When I went to see President Clinton at the midnight rally on Nov. 3, I was surprised to see that the John Bapst Memorial High School band was there and not the Bangor High School band. Don’t get me wrong, I have nothing against the John Bapst band, but I naturally figured that since the president was coming to Bangor and that Congressman Baldacci was a Bangor High graduate that the BHS band would be given the invitation to play that evening.

The next day at school I heard that the BHS band was asked to play for Clinton, but that Bangor School Superintendent James Doughty had chosen not to accept the invitation. I could not understand why someone would deny the city’s high school band a chance to play for the president, considering that Clinton, or any president, for that matter, doesn’t come to Bangor often.

I congratulate the John Bapst band director and the school’s principal for their excellent judgment on making the decision to allow their band students to play for the president. Their decision only seems more correct now that they have been invited to Washington for the president’s innauguration. I only wish Doughty could have made that same decision in allowing the students at my high school to represent our city in Washington. Not only could we have displayed our community to the country, but it would have been a great learning experience for us as well; Bangor High also has a government-economics class in which we were heavily involved with the election and political process.

The next time a president decides to come to Bangor, I hope Doughty doesn’t let this same opportunity pass him or his high school students by. Jessica Shumaker Bangor