This article was originally
published in Tom
Paine’s Corner.
You are about to graduate from Miami Carol City High School and no
matter what your score on Jeb Bush’s test, almost all of you have earned
a diploma. As Jay Z once rhymed (from Martin Charnin's lyrics), “It’s
a hard knock life for us / Stead of treated, we get tricked / Stead
of kisses, we get kicked / It’s the hard knock life.” You have your
doctoral degrees in the school of hard knocks.
During the 23 years I have spent at Carol City High it seems like the
students have gotten better every year. The Class of ’06 is no exception.
To watch you struggle with life’s modern complexity and still perform
so well in the classroom, on stage, in the athletic arena and in the
community has been uplifting.
You are a group of brilliant and talented young people. I say that even
to the person who stole my cell phone a few weeks ago and sent 17 text
messages before the service was cut off. As a teacher I just hope you
enhanced your writing skills and got some wisdom in those seven return
messages.
You know when your class started the journey through this high school
four years ago you were nearly a thousand strong. There are but 492
of you left. Even more tragically there will be several empty chairs
at the graduation ceremonies on May 25th. Evan Page should have been
there. But Evan was murdered down the street from MCC just after we
celebrated Thanksgiving. Sherika Wilson Lynch should have been there,
her 16-month-old baby Ahmani sitting with a proud family in the audience.
But Sherika was murdered on a trip to the store in Opa Locka’s notorious
Triangle while many of you were off to Grad Bash.
Even though he attended Northwestern High School, our own Mrs. Anderson’s
beloved son James “JT” Anderson would have no doubt been in there to
see his sister Nichelle graduate. But James was cut down too on our
mean streets. Then just the other day Devon Sutton also fell. At the
wake for “JT” and the memorial for “Scooter” hundreds of young people
wore shirts bearing their pictures. Nowadays it is commonplace for youths
to dress in images of their dead classmates, teammates, friends or relatives.
The violent death of so many young people is evidence that our society
is in a terrible mess. We have come to such a cold hard place that a
14-year-old boy can be
suffocated in a state-run boot camp and a child can be labeled a
failure before their 9th birthday. This month the Florida Department
of Education will notify 28,600 kids that they failed the FCAT and to
be certain they internalize this blow to their self-image they will
be held back in 3rd grade. Don’t just be sad about these things. Just
before he was killed Malcolm X said, “Usually when people are sad, they
don’t do anything. They just cry over their condition. But when they
get angry, they bring about change.” Things must change!
If you decide to fight for a better world, you will confront very powerful
forces. You must meet those forces with unity! Don’t be tricked into
fighting and killing each other by those who care nothing for you or
nothing will change. Your classmates in this school are your brothers
and sisters. No matter their race, no matter their language, no matter
their nationality, they are your only hope of winning this struggle!
Down 183rd Street at Norland, across 183rd at Pace, up 183rd at American
you have brothers and sisters. At Northwestern, Edison, and Central
you have more brothers and sisters. In Detroit, Atlanta, New Orleans
and rural Kansas you have more brothers and sisters. The students marching
out of their schools from Los Angeles to Homestead for immigrant rights
are your brothers and sisters too. The students from Florida A&M,
FSU and Tallahassee Community College who sat
in Governor Bush’s office demanding justice for Martin Lee Anderson
and his family are your older brothers and sisters and excellent role
models.
While you are putting on the cap and gown consider the words of a man
executed in the State of California during this school year. Stanley
“Tookie” Williams wrote, “Across this nation, countless young men and
women, like you, are vegetating in juvenile halls and in youth authorities.
More and more prisons are being constructed to accommodate your generation
when you grow to adulthood. The question is, can you become motivated
enough to defy the expectations that many people have of you?”
You will answer Tookie’s question with the rest of your lives.
Good luck Class of 2006!
Paul Moore has taught Social Studies at Miami Carol City High School
for 23 years. The kids call him Coach Moore for the years he spent as
the girls' basketball coach. Mr. Moore retired from coaching when he
was elected to the Executive Board of the United Teachers of Dade as
one of three Vice Presidents for High Schools. Contact him at [email protected].
The Editors: Just days before Mr. Moore’s piece was to be published
in BC, we received an urgent message. Another member of the class of
2006 was dead:
The unfathomable grief now being experienced
by his proud father and loving sister will begin to descend over the
whole Miami Carol City High School family tomorrow. A third member
of the Class of 2006 has died violently. This time we lost Jeffrey Taylor.
As his Honors American Government/Economics teacher this school year
I can testify to this young man's brilliance, his diligence, his profound
goodness. Jeffrey Taylor's potential knew no horizon. He had won a full
scholarship to St. Thomas University.
This must stop NOW! We adults are fully responsible
for the world these children are living in and dying in. The more power
and influence you wield in this world, the more responsible you are.
These are children who are being told that they are worthless, told
their lives are cheap and easily thrown away, told that material things
are the gods they should pursue if they want happiness.
It is not their parents that are misleading
the children. They are nearly as powerless as their sons and daughters.
The message comes from a much more powerful source. Men in high places
who control the schools, the media, the culture and the economy.
Coach Paul Moore
Jeffrey Taylor's Teacher
Miami Carol City High School