The truth is somewhere above the roar, but clearly inaudible around the recent incident following a girls' high school basketball game between Bacon Academy and Ledyard.

Somewhere amid all the bickering, finger pointing and blame assessment comes the realization that most of the dramatis personae here need to stop thinking with their mouths, drop the moral outrage and seek solutions over revolutions.

We begin with Colchester superintendent Jeffrey Burt, who acknowledged and apologized for the behavior of some adult spectators from Colchester, who have been banned from all Ledyard Public School facilities, stemming from racist slurs aimed at Ledyard players after the game on Feb. 6.

"This is unacceptable, and stands directly against our school system's commitment to common decency and sportsmanship," Burt wrote last week in a statement.

"On behalf of Bacon Academy and our community, I offer our full and sincere apology to the Ledyard High School basketball players who were the targets of this abuse, as well as their families. This behavior does not meet the standards we promote in the Colchester schools, and we must do better. This is why we are examining this incident and taking the opportunity to review and improve the climate and culture of our entire school community."

Fair enough. But last year, Bacon girls' basketball coach John Shea was alleged to have made racially charged comments about basketball players at New London High. Burt and Bacon Academy Principal Matthew Peel sought advice from the National Conference for Community Justice (NCCJ), a Windsor-based organization with which the Colchester district previously had partnered for diversity, equity and inclusion training.

Burt said at the time that the school district started a diversity, equity and inclusion committee and began working with the NCCJ at the start of this school year.

A more cynical fellow might wonder about the efficacy of this program. When he says "this is why we are examining this incident and taking the opportunity to review and improve the climate and culture of our entire school community," well, haven't we heard that one before?

Moreover, does the general populace support the actions of Colchester's first selectman?

Andreas Bisbikos reversed a proclamation on his first day in office that his predecessor enacted in 2020, declaring racism a public health crisis.

Here is it verbatim:

"WHEREAS, on July 16th, 2020, the First Selectman of Colchester issued a proclamation that unfairly and falsely came to 'assert that racism is a public health crisis affecting our town' without facts or data to back said assertion;

"WHEREAS, through proclamation insinuated that the town of Colchester is a racist community or one where racism has been allowed to cultivate to the point where it is deemed a public health crisis — this without facts or data to back said assertion;

"WHEREAS, on July 15th, 2021, the Ad Hoc Committee on Diversity and Inclusion findings were presented to the Board of Selectmen and concluded that institutionalized racism does not exist in Colchester;

"WHEREAS, state data on Colchester hate crimes has shown that there have been zero hate crimes in the last five years or as long as the state has cataloged hate crimes;

"WHEREAS, proclamations intended to label and divide will be strongly condemned;

"WHEREAS, Colchester has a long history of accepting people of all backgrounds including (but not limited to): race, ethnicity, religion, gender, and sexuality;

"WHEREAS, the newly elected Bisbikos Administration believes racism has no place in Colchester;

"WHEREAS, the newly elected Bisbikos Administration will support diversity and inclusion through (but not limited to): a review of HR policies and practices at town hall, reaching out to diverse communities, ensuring that all our employees go through sensitivity training, and meeting our state goals on affordable housing.

WHEREAS, our community lives by the immortal words of Martin Luther King Jr. where we 'judge a man not by the color of his skin, but by the content of his character.' This quote is extended to all backgrounds including (but not limited to): race, ethnicity, gender, and sexuality."

I get that semantically, the wording of the original proclamation might not compute. It is easier to understand a pandemic as a "public health crisis" more than racism. But I ask Mr. Bisbikos: How is this plan to "support diversity and inclusion ... reaching out to diverse communities ... and ensuring that all our employees go through sensitivity training" going so far?

And so while Colchester town and school officials have some questions to answer, we learned Tuesday that two Ledyard parents have called for suspending the Bacon Academy girls' basketball team from games for at least 12 months, permanently banning the parents from any sporting events in the area and reporting the involved parents to police so they can be investigated for committing a hate crime.

I've heard of the figurative pound of flesh before. But this is an entire side of beef.

To wit: How does suspending an entire team, including some innocent kids and banning adults forever incentivize the overarching goal of becoming more educated about race relations? This just in: We are all candidates for more education on race relations. Or does it begin and end with a pound of flesh?

Imagine if all the adults in question here decompressed, sipped decaf and put their energies toward a meeting between the Bacon and Ledyard players. They would do such novel things as sit together, talk, exchange ideas and understand each other better. And then — get back, Loretta — they might actually come home and tell their parents everything they learned. Not only would their parents be candidates to learn something, too, but the kids might even take the lessons with them into their adult lives.

But then, I'm just spitballing here.

Imagine if the Colchester superintendent followed through with his plan to "improve the climate the culture."

Imagine if the first selectman stopped the proclamations and took steps toward some transformations in his town, where some adults feel empowered in all the wrong ways.

Imagine if the Ledyard parents began a movement toward the town green, where the Colchester kids are invited, too.

Then maybe we'd approach a few answers.

This is the opinion of Day sports columnist Mike DiMauro