An empty feeling without high school sports
We have passed what would have been the first day of fall sports tryouts. We are now heading toward the first day of school. If you have driven pass any high school in Carroll County you have notice an emptiness.
Empty fields with no athletes practicing. Empty parking lots with no band “kids” practicing. Empty parking lots with no parents picking up all those students practicing.
No coaches or band directors making sure the students drink plenty of water. No three days practices for athletes. No evening band practices. No athletic directors getting the fields read for the “first” game. No drama students getting ready for their “first” play, building screens outside on the sidewalk. No freshmen taking a “final” tour of their high school before school opens.
As I was doing some work at my local high school outside I felt the emptiness of all that. I knew in the “big” picture with all that is happening around us this was another (call it a thing) that wasn’t the norm.
I truly understand how you feel, I feel your emptiness. I have been working in our high school snack bar for over 25 years.I have seen every home football from those windows. We will get back on those fields, we will have band and drama practice. We will come out of this better.
When that first note is played, and the curtain comes up, and the umpire blows the whistles “play ball.” Our emptiness will be over and what a feeling that is going to be.
Bobbi Tucker
Eldersburg
The writer is the president of the Liberty LionBackers
BLM about ordinary folks advocating for change
Thank you to the Carroll County Times for providing a community forum on the issues of our day. In response to Steve Kranz’s Sept. 3 letter to the editor that included the claim that, “Black Lives Matter is in fact all about bringing about a socialist upheaval in America,” I believe the increased attention given to the Black Lives Matter movement is a national reckoning on systemic racism and not a socialist upheaval.
When I saw the video of George Floyd’s last minutes in May of this year, I took it personally. I heard George’s cry for his mother as a call to me. I witnessed this moment of brutality and felt the weight of the injustice that people of color have been enduring forever in this country. And I was not alone.
People started asking themselves, what if this had been my son, my student, my co-worker, my neighbor? For the first time in my life, I made a cardboard poster and stood in downtown Westminster at a BLM rally in June. I had tears streaming down my mask-covered face that first day. I stood with politicians and police officers and mostly white citizens. I was so proud that even in conservative Carroll County, people were finally admitting that black lives mattered. These peaceful protests continue in Carroll County, throughout this country, and around the world.
Mr. Kranz claims that “BLM condones the rioting, arson, looting, and intimidation” and that those practices “are at the heart and soul of the organization’s national success.” I disagree. I say the recent resurgence of the BLM movement is that ordinary folks of all shades are finally saying things must change.
One of my heroes, the writer James Baldwin, wrote that “the most dangerous creation of any society is the man who has nothing to lose.” Our society is structured in a way that too many people live in desperation with no meaningful work, no affordable housing, no safety in their communities, and no hope that things will change.
The violence that is emerging from some of the protests is evidence of these desperate and hopeless people. The preamble to our Constitution offers a path forward. We need to establish Justice and insure domestic Tranquility. The “national success” of the Black Lives Matter movement is simply that “We the people” are trying to form a more perfect union.
Katy Burke Stanton
Westminster
First lady’s dress is immaterial
Carroll County Republican Central Committee member and Republican National Convention delegate Chris Tomlinson, I am glad for you, a self-proclaimed starstruck Republican partisan who mingled with the likes of Corey Lewandowski, Sean Hannity and Donald J. Trump, among others, at the RNC, that you have had the life experiences that you wrote about in the Carroll County Times (”Long road from watching 2016 RNC on TV to Fort McHenry for ‘breathtaking’ night,” Aug. 31).
I must say that your finding the pink ... I’m sorry, “the hot pink dress” worn by Melania Trump worthy opinion news clearly identifies you as one of Trump’s most loyal supporters.
John Witiak
Union Bridge