Gramps Braggin Rights Missouri Girls Class Four Basketball ratings and some thoughts on MLK - 1/16/2022
Tomorrow is Martin Luther King Holiday and I always find myself reflecting on where we are since he was killed in 1968. I don't wonder if our world would be different, no, I wonder how our world might be better if MLK and Bobby Kennedy's lives had not ended so suddenly and tragically in the Spring of 1968.
Dr. King would have been 93 this year. How would he have looked upon the mess we have, the division and differences, the haves and the have nots, of 2022? How would he have felt about the roll-back of voting rights, the police actions against people of color, the white supremacist movement that seems to be growing? How would he feel about the decay of our inner-city schools and the increasing disparity between the very, very rich and the vast majority of middle and lower-class people that are struggling to make ends meet?
Is not being a good Christian more than just looking after oneself? Is not the plight of our neighbor important to us anymore? I keep hearing about freedoms.... freedoms from vaccines, freedoms from masks, freedoms from paying taxes for public schools. Are those really freedoms or just plain, downright selfishness? We live in a society in which our freedom is based on the well-being of all of our citizens, not just ourselves. When we no longer care or support the least of our society, we are no longer a true society. We have anarchy.
Martin Luther King said "Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about the things that matter."
Most of us live in a very comfortable and shuttered world. If you are reading this, you probably have a smartphone or a laptop. You have access to WiFi. We live in nice houses where the few people of color in the neighborhood are highly educated Asian or East Indian, not black or Hispanic. We live in a world of privilege that many of us do not even know we have or would deny that we had. We don't want to learn about the historical social and economic disadvantages of POC. We don't want our children or grandchildren to feel guilty about slavery so we do not want it taught in our history classes.
We cannot be silent anymore. Our lives are ending when we allow the vocal minority of "Concerned Parents" to run off our educators and shutter our public schools so that they can get a voucher for their private school.
I look at basketball ratings and I see the disparity in ratings between the private schools on the top, and the St Louis or Kansas City public schools on the bottom. I do not pretend to know about all of the reasons why St. Louis public schools have horrible girls basketball teams but I have some pretty good guesses. Lack of funds, lack of practice facilities, kids that have to work a minimum wage job to help their parent(s) get by in this economy. If you are a good ballplayer in the city, you can go anywhere.... any St. Louis public school and, if you are really good, get subsidized to play for a private school. That does not leave much talent in the lesser public schools, does it?
And what would happen if we gave out vouchers for private schools and defunded more and more public schools. There would be an even bigger difference between the haves and have nots. That does not sound like a true society.... It sounds like a selfish anarchy. I get mine and you go fend for yourself.
Something to think about for this MLK holiday. What do we want our society to be like in 50 years? Better or worse than when Dr. King was taken from this earth?
Here's the Missouri class four girls ratings. You can argue all you want about the top 10. LOL
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