Restored his hope
On a daily basis, I notice young people “hanging out,” dressing like slobs, acting like slobs, and I think, “good Lord, is this what some of our future generations will be.”
On the flip side, I had the pleasure of attending the awards ceremony for the Port Angeles High School Navy Junior Recruit Officer Training Corps cadets last night.
These young men and women demonstrated what we all would like our youth to act like.
They are proud, courteous, sharp, well-mannered, and well-disciplined and yet still normal kids.
They were given awards and medals for leadership, community service, compassion, physical ability and many more.
Many of them were awarded scholarships amounting to hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Two of them earned appointments to the U.S. Coast Guard academy.
I kept thinking how great it would be if every high school could have a program such as this.
Instead of having video game-playing couch potatoes with little or no self-esteem, we could have a generation of future leaders with lofty goals.
While not every cadet will have a career in the military, most of them will take the values learned here to go on to be wonderful and productive citizens.
Hats off to the Port Angeles High School NJROTC program.
Sid Gerling,
Agnew