DATE: Monday, September 22, 1997            TAG: 9709220085

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B2   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY JOHN-HENRY DOUCETTE, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: PORTSMOUTH                        LENGTH:   63 lines

COPELAND: FAMILIES NEED VISION TO GUIDE CHILDREN

Tall, eloquent and successful, Robert A. Copeland came home this weekend, 25 years after leaving, to speak at the Central Civic Forum's ``Tribute to American Families'' dinner, held at the Effingham Street YMCA.

He followed older attendees to the podium Saturday.

One explained, ``We who live here call this home.''

Another suggested that folks who walk fast might want to ``grab the slow by the hand and pull them along.''

It was the type of inspirational microphone-speak not uncommon at civic league dinners, and the Forum has seen a few of those in its 54 years here.

Copeland, 43, a vice president for AT&T Solutions, is the type of person many civic-minded folks want their children to emulate.

When his turn came, he raised the microphone and talked to people who share a belief that the cross-section of civic groups making up the Forum can do something.

The concept we call ``the family'' is hurting, he said. The family has unraveled and this is harming the community.

``Are we starting to hit close to home? Are we beginning to walk down somebody's street? Before we're done we might climb up on somebody's porch.''

Copeland asked the group about vision. ``What does your future look like?''

And he told them what a leader is: ``someone you follow to a place you might not go to on your own.''

He criticized slow-to-change politicians. He spoke of men who moved people: Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X, John F. Kennedy. Even Adolf Hitler.

``It works as well for the evil as it does for the good,'' he said.

Now, he explained, evil is luring children away from the community. Not just in Portsmouth - everywhere. It is up to the community to have clear vision and lead the children well.

Copeland said the community played a part in raising him, weaving together the threads of the fabric that became his character.

He remembered living in a community of parents. But he fears that may be missing today and we should get it back.

After he sat down, others went to the mike and remarked how his ``comments were right on time.'' One even calculated that ``we are stronger in numbers than alone.''

Copeland's words were not lost in the awards and comments.

They touched people such as Margaret Jenkins, a Portsmouth woman who attended the dinner because Alton Hatten, her father, received an award for running a program that teaches young people about golf.

``I loved it,'' Jenkins said. ``It was right in line with how I feel about having a vision.''

Hatten started with seven children seven years ago. This year there were 63 in the program.

``There's no reason we can't have the vision to touch the young people,'' Hatten said. ``We've got the material here to do it.''

People, he meant.

The world needs so many more like Hatten, Copeland said, but the people who need to hear the types of things said at civic dinners usually do not attend. Copeland said there is nothing wrong with preaching to the choir.

``These are very influential people,'' he said. ``They can go out and touch those people who weren't here tonight and reach those people.''

Perhaps then more young people could say the words that Copeland closed with Saturday night, 25 years after he left Portsmouth.

``Thank you for raising me,'' he said. ``It's been a pleasure coming back.''

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