Great remarks by college basketball coach concerning Newtown:
Pat Kelsey, the Winthrop head coach who starred at Elder High School and played and later coached at Xavier, addressed the recent tragedy in Newtown, Conn., during a postgame press conference that followed the Eagles 65-55 loss to Ohio State on Tuesday night.
Heres what Kelsey said at the conclusion of his postgame remarks:
The last thing I want to say is
Im really, really lucky, because Im gonna get on an eight-hour bus ride, and Im gonna arrive in Rock Hill, S.C., and Im gonna walk into my house, and Im gonna walk upstairs, and Im gonna walk into two pink rooms, OK, with a 5-year-old and a 4-year-old laying in that pink room, with a bunch of teddy bears laying in that room. And Im gonna give them the biggest hug and the biggest kiss Ive ever given them. And theres 20 families in (Newtown), Conn., that are walking into a pink room with a bunch of teddy bears with nobody laying in those beds. And its tragic.
And I dont know what needs to be done. Im not smart enough to know what needs to be done, OK? I know this countrys got issues. Is it a gun issue? Is it a mental illness issue? Or is it a society that has lost the fact, the understanding, that decent human values are important? And our leaders I didnt vote for President Obama. OK? But you know what? Hes my president now. Hes my leader. I need him to step up. Mr. Boehner, the Speaker of the House, hes a Xavier guy, hes a Cincinnati guy, OK, he needs to step up.
Parents, teachers, rabbis, priests, coaches, everybody needs to step up. This has to be a time for change. And I know this microphones powerful right now, because were playing the fourth-best team in the country. Im not going to have a microphone like this the rest of the year, maybe the rest of my life. And Im going to be an agent of change with the 13 young men I get to coach every day and the two little girls that I get to raise. But hopefully things start changing, because its really, really disappointing.
Im proud to grow up American. Im proud to say Im part of the greatest country ever. And thats got to stay that way. And itll stay that way if we change. But we gotta change.
http://cincinnati.com/blogs/sports/2012/12/18/pat-kelsey-discusses-newtown-tragedy-during-postgame-conference/
Good on him!
"For What It's Worth"