Sunday, August 31, 2003
EDITOR:
After returning from Austintown Fitch High School's band night, the one question I have for the people of Poland who attended the show is, & quot;Have you any manners? & quot; Even better: & quot;Have you any class? & quot; Apparently not.
As a former member of the Austintown band, I do recall the days very well when Poland would attend our band night. The Poland band would play, the band would finish, and then entire rows of spectators at Falcon Stadium would immediately stand up and walk out with their heads held high well before the last performance of the evening.
The crowd at Falcon Stadium was and always is a warm and gracious one. The people of Austintown love their band night and gave each and every band an equal amount of respect, applause and appreciation before they took the field and after finishing their performance. Why can you not do the same for others? How do you think the members of the Warren Harding band felt while herds of people sporting blue outfits and Poland High School apparel piled out of the stands all at once during their performance? I have to admit, Warren had a very impressive performance. Oh wait ... you weren't there to see it. Sorry.
It would be easy for someone to take issue with me and ask, & quot;Why are you singling out the people of Poland? Isn't that a little unfair? & quot; Simply put: You, and you alone, are notorious for this kind of behavior. You did it 10 years ago. You still do it now.
In the end, though, we realize that you stand to lose the most in this situation. After all, we in Austintown take pride in our band. We also like to think that you miss the best band and overall performance by leaving so early every year.
In the grand scheme, these comments do nothing more than call out certain people and their behavior in a small town in Ohio. They won't change the world. However, they should make us here in the Mahoning Valley more aware of how we act as people by taking a personal inventory of ourselves. What kind of example are we setting?
Pride in community starts at home. If we can't display the least bit of respect for our fellow communities and its people at community-centered events like band nights, how are we to survive? How is Youngstown to survive? The world?
What all led to this revelation? (Parents, pay attention!) I came to this amazing, though admittedly unoriginal, revelation when a spectator witnessing Poland's mass exodus for the first time sat next to me and asked, & quot;Can these people really be this rude? I could expect this from children who don't know any better, but they are adults ... and they think it's all right. & quot;
DEAN CHANCE
Austintown