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Letter to the Editor: To the High School Class of 2021

During the coming month, an 11-member scholarship board, of which I’m the swing vote and presenter, will award a scholarship to a high school student who’s passionate about writing. In anticipation of how the submissions might read, I’ve reflected on the past four years. This is my opinion and conclusion. 

In the past four years, students have been taught that the country was built on the backs of immigrants and slaves. The administration in power during the same period turned its back on immigrants, and the POTUS embraced and encouraged racist groups. They witnessed fellow students shot in classrooms and the lives of friends and family members on the streets in their neighborhoods taken by the very people who took an oath to protect and defend them. 

For this last year, they studied at home via Zoom, unable to be with their peers during these difficult times. With just a few months before graduation, they witnessed the POTUS incite an insurrection and the leader of the Senate from his party confirm that he was responsible. When the same person was asked recently whether the former president was the party’s choice in four years and would he endorse him, he said yes. 

A new administration that was voted into office is bringing hope that’s visible in the eyes of many, bringing a vote to the floor that would help many in need and asking to increase the minimum wage to $15 per hour. The workers who run this workaday world on their backs received not one vote from the other party. Then to hear some of my contemporaries and politicians say they are dumbfounded as to why the teenage-suicide and drug-addiction rates are so high.

What do I say to this student when I present the award? Where is the light at the end of the tunnel? To the high school graduating class of 2021, may you pursue your passion, and may your hopes and expectations come true.

Pete Thelen

Baileys Harbor, Wisconsin