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To the editor:
For generations, all of our students had attended the same high school in Mocksville. That school wasn’t just a building. It was a symbol of tradition, pride, and shared history. Families had built their lives around it for decades.
But as the county grew, families in Bermuda Run and Advance were spending up to 45 minutes a day just getting their children to school. The building was aging. Classrooms had spilled into trailers. Parents on the Bermuda Run side wanted something better—a new high school closer to home.
Mocksville families resisted. They didn’t oppose better education. But they feared what a new school would mean. Why should they pay higher taxes for a school they might not even benefit from? Worse, many worried that a new high school on the Bermuda Run side – a wealthy area known for private neighborhoods and gated streets – would create two unequal schools: newer facilities and more opportunities for the rich side of the county, while Mocksville’s students would be left behind.
The debate dragged on for years. Every proposal to build a second high school failed at the ballot box. What had started as a question about schools became something deeper: a struggle over fairness, belonging, and whether the county’s future would be shared or divided.
Then, a new idea emerged.
Instead of building two schools and deepening the divide, why not build one new high school – centrally located – where all students could share in the future together?
That idea passed.
In the years that followed, students from every part of the county walked the same halls. Mocksville’s history remained honored. Bermuda Run’s needs were met. The War Eagles still took the field together.
And Davie County stood stronger because it had chosen unity over division.
That chapter in our county’s history offers a valuable lesson for a conflict far beyond our borders: the long struggle between Israelis and Palestinians.
Over the decades, leaders have proposed dividing the land into two states – one for Jewish Israelis, one for Palestinians. But every attempt at separation has only deepened mistrust and resentment. What many forget is that Israelis and Palestinians had once lived side by side in relative peace. Before modern borders and wars, they had shared cities, markets, and neighborhoods. Their cultures had intertwined. Their futures had been linked.
Palestinians, like the Mocksville families, had feared being excluded or displaced by new arrangements that ignored their rights and heritage. Jewish Israelis, like the Bermuda Run families, sought security, opportunity, and a better future for their children.
But drawing a line – two separate futures – has not solved the problem. It has created two unequal systems and fueled conflict rather than ending it.
Davie County’s experience shows there is another way. We understood that division could create winners and losers. So we chose to build something shared.
Consequently, the two-state solution, once a hopeful idea, is no longer realistic. What is needed now is what Davie County once needed: a shared solution. One state where everyone – Jews, Muslims, Christians, and others – can have equal rights and responsibilities. A future built not on separation, but on fairness and shared belonging.
For generations, all of Davie’s students had shared one school and we found a way to keep sharing it. Likewise, for generations, Palestinians and Jewish communities had shared one land—Palestine. They can still find a way to share it again.
Because if our small county could choose unity over division, perhaps the world can too.
Avee McGuire, Advance