Marietta High School students working to have former basketball coach Charlie Hood honored by naming the Garden or its court for him are to be commended. Coach Hood, a great coach, was an even greater contributor to the community as a man of character. His influence on lives on the court and outside the sporting arena has been admirable.

These students are showing wisdom beyond their years. An article in the MDJ said, "It is refreshing to see young people want to honor history and pay tribute to a special person. ..."

It is a principle dating back to ancient Greece.

The Greeks kept a statue of a former ancestor of note in the entrance of their homes as a reminder to others of past greatness which served as a motivation for excellence.

By honoring those of the past we compliment ourselves by recognizing what good there was in it. By trying to ignore our past and not recognize the good we inherit from it we discredit ourselves. In failing to seize an occasion to honor a person or event of the past we hint at our selfishness.

Our nation has paid tribute to its past by establishing holidays, monuments, days and facilities to pay tribute.

Many sports teams wisely recognize past greats by retiring their number or hanging a banner in their honor.

I have a friend, Bob Plunk, who started what became a highly successful insurance company and retired young. The board brought in a young executive who ignored the former leader and showed disregard for past achievements.

The company began to decline rapidly. They fired the new CEO and brought Bob back, much to their advantage.

Bob said of the young exec, "He didn't know the company's story."

What he meant was the principles and persons who built the company were trashed. What made the company successful was ignored. The clientele they cultivated abandoned the company when the "story" was radically changed. It is a principle that works in all organizations.

That principle has been observed in churches, schools, businesses, and families. To ignore the past is to rob the present and deprive the future.

Our nation is suffering from revisionist historians writing out many heroes and heroics. Their experience and expertise are missing and it is showing.

There is a vital old axiom that is applicable: "What Peter says about Paul says more about Peter than it does Paul."

When people honor their past they are revealing admirable qualities and wisdom within themselves. The opposite is also true.

As chairman of the Board of Trustees at Shorter College, I was asked recently what I thought of conferring an honorary doctorate degree on a Rome native, Gen. Douglas L. Carver, Army Chief of Chaplains, who has shown bravery in a number of battles. I commented, "In honoring him, we honor ourselves."

If the Marietta school system honors Charlie Hood, it will honor itself.

The Rev. Dr. Nelson Price is pastor emeritus of Roswell Street Baptist Church. Contact Price at nlprice@aol.com.