New London — April is the cruelest month, Eliot wrote in The Waste Land, “breeding lilacs out of the dead land, mixing memory and desire, stirring dull roots with spring rain.”

Loosely translated, the poem questions whether even the power of spring’s regeneration can happen in the wasteland of the modern world.

Observers of recent events in New London might ask: Is this life imitating art or art imitating life?

April, but five days old now, can’t be more cruel to the 06320 than March. “Cruel” in the sense that while the kids of the city became the metaphorical lilacs, offering the hope of regeneration last month, some adults showed their chronic inability to act as their ages, jobs and positions require.

To wit: The kids brought acclaim to the high school and the city, winning the state girls’ basketball championship at Mohegan Sun. Media outlets all over Connecticut told the story of the seven kids who made it happen. State Player of the Year Nalyce Dudley and stylish sophomore Serenity Lancaster said all the right things in front of the cameras, a victory for their teachers and families.

A week later, media outlets all over Connecticut reported the adult behavior, including an eight-day suspension for one police officer, paid administrative leave for another and sexual harassment allegations against a firefighter.

Makes you want to belt out a few choruses of the Battle Hymn of the Republic, doesn’t it?

The basketball game didn’t merely feature the kids who won the championship. The pep band, cheerleaders, student section and dance team all brought their fastballs, too. A green-and-gold palooza throughout the arena. This was a two-hour infomercial for the school, perhaps most importantly illustrating the very best of the magnet concept in New London, where diversity meets opportunity at least here through the examples of sports and arts.

This is not to overstate the bona fides of one game and one night. But mad props nonetheless to the kids who showed a light for the way, unlike their elders, whose behaviors encourage the same old “same old New London” narrative that stifles whatever glimmers of momentum arise from an oasis.

Can better days be the byproduct of stale (even if applicable) narratives? It depends on whether the dramatis personae are interested in meaningful change. If they are, they’d realize that simple accountability is the primary difference between the productive behaviors of the kids and the destructive behaviors of the adults.

The kids are being held accountable and act as such.

If the adults had that good, healthy fear of accountability, would they act like the bulletproof cowboys they believe themselves to be? Only they can answer that for sure. But I’d like to think accountability is often the Maginot Line between all of us and bad decision making.

The kids in question here are held accountable by their coach, Tammy Millsaps, who is a hard marker. Millsaps is held accountable by athletic director Phil Orbe. Neither Millsaps nor Orbe will ever be thrown a popularity parade in town. But they have the power to hold their people accountable in many ways, not the least of which is the ability to utter the word “no” when applicable.

In the city’s hierarchical structure, how many of our leaders are strong enough to say “no,” lest they be ignored or branded as some know-nothing with no real juice?

New London has needed more objectivity for many years now, rather than what appears to be the two-party system of gullible cheerleaders vs. agenda-driven obstructionists. Nothing is perpetually glorious. Nothing is habitually hopeless. The truth is in the middle. And we need to start identifying it more consistently. It starts with accountability.

Will we truly learn something from this? Doubtful. Too many years of echo chambers, political affiliations and lack of consequences. Besides, it’s hard to undo regrettable behavior. The idea is to prevent it. Or in the case of the kids, be a model for the rest of the state to see.

Here’s hoping city entities recognize the girls’ basketball team, pep band, cheerleaders and dance team for the acclaim they brought the school and the city. And when that celebration ends, the same entities need to gather and ask the question, “do we know what we look like?”

Honest answers only.

This is the opinion of Day sports columnist Mike DiMauro