For the past 21 years it has been my
distinct honor and privilege to serve as
state coordinator and lead chaperone of
the National Rural Electric Youth Tour
to Washington, D.C.
The Youth Tour program traces its
history back to 1957 when then-Sen.
Lyndon B. Johnson spoke at the annual
meeting of the National Rural Electric
Cooperative Association in Chicago and
challenged co-op leaders to send young
people to Washington where they could
actually see what our nation’s flag represents.
Johnson’s home state, Texas, was the
first to answer the senator’s challenge
and by 1964 the program had become
a coordinated annual event with more
than 400 young people representing 12
states. Today, the number of students
and chaperones participating in the allexpenses-
paid program totals more than
1,800 each year.
The youngsters typically spend four
or five days in Washington where they
get to see the many historic monuments
and landmarks they’ve always read
and heard about. They also get to meet
members of their state’s congressional
delegation and enter the Senate and
House chambers where they witness the
legislative process firsthand.
In leading this special group to
Washington over the years, you can be
sure I’ve experienced quite a few interesting
and exciting moments. Each tour
brings its own unique set of challenges,
situations and rewards. There have
been bus breakdowns, communication
breakdowns, last-minute cancellations
and other surprises along the way.
In particular, I recall the trip to
Washington the summer after the 911
tragedy. Some of the monuments and
federal buildings were still off-limits to
the public, security was tight and tension
was in the air.
Though quite apprehensive before
we departed, we returned home that year
without incident. And while the trip always
yields memories that the students
carry with them for a lifetime, this trip
was especially poignant for the participants.
Similar to 2001, the circumstances
that made this year’s trip an exceptional
one actually occurred before we boarded
the buses and headed east. Just a few
days before we left our base in Baton
Rouge, news sources revealed that a
lone gunman with ties to radical groups
had entered the National Holocaust
Museum and opened fire. The assailant
killed a security guard and fired several
rounds before he was shot down by
museum personnel.
The National Holocaust Museum
just so happens to be one of the
many sites we usually visit during the
week-long Youth Tour, and I was very
concerned that this murderous episode
would have its intended effect - to
spread paralyzing fear and terror across
our land. I braced myself for the phone
calls from concerned parents demanding
to withdraw their children from the
program.
I have to admit that the more cynical
side of me anticipated that at least a few
would be consumed by fear and opt to
stay home. But to my pleasant surprise,
none of them did. While safety concerns
were expressed, justifiably so, all
the students and their parents made the
choice to overcome their anxieties and
fears and forge ahead with their plans.
Every student that has gone on this
tour has taken away an assortment of
special memories and lessons. They’ve
entered the very halls where the nation’s
laws are debated and enacted. They’ve
walked through the building where the
president and his family reside. They’ve
visited the museums that preserve and
display our nation’s history. They’ve
witnessed the solemn changing of the
guard at Arlington Cemetery and stood
before the statues and monuments that
recognize those men and women who
have made the ultimate sacrifice for the
preservation of our freedoms.
To be sure, most of the Youth Tour
students will likely never find themselves
in a position where they are on
the front lines of a military combat
scenario and faced with a situation
where they have to demonstrate their
bravery and courage in the same manner
our U.S. service personnel do on a daily
basis.
But given the events that transpired
before our trip to Washington, they did
have this opportunity to exercise some
measure of courage by moving forward
when they could have allowed their
fears to intervene and cause them to
miss out on one of the most important
trips of their young lives.
Right in the very vicinity of this
extreme act, they found themselves in
the physical presence of an institution
where the laws are made and the political
power transferred through peaceful
means instead of bloodshed.
It may seem like a small sacrifice
for these students and their parents to
overcome their concerns and continue
on as planned, and maybe it was. But as
a parent myself, I know how hard it is to
let a child travel across the country with
a group of strangers in the first place, let
alone doing so just a few days before a
zealot has opened fire at your point of
destination.
I believe this is notable.
I appreciate all the students and
parents who have taken part in this
worthwhile program over the decades
and I appreciate the fact that I have had
the honor of serving these young people
and their families.
No doubt, next year’s trip will hold
some sort of new adventure, and I look
forward to another memorable time
spent with these outstanding leaders of
tomorrow.
No comments:
Post a Comment