Published February 21. 2021 12:01AM By Lisa McGinley I wish you could hear the Rev. Florence Clarke preach. She intones. I wish you could see her, tall and imposing in her clerical robes, but not prideful. Humble. She doesn't waste your time or attention; she composes her sermons with a journalist's economy of words and a dramatist's flair for the surprise turn of a thought. "Why say 'elephant' when you can say 'ant'?" is a maxim with her. Florence Clarke turns 80 today. It is a joyous day for a woman who grew up in Klan territory in South Carolina and joined the Jim Crow protests of the Civil Rights Movement. She has lived long enough and made enough of an impact to see the change and be the change. She is still preaching because she has a lot left to say. She did not always say it aloud.