OPINION
THE SOAP BOX
Stand Up. Speak Up. It’s Your Turn.
It has always been easy for me to follow the Beach Boys’ admonition to “be true to your school,” for I am a proud graduate of Manchester High School Central, an institution that has served generations of Manchester citizens ably and well, an institution to which it is easy to be true.
As the oldest public high school in New Hampshire, Central’s historic legacy is, quite literally, second to none in the state. For me, the Little Green was the most important institutional influence in my life, exceeding the impact of the college and the law school I attended.
Central’s legacy, the memories of those who helped to establish it, and the good work of those who toil away in its classrooms today were rudely swatted away on Dec. 19 by the comments Alderman Nick Pappas made as guest host of “Girard At Large,” a local morning radio show.
In a discussion about school redistricting, Pappas said Central should be closed, its architecturally significant campus “level(ed)” – Poor Abe! – and the real estate paved over to make way for a “nice strip mall.”
So, CHS should give way to a CVS? Huh?
According to Pappas’s “logic,” the facility’s most valuable asset is its underground parking garage, a feature that would make the property appealing to real estate developers. For Pappas, Central’s greatest assets are not the hundreds of thousands of students it has served in its 170-year existence, the thousands of faculty members who have devoted their lives to educating Manchester’s most valuable assets, or its ongoing mission to turn out into the world citizens who are kind to others, useful to society, and happy with themselves.
In one of the most famous passages in “To Kill a Mockingbird,” a book I first read at Central and subsequently taught as a member of the English department, Atticus Finch decries the prevalence in his Alabama hometown of “loose talk” – uninformed, inaccurate, and hurtful statements that demean the public discourse. Alderman Pappas’s ill advised and disrespectful words about Central High School long history and its ongoing mission are a Manchester version of precisely what Atticus warned against.
Alderman Pappas owes his constituents an apology – especially those who attended Central, work at Central, or send their kids there. In addition, public officials, especially Mayor Ted Gatsas, who is a Central graduate and a member of the school’s Hall of Fame, should condemn any suggestion that Central’s highest and best use in the future is as the future site of a Rite Aid or a Family Dollar.
This will not happen without a fight. Pappas’s comments are likely to rouse a not-so-jolly (or little) green giant.
David Scannell teaches English at Milford High School and is a member of Central’s Hall of Fame Committee. A Manchester resident, he is a graduate of and former teacher at Central High School. He is also a former coordinator of school and community relations for the Manchester School District.
