It’s a new millennium, let’s try and get along

Nathan Kavanaugh

There have been a series of racial issues at Burbank High School in

the past two weeks dealing with Armenian, Caucasian and Latino students.

In the two-and-a-half years that I have been at the school, there have

been a few instances when racial tensions have become an obvious problem.

In the last week and a half of school before the winter break, there

was an unmistakable sense of anger between different groups of students.

The anger was based along the same old lines of racial and cultural

difference. Some students don’t even give it a second thought when they

see the pre-fight gatherings because it is almost becoming commonplae.

It seems sad that in our own community, in today’s society, we still

have these problems between people for a reason so petty as race. Whether

it’s Armenians, whites or Latinos, it is uncalled for. I can understand

if there is a problem and one group retaliates in defense. However, from

what I can see, it usually a matter of who can intimidate the most.

We can always make excuses or try to ignore the issue all together,

but excuses will make it worse and avoiding won’t make it better. This

needs to be remedied for the sake of all the parties involved.

If students do not try to resolve this issue and stop fighting for the

obvious ethical reasons, they should at least be mature enough not to act

solely on instinct, which seems to be to fight based on recent events.

Even walking down the hallways at Burbank High, you can’t help but

hear slurs and insults against virtually every race from every race. You

would think we were living in the South during segregation. Only here

there are more than two races with hate for each other.

We are living in freedom, with things that people in other countries

could never dream of, yet we still can’t seem to live together. The

millennium is about to turn and Christmas is today. I hope that this same

holiday cheer and can stay with all of us and that the people of my

generation, the leaders of tomorrow, will learn to live together.

NATHAN KAVANAUGH is a junior at Burbank High School. Reach him at

nate2coo11@aol.com