Where is professor Harold Hill when we need him? "We got troubles, my friends, right here in River City. What this town needs is a band!" Actually, what is needed is a lot more bands.
Anyone attending the Oct. 16 high school band competition had to have had the thought, why can't more young people in our community be involved in this extremely worthwhile activity?Nothing in my experience with young people has been so moving, so exciting and so professionally accomplished as the presentations of the competitive high school bands. And if you think a marching band is a bunch of mediocre instrumentalists plodding mechanically along in files and ranks, you couldn't be farther from the truth.
What unfolds on the field is an exquisite panorama of color, choreography and excellent music. These are kids who know the meaning of accomplishment based on discipline and responsibility. These are kids who have a part in something valuable and worthwhile for which they have paid a high price in personal commitment and effort.
But where were the Salt Lake City schools, the Granite District schools, the Jordan District schools? I wonder even if any of the leaders of these districts were in attendance.
There is a wonderful, nonviolent place for all the bored, lonely, talented but unchallenged young people who are struggling for recognition in our community. Hundreds of places, in fact, in each school. Obviously, all that is missing is leadership.
T.W. McMaster
Salt Lake City