Every year begins with hope. Wouldn’t it be nice if you who read this were like Owls? Wherever we Owls go, we enjoy the same rights and social obligations. We can live in any tree, or upscale barn for that matter. Nobody interferes with us as we fly around, provided we don’t aggravate someone whose roof we land on. Imagine if that were true for all of you. I know a lot of you are planning your summer vacations already. I get tired when I fly over the river to Decatur! But imagine for a minute what it would be like to have these things in common with all the people you meet around the world.

What if everybody had rights just like you? Wherever you go. Did you know some girls in parts of the world sit in jail, or worse, if they don’t comply with the religious rules of their country? What if everybody was equal before the law? Isn’t it nice that we have Limestone County defense counselors appointed if we can’t afford them? This is to try to make a guaranteed-trial-by-jury meaningful for all of us. Not just the wealthy or the well-connected. Sad there are places where old folks aren’t taken care of. Here we have Social Security, and in our little county you can go to senior centers for lunch without cost. Not much, but something. Wouldn’t it be truly remarkable if no one had to worry, when they reach a grand age, about how they will pay for medicine or hospitalization? In some countries you never worry about your healthcare in old age, because the whole society cares for their elderly.

Isn’t it nice we can choose our own officials in our county government? Isn’t it even better that they aren’t tormented and threatened by angry mobs of rioters, as happened in Brazil? What if we had politicians who cared enough to make sure they represented what’s best for everyone, not just their wealthy donors? Or what if companies around the world made it a point to add their profits first to employees, then to stockholders?

Best of all, we here are all innocent until proven guilty. We all laughed at the line in “Casablanca” where the French policeman said, “Round up the usual suspects.” That meant there are some people in some places where, if you belong to a certain group, you are considered automatically guilty. What a far better world it would be if everyone were treated fairly, and not considered guilty for being, say, arrested and Black, like what happened with the Scottsboro Boys. Our Judge James Horton showed we were better than that and saved a victim wrongly sentenced.

What if our history books were honest? Lots of people today don’t like bringing up actual events which make our “youth feel bad” about the historic past. My observation is that telling the truth about the past makes us wiser, stronger, and more united, but then I’m only an Owl. So what should we do when we learn more about the past? Should we only keep history one way, despite new revelations? What if, say, we discover that someone we once praised as a hero wasn’t? What if we found out great crimes, like sham trials, or lynching, happened in our little towns? Wouldn’t we want to let the world know, and see we are trying to do better next time? Judge James Horton would think we should. Nobody is hurt if we tell the truth. No one is helped if the truth is hidden. As a great mind once said, “All that is hidden will be revealed.” If I found out someone lynched my grandpa’s grandpa, I’d think it only fair to let the world know we now knew the truth. After all, if we can honestly face our past together, it will help us build a more honest future together.

But then, you aren’t Owls. Our little Owlets had a wonderful teacher once. She had each of her fifth-grade students write an ‘affirmation’, something nice, about everyone else in the class. The little ones at first laughed, then were so touched they cried. Oh, and later an Athens teacher wrote one herself about each of her students as well. Years later, a parent of one of those little kids told her, “We still have the kind words you wrote our little boy taped on the refrigerator.” In her small way, that teacher helped her little charges dream on.