A RAY OF HOPE FROM A SAD PLACE AIDAN SILITCH (2002-2019)
If you have ordinary kids the way my wife and I do – ages 15 to 21 – it’s easy to dismiss their political thinking. They seem to have a “progressive” herd mentality with all the predictable opinions on all the predictable issues, a tendency to take easy offence at anyone (parents!) perceived to be conservative, and a penchant for getting their news and views from social media. Or so we imagine. We’ve just found out that there’s more going on in kids’ heads than we’d thought. Unfortunately, we found out in the saddest possible way. Aidan Silitich, 17, was right in the middle of our children’s age cohort and best friends with all of them. Our families are close. The kids had known Aidan all their lives and spent every summer, holiday break, and hundreds of weekends in the company of him and his siblings Kyra and Owen. Then on March 21, Aidan died in a skiing accident. The grief is impossible to express. Aidan was not, in fact, an ordinary kid. He was an exceptional athlete – a brilliant rock- climber who successfully competed around the country, traveling to the Nationals in Bend, Oregon, and to other professional competitions. He’d recently made his first final in Albany, New York.
Aidan was brave, resilient, generous, and compassionate. He was also whip-smart, fierce, and funny. He had an infectious smile, loved to laugh, and – in a way that teenagers seldom do – he looked out for the underdog, made the unsure feel sure, and inspired confidence and a sense of well-being in others. But in one respect Aidan was ordinary – that is, we all assumed he was. He seemed to have the usual “kid progressive” political outlook, argued that side of things with the grown-ups, and went to a private school in New York where not being this type of usual would be considered very unusual indeed. However, his heart-broken parents re-read the articles that Aidan had written for his school newspaper. And they found the following essay. He was only 15 when he wrote it. Knowing how much we loved Aidan and how much we’d appreciate what he’d had to say, Aidan’s parents, Nick and Regina, sent the article to our family. I print it here, partly as a memorial to the kind of young man that we could have used 70 or 80 more years of, but also to show that there is a ray of hope in how young people think – even though this gleam comes from a sad place. – P. J. O’R.
American Consequences
11
Made with FlippingBook - Online Brochure Maker