The High Price Of Being Right
I recently attended a high school football game within the town that I live. Not unusual for me, I attended this particular one because my youngest son - a football fanatic and flag football player, himself - had been asked to join the rest of his elementary school in carrying numerous flags onto the field prior to the actual players arrival.
You could feel the excitement in the air as a hundred or so brightly lit faces stood awaiting the team, not to mention
the commencement of the National Anthem. The crowd's enthusiasm roared as the Daniel Hand High School Tigers finally arrived and came barreling through the goal post where they stopped in front of the kids.
Flags were waving, accompanied by screeches of delight from innocent children all lined up for the sole purpose of doing a job. Then silence fell as the beginning notes to the traditional song, that remains at the center of so much controvery lately, began.
My gaze perusing the entire event, I couldn't help but shudder at how disappointed and sickened I have become by the split across our nation leaving the future of our children's lives swinging in the balance. "When will we all remember that right NEVER trumps resolution?" I thought to myself.
Needless-to-say, like many, I've grown weary and frustrated by the temperature of our nation. I am disheartened by the radical behavior placed in front of the virgin eyes of our youth day-in-an-day-out. And I am sick of the deafening noise that leads to no real tangible results, except a barrage of painful headaches and earaches none of us deserve. Both sides are at fault, in my opinion, and need to do monumentally better. They've proven nothing but to be an embarrassment, leaving me to stand on neither but the side of the children.
Our nation has lost its true focus and in that, its way and we need to get back to them. The selfishness and carelessness the fighting factions are exhibiting is dumbfounding. I can understand why the rest of the world is mesmerized by it. Who could have ever conceived that the greatest nation on the planet would set such a tragic precedent and continue to stand so proudly and smugly underneath it? Such lunacy is not serving anyone well, especially our kids. We need to come at our differences and problems in a different way -- the smart way -- so that "hearing" each other becomes commonplace as opposed to lashing out to no good end.
That said, allow me to offer a strong and clear reminder: We have one flag, folks, and one National Anthem to speak, but we have countless opportunities for resolution if we truly want it and if we are all willing to be a little less right and a little more concerned with the examples we set and the future we leave to our children.
Mark my words...there was more at hand (and stake) for the Tigers and the tots than merely football that evening...just like on every other football field and evening throughout the United States of America. Much, much more. So how about we get serious about that and stop this toxic, misguided, nonsensical, and selfish spiraling out of control for good? No one wins in perpetuating it further.
No one!