchildren: Parker, Zoie and Rachel.)