A better man than many

Early Saturday morning (or late Friday night), while I was trying to keep my destroyer afloat in an online naval game, a young man who from all the information I have read so far had the ideals and drive to better not only himself but those around him was shot in the head and killed. An act that is not only a horrible tragedy but an act of stupidity and contradiction. Norman Griffith was a high school senior, captain of his school football team, a role model for many of those who knew him. His team had just won their homecoming game hours earlier so of course he and some friends went to a dance at a community center. It is believed that the shooting was gang related, as many crimes of ignorance are these days. Gang related not because Griffith was in a gang but because the probable shooters were. So why was this young man with a personality that made you smile killed do you ask? The leading thought is that this happened because he was wearing the colors of his school. I don't know exactly what colors, if it was his team jersey, or a hat, or perhaps even an ID lanyard on his keychain. School colors is what this disgusting and ignorant act was about.
So a gang member was so mad at this man for wearing the colors of a school he felt the need to shoot him. That just boggles my brain box. I never had much school spirit when I was in school I never went to dances or football games or track meets. Yes I went to pep rallies but that was because it was required, my buddies and I usually sat in the back sleeping counting the holes in the ceiling tiles (there are lots up there). I am so glad that nowadays students are so proud of their own schools that they will pick up a gun and kill for that school, or for the neighborhood around that school. This isn't the kind of respect or help that schools these days need let alone want. Wouldn't it be a better way for everyone if instead of shooting that guy with the school shirt on, kids these days would actually just pay attention in class?
Yeah my family and friends are laughing at that sentence now. I was the kind of kid who got in trouble at school for reading books in class. I recently found that my high school GPA was 2. (something), I have already forgotten it and it's still packed up somewhere since we moved. I don't know what Norman Griffith had as a GPA or how well he did his homework. But he was still a better man than many. Not because he was a football player or because he had offers from several colleges to play the game. Not because he had many friends and affected the lives of so many people. But because when he was at a dance at this community center, a dance that was for everyone in the area and even people not in the area, a dance that was a chance for people to come together and have fun and see their friends, he walked away. He walked away when an argument started; he walked away from confrontation, probably with whoever it was that shot him. He walked away because he knew it was the right thing to do and because arguing over the color of someone's clothes is an ignorant thing to do and is a waste of oxygen to do so.
Do you want to improve your school's image? Do you want to make your school better than that other one? Then pay attention in class, try to pass a test, do some homework once in a while, or maybe even; dare I say it....study. Every time you pull a trigger or throw a rock or swing a pipe because you think your school is smarter than another one, you make yourself and that school you're defending dumber. Am I rambling yet, probably, but this just really makes me mad.