Pauper or Poet?

By Tom Siebert

Carl Sandburg was a three-time recipient of the Pulitzer Prize for his poetry. One day Carl showed up unannounced at the high school bearing his name in Orland Park, Illinois. The principal thought the shabbily dressed man was a vagabond and asked him to leave. When the famous poet returned later with an ID, the principal cancelled classes for the day and held an assembly in his honor. The Bible states, “If you show partiality, you commit sin, and are convicted by the law as transgressors” (James 2:9). Perhaps an assembly should have been held to honor the “vagabond.”