Make a difference

I think if you would happen to ask most anybody they would say, “I can’t believe Memorial Weekend is here already!” But here it is.

Along with Memorial weekend we have the RHS and LRHS alumni banquet and the classes getting together to rekindle memories and friendships.

What was once the opportunity to show off pictures from a photo album, proud grandmothers will bring out their phones to show a gallery of pictures they have saved over the last few years.

There will be a lot of reminiscing going on and a lot of wonder about certain classmates. There always seems to be one or two former classmates that haven’t been back since graduation only to surprise everyone with a late afternoon visit.

Fifty years ago is a long time. I was finishing up my sophomore year and not quite old enough to get my driver’s license.

We would see the assassination of Bobby Kennedy after he was victorious in the California primary in early June less than five years after his brother John Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas in 1963. And two months after Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated in Memphis.

There was a lot going on with the anti-war protests of the Vietnam War and we were left to wonder what was going on in the world. It was crazy and yet here we are wondering about the craziness that is going on in the world 50 years later.

I have seen a lot of great things in this amount of time and yes a lot of horrible things. We all have an answer for what is going on yet we can be just as clueless. Sometimes just talking about it can somehow seem to make us sound smart.

It seems to me that if somebody or a group of somebody’s wants to do harm to innocent people there usually isn’t a lot to stop them and they will inflict as much violence by whatever means they have access to.

You can blame a lot of different people or organizations but often times the actual perpetrator(s) seems to go unnoticed as the real problem.

When I was in school I wasn’t a real big guy. As a sophomore I was about 5’5” tall and about 145 pounds. But there were enough upper classmen that helped me along the way to be competitive and work hard to succeed.

I know there are a lot of kids that get bullied and they don’t seem to feel accepted or will ever enjoy a day at school.

Can one person change the life of a kid that gets pushed around all day long and endure nasty name-calling?

I’m sure there are a ton of opportunities on a daily basis if only someone wants to get involved. It’s not that easy.

But guess what? Some people can only take so much and who knows what the breaking point will be and what will happen because of it.

We need to be better teachers of civility at home and to carry it on to the school or workplace. Having a great attitude and passing along a smile can do wonders for anybody. Helping somebody that needs a pat on the back is not difficult and is not a sign of weakness it is a sign of strength.

The most important thing that ever happened to me as an athlete was when I was about 15 and I tackled the best player on the team. He got up off the ground and helped me up and said, “Nice tackle,” and patted me on my shoulders.

This was a huge confidence builder for me and I knew if I ever had the chance to do the same thing I would.

That chance did happen a couple years later and yes I did help the young freshman up and told him great job! I think I felt better about it than he did. And he felt pretty good about it.

It’s never too late to make a difference in someone’s life and give a boost to their ego. Maybe we could start doing that today.