Where In The World Is Hahnville High?

February 24, 2017

  

 

“By the Mississippi’s waters stands our high school fair. Louisiana’s sons and daughters long shall gather there...” - These are the opening lines of the Hahnville High School Alma Mater.

  

I can still remember them because I had to learn them for Ms. Frickey’s choir. I learned to play the tune for David Rosenthaul’s band. And sitting next to me and singing or playing them were people whose paint jobs didn’t all match mine. People I ate lunch with, attended class with, was in G&T drama with, attended church with. And yes, since the statute of limitations clock should have run out by now, and grounding is less likely to be an issue… young men and women who I skipped classes with a time or two and went to the lake and shared a few less than legal beverages with. All while listening to that old heathen rock and rap that we were so fond of “back in the day”. It’s simply by God’s Grace we didn’t end up dead or in jail isn’t it?

  

(Sorry Mom and Dad. I know you thought I was perfect. And to my kids, this doesn’t mean that it’s okay for you to try that. I’ll ground you for life just so we’re clear.)

  

Last night I saw a request for prayers for the people of the community I lived in while I was in junior and high school. Naturally I was curious as to why. What I found out was that because of a spark created at a presentation for Black History month, the Deceiver managed to use a favorite tool of his to start hammering wedges into that same community. Race. So I started praying. Fervently. Sincerely. And I ended up sitting and typing like I sometimes do after talking with God. And here’s what I wanted to share...

To the current students of Hahnville High School:

 

Please know that everything you’ve experienced is real. Reality can suck. Reality can hurt. And honestly, reality isn’t all that pretty way too often. But that is NOT the only experience you have had, or will have. Beyond that, you have the ability to influence reality and change it for the better through your choices and actions.

  

Where you are now doesn’t determine where you will end up. It is simply where you begin your journey to where you want to be. And if you screw up today; tomorrow is another chance at a new beginning.

  

You can’t control anyone else’s actions or choices, only your own. But your actions and choices will influence how others will respond to you and will either escalate or start to resolve conflict. If you want better… choose better. Live better. Be better. Share love and respect and kindness better than all of those generations before you that you learned about in that presentation. Don’t repeat their mistakes. LEARN from them and make life better moving forward! 

 

(Besides, you’re teenagers. It’s like a DNA encoded reflex not to do what adults tell you to anyway right? Why would you listen to any of them tell you that you can’t be friends with someone because they don’t look like you?)

To the parents of these students, and parents in general:

  

Realize that ignoring these issues won’t help our children to learn to negotiate the realities of our shared culture that has been deeply scarred by the realities of slavery and racial oppression practiced unchecked for far too long. Nor will denying the fact that things have, can and will continue to get better. Both are true. And both have meaning. But how our children learn to deal with these things is by watching us interact with one another. I’m frankly more concerned about the parental comments under the video I saw than I was the video; and the seperation purposely caused at the end of the video did bother me.

  

I pray that our children can do better about not letting paint jobs come between them than some of us seem to have. But I know that even where we have stumbled and made mistakes, we can lift one another and begin to move forward together if we are willing to help each other on the journey.

To my lighter friends, the struggle was, and is, real. We need to recognize that, and come along side our friends to see how we might help in ending it. To my darker friends, all of your lighter friends are not responsible for the struggle. Treating them like they are is not only unfair, it denies them the ability to help lift voices that can end the struggle.

  

Can you remember a time when it felt like the world couldn’t stop us? Here’s a not so secret secret… IT STILL CAN’T!

  

But then, what do I know? I’m just a guy who is naïve enough to believe that miracles happen, Love is stronger than hate, and that evil has already been defeated… it just hasn’t had sense enough to lay down and die yet. And I also believe that the people God puts in my life are there for a reason... to share in the good things of this life together as we move toward the perfection of the next one. Crazy right?

  

I’ll take that option over seperation every time though.

 

Love in Christ always,

 

Chris