From Dan Proft, Urquhart Media…
(A Podcast of this commentary can be heard HERE)
I remember my grade school basketball coach telling me that “the graveyards are full of indispensable people.” It was his way of explaining that no individual is more important than the team.
A favorite refrain of my high school basketball coach was that “talent guarantees nothing” to remind us that we had to work for what we sought to achieve.
The most important and lasting life lessons are learned outside the classroom.
And so we should be thankful for the extracurricular teachable moment that the administration at Highland Park High School District 113 has provided by refusing to let their girls basketball team travel to a tournament in Arizona.
Lesson #1: The North Shore’s young ingénues have been taught that the severity of the allegation trumps the substance of it.
School officials first explained their decision as rooted in a clash over “values and beliefs” with the recently enacted Arizona immigration law. They didn’t explain how the rule of law is at odds with the high school’s values and beliefs but they did allege their stand was in defense of the school’s sacred commitment to diversity, except, of course, as it relates to diversity of opinion.
Lesson #2: The lady hoopsters have been enlightened to resist the urge to speak their minds. Better to accommodate ignorance than make a scene. Going along to get along is preferred to any type of unseemly confrontation, at least as far as the autocrats in charge of the school are concerned. And why should they be concerned? Very few parents have come forward to publicly challenge the administrators and the district’s school board apparently conducts its meetings under the Cone of Silence.
Remember, kids, someday you too will grow up to live in fear of overeducated civil servants you finance who push you around and tell your children what to believe. Good talk.
Lesson #3: On a non-sarcastic note, the girls have been treated to a real world example of the difference between knowledge and wisdom. Don’t let the sheepskins that adorn your school superintendent’s office fool you, ladies. It is possible to both know the year in which the Battle of Hastings was fought and yet also be tethered to a left-wing orthodoxy that fatally impairs one’s judgment.
Class dismissed.
Dan Proft is a Principal of Urquhart Media LLC, a Chicago-based public affairs firm and political commentator for the Don Wade & Roma Morning Show (5-9am) on Chicago’s number one news talk radio station, WLS-AM 890. He can be reached at dan@urqmedia.com.
For other Dan Proft commentaries (radio & print), please visit: http://www.urqmedia.com/proft/
For other recent Don Wade & Roma interviews, commentary, and discussions visit: http://www.wlsam.com/sectional.asp?id=16410