There is hope for the future

Last week, in my Stuff & Things post, I briefly wrote about a situation involving high schoolers that really upset me. To summarize, students from one school (DC-G) were chanting "Trump, Trump, Trump," and "U-S-A," and "Mini-Mexico" at opposing players (Perry) of Latino descent.  It was not the first time this had happened to Perry students, and apparently they'd had enough. One student wrote a letter to the local newspaper and some area TV media picked it up.

It struck home for me on a few different levels.  First of all, I lived in Perry for a handful of years and was the editor of their newspaper. That community was good to me and, to this day, I consider it to be sort of a second hometown.  Secondly, the head coach of those boys is an old friend of mine. I haven't talked to him in depth for years, but I know what coaching and his team mean to him.  Finally -- and most of all -- I am angered anytime people are mean to each other for no good reason.

Well, I'm pleased to offer an update on that story. A very inspiring one.

Last Thursday, this happened:

But there's more ...

That evening, DC-G students attended Perry's next basketball game and joined with Perry students to cheer them on.

The two schools have begun creating a program between the two student bodies so DC-G students can be exposed to more diversity.

This is an incredible turn around on what could have been a very sad story. The two schools could have continued with the bad blood and let things get really ugly.

But they didn't.

DC-G students admitted they were wrong in their actions. They had a mature, peaceful discussion with Perry students about the events. The two schools decided they could learn something from this event and from each other.  

Some adults -- especially our elected leaders -- could take some lessons from these young people.

P.S. Perry did win the above-mentioned game. And they won again last night -- in overtime -- to advance to the state tournament for the first time since 1988. I'm very excited for them!