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McDonald mayor’s message: Serve people with Godly love
By LINDA M. LINONIS
GIRARD
Early in life, McDonald Mayor Glenn W. Holmes learned “how to read” people by serving them and built a career on that ability. The speaker at the 30th annual Mayors’ Prayer Breakfast on Tuesday said “the position of servitude is the ultimate strength position.”
Holmes spoke on “Walking By Faith” to about 190 people of many religions at the annual gathering at Mahoning Country Club, 710 E. Liberty St. He said a “pivotal moment in his life” was the realization that “God don’t make no junk ... and learning that God loves me.”
He said that enabled him to move forward “serving people with godly love.”
Holmes, who will enter his third four-year term as mayor in 2016, said he learned about people through his newspaper delivery route, working as a caddie and learning “to read the green” and being a clothing salesman. Holmes is a substation inspector for Ohio Edison and also worked at the FBI.
He added that his background was enhanced by a family who promoted church attendance as he was growing up. “We were in church a couple of days during the week and all day Sunday,” he recalled. Holmes attends Trinity Fellowship Church in Boardman. That faith foundation led him to understand the “spiritual truth that love can come out of hate.”
“I believe if I sincerely go about doing my job, that’s power and strength,” Holmes said. But, he said, people have “gotten away from serving with godly principles.”
Holmes said “love and forgiveness are the universal spiritual truth.”
He pointed out as Americans celebrate Thanksgiving, the observance recalls the country’s foundation on God. But, he said, people have the freedom to worship differently.
Holmes shared a story about his nephew, a pilot in the Air Force on missions behind enemy lines to help U.S. forces. “This impacted me ... his degree of passion,” Holmes said, referring to depth of devotion to serve others while being in harm’s way.
“I would like to think in our daily walk we show strength,” Holmes said. He led a chorus of “God Bless America” to end his talk.
Imam Walid Abuasi of the Islamic Society of Youngstown offered a prayer of powerful beliefs. “There is no religion that calls for hate and killing. There is no glory and dignity in killing,” he said. Imam Abuasi said those who say Islam promotes these things know anything about Islam.
“We need peace, morality, kindness and mutual respect,” he urged.
In recognition of the 30th breakfast, Pat Ungaro, Liberty Township administrator, recalled the beginning.
When he served as mayor of Youngstown from 1984-97, he said his administrative assistant, the late Edna Pincham, was the first woman and first black in such a position. “The times were rough,” Ungaro recalled. “We had lost some 50,000 jobs and organized crime was a problem. We were in a spiritual depression.”
Ungaro credited Pincham “as the driving force” to establish the mayors’ prayer breakfast with MVAC. “It’s nice to see it’s lasted,” he said.