A chance to excel, even from Cd'A

It’s another gray, Monday morning in Coeur d’Alene. Preparing for work I slip on my sport jacket, place my phone in my breast pocket, kiss my wife and head to my car. This routine I follow every morning. My mind becomes numb from the repetition of the act as I pull out of the garage and drive down the street.

Needing gas, I break my routine and pull into the filling station. Still operating on auto-pilot, I insert my debit card into the reader, lift the gas-nozzle and begin to fill my tank. Thinking of nothing, I complete the transaction, hop back into my car and continue my journey. The monotony is broken when, while listening to National Public Radio, I hear, “My dad, who graduated Coeur d’Alene High School…”

I turn the radio up, turn right instead of remaining straight and extend my ride to listen to the story. The interviewee is Sherman Alexie: the author of my favorite book, “The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven,” which was adapted as a screenplay for the movie, “Smoke Signals,” which was filmed on the Coeur d’Alene Indian Reservation.

Sherman talks of his father, who was a Coeur d’Alene High School graduate. As the conversation continues I think of a young man I talked with 13 years ago as the counselor at Project CDA — Coeur d’Alene School District’s alternative middle and high school. This boy, with little hope in his heart and struggling with depression states, “Nothing good has ever come out of Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, and I’m not going to change this equation.”

This boy’s hopelessness sticks with me. I had the same thoughts 30 years previously about my hometown and was convinced I would live the same hopeless, empty, meaningless life this kid believes he will live. The difference is I had a role model. As a kid, I learned that Lord Buckley, the coolest hipster, before hipster was hip, was born in my hometown.

Learning that a genuine cool cat came from the boring hobbles of my hometown gave me hope. Hope that I might find the key to break free of the monotonous, ego-depleting, yawn-fest of a town that I found myself dying in. Finally, I break free from the grasp of solitude and move a thousand miles away to New Mexico.

Eventually lighting in Coeur d’Alene, I wonder if I might offer this young man the same role model I found years earlier. I begin to search and discover North Idaho to be a mecca of opportunity. North Idaho offers an unlimited number of influential, brilliant and creative individuals who make the world a better place through their art, hard work, thoughts and athleticism.

As our youth graduate high school this year and search for opportunity to make the world a better place, I suggest looking no further than one’s hometown to find inspirational individuals who’ve walked the same shores as our graduates and found opportunity to offer the best of who they are to the world. Some inspirational North Idaho residents include:

• Pappy Boyington — an American combat pilot who was a United States Marine Corps fighter ace during World War II. He received both the Medal of Honor and the Navy Cross.

• Lana Turner — an American film and television actress. Discovered in 1937 by a reporter as she sipped a soda in a Hollywood ice cream parlor and signed to a film contract by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer at the age of 16.

• Jerry Kramer — an American former professional football player, author and sports commentator, best remembered for his 11-year National Football League career with the Green Bay Packers as an offensive lineman.

• Marilynne Robinson — an American novelist and essayist best known for her novels “Housekeeping” (1980) and “Gilead” (2004).

• Luke Ridnour — an American professional basketball player who last played for the Orlando Magic of the National Basketball Association. He was born in Coeur d’Alene and he grew up in Blaine, Wash.

• Patrick McManus — an American humor writer, who primarily writes about the outdoors. A humor columnist for Outdoor Life, Field & Stream, and other magazines, his columns and stories have been collected in several books, beginning with “A Fine and Pleasant Misery” (1978) up through “The Horse in My Garage and Other Stories” (2012).

• Don Monson — is a former college basketball head coach and the father of head coach Dan Monson. He was a high school head coach for 18 seasons and college head coach for 14 seasons: five at Idaho and nine at Oregon. He was selected by his peers as the national coach of the year in 1982. Monson also spent 1993 in Australia coaching the Adelaide 36ers in Australian National Basketball League.

• John Friez — a former professional football player, a quarterback in the National Football League for four teams. Selected in the 1990 NFL Draft by the San Diego Chargers, he later played for the Washington Redskins, Seattle Seahawks and New England Patriots.

• Doris Houck — an American film actress. She appeared in 25 films between 1932 and 1955. Houck is familiar to modern viewers for her roles in several “Three Stooges” short subjects, such as “G.I. Wanna Home.” She is best remembered as the aggressive girlfriend who throws Shemp Howard’s head into a vise until he decided to marry her in “Brideless Groom:”

- Shemp: “Stop, I’m getting a headache!”

- Houck: “I’ll fix your headache!”

• Sarah Palin — an American politician, commentator, and author who served as the ninth governor of Alaska from 2006 until her resignation in 2009. As the Republican Party nominee for vice president in the 2008 presidential election running with the Republican presidential nominee, Arizona Senator John McCain, she was the first Alaskan on the national ticket of a major political party and the first Republican woman nominated for the vice presidency. Her book “Going Rogue” has sold more than two million copies.

• Brock Osweiler — an American football quarterback for the Houston Texans of the National Football League. He played college football at Arizona State University. He was drafted by the Denver Broncos in the second round of the 2012 NFL Draft.

• Scott Rozell — Scatterbox is an American punk rock band from Coeur d’Alene. Formed in 2000, the current lineup includes Tom White (vocals), Scott Rozell (drums), Jared Brown (guitar), Mark Cogburn (guitar) and Ryan White (bass). They currently are signed with Blackhouse Records in Spokane. Scatterbox has released five full-length albums (including one live record), and three EP’s, one of which was a split release with the now-defunct Spokane band, American Zero (whose members went on to join The Lashes, Moral Crux, and Kay Kay and His Weathered Underground).

• And many more!

Through this search I learn two things. First, I learn that graduates of schools in North Idaho have an amazing opportunity to make a difference in the world if they choose to accept the challenge and I learn that maybe my small hometown, offers more than I think. Possibly, if I took the time to search for success rather than failure, opportunity rather than complacency, achievers rather than failures, I might have found what I was looking for — a way for me to make a difference in the world I was about to become part of.

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Send comments or other suggestions to William Rutherford at [email protected] or visit pensiveparenting.com.