Over the past few days I have been seeing a lot on television about Samantha Garvey. She’s the very smart, 17-year-old who was a semifinalist for a national science competition.

What’s so remarkable is that she and her family are homeless. Very impressive, indeed. So impressive that she was a guest on the Ellen DeGeneres show. DeGeneres was so impressed that Garvey was given a scholarship to a prestigious college.

To add even more platitudes, she was featured on NBC news. Believe me when I say that girl deserves every good thing that comes her way. She worked very hard.

Now for the bad news. Tens of thousands of young people are homeless or on the verge of homelessness. Those families are under huge amounts of stress.

Thousands of those young people also work hard in their studies and do very well. These kids who play by the rules and do everything right, however, are not receiving these huge scholarships and other lavish gifts.

In the wealthiest country in the world, all kids who diligently apply themselves to their studies deserve the same breaks. But in America, we hold up only the top dog and let the rest fall by the wayside.

We allow much potential talent to fall through the cracks while we put the No. 1 star on a pedestal. What do we lose? Who knows what some of those 10,000 kids might have accomplished if some TV star had given them the same break as Garvey got?

Peter P. Sirois

Madison