By Jo-Ann Hohl
Pennsylvania, USA
The Owen J. Roberts High School band practices every Tuesday and Thursday night from 6:00 to 8:30 p.m. Attendance is mandatory, and the band is very competitive. But then, on that horrible day of September 11th, 2001, the school canceled everything, including after-school activities.
Band was canceled. The teens had a free night! As a young person, what would you do with an unexpected night off? Catch up on homework? Maybe go out and party with your friends? As a teenager, would the deaths of strangers or the collapse of buildings 300 miles away influence your choice?
These teens, like the rest of the nation, had sat glued to the television watching the events unfold, and they had heard the call for help being broadcast. One of the band members was moved by the call for blood donations. He had never given blood before, but knew it was something he could do to contribute. He asked a friend who had previously given blood what was involved and learned that it was something most people could do.
The phone number that was being shown on the television was busy, so he phoned the local hospital to see where blood could be donated. He was given the address of a nearby church that had scheduled its annual Red Cross blood drive for that very day months ago.
However, rather than going to the blood drive by themselves, the two teen friends each spent over an hour on the phone recruiting other band members. They told them, “We don’t have to go to band. We can give blood. We can help.” Many of those band members also showed up at the blood drive.
It can be difficult to find someone with something positive to say about teens. People say that their music is loud, their clothes are ugly, and they don’t dress properly. People say that their manners are bad and their behavior is unspeakable. Many adults say that the young people of today will cause the decline of our country tomorrow.
But I think our country will be in good hands. I am proud of these young men and their friends who met them at the Red Cross blood drive that night. These teens gave up an unexpected bonus — a night of freedom from all responsibilities — to take up the responsibility of saving lives.
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Amen. I never will forget the people standing outside of hospitals waiting for the survivors who would never come and some were crying.
All of Canada was crushed by that deliberate massacre.
Canada took in hundreds of airline passengers as we all waited for the next blow.
We still remember.
Now we wonder why America is attacking Canada.
Why America is punishing us with tariffs greater than it applies against communist Russia..
America is attacking all its friends for failing to bow to America’s greater armies.
America’s ‘might make right’ may conquer us but don’t expect us to smile when we think of America.
Thanks for the chance for straight talk.
Canada, as always, is not alone.
Patriotic residents of the USA are wondering the same thing.
You’re our brethren, and as such we sometimes find ourselves at odds.
Not this time.
God bless America. ALL of it. <3
The penultimate paragraph of this story is disappointing and distracting. People of all ages can indulge in bad manners and unspeakable behavior (as noted in the above comments); people of all ages can choose to act well, selflessly, and with consideration for others.
Aside from that, it is only opinion that it is “difficult to find someone with something positive to say about teens.” In my experience, the opposite is true. and the teens in this story are only one example of many.
Can this irrelevant, non-heroic and prejudicial commentary be removed?