Focus on People: Capt. William Brown
By Carol Eubanks
Garrison Public Affairs Office
“We have to reach out to others,” says Capt. William Brown, Chief of Military Justice with First U.S. Army. “I tell young people that you have to commit yourself to selfless service.” He practices what he preaches by reaching out to others in numerous ways.
According to Capt. Kimeisha McCullum, plans officer with the First U.S. Army Public Affairs Office, Brown “is an outstanding volunteer and community service worker. His volunteer activities include serving as a role model for troubled teens in the Omega Boys and Girls Club, speaking at numerous elementary schools and church youth programs and volunteering to work with Habitat for Humanity.” She adds, “… CPT Brown and wife, Dr. Marilyn Brown, who is a pediatrician, … have established the Brown Family Foundation, which provides educational scholarships to students interested in attending law school or medical school.”
Describing his volunteer work, Brown begins with the Omega Boys and Girls Club. He says it’s designed to, “pull youth away from gangs ... [and] involvement [with] drugs.” He goes on to say it’s an organization where, “they can get involved in creative, productive and educational programs to help them take charge of their lives.” He says he and other attorneys serve as role models to the youth, “letting them know about the opportunities that are in the Army and the other armed services.”
Brown said he’s served as a judge for a nationwide teen court program. He says it’s a “peer justice system … that empowers youth to get involved in the understanding of the judicial system. Students … serve as the defense attorney, the prosecutor and the jury for other teenagers who have gotten in trouble with misdemeanor-type crimes, and they’re judged by their peers.” He says the program has been extraordinarily successful in keeping youth from the kind of trouble that takes them down the path to the juvenile justice system and the penal system.
Another way Brown reaches out is by simply talking to children. When speaking to youth, Brown says he stresses faith, family, education and associating with positive people. On education, he says, “We have to stop selling our young people a dream that you can go on and play in the National Football League or in the NBA. ... It’s a slim chance of getting selected to play professional sports.”
However, he says, “Education levels the playing field.” He adds, “People pay you for what you know and the more you know, the more you’ll get paid. The more you get paid, the more opportunities you have.”
Brown has also contributed his time and efforts to Habitat for Humanity. He says, “The thing that I like most about that program is that it gives underserved, underprivileged families an opportunity to have a home … and the program is not one where we would just give them a home. It’s a program where they have to get involved. They have to put in some sweat equity to help build that home, and that gives them a greater sense of ownership, pride and dignity.”
In conclusion he says, “That’s my story. I hope that in a small way that encourages others to get involved in community service organizations … and help their communities in a positive way.”
(Editor’s note: Watch Focus on People featuring Brown on Fort McPherson’s Channel 21 Monday at noon and Thursday at 10 a.m. To nominate a person for recognition in Focus on People, send the reason for recognition and contact information in an e-mail message to Carol Eubanks of the U.S. Army Garrison Public Affairs Office at carol.eubanks@forscom. army.mil.)
Reprinted with Permission.
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