Another One Bites The Dust
My son Ben was one. One of those who graduated from a high school in Orange County, and did not have the privilege and honor to walk across the stage at the Dean Dome, as others before him and after him, as families clap. It was June 2020, and at the most uncertain part of COVID. Public gatherings were taboo for a season. The school put up a yard sign for the neighbors to see his accomplishment. The day of graduation came, and we were told to arrive in a time window to receive his diploma. We snaked through the far back side of Orange High School to finally, after 2 hours arrived to the front of the school where a stage was to walk across and receive a diploma form interim Principle Ann Purcell. There was a place to get a picture and handshakes from some of the administration. 30 seconds and done.
The same is brewing at UNC and Duke today, as across the country. Do we cancel graduation weekend? Do we hold our regular Mother’s Day Tradition? But wait, there is no COVID, no Public Emergency. Just protesters. Young people who at Duke pay a lot, and UNC a little less for the sheepskin. But due to the Hamas Attack from October 7th, 2023, has the ripple effect by those to take these college students who lost their Senior High Proms and graduations in 2020, now stand to lose their College Graduations in 2024. USC has. They are suffering self-inflected wounds, at the hands of bigots and terrorists who hate.
In the cause of the right.
John B. Gaither,
Chairman
OCGOP