Dear Lansing School District Community,
I hope that this newsletter finds you well. As always, it is a pleasure to email you all.
I write to you today festooned in blue and orange, wearing my New York Knicks sweatshirt as I root on my hometown team against Michigan's own Detroit Pistons. Though I moved here almost four years ago, love living here, and have acculturated as much as any East Coaster, my loyalty to laundry and history is undeterred and unfettered. I will support the Pistons on some days, but today is not one of them.
People always ask me which New York teams I support. I like to say: "I only root for teams that lose." I am trying to make a point that I am a Mets fan, not a Yankees fan, a Jets fan, not a Giants fan, a Rangers fan, not an Islanders fan. To put it in perspective, in my lifetime, the Mets have won one World Series, the Yankees seven, the Jets zero Super Bowls, the Giants four, the Rangers one Stanely Cup, and the Islanders four. Clearly, I picked "the other team."
But for real New Yorkers, there is only one true basketball team. Yes, the Nets exist, but they started in New Jersey and have moved from New Jersey to Long Island, back to New Jersey, and now to Brooklyn. Both the Jets and the Giants started in New York City, one playing in the Polo Grounds and then Shea Stadium, the other also playing in the Polo Grounds and then Yankee Stadium, before they both moved across the river to their new modern home, in the Meadowlands.
The Knicks play right in the heart of Manhattan, at Madison Square Garden, "the world's most famous arena," or so they say. There is something electric about coming out of the subway station or approaching the Garden on foot and seeing thousands of fans streaming and cheering into the building. I grew up going to games or watching it on TV. When they announce the team and say: "Your New York Knicks," there is a sense, however misplaced, that yes, they are mine, and I am one of them. I can be "adjacently victorious." Their wins are my wins, and their losses are because of the referees. (I'm just kidding; their losses are my losses.) I feel tied to their success. I buy their gear. I read about them in the paper. I look out to see how they are doing, even living miles away.
I write all of this because it makes me think that our own district's sports teams, dance teams, bands, and theater performers could use more of this sense of ownership. What can we do to connect more to our squads? Can you think of the Everett Vikings' teams as "your teams?" Will you buy a Quaker's sweatshirt and wear it proudly, thinking yes, they are "my Eastern Quakers?" How do you show your support for Sexton? Even in off years, Madison Square Garden is sold out. Even when the Knicks are below .500, they are my team. Over the last few years, we have invested millions of dollars into our arts programs and sports programs. We built a brand-new auditorium at Everett; we are investing millions into Sexton's auditorium. We are slowly but surely rehabbing Don Johnson, we rebuilt the track at Hill and will do so at Everett. We have brought back middle school band and sports. We have bought tens of thousands of dollars of new and refurbished instruments. I appreciate that the district had not invested. We had not set the stage, so to speak. But now that we have, I lean on all of you to root, support, and think of at least one of our schools as your school and see if you can put in the same energy and enthusiasm many of us do for our professional and college teams as you do for our middle school and high school programs. I look forward to Don Johnson being as electric as the Garden, with the crowd wearing Lansing school swag.
Thank you so much for all of your incredible support of our district. Together, we will do great things for the children of Lansing.
Benjamin Shuldiner, Superintendent
Lansing School District
