Opinion: Meet the three Toms making Delaware a better place
All three of them are from Delaware. All three of them are beacons of sharing and caring. They epitomize ordinary people doing extraordinary things.
They are all Toms, and although they may not even know each other, they are comrades in service to those in need.
Tom Davis
I met the first Tom, Rev. Tom Davis, slightly over six years ago. He was part of a river of kind and concerned men and women who flowed into Delaware’s first and the only gurdwara (Sikh house of worship) at the time, Sikh Center of Delaware, for a candlelight vigil in the aftermath of the gurdwara shooting in Oak Creek, Wisconsin.
In that terrible incident of hate, six Sikhs were fatally shot during a service by 40-year-old Wade Michael Page in September 2012. Candlelight is an apt metaphor for Tom’s work.
A Vietnam veteran and retired Presbyterian pastor, Tom expressed an interest in learning more about Sikhism. More than that, I think, he was interested in exploring ways to help the local Sikh community heal.
It is no wonder he has been a commissioned interfaith peacemaker in New Castle Presbytery of the Presbyterian Church for many years.
Tom is an avid photographer, writer and musician. His insatiable curiosity extends to learning and using the latest software tools and applications as a way to keep his mind sharp, and he is always happy to help others who don’t find the rising sea of technology friendly and welcoming.
However, Tom’s special service is reflected in his dedication to helping our veterans.
More than 20 veterans take their own lives every day. Most of us, despite our dismay, sadly sigh and then move on to deal with our own day-to-day problems.
But not Tom.
He has been investing all his skills — as a writer, researcher, poet, filmmaker, photographer, man of cloth, singer, instrument player, peace lover, yogi and fundraiser — to this consuming cause. He is focused on creating awareness about the deep and deadly role of the “moral injury” that Tom says is a main factor in the high rate of veterans’ suicides.
In a proactive effort, he established the nonprofit Interfaith Veterans Workshop (IVW) to help veterans connect with each other and various faith communities. Though not a veteran myself, I was also invited to be a part of the IVW, perhaps to strengthen its interfaith participation.
The group is currently working on creating a “Veterans Peace Video Project” under Tom’s leadership. It features quite a menu of activities to constructively engage the state’s veterans, ranging from hiking and writing to meditation and yoga.
Tom Clark
Tom Clark leads an interfaith initiative that is focused on service. He has a great company of men and women to help him in the cause. They label their humanitarian work under the acronym GWACS — God Wants All Children Serving.
I am part of the group that does service every fourth Saturday in Wilmington at the intersection of Front and Lombard. We gather to serve the needy and homeless with everything from baked goods and hot food to many other everyday need items such as toothbrushes, lip balm, hand lotion or clothing. Hats, gloves, socks and jackets have been very much in demand recently.
Tom Clark is a different kind of a leader. He is unassuming and doesn’t talk or smile much. He loves to work with other people but hates meetings.
In fact, the only meeting the group may have ever had was at Vaqar Sharief’s house a few years back.
“We decided from the word go to conduct no meetings, no bureaucracy, no paperwork, no bells and whistles, just focus on the service,” Tom had said at that meeting. The group follows it like a court order.
The only thing that happens away from the physical serving venue is a monthly after-service email communication from Tom that updates the number of servings, gives appreciation for the work done, and provides an update on continuing and new needs.
When I didn’t see Tom in our last December serving, I asked Vaqar, “No Tom?” I learned that he was caring for his ill wife. No wonder the normal connection and cheer was missing during the January service.
Tom’s spirit and strength are reflected in a line from the prayer he uses at the end of each monthly email: “We know what we are doing and what we are doing is not enough; Please help us do more.”
Tom Parkins
The third Tom’s email starts with mrfizzix. Why? Maybe he loves to state his love for physics, humorously!
I knew Tom from his emails in the Newark interfaith group, but we met in person only last December at the “Christmas for All” serving for homeless in Calvary Baptist.
He is a retired physics school teacher who is trying to defeat and diminish the “centrifugal” forces scattering the lives and families of the homeless and disadvantaged in our area. He is the “centripetal” part of many of Newark Empowerment Center’s activities aimed at helping the area’s needy.
NEC works in cooperation with Friendship House with a motto and philosophy of, “A Hand Up, Not a Hand Out.”
Tom’s commitment to service and betterment of others can be judged from his admission, “I pray a dangerous prayer that God will use me to bring joy to others.”
In today’s world where dictators, disruptors and kleptocrats are on rise, “The Three Toms” are uncommon men who share a common name. In this whirlpool of chaos where hate and violence are gaining new currency, what these three do seems blessed and beautiful.
If you would like to become involved in the work they do, please contact them via email: T.C. Davis, [email protected]; Tom Clark, [email protected]; Tom Parkins, [email protected].
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This column was published online by the News Journal/Delawareonline.com on Wednesday, March 20, and printed in its Sunday, March 24th edition.
Print Version:
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