The "Enemy"

     In the fall of 1964 I attended St. Thomas More high school. It was the beginning of my freshman year. High school can be pretty intimidating to someone who was small in size and not use to the world outside of his own small neighborhood. It was the first time I would meet a lot of non-italian people. Where I grew up 99% of the area was Italian, and it was also very very white. I never had any social contact with anyone black. The only blacks I knew, were the laborers on construction jobs that I worked on with my dad. For most of my young life blacks were the "enemy".  Everywhere my friends and I would go there was always a chance of confrontation with blacks from the surrounding areas.
     During the fall of 64, I had decided to go out for the track team. It was a chance to get involved in a school activity and also I was told that it could help you get a good grade from the science teacher. He happened to be the track coach. I was cursed with the dreaded white man's disease, I couldn't jump very high or run very fast. It was decided that I should try out for distance running. It was during this time that I met John Allen. John was a senior and he was black. For some reason he did his best to help me
and teach me all I needed to learn about running in a track meet.  He befriended me and
for the first time I looked at a black person as a person and not one of the "enemy".
John was a very good athlete, and excelled not only in track but basketball also.  I remember him always taking the time just to say hi, whenever he saw me in the hallways or the cafeteria. Seniors were usually to busy to talk to freshman. John was just different from anyone I had known.  He , for lack of better words, made an impression on me.
     This weekend is Memorial Day.  It is a day we honor those who gave their all for their country, during the many wars it has fought.  I think of John Allen especially on Memorial Day. He lost his life in Viet Nam. Like all the others, it is a tragedy that he had to die  at such a young age. His life was short but I guess its purpose was served when he befriended a small freshman in 1964. He helped change the way one person looked at another. He helped that one person to open his eyes and look at a person, not an "enemy".