The audience in the auditorium quieted down when the B.F. Terry High School choir members began to walk onto the stage. There were red, white and blue decorations around the room, and a prominent American flag hung from the ceiling.
The concert began with over 100 students slowly and reverently singing “The Star Spangled Banner.” We usually sing that song before sporting events, and many of us forget the meaning behind the words.
I found myself doing the same, glancing down at the program to see what songs were coming up. But then a big screen came down from the ceiling, and a grainy black-and-white video began playing.
The video was Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech. The film from 1963 showed thousands of people in Washington D.C. listening to the civil rights leader talk about his many dreams. One was for people to be judged by the color of their character, not by the color of their skin.
He also hoped his four children would one day hold hands with white children, and I thought about that dream as I looked at the choir students on the stage. Black students stood shoulder to shoulder with white students, brown students and students with disabilities.
At the end of the speech, the screen came up, and two dozen young teens began the “United by Love” performance. The idea for the concert came from choir directors Rhonda Klutts and Marlayna Shaw, and they said their students immediately embraced the idea and concept.
Songs were chosen for their meaning about acceptance and understanding. The words from “Colors of the Wind” set the tone –if you “walk in the footsteps of a stranger, you’ll learn things you never knew you knew.”
The choir, and indeed the school choirs in our diverse county, reflect those lyrics. There were faces from all ethnicities in the choir on the stage that evening, just as there are in our grocery stores, churches and the hallways of our schools. Many people still judge others by what’s in their shopping cart, the language they’re speaking or the clothes they’re wearing, but our children understand how to get along with each other. They seem to accept and celebrate each other’s customs and cultures.
So why is it so hard for adults?
In between songs, students read narratives about equality, getting along, acceptance and forgiveness. They asked for members of the military, police officers, law enforcement, fire fighters and EMS personnel to stand and for the audience to thank them for their service.
They then recognized any families who’d lost a loved one while serving our country, and there was somber applause for those who stood. What a contrast to some of the disrespectful shenanigans politicians and professional athletes are engaged in these days.
Toward the end of the concert, I thought about all the grievances and differences we have in this world –someone’s skin is darker than ours, someone wears a hijab or someone speaks with an accent – and realized these teens are onto something with their concert.
We have to move on to a better world and that starts with each individual person, each individual heart and each individual hand reaching out to someone else in love, understanding and peace.
At the end of the concert, almost 200 students stood around the auditorium, shoulder to shoulder, and sang “When You Believe.” I don’t think there was a dry eye in the full house at that point because there really can be miracles when we believe and act on those beliefs, just as these teenagers showed us.
This column was originally published in The Fort Bend Herald.