But around here, Talkers note that there is a whole lotta good going on and the young folks deserve some credit. Week after week, reports roll in about youth group mission trips to Mexico, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Haiti and other trouble spots around the world where the teenagers traveled simply to help in any way possible.
Earlier this month, a group of high schoolers from Community School of Davidson returned from committing approximately one-fourth of their summer break helping special needs orphans in China. And just a few weekends ago, more than 800 folks — the majority of them high school and college students who, more often than not, are showered with blame instead of accolades — gathered peacefully and without incident at a farm in Huntersville to take part in a benefit concert organized by one of their own to raise money for a local fire department.
The north Meck region is indeed blessed with involved parents, quality educators and dedicated church and club leaders who deserve plenty of credit, but the young folks do most of the heavy lifting and, despite some poor choices and regrettable decisions by a few, the majority of them deserve our praise.
Team pride
Speaking of good kids, Talkers heard Huntersville Mayor Jill Swain relaying this heartwarming story about teenagers at this past weekend’s International Tournament of Champions wheelchair basketball tournament held in gyms around town.
During one of the early games at Lake Norman Charter School, she said, she talked to four high school students in the bleachers watching the men’s game between Germany and Japan.
“They said they didn’t know the event was going on and had just stopped in to watch,” Swain told fellow board members and others in attendance at Monday night’s Huntersville Town Board meeting. She mentioned to the students that the United States was playing Australia later that night.
“They got busy on their cell phones and computers,” Swain said, “and that night, half the bleachers were full of students with their faces painted red, white and blue chanting ‘USA, USA, USA.”
Swain said when the game was over, the students rushed the floor and celebrated with the U.S. team and then had a picture made with the team under the basket. And then some of the teenagers went to the other end of the court and joined in the post-game huddle with the losing team.
“It was amazing to watch,” Swain said. “Our community benefitted from this and our kids benefitted from this.”
Something about nothing
This week, Talkers learned of a rumor about something that might be true. So, naturally, they decided to print it, as it would appear to be common, acceptable journalistic practice these days. Talkers learned from many third, unnamed parties that somebody very close to the situation might do something if something else isn’t done first.
Somebody vigorously denied that something might be done, but someone else said some other someone is growing tired that nothing is being done, and if nothing continues to not be done for much longer, then something will be done about it. Talkers know this to be fact because somebody told them that somebody else said it, even though somebody else didn’t directly say something to them that something was going to be done if nothing was done.
So there you have it. Something will be done by somebody if nothing is still being done when the time comes to do something about nothing happening. Talkers can report with the utmost confidence that a certain something is indeed fact even when there are no reportable facts to support it because, as yet, no one has confirmed that someone heard somebody else say some other person denied it.
Now that’s something.
