LADY JAGUARS

 On this pre-thanksgiving football weekend we want to do something completely different. 

In 2012 reporter John Branch from the NY Times went to Carroll Academy in Tennessee to talk about their basketball team- the Lady Jaguars who were in the middle of an epic losing streak. The team was made up of girls (just becoming young women) who were sent there by a juvenile court judge. One of them had gotten into trouble stealing her mother's pain medicine- and never revealed that she did it at her father's request so he could sell the pills. 

Today- Sunday- is the story from the same reporter went back to see what had happened to the girls he had reported on. Not surprisingly their life has been tough. Drug use. Jail. Prison. In and out of recovery. Working fast-food jobs and living in shelters. 

What strikes us- what saddens us- are the pictures of these girls in school. The sweet promise and optimism of youth. The dreams they had. The desires for a better life; a stable life with a family. And then the things they wanted to do. The things they deserved a chance to try and do. 

They never really had a chance. Oh sure you can come up with one person who beat the odds every now and then. But the reality is these children- these beautiful souls- born into despair - never had a chance. 

You need to read this article. And we need to think about how we let our children down. It's more important than who wins and loses today. 

The article is here. 

We hope the faces and the lives haunt you like they haunt us.