It was interesting this week when the Hamilton County Board of Education voted 8-1 to turn over athletic facilities at East Ridge High School to the city of East Ridge.
My first thought was, “Well, good.” Someone needs to care about those grounds and the folks who spend four years making a lifetime of memories there.
My second thought was, “Why are communities feeling forced to pick up the slack from the school board and the county?”
Why are communities having to choose between spending their own resources on school needs – be they athletic or academic – or accepting less-than- acceptable standards?
The state blames the federal government. Local districts blame the states.
And the in-between falls on parents willing to be involved and the blessed educators who know that teaching is more a calling and a mission than an occupation.
If parents are going to have to pick up the tab and make ends meet at their kids’ schools while the school board spends six months deciding whether to hire a search firm for arguably the most important non-elected hire in the last three decades in Hamilton County, well, no wonder East Ridge is taking matters into its own hands.
(And you have to wonder who else may be thinking about a similar approach.)
Covenant takes a knee
Not sure how many of you know that Covenant College on Lookout Mountain still has a basketball program.
They have uniforms and everything.
Well, as the season got going earlier this fall, the Scots (great nickname, by the way) decided to follow along in the protest pattern set forth by Colin Kaepernick, the NFL quarterback who knelt and sat through every pregame national anthem since August.
That’s right: A collection of the Scots players on the men’s and women’s teams took to their knees Tuesday during our country’s song, in an act of protest that was embraced by the school this week.
Here, according to the school’s website, is what Covenant President Derek Halvorson had to say about the protests: “Wherever our default sensitivities lie, we – as Christians – ought to be ready and willing to empathize with those who sense grave injustice in our world and who seek means to bring that injustice to our attention, even while we honor the sacrifice made by so many for the sake of our freedoms. We are at liberty to have differing opinions on which is the right course of action in this instance, but we are not at liberty not to love our brothers and sisters, regardless of which side of the issue they’re on.”
He’s right, of course. Those players have the right to do what they please during the anthem.
And a gentle reminder: The freedom of expression, like kneeling during the anthem, is not a freedom to tell everyone else how to react to it.
Saturday’s heroes
To everyone who is signed up to be an organ donor.
From our friends at McCallie School comes the glorious news that 16-year-old Will Hunt is recovering from a heart transplant he underwent earlier this week at Vanderbilt University.
Hunt, a charismatic and charming sophomore who has been fighting for his life for months, received national notice because of a social media song he did that was retweeted by Adam Levine.
Here are the moving words that McCallie assistant headmaster Kenny Sholl wrote to Blue Tornado students this week after Hunt’s surgery:
“As a community, we have prayed not only for Will and the Hunt family, but also for the family of the eventual donor. Organ donation is a process that, by necessity, pulls at the sense of both loss and gain.
“Where does that leave us? With a desire to help. With a desire to act. As McCallie men, we are called to compassion and action in support of those who are hurting, and it’s important we do so in a way that has a lasting and positive impact.
“Over the Thanksgiving break, we urge all of you to continue praying for Will and his family as they begin a long journey of recovery. Pray also for the family of the donor, who are grieving the loss of a loved one. Every day, people in and around our community face losses and struggles.
“Once we return from Thanksgiving break, our plan is to act together as a community to broaden our understanding of organ and tissue donation, and then to take tangible steps to support that important work. I can think of no better way to reflect the gratitude we feel now as a community than to work to benefit the program that helped one of our own.”
Amen.