CHARTER: A valuable day in court

Your article on the Charter School AP Class students attending the Idaho Supreme Court hearing Sept. 18 is important and timely.

I had the pleasure of meeting Sandy Midgley and some of her students when I was exiting the hearing of my own case before the court that morning. As a college educator of over 30 years, I treasured the chance to speak to the students about the privilege they had to see our judicial process at the highest level. We briefly discussed that the court’s setting is formal, and that the legal dialogue can at times be dry. I urged the students to look beneath the attorneys’ formal words and to perceive how the conflict underlying the legal arguments can be very real and that participants’ feelings can be very intense.

Conflict, even intense conflict, is part of the human condition that cannot be wished away. But it can be managed and that is a crucial gift of civilization! The famous quote “Man was born into barbarism, when killing his fellow man was a normal condition of existence.” laid the foundation for discussing with them how far we have come since mankind’s early years. The students showed clear awareness of the violent headlines of the past two weeks and how hearings such as the one they were about to witness present a much-evolved alternative to using force to settle issues.

That lesson our cherished country, indeed the whole world, needs to practice more.

LEON KHALSA

Tacoma