Editorial: Amherst's students -- raising the bar

Published on May 09, 2008

Teenagers often get a bad rap, and that's probably been true throughout history. These days, oldsters can be heard complaining about their spiky hair, baggy clothes, piercings and proclivity for goldbricking.

The truth is something else again, as one group of students in Amherst proved last month.

During their spring break the group of Amherst Regional High School students decided to do something meaningful with their time. In five vans they traveled to the Ninth Ward in New Orleans to help with the continued effort to rebuild houses destroyed by Hurricane Katrina.

For some it was a repeat visit. For all it was a learning experience as well as a chance to help others. And they also turned it into a teaching experience: This week they offered a slide show at the Jones Library about what they found and what they did.

These students are like many others of their generation who have been pitching in to help the people of New Orleans for the past three years. They set a high bar not only for others, but for the federal government as well. It dropped the ball in the immediate wake of the hurricane and, if America's children need to head south to rebuild New Orleans, it's safe to say that the government has also botched the long-term efforts to help the traumatized region.

Just as Amherst's students rose to the challenge of fixing the hurricane-ravaged homes, one student even took it upon himself to challenge presidential hopeful John McCain on the issue.

Amherst's Jonathan Harris-Eisen, 15, bumped into McCain while the Republican candidate was on a walking tour of the city. According to the Times-Picayune, Harris-Eisen asked him: "How would you prioritize Iraq (compared) with the rebuilding here, because we are spending a fraction of what we're spending in Iraq on this disaster?"

Of course, McCain deftly dodged giving an answer, but at least Harris-Eisen was there to ask a valid and thoughtful question.

Rather than spend the break just hanging with friends, the students made the most of their time and gave of themselves for their fellow human beings. It is a selflessness that offers hope in troubled times. The federal government may have forgotten its own people, but our young people have not.