By A Teachable Citizen

The evening is Sept. 9, 2016 on the eve of the 15th anniversary of Sept. 11, the setting is under the Friday night-lights of a Los Alamos High Scholl home football game. As the national anthem commences a group of high school kids take their hats off place their hands in a respectful manner and stand at attention. The typical laughing, smiling and talking to one another just as the anthem commences occurs but all quickly quiet down and show their respect and attention for their country’s display of the red, white and blue. As soon as the anthem finishes the kids cheer and yell for the bands rendition place their caps on, remove their hands from their respectful placements and go back to doing what they were doing. 

Quickly afterward an adults comes up to the group of high schoolers and asks, “Who do you represent?” The kids reply, “boys tennis.” This adult proceeds to scold these kids in a manner of accusation instead of instruction. Something along the lines, “you may not know this so I will tell you, when the anthem is finished you do not yell or scream and you better wait until the flag leaves before you go on to doing anything else.” As an eyewitness the tone was filled more with disgust and misunderstanding on the adults part. The kids with look like the deer in the headlights metaphor and bewilderment say, “yes they understand.”

Today’s current news shows daily of protests during the anthem, racial and economic inequality, and strong opinions sometime hostile from one side against the other; mostly without open respectful dialogue. High school kids are aware of this and see it or hear about it daily on various forms of social media, in the home, or at school. Generations differ but what remains the same is “love of country.” Now let’s put ourselves in the shoes of those young people. Do you think they would learn more from a “teachable moment” or a “reactive misunderstood tongue lashing?”

Teachable moment, these moments, is what stir the heart and engage the mind. The first approach should have been to open a respectful dialogue to understand and engage with one another, with love as its motivation. After taking the time to ponder this over the weekend I was compelled to write this opinion piece as a teachable moment for all. Adults make mistakes and in some moments need to be reminded of what may be the best course of action and reflect on how they can improve themselves. With so much division let’s instead first seek out the needs of others no matter how small and look for teachable, maybe a better term would be helpful moments and try to fill those needs. It is my firm belief that if we take ourselves out of this equation and insert others we will make a lasting impact not only on individual lives but set an invaluable example for others to witness.