Dear Graduate

 

"There is no passion to be found in playing small, in settling for a life that is less than the one you are capable of living." 

~ Nelson Mandela ~

 "The important thing is not to stop questioning."

~ Albert Einstein ~

 

In honor of all the graduates completing high school in 2026, I've written a short speech. It goes like this:

Principal Smith, Superintendent Jones, honored members of the School Board, faculty  and parents: Thank you for allowing me to address those that will consider this an irrelevant event in as little as six months.

To the graduates: Congratulations on surviving 13 years of indoctrination at the hands of those who are doing the very best they can with what our Department of Education allows. For 13 years, you've endured being told when and where to sit...HOW to sit. You've been told when to eat, when to use the bathroom, told to sit still, and expected to learn at the same rate, with the same techniques, as everyone else. You've endured whitewashed history, a low bar for physical fitness, and even outdated literature. You've eked through your days at the hands of educators who, despite their best intentions, have been restrained, in not only what they teach, but how. They're overworked, under-paid,  under-appreciated, and exhausted by raising kids that aren't being raised at home; who, many times, aren't being fed at home, and who are bored out of their minds with the lack of challenge and expectations. The students are unchallenged and the teachers are frustrated. It's almost as if someone up the chain wants it that way.

You're to be  commended for completing 13 years of compulsory activity that has done almost nothing to prepare you for what real life has to offer. Many of you here tonight can't balance a check register, can't budget, know nothing about our tax code, are clueless about healthy foods, let alone how to actually grow it,  probably can't name the 3 branches of our government, can't tell you who their state senators are,  and most certainly can't change a flat tire. You know little, if anything about conflict resolution, don't know how a legislative bill is passed, and have no clear understanding of actual history regarding indigenous people and racism or poverty. 

Nearly 50 years ago,  I was sitting exactly where you are now. In fact, if your last name starts with a "L," you're probably sitting within a few feet of exactly where I sat. You may even be in the same folding chair. What I want you know is that 50 years was yesterday. I didn't believe it when I was your age either, but trust me when I tell you, 50 years is tomorrow. When you blink, it'll be tomorrow and all that's in between will be memories. So, I want to ask you to do something. I want to challenge you to do something.

I want you to leave.  No. No. Not right now. I have to finish my speech and you have diplomas to grab and parties to attend. I want you to leave town. Come back at a later date if you must. There is much to be done in being part of a community. But before you can really be the best contributor you can be, you have to leave.

Go to university, trade school, or community college. But don't go next door. Go to another state...another country should you have the means.  And not for the major or the degree. Most employers couldn't care less about your major. Go for the experience. Meet people outside your circle, outside  your town, outside your belief system. Be a part of a system that wants you to see how other people are doing it.

Can't find a way to afford more school? Grab a backpack, take your beat-up car (or buy a plane ticket) and see the world...or at least the country. Many of you have never left your town, your county, or your state. You're stuck in a mindset that says, "This is all there is. This is what there is to believe. These are the boundaries of your life." You must leave to break away from the same old information. If you're ever going to be the best part of the human race, you have to look outside what you've always known. 

Are you religious? Methodist? Catholic? Baptist? Muslim? Even Atheist? My question for you is this. Why? Are you religious because your parents are or have you come to believe it for yourself? Same goes for politics. Republican? Democrat? Independent? Libertarian? Why? Have you examined what it means to be any (or none) of these or were you indoctrinated to believe what you "are" at home and  at school?

What about the big questions of our universe? Big Bang? Or was the Big Bang simply another event in a collapsing galaxy? Are you perhaps a Flat-Earther or even a New-
Earther? Ok.  Why? Are we here by accident or the result of a divine creator? How do you know? CAN you know or is it safe to believe NONE of us know? 

What do you know about systemic racism, systemic poverty, the slaughter and colonization of indigenous people,  or our very active caste system. Have you even heard of places like Wounded Knee, Rosewood, the Greenwood section of Tulsa, or even Wilmington? Do you know the vast reaches of slavery and have you considered America wasn't discovered by Columbus?

What do you really know about women's rights and can you tell me what happened to the ancient matriarchy and how a patriarchal society began? Can you name the state capitols and do you know Mexican people occupied what is now Texas and California for centuries before it became part of the USA? How does that make you feel about immigration? What do you even know about immigration and the rights of people who come to our country...which was colonized at the hands of 54 million natives, by the way?

Can you name a single constitutional amendment and do you know how the Electoral College works? Do you own a gun and what do you truly understand the context of the Second Amendment?  

I can keep asking, but I can see most of you starting to squirm in those torturous metal chairs, and school board members have the local police on hold. My point is this. In order for you to be a credible member of society; locally, regionally, or nationally, you have to be informed. You can't carry just what you know from your time here into a meeting and expect to be taken seriously. If this is all you've seen, all you've heard, and all you know...

...you might as well have been born a tree. Question everything: everything you hear, read, and see. Form an opinion of your very own.  Oh...and then you can come back. We're counting on you. 

Congratulations!! 

AUTHORS NOTE: THIS PIECE IS AN OVERGENERALIZATION BY DESIGN. I KNOW OF MANY SCHOOL SYSTEMS,  TEACHERS,  AND TOWNS WHERE WHAT YOU JUST READ ISN'T THE NORM. THANK YOU FOR ALL YOU DO...ESPECIALLY THE TEACHERS!!

 

 

 

  

 

 

 

How? The Empty Bottle

 “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men should do nothing.”

~Edmund Burke~ 

 "Take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim."

~Elie Wiesel~ 

 

 If you're anything like me, you've been asking yourself how we got where we are now. How could this have happened? How could we be so divided? How could there be so much racism, misogyny, bigotry, and hatred?  The even larger question is, "How do we fix it?" 

Some people would say my career in the fire service has made me a cynic. Some would say I'm a cynical pessimist. I would say, I'm more of an optimistic realist. Stay with me, here.

My wife, this amazing, beautiful woman, sees the good in everyone. She sees love as the answer. And she is absolutely right. It is the answer. But for me, the answer to the question, "How did we get here?" has become painfully obvious. It isn't how we arrived. It's where we started in the first place.

If you take our little piece of the world as a micro-economic example, and if you really take off your blinders (careful, once they're off, you'll never get them back on), it will become painfully obvious, greed and cruelty was on the docket from the second Columbus got lost and landed on the eastern shore. 

I get it. It was happening everywhere. But that doesn't make any of it "right." Indigenous populations were being wiped out. Slaves were being taken, land was being stolen, and the oligarchy of the rich and powerful was already taking shape. And it's only gotten worse.

We still teach the fairy tale about Columbus in our schools. We continue to pat ourselves on the back about how we've eradicated slavery, helped get the few natives left back on their feet, restored civil rights, and on and on and on. Oh yes, I forgot, we destroyed the Nazi's. 

Wake up folks, and do it fast. The civil war didn't eradicate slavery and neither did the Emancipation Proclamation. It merely drove it underground. You still working for minimum wage and and can't afford your rent? You're a slave. Working 80 hours a week just to feed a family you never see and pay for a house you're never in? You're a slave.

WWII, while it certainly stopped advancement of a tyrant and saved the lives of millions of non-white peoples across Europe, it didn't end the Nazi party. It simply drove it underground. You think slave owners suddenly decided slavery was wrong at the end of the Civil War? Did Nazi's take off their patch and repent of their sins of hatred? Of course not. They went underground to regroup.

And now we have a "man" sitting in the chair of the most powerful position in the world, and the slave-owners, Nazi's, bigots, and haters are coming up like Godzilla out of the ocean. They have permission again, and it's up to us to stop them. And by stop them, I mean, drive them underground again, because they aren't going away.

So, do we remain silent or do we take the risk, speak out, act out and do our part to end this fascist regime? The real question isn't, "Can we?" but, "Will we?" Up until about two weeks ago I was holding out hope we will, but my hope is wavering. This is why.

My wife and I were standing on the bank of the Rio Grande in a beautiful little turnoff from the main scenic road. Enormous cliffs rose above our heads and we marveled at the beauty. Then, I looked down to see a single empty water bottle lying in the grass...ten feet from a trash receptacle. Whoever left it, couldn't be bothered.

And that, my comrades, is why we'll fall to a fascist regime. We can't be bothered. We're too comfortable. We're too set in our ways. It isn't affecting us, yet. We're too lazy. "Someone else will do it." We'll keep throwing our bottles on the ground assuming the job to pick it up belongs to someone else. It doesn't. That responsibility lies with each of us. 

We can protest in front of the capitol, we can write our representatives, and we can scream and stomp our feet on Facebook (I do that a lot), but if it isn't painfully obvious by now, it should be. They don't care. Our government is broken and regardless of what happens over the next few months, our government is never going to look the same. Nor should it. If you look deeply enough, it was a grand experiment that was broken in the first place. We were just lulled in to letting it happen.

Look, I want to have hope. I truly do. I want us to tear it down and rebuild something new and wonderful where everyone thrives. And yes...we can afford to do that. Don't let the oligarchs fool you. 

We won't imprison a convicted felon and child-rapist, so you're going to have to do better to convince me it's going to be ok; that this isn't the kind of world we'll tolerate.  I'll do my best to keep my chin up and do my part, even though I know there's more I can do. But what can you do to give me hope?

Pick up your damn water bottle.