Before I get too far into our visit, I must admit that this is not an entirely original story. It stems from something I heard a while back, but it is still very relevant.
One of the many duties that has fallen across my increasingly expansive lap is compiling the weekly Jail Report. Surprisingly, this is something that many of our readers have told us they look forward to reading each week. There are times I read the list and I chuckle. Sometimes I laugh at funny names (Yes, I am one who will laugh at someone's name, if it's a funny one. So, if you have a funny name and don't want me laughing at it, then I suggest you stay off the Jail Report.), sometimes I laugh at the silly things that people seem to do in order to find themselves on the Jail Report. I know that, in a legal sense, folks on the jail report are innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. That doesn't mean I won't laugh at what they are accused of doing. So, if you don't want me to laugh, try not to be accused of doing something dumb.
Then, there are times when I read the report and it literally breaks my heart. Those are the times when I see the name of a young person I recognize. Far too often, it will be a name from one of the high school sports teams I've covered. That's when I feel slapped with the cold, hard reality that sometimes, even with the best of efforts to avoid it, youngsters seem determined to learn lessons the hard way.
We are blessed in this community to have some of the best men anywhere who gladly serve as mentors and examples of what a real man should be to the young people in our community. I think of men like Merv Mattair, Coach Mike Coe (and all the men on his coaching staff), Coach Allen Demps and the list could go on. Yet, even with their efforts, there are some youngsters who just take the wrong path. That doesn't mean we don't keep trying.
There was once an old man walking along the beach. On the sand there were dozens and dozens of starfish that had been washed ashore by the waves. The old man was picking the starfish up, one by one, and tossing them back into the water. A younger man walked up to the older man and asked why he was doing this. The old man replied, “These starfish will surely die if I leave them on the sand. So, I toss them back into the water.” The younger man laughed and said, “There are hundreds of starfish on the beach. You can't possibly make a difference and save them all!” The old man quietly and gently reached down and picked up another starfish and placed it back into the water and said, “Made a difference for that one.”
We may not be able to “save them all,” but I firmly believe each of us can do a little something to help as many as we can. Thank you to all the folks who serve as mentors and positive role models in order to save as many “starfish” as we can.