As I write, my mind is racing. It wants to break loose with a razor sharp attack. It wants to stingingly write something from the hip, laying waste to those with closed minds. But, the new Zen-Don who sits on my right shoulder whispered into my ear.
“Be a part of the solution. The solution holds no malice.”
@#$%&*#@! Zen-Don!
Okay.
There are supporters of the now failed Oxford School bonds who have decided to take their ball and go home. They don’t want to play no more. As I stated last week, if the bond fails “don’t blame this newspaper.”
In today’s America (and Oxford) it is easier to shoot the messenger, than to look at the message. It is easier to hate on thems who don’t agree with you, than to look them in the eye and agree to disagree. It is easier, if you’re a school district administrator, to cancel the school administration building’s $30 a year subscription to the Oxford Leader, rather than support a local business that donates over 100 newspapers a week to the high school for student studies; rather than support a local business that, for the past 20 years has helped the journalism class with personnel, design and printed the high school newspaper for free; rather than support a business that has ALWAYS helped every school group that has ever walked thru the doors or called on the phone; rather than support a newspaper that has — in print — supported past bond issues.
Rather than support a business that 99-percent of the time reports all the postive stories coming out of Oxford School districts, the school administrator is taking the district in “another direction.”
And, what direction would that be?
The lets-stick-our-heads-in-the-sand direction?
The you’re-either-with-me-all-the-way-or-you-are-against-me direction?
What kind of educational message does that send to all the kids (those who we are ‘sposed to be educating)? I’ll tell you what direction and what message. The direction is one of intolerance and that educational message is untolerable and not acceptable in any American school district.
This is an American problem, and now unfortunately, it is the problem here in the hometown: spoiled sports and bad losers. Supporters of the now failed Oxford school bond, stop being small-minded.
* * *
Okay, that was not Zen-like, that was more like the stuff that comes from the old Evil Don. The new Zen-Don says, “Supporters of the now failed Oxford school bond, you cannot change the past. Look inward, then open your arms and eyes, seeking only courage and wisdom. Embrace those who may see the world thru different eyes if growth is what you seek.”