So many roads, so much at stake
– Bob Dylan, Dignity 1989
So many dead ends, I’m at the edge of the lake
Sometimes I wonder what it’s gonna take
To find dignity
There are always signs to signal that things are going wrong.
- A check engine light on the dashboard
- Numbness in an extremity
- A dead canary in the coal mine
- Eye contact not returned in an intimate relationship
These are the moments that you should know things are about to fall apart. Wise men take action. Yet, many of us think we can power through until the next oil change. Perhaps that numbness will go away after a good night’s rest.
Before we can make the necessary changes, however, we must acknowledge the symptoms of a disease are present. There are plenty of warning signs around us. Yet so many of us choose to believe that our society is as healthy as ever. Why? Because it has always been fine.
I have been noticing the warning signs myself. I have set myself upon a journey to locate the illness of the body of our culture. Generic answers like, sin, man’s nature, corruption simply did not satisfy my curiosity.
I believe I have zeroed in on an acute illness in our world that afflicts all of us. It affects each institution, each group, every individual that walks the path of an American.
We have lost our Dignity.
We have lost it, because mostly we do not even know what dignity means. In modern times, dignity has become confused with rights.
The premodern definition of dignity was a word of obligation.
If one was to be dignified it meant that this person had earned the status by meeting standards imposed by a community.
– Ryszard Legutko
I found a dead canary in the proverbial coal mine on a recent visit to my home of East Central Illinois.
My mother works in a nearby school as a teacher’s aid for classes who have special needs students. My mother rejects the label paraprofessional, or para-pro. She finds it obtuse and pandering. I find her emotional reaction over this labeling quite telling. My mother knows when the powers that be are acting with insincerity. And her instincts in this situation are correct.
Recently, the school board voted to raise the entry level wage for new paraprofessionals to $14 per hour. Yet there are para-pros on staff, with just a few years of experience, who are earning less than $14 per hour.
When asked if current para-pros could have their salaries increased to meet the newly advertised wage, the school board declined. When pressed in a recent school board meeting, they refused to even entertain the possibility.
Wise man lookin’ in a blade of grass
– Bob Dylan
Young man lookin’ in the shadows that pass
Poor man lookin’ through painted glass
For dignity
Occurring at almost the same time, the school district approved a new football field scoreboard priced at $500,000. At this moment we cannot be assured how many points per game that this new scoreboard will add to each home game. Nor have I seen projections of how many more fans will pack into the stands simply to be entertained by this monstrosity. But we can safely assume that the football program in this small Illinois town feels the pressure to keep up with other area football programs who have lavished their programs with similar material adornments.
The message is clear as to where this school districts priorities are.
This is not a message of radical egalitarianism. Nor is this author even disputing the necessity of promoting the school’s most visible asset, which is the football team. Value is subjective. Inequality is inevitable.
However, this does not require the decision makers of this school district to treat those at the bottom of their hierarchy with indignity. Denying one the ability to be dignified is at the root of all real injustice in our country.
It is also important to recognize that dignity comes in different forms. Dignity is not limited to luminaries that walk the halls of international prestige. Nor is dignity only found among our most renowned intellectuals.
Dignity should be earned by every person in any group that helps promote the health of a society. Tyrannies do not last because they crush the very people who wash the dishes, park the cars, and take out the trash. Dictators come to power on the wave of preaching radical equality. Yet in the final analysis, every dictator grubs riches for themselves and their friends while their empire crumbles.
The school district in the above story refuses to acknowledge the dignity of the people who keep the most difficult classes functioning. This is not a matter of workers crying for more than their fair share. These are people who have earned, deserved, and have been confirmed by the standards that were set for them. The issue at hand is not wages, but respect. Each of us want to know we are needed and that we appreciated. A simple action such as retroactively adjusting a salary is a signal that these teacher’s aids possess dignity.
On the other hand, the group atop of the school district’s hierarchy (the football team), are being rewarded with material possessions that have not been earned. This is not to say that the football team should not sit at the apex of the community’s attention. We inherit the tradition of honoring our warriors and exalting our young men. The health of any culture depends upon this action.
However, unearned rewards breed spoiled attitudes. There is a delicate line that we are treading in sports today. The gifts that were once reserved for only the most accomplished are now being showered upon all. In my area of suburban Atlanta, the common public high school football stadium is more ornate than many small colleges. And the schools with more resources (private and city schools) have stadiums that would make universities from a few decades ago jealous.
The point is that sports become undignified when the reward precedes the accomplishment. For as much scorn as the participation trophy culture has gotten, the ridicule has not prevented the ethos from seeping upwards into all our sport traditions.
Today recognition is a prerequisite regardless of performance. Demand of perfect playing conditions (facility, temperature, game administration) have nearly been codified into an Athlete’s Bill of Rights before play can occur. What once were obligations to be earned have morphed into entitlements. And our current sports culture demands ever more expensive accessories to our already overly accessorized extra-curricular activities.
Sick man lookin’ for the doctor’s cure
– Bob Dylan
Lookin’ at his hands for the lines that were
And into every masterpiece of literature
For Dignity
What is to come of a country where leadership in the ‘heartland’ of America disrespects the least of our communities? Why can we no longer trust our institutions to balance style and substance? How can we correct a community who can no longer hold its leaders accountable for being undignified?
The sickness is in our bloodstream. The symptoms are visible. Can the body be saved from death?
We must reclaim our dignity.
Jonathan Hemingway, also known as Coach Hemi, was a high school basketball coach for 15 years in Georgia and Tennessee. He has also spent more than a decade as a national evaluator and basketball writer for various websites. He is now a full-time father and a part-time farmer. You can follow him on twitter @JL_Hemingway or email him at CoachHemi@gmail.com
