This is my personal reminder.It's a chunk of the basketball court in the Baton Rouge Magnet High School gymnasium, and I pocketed it from -- for lack of a better term -- a pothole, an indoor pothole on the floor where high school students attempt to carry out such activities as gymnastics, volleyball, physical education and . . . basketball.
This sits in my home recording studio, on a counter, atop a paperweight. I see it every day . . . many times every day. It doesn't let me forget how little some people in some communities in the richest nation in the world care for their children.
It reminds me that if we can physically abort our children while they're still fetuses, we sure as hell can civically abort them, politically abort them, educationally abort them and emotionally abort them long after they emerge from the womb unscathed.
THIS CHUNK of the Baton Rouge High gym floor -- where long ago I did calisthenics, played basketball and danced The Bump with a pretty redhead -- reminds me that while I take pride in my home state, I also am deeply, deeply ashamed of it.This chunk of 57-year-old hardwood -- still painted Bulldog green, scoured loose by water from an ever-leaking roof -- reminds me of when my alma mater was still a really pleasant place to spend several years of your adolescence. When we never worried that we might be knocked silly by a falling ceiling tile in the middle of American history.
It reminds me of when BRMHS was the crown jewel of the city's schools physically as well as academically. Of when there was at least one school the perpetually lousy East Baton Rouge Parish school system didn't manage to taint in some way.
Funny, isn't it, that such an ordinary chunk of debris holds such meaning for a middle-aged man three decades removed from his glory days? Yes, but I imagine you have your totems, too.
But here it is, a new one of mine. A chunk of wood pilfered from a fetid gym as I took damning photographs and held back tears for what had become of my old school.
My totem. It reminds me that we can do so much better, but usually don't.
Forgive us, children, for we have sinned.
2 comments:
Where is the PTA?
Two thoughts:
in life, some things fall through the cracks (pun intended), taxes pay to keep somethings satisfactory but a good PTA or boosters can do that extra 10-20% to make it good or excellent.
some of us pay taxes and send our kids to better private schools. Some have new gyms, some old, and many DON'T have a gym - but we pay for your failing schools and our suceeding ones.
Still, best of luck to you getting results. You have done your part with this great article & insite.
I read every word from beginning to end and all I have to say is Shame on the Public School System. I attended Baton Rouge Magnet High School 1976-77. The School was my Sanctuary. It was the reason I left Woodlawn(Drug,Bigoted,and a School full of of Uneducated Teacher's.)school.I may not have ended up a Lawer, Teacher, Doctor,Politician,etc. But I would not change a thing. Baton Rouge Magnet High School cemented a set of wonderful values in me that I am proud to say after 30 years I have and continue to instill the love,happiness, and true humanity I took with me upon Graduating, upon my 12 year old daughter. But I am sad/angry about the condition of the Monumental Landmark we call Baton Rouge High Magnet. If only the kids now could see what it looked like when we were attending. Maybe it would give them an incentive to donate there painting and building skills. Those were the days.
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