By Daniel J. Combs, M.D.

Naval Medical Center, San Diego, Calif.

I wish to submit a modest proposal for consideration regarding the future of Anderson Community Schools, but first allow me to provide context. After being raised in Anderson, I graduated from Anderson University in 1993 and moved from the community for further education. I recently purchased a house in the ACS district and will be returning home after 17 years with my wife and four children ages 12, 7, 3, and 11 months. Let me be clear that we made an intentional choice to buy a home in Anderson because we could have relocated anywhere.

I understand the community’s history, strengths, and weaknesses and I understand the passions for the schools — AHS, HHS, or MHHS — because I share them. I am an AHS graduate and a second-generation Indian who appreciates the colors red and green every month of the year. I competed wearing those colors and even today enjoy wearing my Indian pride. Memories of thrilling basketball sectional games with thousands rooting against 1,500 screaming Indians fans remain vivid.

But here is the issue: My passions and memories will contribute absolutely nothing to preparing my children to compete in a challenging and difficult global economy. If the school traditions are inhibiting the building of a world-class school system even slightly, then I have to wonder if there is a better way.

A series of decisions have been made to move to one high school on the south side named Anderson High School. Given the present circumstances I believe each of those difficult decisions was for the best. The decision regarding school colors and mascot remains a source of division in the community — division that Anderson can hardly afford. I see this not as an issue of fairness, but rather as an issue of opportunity.

If the average “man on the street” is asked to name the finest college, Harvard is an obvious response. Restricted to options on the West Coast, Stanford predominates. U.S. News and World Report 2010 rankings of colleges and universities lists Harvard and Stanford numbers one and four respectively. If that same man on the street is asked to name the mascots of Harvard and Stanford, very few can do it. In fact, those schools’ athletic teams compete as the Harvard Crimson and the Stanford Cardinal — Cardinal being the color red, not our state bird.

This is my proposal: Let us move as a community to call the newly unified Anderson High School the Anderson Crimson. I have heard numerous calls for honoring tradition and the heritage of the three city schools. What color has been shared by all three? Red. A color of passion, strength, vitality and excellence drawing on all three traditions. I believe this is a strategic, critical opportunity to engage ALL members of our community while still honoring the past. I am advocating for a single color — crimson — to represent the school just as Harvard does. While white may be used to highlight uniforms, the official Harvard color is simply crimson. A single, rich, deep red color to represent our proud past and our shared future.

I understand there are practical financial considerations to this change. Let us acknowledge there are very real, practical financial considerations to NOT making the change. Does every last remnant of Chief Anderson need to be expunged from the school? Not necessarily. There may be nothing wrong with an Indian painted in the center of the floor or displayed in mosaic on the side of the gym considering the city itself shares those symbols. Perhaps the Wigwam should be redesignated the Anderson Field House if budgetary concerns allow its continued use. There will be many other decisions, but these discussions should be an opportunity for drawing together and for the creation of new traditions building on the old. Imagine the enthusiasm that could be generated with all playing a role and claiming ownership in the process.

So let the conversations begin about how we are going to build our world-class school system in Anderson. But let us do it together with ALL the members of the community engaged. Let us aspire to excellence. Unity. One school. One color. The Anderson Crimson.

Daniel J. Combs, M.D., is senior medical officer in the U.S. Navy, Department of Emergency Medicine, at the Naval Medical Center, San Diego, Calif.