The Best Part Is, You Do Care

By Robert Wilonsky Fri., Apr. 25 2008 at 4:17 PM

Categories: Schutze

Texas Association of School Boards

I wish Wilonsky would take the amazingly long list of comments on my recent Woodrow Wilson High School item, bind them in pigskin and publish them as an anthology. Taken together, the whole package is a fascinating specimen of blogography.

The original item was one I consider sort of sub-so-so in terms of reporting and all-around trenchant analysis. Basically, I found this crumpled-up, muddy piece of paper in the alley that turned out to be an underground flier circulating among students at Woodrow. Thought it was funny. Posted it.

What ensued was an outpouring of feeling about schools, kids, race, government and life, most of it far more eloquent and provocative than the original post. I just re-read through all of it, and I was struck by what may be its only central theme:

Race and bigotry are really hard work. They are hard work for everybody. Getting through it and coming to any amount of peace with yourself about it requires all kinds of suffering and spiritual effort. And nowhere do these issues bite harder than in matters of child-rearing.

But the great thing about a place like Dallas is that most people are doing that work. We’re all at different points along the trail. Some days I look up and think, “Uh-oh. I haven’t seen anybody else on this branch of the trail for a couple days now.” But we’re all working it.

I apologize for my own comment, by the way, accusing Lakewood of being a polygamist sect. I don’t even know where that came from. There are tons of guys in Lakewood who only have one wife. --Jim Schutze

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