Not In My Town

In an attempt to stay cool over this swealtering 4th of July weekend, I plopped myself down in front of the downstairs TV, where it is 10 degrees cooler than my upstairs rooms. I turned the TV on; the station was set to KQED, the local public television station. The show that came on when I pushed the button on the remote was called "Not In My Town". And it was filmed at a local bay area high school, Gunn High School, in Palo Alto.

"Not In My Town", or "Not In My School", is a campaign against prejudice and discrimination and about creating an atmostphere where everyone feels accepted whether they are black or Asian, gay or straight, Mormon or Muslim. "Not In My School" has been celebrated at Gunn High School with a week of activities for several years.

As I watched this show while I ate my leftover spaghetti lunch, I was thinking: Here we are, celebrating Independence Day for a country supposedly founded on "freedom" - freedom of thought and of belief and of expression. Any American schoolchild knows those first few familar words from the Declaration itself: "We hold these truths to be self-evident; that all men are created equal." I suppose your interpetation of those words depends on your defintion of "equality" and "men".

And so, we continue to have "Not In My School" week, until the day arrives when there is no longer a need to have it. And I wonder....if that day will happen in my lifetime.