The Dark Side of Teen Spirit

    Dr. Marilyn Simon is a professor of English at the University of Manitoba in Canada. She specializes in Shakespeare studies, is widely published and has never been accused of plagiarism (which is more than I can say for the most recent president of Harvard University, but more about that anon); and as far as I can tell, is well-respected by her colleagues and students. I introduce her to you, dear reader, because her most recent essay in the journal Quillette is a heartwarming and uplifting ode to teenage girl power. The essay centers around her attendance at her daughter's high school volleyball finals' match (14-15 year-olds). She gushes, as every mother should, at the girls competing to excel and to have that excellence recognized. You can argue that she goes a little overboard (and I type that sentence with a big smile on my face) with the sentence, "What creatures they are, these teenage girls!" Yep, she's a Shakespeare scholar!

    She then goes on to write about various stereotypes that are imposed on young girls today. She uses adjectives like, "Fragile," "Overemotional," "Bitchy," "Oversensitive," "Swifties," and "Mean Girls." She even adds the adjective "Sluts," and talks about safe sex, bullying, racism, and body-shaming (or body-positivity, if you will). She writes about how conservatives and progressives have their own definitions of young people today and how both sides have come to the conclusion that teens would not "be able to navigate on their own without the help of an elite class of experts." Now, I think that last part is a bit of a generalization, but I get where she's coming from.

    However, none of these words describe what she is seeing on the court that day. She contrasts all of the above thoughts and descriptions of today's young girls with the idea (as she witnesses it on the court) of "striving for excellence, and at times, achieving it." The process of picking yourself up after a missed spike, or bad serve into the net; to shake those things off and continue on, which as many of you can attest to, is what amateur sports is all about. She also worries about the idea of parental authority and those who seek to usurp that authority. To those whose expertise tells todays' parents they are ill-equipped to do everything in life (job, spouse, bills, extended family, AND raise children). That parents are unable to understand the practical guidelines that the experts (many of whom are well-meaning) have put forward for child-rearing. Call it a holding up of a huge STOP sign to the idea that "It takes a village to raise a child."

    There is much more to this essay (feel free to click on the Quillette link above), but I want to focus on one particular sentence. Dr. Simon writes, "My sense is also this: teenagers are, in general, truly kind to those who are suffering." The last couple of paragraphs deals with the kids that come through her house every week; friends, and friends of friends. They are all quite capable to deal with the world around them; the ethical conundrums, and the "cacophony" of noise that comes through their social media outlets, etc. She posits that maybe the cultural forces are less significant for these kids than somebody like me, might otherwise think. Simon says (no pun intended), that these teenagers, or at least the ones she knows, should not be underestimated. These teenagers who inhabit today's culture may have more capacity to thrive than we might think. "They reek of a desire to be treated with hope." Unfortunately, there's always a BUT...

    Last week, in Yonkers, New York, just outside New York City in Westchester County, there was a girls varsity high school basketball game. It was a non-league game between visiting Leffell School which is a private Jewish school in a neighboring town, and the home team Roosevelt High School...a public school in Yonkers. The game was cancelled in the second half and the girls from Leffell School were escorted to their bus under armed security. No, there was not a bomb threat; nor were there pro-Palestinian marchers inside or outside the school chanting their regurgitated Nazi bile. The game was cancelled because the Leffell players were being verbally abused with anti-Semitic bile by their opponents, the players from Roosevelt High. 

    "I support Hamas, you fucking Jew," one Roosevelt player snarled at a Leffell opponent, according to the New York City Public Schools Alliance, which is a group of parents and teachers fighting antisemitism. I could stop right there, but the girls from Leffell High deserve more. It was reported that there was more hostility and aggression, more "jabs and comments thrown at the players on our team than what I have experienced in the past." That, from senior player Robin Bosworth who writes for her school's paper, The Lion's Roar. Think about that for a second..."more than what I have experienced in the past."

    As the 3rd quarter ended, Bosworth's teammates were getting injured by the increased rough, and some might say, dirty play by Yonkers. The Yonkers players also upped their vocal game by shouting "Free Palestine" and other "antisemitic slurs and profanity." Before the start of the 4th quarter the Leffell players and their coach, John Tessitore, decided enough was enough and told the other team and the referees that they were done. Livestream video showed that players from both teams were still jawing at each other, which is when security stepped in. The announcement was made, hands were shook, and security escorted the Leffell players off the court. 

    Roosevelt High School voluntarily forfeited the game with the principal and athletic director weighing in with apologies saying the "follow-up would be swift and appropriate." Well, now. The follow-up statement was the following: "It has come to our attention that a student-athlete made a statement involving "free Palestine," the district said. "This incident was promptly addressed in line with our district's policies and values." These jack-asses would have done better with "The dog ate my homework." 

    As of this writing, the sacrificial lamb was the head coach, Brian Williams. He got canned. Part of me gets that. But in the end, the coach can only do so much. AND, while a coach can try to instill certain values regarding sportsmanship, fair play, whatever, in players, that's really not his or her job. These are varsity high school players...and at the very least they should know better than to follow in the footsteps of Hitler. I have to be honest with you, if the school administrators had any stones they would have cancelled the rest of their season. Is that harsh? Maybe. Would some innocent seniors be hurt? Maybe. But nothing else seems to be working lately. And maybe those seniors and the younger players will step up and face down their moronic teammates the next time those teammates want to go all Hamas on their opponents.

    Let me put it this way, kids. And maybe this will drive the point home a little better. Let's say in the winter of 1979, a young Peter Hall was dribbling the ball up the court at Pennsbury High School, and the opposing team was, oh, I don't know...Delhaas High School. Now, DHS was a predominantly black team, and we were predominantly white. So, let's pretend that I was not only a pain in the ass back then (I know, tough to comprehend, but stretch your mind a little), but I was also a dyed in the wool racist. And as I'm dribbling the ball up the court at good old Pennsbury High, the young black man defending me was up on me tight and we're both getting a little physical. Finally, I say to him, as we're doing our basketball dance, as it were, "Hey, I'm pro-Ku Klux Klan, you nig*** bastard!" Well, you can imagine the shit-storm that would have ensued. And I promise you one thing, dear reader; my coach, one Ed Cochrane, would have grabbed me out of the melee that would no doubt be going on, thrown my ass in the locker room, and said, "Get a shower, Pete. Pack your stuff. You're done. Don't come back." And I would have deserved it. Man, I feel a sense of shame just typing that fictional story. But that's what happened in Yonkers, New York. Fortunately, there was no melee. But, there was also (as of this writing) no blame assessed (except for the coach) and no responsibility taken. These girls at Yonkers High School, as far as I can tell, did not "reek of a desire to be treated with hope." 

    I'm gonna preach a little, so bear with me. I was talking to one of my great friends today about this very topic, as well as others relating to the above story. We agreed that maybe it's time for the idea of shame to be reintroduced, if, of course, it's not too late. We also both agreed that the idea of shame, for just about anything, seems to have disappeared from our cultural milieu. She was also baffled, if not saddened, by the idea that one can hate and/or kill for no other reason than ethnicity/religious belief.  Don't get her wrong...she's not naive. And she's frighteningly smarter than I am. But she's not the first, nor the last to find these dark, base emotions difficult to comprehend in the third decade of the 21st century. We talked about how maybe it's also time to jettison the idea of moral equivalence that has been a dominant sentiment for decades now. When we got back to the topic of religion, I also suggested that the Middle East situation has always been and always will be about religion. To quote the great Ian McKellen in "The DaVinci Code", "Ever since there has been one God, there has been killing in his name." And to be fair, if you're a Biblical literalist, you worship a god who did his fair share of murdering...innocents and guilty, alike.

    Which brings me to this last, but not least, thought. I remain utterly convinced that the world would have been a far better place if the West had used Homer's Iliad and The Odyssey as its foundational works, as opposed to the Bible. And maybe that's part of the problem. I don't mean pushing aside the Bible, because as I've said a million times, I love and respect the Bible, especially the Hebrew Bible (Old Testament) as one of the great works of literature man has ever produced. What I mean is, the lack of cultural knowledge by these youngsters with regard to the classics...our cultural heritage. And don't insult my intelligence by telling me that what I'm describing is White Cultural Heritage. Go read Frederick Douglass, W.E.B. Du Bois, or Martin Luther King, and then come back to me and we'll talk about how these great black Americans knew, I mean absolutely KNEW, that ALL of us have a stake in what the ancients have to tell us. And not only the ancients, but the great writers of the Western Canon since the Bible and Ancient Greece and Rome...of ALL ethnic backgrounds, right down to the year 2024. Why? Because it teaches us how to think. Not necessarily what to think, but HOW to think and read.  

    And if we learn better HOW to think and read, then maybe, just maybe, this heritage, that is being ignored and thrown out with the trash at so many of our high schools and colleges and universities, can save us from the small, anti-intellectual minds that find it so easy to utter the words, "...you fucking Jew." 

write to Peter: magtour@icloud.com