Message from Lead Hoop Dreams Scholarship Fund Sponsor Patrick McGettigan,
Founder, Landmark SystemsRegardless
of how long our families have been in this country, we’re all immigrants of
one era or another. From wherever
we came, we’ve known the bounty of a country where even the poorest of
immigrant families could almost be guaranteed a much better life in a generation
or two. How many of you have had
immigrant ancestors know just such a passage?
In my case, it took but two generations to go from the poverty of my
uneducated, immigrant parents to a privileged life.
Why? Because my life took
place here in America.
I’d
like to call your attention to another group of immigrants, a group whose
ancestors in many cases pre-dated this country. They’re known for their great
good humor, strong religious beliefs, and many talents that in no small way
infuse the American culture. You
could easily say that if this group had never stepped foot upon these shores,
many aspects of the American life we know – and cherish -- would not exist.
Indeed, one could argue that their very existence was responsible for the
strong, united country we know today.
Now
what if I told you this group is still synonymous with the disadvantaged and
underprivileged of American society? Wouldn’t
that bother you, especially if your immigrant ancestors have long since left
poverty behind? Would it
bother you more if you knew that right here in our nation’s capital we have as
stereotypical an example of their institutionalized plight as anywhere else in
this country, tucked comfortably away across the Anacostia River -- in that
“other” side of town?
Yes,
my friends, 136 years after Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation, 134
years after 600,000 Americans had died fighting a civil war to end it, slavery
still lives on in the hopelessness of too many black American lives.
But
we know that don’t we? As much as
we might want it otherwise, we know the statistics of life are counted
differently across the Anacostia. We
know that, whereas the violent death of just one kid or young adult would be a
rare and greatly lamented event in almost any community in our region, there
it is so frequent as to be considered normal.
Imagine just one drive-by shooting death of a kid in Georgetown, Potomac,
Bethesda, Great Falls, McLean, Reston, Columbia or any number of other affluent
communities in our region. What
would be the reaction? Well, just
last night a fourteen and a fifteen year old were gunned down across the
Anacostia. Sort of normal though,
isn’t it? Late teens or early
twenties? Even more common. Normal day-to-day.
When
I started drafting these thoughts, believe me, I didn’t lack for points to
make as you should know. But
coincidentally one day, I read a newspaper article on the increase in salaries
as well as a troubling companion piece on the rise in the percentage of people
below the poverty level. The list was by state.
Incredibly, there was the District of Columbia – our nation’s capital
– right at the top with 22%. What
would you hazard that percentage to be across the Anacostia when places like
Georgetown were removed?
As
one who grew up dirt poor in DC, I used to think that all poor people needed was
opportunity. But later in
life I changed my mind. I realized
that what I had needed most of all had not been opportunity, but hope.
When there was hope, I could pick myself up again and strive on to make
it out. Hope gave me a chance,
reinforcement against the odds. And
what was the great giver of hope? Knowledge.
It fashioned dreams and lit the light at the end of that tunnel.
So let’s return across the Anacostia and talk
education.
Now,
of all the disadvantaged communities in America, of all the stereotyped inner
cities, where would you expect the model public school system to exist?
Would it be illogical or unreasonable to expect it to be in the city of
the Department of Education, the US Congress, and one of the top, high-tech
economies on earth? If such a fabled thing as a model public school system
for the poor were to exist in just one place – even in one school -- would it
be too harsh to expect it to be in the Capital of the United States of America?
Of
course, we know the answer, don’t we? We
know that the public school system of our Nation’s Capital’s is as poor and
impoverished as many of its students -- especially across the Anacostia.
For decades, published test scores of the region consistently have shown
DC’s schools trailing badly. But
that’s been kind of normal too, hasn’t it?
The
hope I speak of is a faint glimmer for many of the best of these kids.
If, amidst broken homes and the various curses of poverty, they stay in
school, stay off drugs, don’t get pregnant, stay out of jail – and stay
alive – the feat of high school graduation promises little for many but life
continuing at or below the poverty line. That
more than anything else tilts the odds against them.
That’s
where you come in. At the
crossroads of a kid’s life, you can be the means through which succeeding
generations of an American family are raised up from poverty and hopelessness
into the mainstream. You can give
that wonderful gift of hope.
College.
That’s the hope we’re dangling at the end of the tunnel for these kids.
It’s the incentive to survive, overcome, and work to get there.
It’s the way out to a better life.
The
parable of the Emperor’s New Clothes is one that I have used throughout my
career to keep my own perspectives honest, if nothing else.
Well, good, generous people of the Washington area, let’s admit that we
can see across the Anacostia, even if the Congress of the United States can’t.
Let’s admit that we’re ashamed that so many descendants of slavery
still languish over a century later right here in our wonderful capital, right
here in our home town. Most of all,
let’s have the courage to decide to go across the Anacostia and give that gift
of hope to some of their kids.
I
know, I know. We all have plenty of worthy causes. But let me argue that amidst so much that is socially or
politically correct -- especially in Washington -- few causes could give you
such a positive, righteous return on your charity dollar.
You can help reach back from a future generation where that man never
became a hardened criminal, where that woman never spent a life on welfare, or
where that tragically wasted mind never ended up looking through sad, wise eyes
from the back of a trash truck. What if six or eight years from now you could
all of a sudden remember that, but for you or your company, that bright, young
employee might be that hopeless wretch out there on the streets?
Sorry
to be so strong, but this is not an iffy issue and it’s long overdue.
You know it’s there as much as I do. All I’m saying is join me in
taking a stand. It’s not okay.
It’s even disgraceful, especially here in high-tech and prosperous Washington,
our nation’s capital. We can do
something about it!
The
Hoop Dreams Scholarship Fund is a “college assist” program founded by an
incredibly dedicated teacher at HD Woodson High School named Susie Kay.
I’ll leave it to them to give you more details.
I’ll just say that it tries to provide not only scholarships, but also
the nurturing systems that these kids need to help them make it.
Nowhere could money alone be so tangibly spent.
But there is much more you can do too if you want.
So
my friends, I’ll ever so gently say, how can you turn away, especially in
these economic times? How can you
not find a way to make a statement on this issue?
You too can reach down and grab the hand of a kid and lift him or her
from despair. Won’t you
join me and Hoop Dreams across the Anacostia?
As a citizen of the Washington area, it’s the right thing to do.
Thank you for listening.
Patrick H McGettigan
Chairman
and Founder, Landmark Systems Corporation
Hoop
Dreams can be reached at (202) 414-0904 or at http://www.hoopdreams.org/
For more information about this letter, or to hear about why Pat McGettigan supports the Hoop Dreams Scholarship Fund, please contact: jmnesseth@mindspring.com or patmcgetti@netscape.net .