My Heart is Tattered

The recent events of lives lost, both black and white, is resulting in a chasm between my school friends from Everman, the small town that bumps up against the southern edge of Fort Worth.

While in high school from 1975 - 1979, our school was predominately white, and I'm venturing a guess here, but probably around 25% black. With the exception of organized activities, I don't recall a ton of mixing between the two races, but there certainly wasn't any animosity either.  That all changed in the fall of 1977.

Tensions were running high for reasons that I don't recall and may have spilled over from the prior school year. These tensions finally came to a head in the high school parking lot late one evening following the football and drill team buses return from a game in Burleson. Suddenly, chaos ensued in the dimly lit parking lot.  Small factions of fights in various areas. Then I see several small, black kids attacking Travis Cook, a well-built football player who happened to be white. One of the kids stabbed Travis, barely missing a vital organ. It was my understanding later, that this particular group of kids didn't even attend Everman, though others involved on both sides did attend.

My own encounter that night was with Roderick Henderson. In general, Roderick had a reputation of not to be messed with, though I don't know exactly why. That night as I crossed the parking lot I ran into Roderick and he was carrying a club of some sort, it seems from a tree.

I screamed at him, "Where are you going with that?!?!? Where are you going?!?! Give me that! Give me that now!" Oddly enough he did hand it over, but first saying, "Girl!  You're CRAZY!".  I still laugh at that comment. And I must have been hysterically crazy for him to hand it over to a skinny, freckle-faced girl in a drill team uniform.

Over the next months, tensions continued to simmer, but did not escalate to that point again. My own relationship with my drill team officer, who is black, suffered. She was greatly impacted by what was occurring and the injustices she saw. I can say that was when she, and along with myself, lost our innocence regarding who could be trusted, and who could not, on both sides, within our own little community.

My particular graduation class, the class of '79, seemed to have a peace fall over us, an overall acceptance of one another in our final year. We all did our own thing, everyone got along nicely, we had fun. At our 10 year reunion, and reunions after that, we all mingled, kissed and hugged at seeing each other and partied the night away. But now, we're beginning to lose sight of that acceptance we found in each other and the recognition of each other as distinct individuals.

In today's world, entire classes of people, based solely on the actions of a small faction who happen to have one thing in common with the larger class, are being unfairly judged.  That being Muslim, Christian, Black,White, or even a member of Law Enforcement. The good is in the greater population, but we've allowed the intolerance of these tiny, hateful and harmful minorities to bleed into our consciousness.

I can't imagine what it's like to be black, nor can I imagine what it's like being a police officer. On both sides there's a legitimate and very rational fear of not coming home to your family at the end of the day.

What I do imagine and pray for, that in future EHS reunions, we come together as one again, without suspicion, but instead with compassion for each one of us who grew up together and shared one of life's major moments in just getting through our teenage years.

Now, let's get each other through the upcoming golden years.