Color the Sky Blue: Response to Red Lake Tragedy
Dr. John R. Eggers
March 24, 2005
Hello Everyone,
From 1984 - 1992 I was principal at Red Lake High school, the school in northern Minnesota where the shooting took place. I knew the families of the victims. Many were my students at the high school.
Here is an article I wrote for my weekly newspaper column.
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Don’t Forget to Color the Sky Blue
Did your teachers tell you to color the sky blue? There was a time when many elementary teachers would give specific directions to their students about what colors to use. They would tell students to “be sure and color the grass green and the apples red and the sun yellow. Of most importance, don’t forget to color the sky blue.”
Teachers were not out to limit the creativity in children, they just wanted to make sure they got things right—at least according to their thinking. With regards to the “blue sky,” I would like to think that teachers wanted their students to always look at the brighter side of things depicted by the blue sky with the bright yellow sun and its glorious rays placed in the top right corner of the page shining down on a little farm with horses in the pasture.
When we get into deep despair, when we feel we can sink no lower, when we experience life at its worst, we need to remember to always color our sky blue and to help others do the same.
It was Christmas of 1977. Former Vice President Hubert Humphrey had less than two weeks to live. During the holidays he had his entire family around him in Waverly, Minnesota. Edgar Berman, Humphrey’s personal physician, writes in his book, “Hubert,” that Humphrey was thinking a lot about Richard Nixon. He felt he needed to phone him to see how he was doing.
You might recall that Nixon narrowly defeated Humphrey in the 1968 election. They were not friends by any stretch of the imagination. Yet, here was a dying Humphrey calling Nixon to see how he was doing. He asked him if his family was celebrating the holidays with him. Nixon said that his daughters were with the other relatives and that it was a quiet Christmas. His wife, Pat, was also not feeling well.
A week or so later when Humphrey phoned him again to wish him a happy birthday, Nixon told Humphrey that he had felt a lot better after his call. In his own way Humphrey helped color the sky blue for Nixon.
For Humphrey, coloring the sky blue meant that he would not allow tragedy and despair to do him in. For Humphrey, coloring the sky blue meant helping others and allowing others to help him.
My mother in law is someone who colors the sky blue and continues to fight the good fight. You would think that someone with Alzheimer's would be the last one who would or even could look for a silver lining. Yet, she seems to find it within her to smile, to feel the warmth given to her by her two daughters, and to look forward to eating the next meal however meager and unappealing it may be. I always find it up-lifting whenever I visit her. She helps me color my sky blue.
Coloring the sky blue is not easy. How could anyone possibly remember to color the sky blue after the recent tragic events in Red Lake? All of us should first understand that the events in Red Lake should be as much of a concern for all of society as they are for the Red Lake Band of Chippewa. Let’s face it, our society is not well and some major fixing and healing needs to occur.
During my first years while serving as principal of Red Lake High School in the late 1980’s, the father of one our cheerleaders had drown while fishing. It was early in the week and the daughter came into my office and said that she would be out the remainder of the week but that she might be able to be at Friday’s football game. I thanked her for telling me, offered my sympathy and said there was no need to worry about the game. I wondered how she would be able to pull herself together by Friday. Yet, when Friday came, there she was on the sidelines in her cheerleading outfit.
The Red Lake Band of Chippewa are a strong and proud people. They have experienced pain before and have always used it as a catalyst to strengthen their ties with each other and their culture and to bring about positive change within their society. If anyone can survive a tragedy of this magnitude, it is the Red Lake people.
Faith has a lot to do with coloring our sky blue. When Rosa Parks decided not to give her bus seat to a white person in Montgomery, Alabama, she knew things would be initially worse because of her action but things would eventually get better. Of course, we know the rest of the story. Rosa Parks was a very religious person and had it not been for the strength that she obtained from her connection to her church, she probably would have given up her seat. Faith and hope are undoubtedly our greatest assets in overcoming adversity.
As difficult as it is at times, coloring the sky blue means remembering that there is always a tomorrow and that life goes on. It is important that we show strength and resilience not only for ourselves but for our young people who are just now learning the importance of what it means to color their sky blue.
Who Is John?