Some school spirit?
My daughter attends Albert Gallatin High School, so I thought I’d take my 6- and 9-year-old sons to the homecoming game for an evening of fun. What we got was misery and frustration. After about one hour we couldn’t bear it any more and left. I have never been around so many people with rude, crude, bad attitudes as this night. Pushing, bumping, shoving and no seats. We tried many times to sit only to be told “someone is sitting there.”
So we ended up standing at the fences and railings of the bleachers like many others were doing. Someone yelled, “Hey lady. Move it. We can’t see.” So I took my sons to another spot, where others were standing, again someone was yelling, “You’ll have to move, we can’t see.” The same someone who told us seats next to them were taken, but were still empty.
So we moved along again. I stood by the big fence, but my 6-year-old couldn’t see because so many people were standing there, so I sent my sons to the landing at the top of some bleacher stairs. After a few minutes, a woman came over, poked her fingers into my son’s shoulder and told them “Sit down, I can’t see through you.” I saw what she did but couldn’t get past people on the steps fast enough to confront her.
My sons were so upset. My 6-year-old was angry and began crying, “This place stinks mom. Let’s go home.” I agreed and we left.
I felt like going over to the visitors’ side, where bleachers were empty, and rooting for Fox Chapel. I paid to get into that game like everyone else.
What a shame that so called “school spirit” is more important that human kindness or compassion. I would never touch someone else’s child. How dare she, whoever she was, poke my little boys.
I will hesitate to engage in school activities again. Is this the attitude these parents teach their children? It’s not what I teach mine. Society, how sad.
Sharon M. Pahula
Masontown
Stand up to bullies
Our Founding Fathers would be rolling in their graves right now. We as a nation have become lazy and misguided, too dependent on others and not trusting our instincts.
The lazy part is that we have let our politicians run us, instead of us running them. We complain how the government is run, but do we do anything about it? The majority of the people do not exercise the simple right of voting. This is one strong tool we have to help us keep the elected officials in office accountable. Since 9-11 we have eroded our constitutional rights and freedoms in the name of security.
The misguided part is that it seems like we have the ideal of peace and war backwards. Go back to the times when in school. When two people were fighting, we stopped the fight, peace, not jumped in and helped one person beat the other person, war. When the bully, an attacking nation or force, of the school pushed you around, did you ask the principal or teacher, the United Nations or any foreign nation, permission to protect, military force or war, yourself, USA?
What we as a nation need to do is standup against the bully and kick the crap out of him, not write laws that infringe on our freedom and constitutional rights. You can still be caring and giving but also standup for your well being without being mean.
So think of this. If our Founding Fathers were as passive as we’ve become would we be here right now free and self-thinking or still under the rule of England?
Charles G. Geisel
Adah