Out there for the right reasons

By Jeff Becraft

The other week, I was down with some other people on the State House grounds and we were passing out some information about Our Place of Hope to certain legislators and also advocating for mental health. We had split up and we were going to each take different offices and different floors.

I came off the elevator with my satchel of information packets that I am going to deliver. They are already labeled as to what office they go to but they are really tight in the satchel. I set it down to pull out the ones that go with the offices close to me and everything just goes out all over the floor. So here I am… I am in a suit and tie and down on the floor in the Blatt building with stuff now all over the floor right outside the elevator. (You have to make a statement in life…)

A gentleman comes over to me and he asks me if I need any help. I respond, “No, thank you, I’ve got it… but thank you for asking.” I stood up and I asked him, “What’s your role around here?” He responds, “ I’m a state representative.” We talked for a few seconds and then he was off to the business he was there to take care of.

I came home that night and I was telling Brenda this at dinner. I relay to her, “Here he is a state legislator… and he is taking the time to come over and ask me if I need any help, with my folders and whatnot spread out all over the floor right outside the elevator.”

That is something that just really impressed me.

Weeks later, on May 6th, we are down at the State House and this time, we are actually in the lobby. We were joining with a coalition of other groups like ours to advocate for mental health. This is a very real issue in our state. Right now, 216,000 people are living with a serious mental illness. There are solutions and resources like Our Place of Hope that can help people in their lives.

We are there in the lobby with some of our staff and some of our members along with a bunch of other people, and I see this gentleman walk across the lobby. I jump up and I go over and I snag him. I say to him, “You won’t remember me, but I remember you.” I relayed the story back to him and I said, “You came over to me and asked me if I needed help. I was just so impressed with that.” He then responds back to me with a big smile, “Well, isn’t that what we’re supposed to do? Aren’t we here to serve the people?”

We talked a little bit more about it and then he said, “Well, that’s just the way my Mama raised me.”

I have no idea what party he is a part of and I am not even going to give his name, because I don’t want anyone to go look up what party he’s a part of. That would miss the whole point. The point is that he is a state legislator who has a great heart and attitude and is there to serve people and to serve our state.

The thing is… he’s not the only one. Now, there are a lot of state legislators I have not met and I realize that anywhere you go in our society, you are going to find people there for the wrong reasons: they can be selfish, irritable, and some are corrupted.

But all I can say is that there are numerous legislators I have met who are there because they want to serve people and they want to serve the state of South Carolina. They are not there for themselves.

I met one representative from the Greenville area who was one of the nicest people I ever met in my life. He was so humble. Here he is a legislator and he is thanking us for the job we are doing out in the community. It wasn’t about him at all.

I met another young guy with a young family who is in his first year of being a state legislator. He became a state representative to… again… serve people and serve our state, to make our state the best it can possibly be. There was no selfishness in it all. Now these men and women also have to maintain a full-time job at home and have family responsibilities. They are not full-time paid politicians.

All I can say is this: that there are people who are out there for the right reasons. They are there to serve others. Those kinds of people deserve special honor and special thanks and I appreciate their sacrifice for others and for our state.

Jeff Becraft is the Director of Our Place of Hope located in Columbia, South Carolina, where people find encouragement to regain meaning, purpose, and hope for their lives. Jeff has dedicated much of his life to helping shift the vision of people’s lives. If you would like Jeff to speak to your group or event, you can connect with him at  [email protected].