Born in Rokiškis
If elections were held, the Juozas Tumos-Vaižgant gymnasium (more precisely, a gymnasium, we are not talking about the occupancy of the building) would be in the Old Palace. Because most of Rokiškis graduated from the school where the monument to Vaižgant stands. Surviving all governments and occupations. He, blind and deaf, does not hear the storm that is raging in Rokiški for several hundred points today because of his name.
So, for hundreds of years in the Soviet era, it was a “tick house”. In the center, near the stained-glass windows, a terrible bust of Tičkaus stood. We bypassed it. A harsh, white, cold stone. Faceless. We did not delve into what kind of character it is. Not really who told. Nobody cared.
However, today, walking past Vaižgantas, one shivers inside and something warm comes to life. It didn’t matter that it was possible to sneak through the teachers’ main door only secretly, the children walked through the others. We – five classmates – lived in one house on Vilniaus st. 12A. And every day, one of the five would go home with a blindfold on after school, and the others would show the way with words. On the way, near “Nykštukas”, the bound person even slipped down the steps. It was such a tempting little track. In other words, we developed trust in people, friendship, courage and will in our own way. Even after a teacher was killed in an accident at the Kaunas street crossing, and we were all at the coffin with tears, we did not stop this activity. After returning to the yard, after removing the bandage, without eating, without taking off the backpacks, a new indignation against the teachers was emotionally explored every day. Let’s say how a beloved teacher could ruin our lives and write bad grades. Just imagine, for standing in a demonstration during the national anthem.
OK, closer to the point. Own school is a sacred matter. And a very complicated trump card. No, maybe a wink to the authorities. The people of the Rokiškėnai club “Pragiedruliai” in the capital have already sent a letter to the mayor and council of the district asking for the preservation of the historic city building. Like high school. I know that while I am writing this text, piles of similar writings are growing on the tables in the municipality. Those who wrote them are not convinced by the argument that the bus station near “Romuva” is close. Like all other, now public, arguments of reformers.
The former students ask that the question be simply postponed. If local politicians do not do this, a decision may be made at the end of next week, which will upset part of Rokiškis. Because the document proposes to transfer all high school students to Romuva. We do not have enough students to use two buildings, and it is inconvenient for teachers to run and teach in two schools. Although the high school community, as far as we know, appealed to the district leaders back in May, the thunderous news became widely public right before the elections. After someone unexpectedly asked the right question during the mayoral debate.
Was it necessary until “after the election” to “pickle” such a bomb? Question. Today, after reading several hundred more commenters under this message, under Goda Gudgalytė’s letter, I have to withdraw the conclusions “that people don’t care about anything”. Also as. Both in the capital and abroad. And in Rokiški. With all historical facts, knowledge about Vaižgantas, suggestions for decision makers. Will consider? It will probably be March thirty-first.
Another change. This time he attacked the leaders of the district straight from the newspaper. When the Culture Center first told the press that it would change the name of “We Play for Farmers” – the performances have long since ceased to take place in the halls of collective farms.
How many times have they mocked him by name, calling them villagers, farmers and relics of the Soviet era. And the Ministry of Agriculture used to give money for bonuses. Of course, from a TV studio, the name for modern Lithuania with “lats and yoga mats”, working remotely from the Maldives or Bali, sounds peculiar. Like from the dinosaur era. Therefore, communication specialists in theaters and television have already eliminated “farmers” from their press releases or running lines in the news.
But for us, it’s like our own leg or hand. Children grew up watching Nekrošius’ Hamlet, Koršunova, Vaitkai or Tumin’s Masquerade on their mother’s lap for four hours. Or Choline. During “We Play for Farmers”, the stars took the stage here. The best and most talented. Today, it is amusing to remember how the clerks of the Ministry of Agriculture, usually in brown suits, who were invited to the closings and openings to give intelligent speeches, looked as if they had been dropped from the moon to another planet. The village was thinking, but it is standing next to some Banionis, Gabrėnaitė, Kazlo. Our Vytautas Saulis was then a member of the Seimas. And we always waited for the opening – stories about what he saw while driving from Vilnius. All those people who have been organizing the festival for almost forty years – from the managers to those waiting for us in the dressing room – deserve all the thanks that we sometimes don’t know who to give on the sixteenth of February. It is not clear what the organizers will decide on the name. Giedrius Kujelis, so that we wouldn’t be sad while fighting, posted a spring photo on Facebook and wrote: “Spring in Rokišky” or “Spring in Rokiški”?
Article Will you ask? Will you hear? Gimtasis Rokiškis is placed.