50/50: Finding Life’s Balance for All Human Beings

By Gregory L. Doctor

Has your life ever felt out of balance? Has it ever seemed to you that society is imbalanced, with racial and economic disparities unfairly affecting people’s lives—and maybe even your own? More importantly, in the face of these inequalities, where can you turn for answers and solutions? In 50/50: Finding Life’s Balance for All Human Beings, author Gregory L. Doctor explores the history of social inequality and oppression, sharing his own story and showing you how to discover that there is something more to your life. God has a message for you, and by listening to this valuable lesson, you can learn how to be your brother’s keeper and live powerfully and in balance. The key is to embrace the fifty-fifty rule: be a well-informed learner for one part of your life, but become a knowledgeable teacher for the other half. By blending the two together, you can live a completely balanced life and be in a position to help someone younger live a complete and balanced life too.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lulu Publishing Services
• Release date: Mar 2, 2018
• ISBN: 9781483480602

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DOCTOR

Copyright © 2018 Gregory L. Doctor.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored, or transmitted by any means—whether auditory, graphic, mechanical, or electronic—without written permission of the author, except in the case of brief excerpts used in critical articles and reviews. Unauthorized reproduction of any part of this work is illegal and is punishable by law.

This book is a work of non-fiction. Unless otherwise noted, the author and the publisher make no explicit guarantees as to the accuracy of the information contained in this book and in some cases, names of people and places have been altered to protect their privacy.

Scripture quotations taken from the New English Bible, copyright © Cambridge University Press and Oxford University Press 1961, 1970. All rights reserved.

ISBN: 978-1-4834-8061-9 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4834-8060-2 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2018901342

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

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Lulu Publishing Services rev. date: 2/16/2018

Introduction

I would like to start out this book by providing some background about myself. I was born the youngest of four biological children in Charleston, South Carolina, having two older brothers, Herman Myron Doctor and Kerman Duvall Doctor (Retired Fire Fighter), and a sister, Pamela Renee Doctor. When I was fourteen years old, my mother and my father adopted my little sister, Laquana, to fulfill my older sister’s wishes of having a younger sister. She was a handicapped Wednesday’s child who had been featured on a weekly show that the local television stations broadcasted in the indigenous area of Charleston, South Carolina.

We were brought up under strict guidance from our parents, Herman and Vermell Doctor. They understood the struggles that most minorities must go through in order to be successful. They instilled in us respect for God, self, and people, regardless of the color of their skin or the deficiency of their character, but also taught us to always demand the reciprocal. Growing up as the youngest, I was afforded the opportunity to observe many good decisions, as well as bad decisions, made by my older siblings. This helped strengthen me more as a young black man trying to succeed in a very rigid world.

At a very early age, back in 1975, I was intertwined with my best friend, William Gilliard—known then as Tony and now as Reverend Dr. Gilliard—as bus 51 picked him up from the bus stop two minutes from my home. He and I started a journey that we still travel to this very day (more on a mental level now). We set goals and challenged ourselves to reach beyond our preconceived limitations. We set the bar so high that if we did not achieve our goals, at least by getting close to the goal we would still be successful. This state of mind propelled us in sports and many other areas of life as young teenagers.

We were both blessed to have strong father figures while growing up. I can truly attribute who I am today not only to having one strong father but to our having had many strong father figures throughout our childhoods. They taught us the importance of always keeping God at the head of everything in life.

The old adage It takes a village to raise a child was so true and relevant in our small community of Sanders. The one-way-in and one-way-out road that we grew up on was filled with family and friends, and the friends were also family in everyone’s eyes. All the families in the Sanders community were extremely tight-knit.

Tony and I would take walks and talk about things we wanted to accomplish in life and where we wanted to be by adulthood. Thanks to the love of God, both of us are still healthy and are forging ahead toward the next chapters of our untold stories.

My childhood seemed to be like a heavenly dream. My brothers and I played basketball, football, hunted, built clubhouses, and went fishing with our cousins, Sammy (Retired Sergeant Major, Marine Corps) and Reesie, who were also our next-door neighbors. They were more like brothers than cousins. We did everything that kids did growing up in the country.

I started noticing a change in my demeanor and my priorities around my junior year in high school. The words, stories, and thoughts set out by older individuals became more important to me. I would go and sit with and listen to my grandfather Legare, who was a preacher, and my grandfather Doctor, who was also heavily involved with the church. Grand-Uncle Reverend Joseph Heyward (Uncle Bubzie) and Reverend Robert Deas, from across the tracks—who both were family and the heads of two successful churches in Charleston County—also provided countless tales and insights. My dad, along with these men, influenced me in ways that are still unexplainable today. They told me about the old times and how important it is to always have a sense of urgency about the importance of making a difference in this short life that God has granted each of us. Influenced by many successful men, I was determined to be different and to make wise decisions based on respecting others and catapulting myself toward success as an individual of God, as well as to strengthen my psyche, so that one day I could make an impact on this world.

At this time, it was not clear to me how important education is to becoming an accomplished and successful individual in this mundane life. Fortunately, I graduated from high school at the age of seventeen without failing any grades. Faced with the decision of where to go from there, I contemplated going to college but kept hearing my parents harp about the deficiency of money and how hard it was to make it in this world today. I decided to join the military.

I began the army’s early-entry program in May 1988 and then active service in September 1988. I spent five exciting years in army aviation. While I was in, I really embraced education as a true friend, but my immediate duties as a platoon sergeant and crew chief supervisor superseded my educational desires.

After my five years in the military, it was time for