Hope for the future

It seems like I'm always hearing negative stories about today's youth (and I'm sure people have been saying that for forever, Grandma - can I get you your shawl?). There's a real epidemic of people not taking responsibility for their actions, feeling a sense of entitlement and not having any compassion for others, and it seems like this decline is worse among young people.

I'd like to blame it on immaturity, but too often, I think it's a function of how the kids were raised and a culture that does nothing to reward or encourage doing the right thing.

That's why Thamail Morgan gives me hope. Read the whole story here. Please - especially if you have kids. Because kids need actual role models from their own peer group on how to behave. And that doesn't mean "how to be perfect." It means how to make the right decisions, even if you've made the wrong ones in the past; how to get back on track; how to do the right thing, even if it means you won't benefit as much.

Did you read the story? Okay, then here are the rest of my comments.

Thamail got off track. He is human, and he is young, and as young people start making decisions, they don't always make the right ones. But he was held accountable. He was made to suffer consequences for his bad choices. For that, I applaud his former school. They could've left him on the football team - he's a great player, and I'm sure their team suffered for his loss. But by doing the right thing and holding him accountable, Thamail had the opportunity to learn a valuable life lesson about choices and consequences and to do so at an age where the lesson could benefit him the most.

And Thamail didn't get sullen, cry foul, blame others, play the victim. No, he took the opportunity that was offered him by his old school, by his community - he took responsibility for his actions, accepted the consequences, and looked for a way to learn from it, to get back up and move forward in a better way. He learned the lesson and made new and better choices. For that I applaud Thamail! That is *exactly* the way to succeed in life.

And his behavior during that difficult game in the story shows just how much Thamail has embraced a life of class, responsibility and integrity. Thamail wants to get a football scholarship. In order to get the attention of scouts, he needs impressive statistics. But at a personal cost to himself (fewer points in his stats), he did the right thing and took a knee at the end of that game, rather than beat up on a team that had already had a beating that week. He did the honorable thing. And now, he has gotten more attention than he ever would've gotten for those extra 6 points. He has been rewarded for his honorability.

Not to be lost in this is credit to his coach for giving him a chance, but with strings attached, to make sure that Thamail understood that he wasn't being given a free pass for his talent and to try and help him grow as a person and a man. Props must also go out to his teammates, who together decided that running up the score on the damaged opponent would be unacceptable (Bob Stoops could use a lesson from these guys), and also to the opponent, who in the face of adversity showed up and did their best, and accepted the class that was extended to them as an honorable gesture and not an insult.

Everyone in this scenario has set an example that we could all stand to follow. The people of that whole area can be very proud of the community they have created. And I hope very much that a university out there will give Thamail Morgan a chance to play at their school. He deserves it, and I think he is likely to be a real leader in his life, on and off the field.