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Monday, December 05, 2011

Faith in the Future
By webmaster @ 12:01 AM :: 302 Views :: 1 Comments :: Sister Carol Perry

My faith in the next generation has been renewed -- big time.

The place? Port Authority bus terminal on the Sunday after Thanksgiving.

Knowing that most of the upstate college students have to return on that day, I got there as soon as I could after my class at Marble. I found myself in a situation of chaos. There was no way to access the lower level where the buses were. There was only a sea of students, a sea that swelled to immense proportions as time passed. Eventually, some voice (its owner was invisible) ordered us into an approximation of a line, about three abreast, that snaked for a full block into the concourse under the north terminal, wrapped around a newsstand, and then came back into the south wing where the buses were theoretically waiting.

We moved by less that an inch at a time. Eventually, the Voice called for those going to New Paltz and Kingston, and I drew nearer to the head of the line. By then, the crowd had swelled even more. At least a thousand of us must have been herded into that airless concourse.

And they waited in the most peaceful fashion imaginable. Only 3 or 4 of us were beyond the age of 25. The rest were all college students. They were well-behaved, polite, humorous even, in a situation that could have incited a mob ready to revolt.

I shared my "space" with 3 young men bound for Syracuse, young men with whom I had nothing in common: neither age, nor race, nor gender. They were funny, unfazed by the absence of directions, patient...

A very nervous policeman kept saying to the Gorgon guarding the descent to the lower level: "This is a dangerous situation. You must move them downstairs." I could see what he feared, all those youngsters waiting in a crowded space for what was now more than two hours with no information. I would have liked to reassure him that no one was about to storm the barricades, but I couldn't.

Exhuasted but exultant, I finally boarded a bus 2 1/2 hours after I began my ordeal. I carried with me an early pre-Christmas gift of the memory of a thousand members of the college generation who behaved superbly in a time of crisis. The future looks brighter every time I recall them!

Comments

By lminer @ Wednesday, December 07, 2011 6:27 PM

Thank you for shedding light on the multitudes of good kids in a world only too quick to report on the bad seeds.

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