Thanks MLK for your dream! At Lighthouse, it's more than just a dream

When Michael Moore tackled Joseph Kayne, somebody heard his neck crack. Kayne lay there in pain. The game was called – and so was the ambulance.

When Michael Moore enrolled in the Lighthouse Christian Academy this academic year, he went from opponent to friend. Despite the prior thrashing, there were no hard feelings between the players.

LCA, Santa Monica's lower-end niche Christian school, celebrated Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday like most schools, with a holiday. But it seems this school celebrates racial harmony everyday. Most of the students don't seem to notice skin tone, and everybody is anybody's friend. At least, race is not the issue, if there are kids who don't exactly love each other.

Kayne's neck-cracking was first a moment of panic, and then a moment of heart-melting. When he went down in the Fall of 2012 game against inner-city school Frederick Price High School, fans feared paralysis.

Then both schools, one predominately black, the other mostly white, formed a circle alternating one kid from each school – and they prayed. There was unity, harmony, commonality on the field.

Suddenly, Joseph said he had no more pain. He wanted to get up and go home. Paramedics who responded had a very difficult time persuading him to NOT move. They stretchered him to the ambulance and drove him to the hospital, where X-rays showed no injury.

Lighthouse breathed a sigh of relief and wondered if no damage were originally done – or if he had in fact been injured but that prayer healed him. The football season ended, and most everybody forgot it.

Then in 2013, Michael Moore enrolled in Lighthouse. With his winning smile and natural good-naturedness, few realized here was Joseph's neck-snapper. After all, he had a helmet on, so none would be expected to recognize him.

This year, he played for Lighthouse (although CIF rules limited his playing time until the end of the season). Michael is now on the soccer team, learning a sport he never knew before (so far one goal). And he has found friends.

“People are really nice at Lighthouse,” Michael said. “I'm learning. I'm comprehending. I'm having fun.”

For his part, Joseph, who led this year's 8-man football squad to the playoffs with his stalwart runs, warmly welcomed Michael. He talked the school newbie and treated him like a long time friend.

“I think it's pretty sweet,” Joseph said. “When Michael first came in, he might have been a little nervous. But once he saw that we don't see him as different, he fit right in.”