One Apology Not Good Enough
At this past festival, a small number of young men performed solos without the permission of the dance instructors. These young men were required to apologize to their peers and the instructors before being allowed to continue participating in the dance program. After having fulfilled the requirements outlined, one would think these young men would have paid their debt to society for their heinous crime. Not so if you are a part of our community.
Two of these young men are now being required to apologize AGAIN if they want to participate in the upcoming Metropolis basketball tournament. Our assigned clergy, in their continued wisdom, seem to want to exact their pound of flesh for reasons only known to them. If this is an attempt to show their ultimate and absolute authority, we can stipulate to that and save these young men the trouble of having to repeat something they have already done.
Who requested the latest apology and why? Was the first apology invalid? Is it our ultimate goal to run our youth off (which is happening already) or do we want them to be involved in the community? One has to wonder what the current regime is thinking or really IF they are thinking what they are doing to our youth.
2 comments:
Let's all admit the youth is the last thing anyone
"in charge" actually cares about. the problem is the "dance dictatorship"
Here's an idea, let the youth elect dance teachers. Instead of one overzealous, pathetic dictator, have multiple teachers to share the responsibilities.
If your child is in the dance group then you shouldn't be allowed to be in any administrative position.
Perhaps the teachers should be less than 40 years older than the kids they teach. (there's not that much wisdom being passed down. Mostly just childish, immature pettiness.) The problem with this is that most college aged kids these days mostly don't care either. They are so self-obsessed! I guess our community is just not that important to them? (and don't tell me they don't have the time)
Trust me, I don't care how perfect you dance Kotchari, no one is impressed, no one cares, and no one will remember. If you really want to make a difference, teach our youth, and don't use that as an excuse to show off your has been Kotch. skills.
As kids, our youth activities were fun because we didn't have adults dictating EVERYTHING - they just supervised and made sure we didn't get hurt or into trouble.
And our clergy and leaders were smarter - they used the fun stuff as another means to attract kids to church and Sunday school. They weren't as concerned about whether the chicken or the egg came first.
GOYA, the dance groups and basketball now have the charm of armed camps, run by hysterical adults, who obviously have nothing better to do than bully kids of parents they don't like. In doing so they mete out humiliating punishments and impose draconian demands.
It is silly and ridiculously inconsistent that there are all kinds of strictures about board service, youth activities, etc., but certainly none when it comes to stewardship or festival volunteering.
Clearly it's OK to take in the money and labor of the "ecclesiastically ineligible", but heaven forbid we provide avenues for all to become more involved without demanding that ever-shifting "pound of flesh".
We of this generation have let our parents and grandparents who built these churches down, and now we're in the process of alienating our kids. How sad!
- Barbara Colessides
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