Search the ArchivesNavigation Contact InformationThe Citizen Newspapers For Advertising Information Email us your news! For technical difficulties |
The many names of Zach HigginsBy David Mitchell **Note--This is a story submitted to The Citizen for print. It appears, however, they have decided not to run it despite the outcry of this case. I decided instead to post it here.** My friend is not who you think he is. My friend was a leading member of the church youth group throughout high school. He played guitar in the praise band and for years was one of the few people that really embraced the group. Throughout a period of instability in the leadership in that group, my friend stepped up to help keep the group alive. Together with a few others, my friend and I formed a core of regular attendees that made that youth group like family. My friend enjoys making people laugh. Each Wednesday after church, he would participate in a game known as “tree kicking.” It consisted of him, a very tall and lanky kid, kicking tree limbs that were two feet above his head. If you can imagine Yao Ming of the Houston Rockets doing toe-touches, that’s about what it would look like. My friend is one of the most caring individuals I have ever known. Throughout a period of unrest in my family, he was always a rock for me to stand on, someone I could talk to and count on through thick and thin. When times got the hardest, he was the one who would pick me up, make me smile and know that everything was going to be alright. My friend’s name is Zach Higgins, but you know him better as a man recently convicted of rape. On Tuesday, Mar. 24, a jury found Zach guilty of raping a then-16-year-old Tyrone girl as well as aggravated sodomy. I could get into endless debate over the facts of this case, but my point is not to overturn his conviction. That is not for me to decide. My point instead is to let you know who my friend really is. I guess I can start this description by telling you what he is not. He is not me. Zach and I are opposites. The fact that he and I have been such good friends throughout our lives is a miracle in itself. We don’t like the same types of music. We don’t wear the same clothes. I am often quiet and reserved, he is outspoken. He is the Eddie Haskell to my Wally Cleaver. And yet, our friendship has endured. This alone says something about Zach that you would not otherwise realize. He is a loyal companion. I became friends with him in the toddler’s room at our church. As we grew up, it became clear that we were two very different people. Once in high school, the difference was night and day. In a normal high school environment, you just don’t see someone like him hanging out with someone like me. In Biblical terms, it’s the equivalent of a Jew fraternizing with a Samaritan. It was unheard of. And yet Zach wore blinders to who I was and I reciprocated in kind. To loyal individuals like him, clothes, music and other friends were a non-issue. One spring, my parents and I invited Zach to accompany us on our annual ski trip out west. Now there is something you have to know about Zach to realize how crazy this is. He is not the most coordinated person in the world. Picture a lanky 6 foot 5 inch man sliding on pieces of wood. It just doesn’t work very well. At one point, my parents and I skied up to the line where the chair lift picks you up. Looking around at each other, we noticed Zach was not with us. We turned around to see him sprawled across the chair like Cleopatra waiting on us to feed him grapes. The chair picked us up—sort of. My mom and I ended up in Zach’s lap while my dad sat on the metal arm wrest. Every year when my parents and I sit down on the chair lift for the first time, we laugh about the time Zach Higgins almost knocked us down into the snowy abyss below. Zach and I did everything together. For as long as I live, I will never have a better memory than the nights we hung out over the summer. Going on trips with our church, staying up late playing video games and watching Tommy Boy. Still, to this day, when the temperature hits the right spot and the breeze kicks up in the summer, I have flashbacks to all the fun we had together, the tears we shed in our small group on our youth groups trip to the Christ In Youth conference. And now, I can’t help but look to the future, a future I had hoped would entertain unending memories that we could continue to share. Instead, I see myself graduating college without Zach in the crowd. I see myself writing in a magazine or a newspaper. Zach won’t read my weekly columns. I see myself getting married. Zach won’t be my best man. I see myself having kids. They will never know the friend that was always the closest to my heart. And I know this is not who Zach is. I know this is not the reputation that he should have. The Court has reached a judgment that will forever change how he is viewed. From now on, many will know him as Zach the Convicted Rapist. That is a stigma that will be impossible to leave behind. But to me, and to those of us closest to him, who know who he really is and what he is really about, he is and always will be Zach the Son, Zach the Brother, Zach the Friend and Zach the Man. These are names given by people who love him through the best and worst of times, and to me, that is the judgment that matters most. **If you have a personal story or anything to share about Zach, please post in the comments section.** ugadawg87's blog | login to post comments
|
Copyright 2010 - Fayette Publishing, Inc. | Privacy Policy | Terms of Use Policy
Server 4
