A Love Letter to Paige Bueckers and the Class of 2020

Dear Paige and Dear Members of the Class of 2020,

First of all, congratulations to every member of the class of 2020 on the completion of your high school careers. You of all classes undoubtedly appreciate the magnitude of your accomplishment because it has occurred under such strange and historic circumstances. And, being honest, you will all face harder challenges in the years to come. But, heck, you've spent 12 years on this quest and you've passed a lot of gates to get where you are today.

But, what's even more important than where you've been is where you're going. If you have indeed had a successful high school career, the proof of that someday will be that you will still have lifelong friends with whom you've shared this journey.

Hopefully, where you're going in future years will be filled with such friends. Unfortunately, you may also experience another pandemic like the coronavirus. But, hopefully, what you will not see is another event like the killing of George Floyd and the riots and mayhem that we have had on our streets. But, this will indeed be a harder challenge than surviving high school.

So, let me specifically thank and congratulate Paige Bueckers on a truly beautiful commentary published in the Star Tribune on Sunday June 7. If you haven't seen it, hopefully you can still find it online. It suggests to me that Paige is as good of a person as she is a basketball player. And, by the way, I also have every faith and belief that most members of the class of 2020 would agree with the things that Paige articulated. "Never take the little things for granted." Whatever you've lost, "it is so important to think of others." Concerning the death of George Floyd, she said, "When will people of color stop being judged by their skin? I am white. I will never be able to understand what it's like to be a person of color, but that does not make me any less angry.... There is a need for action instead of words. Something good just has to come out of this." Wise words even for a person who has successfully navigated their K-12 education.

But, I repeat: This will be a harder challenge than what you've faced so far, maybe the hardest challenge of your life. I hope you will pardon the expression, but when I was your age, the civil rights movement came in a sense to an end. The Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act were passed by the U.S. Congress. We really thought that a new day had dawned. It turned out that the real beauty of the civil rights movement was that it shamed the racists and drove them underground. It was no longer acceptable to do and say racist things in public. Well, this lasted a good long while. But, after some 40 years, it suddenly became acceptable to be racist again. For every Paige Bueckers, there's a fellow like the one I read about in the Star Tribune the Sunday after Paige's commentary.  He owns the bar in Sauk Rapids, and it's filled with Confederate paraphernalia. It turns out that he actually spent 90 days in jail for deliberately running down a black man in his pickup truck. 90 days!

Then, in 1968, when I graduated from high school, the Vietnam War was raging. We all marched in the streets against the war and against a militaristic approach to our relations with foreign countries. And, you know, until 2001 if felt like we had made progress there as well. But, the fact is that the U.S. government abolished the military draft in 1973 and, no longer faced with the possibility of being sent to Vietnam against our will, we abandoned the fight. We decided to go about our business of getting jobs, getting married, having families.... We took our eye off the ball, and now we've gone back to a future where we deal with foreign countries mostly by virtue of our military.

The fact is that my generation, the Baby Boomers, have presided over a disastrous period in American life in which racism, inequality and militarism have expanded exponentially. Why? Well, because not all Baby Boomers believed is equality and peace, and the other guys were stronger and richer and smarter and had a lot more money than "we" did, those of us who marched for equality and peace. And, so, they won, and "we" lost.

So, Paige, don't underestimate the magnitude of the fight that you have outlined. Action, not words. Something good just has to come out of this. Paige and the class of 2020, don't be like us Baby Boomers because something good won't come out of this unless you really mean what you say, and you continue to mean what you said, year after year after year, unless you keep your eye on the ball, and unless you never ever underestimate your peers who don't share your perspective, who think that racism and violence are OK. My generation really meant it when we demanded peace and equality. We just didn't have the heart for the fight. And, we lost.

God bless everyone in the class of 2020 who wishes to bring peace and equality to all of your friends and neighbors and all Americans.

Sunny