So I was driving across town yesterday (Full Version)

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ChicagoSwitchMal -> So I was driving across town yesterday (10/25/2007 7:59:56 AM)

I am a man. I am not generally moved by sad stories that don’t involve me, people I am close to, or demographics I do not identify with. Maybe the later makes me a racist. I’d argue not because I believe identifying with a demographic is not the same as hating another. It’s a natural tendency we all have and I am honest about it. That is a different topic though. The point is that I am unlikely to be emotionally affected by the story of a 10 year old black boy dying as an innocent victim of gang violence. Not in this day and age, not in this city.

I haven’t been completely heartless. I’ve seen it on the news. I don’t like to hear of children dying anywhere. He wanted to be a minister and carried a Bible to school. His name was Arthur Jones and he and a friend were walking to buy candy, one of the most innocent activities a child can have, when they got caught in the crossfire of gang violence. Arthur Jones was shot in the neck and died a short time later.

Up until yesterday this was just another shocking and sad story typical of urban Chicago living. It was sad but not unusual and more importantly – not personal. However yesterday I was travelling from the West Side to the East side across I55. Traffic backed up so I got off on Pulaski and headed east down 55th street which becomes Garfield. Around Garfield and Union I ran across a roadside memorial that stopped me in my tracks. I didn’t know who it memorialized and it took some research to figure out it belonged to the story I have been hearing about.

The roadside memorial itself wasn’t particularly extraordinary as far as roadside memorials go. It was an 18-24 inch cross covered with flowers with some small personal items (which I later found out to be the child’s favorite toys) scattered around it. This is where the boy fell. More powerful than the memorial was another statement which seems to have cropped up all by itself and keeps growing.

About 20 feet from where the boy fell there is a tree. Around this tree is what I can only estimate to be hundreds of stuffed animals stacked at least five feet high and in a ten foot circumference to the tree. It is quite obvious that these are the toys of the children of the area who sacrificed them. At the top of this huge mound of stuffed animals is a sign simply stating “Stop Killing Our Children.”

I was stunned. I didn’t expect that. I don’t know if each stuffed animal symbolically represented children killed by gang violence. Was it symbolic of the loss of innocence? Was it just a spontaneously formed ritual by the local children as some mechanism of healing? My guess is it was all three and probably more. There’s one more thing I think it means. It seemed like a symbolic “Fuck You” to the gangs in the area from a community which has had enough.

Anyway - I don't have a question. I was just affected by what I saw and wanted to share it.



popeye1250 -> RE: So I was driving across town yesterday (10/25/2007 10:09:30 AM)

Mal, yeah, unfortunately those "young child killed by stray bullet from gang" stories are the "young child falls into well" stories of today.
As for demographics it's just a natural thing to want to belong to, as the Irish and Scots call it, a Clan.
People want and need to have a feeling of "belonging."



slaverosebeauty -> RE: So I was driving across town yesterday (10/25/2007 11:29:53 AM)

Very powerfull, thank you for sharing that. 
 
Unfortunatly gangs don't always discriminate with who they kill; nor does violence. It crosses all boundaries, race, gender, sexual orientation, etc. It doesn't matter.  When a child is killed it hits most people harder at the innocense that is/was lost.  Ever since becoming a mother that stuff bites at me even more than it did before I became a 'mommy.' Everytime I read a story like that or hear about a mother losing their children, I just want to hold my munckin that much tighter.
 
Its a terrible and disturbing thing, that this is such common place.



ChicagoSwitchMal -> RE: So I was driving across town yesterday (10/26/2007 5:45:00 AM)

I hear you srb. I have teenage girls. My home is safe. So is there their school. The route in between is, well, not so safe. You can teach them the smart way to live and act. But you can't teach them not to walk into the path of a stray bullet. This kid did nothing. He had nothing coming to him. His neck was simply positioned a few inches in the wrong direction. I wish their were pictures of this memorial on the internet so I could share them but I can't find any. I don't let it show, because I don't want to raise my kids in the culture of fear, but everytime they are late from school I worry.



pahunkboy -> RE: So I was driving across town yesterday (10/26/2007 5:50:11 AM)

My old high school has metal detectors- we just did not worry about it then. [1980] The kids were nasty and snobbish. Of course they had to build it grandiose with cathedral look.



sambamanslilgirl -> RE: So I was driving across town yesterday (10/26/2007 8:24:50 AM)

my UMs and i just happened to be in that area when the boy was shot last week. it had a profound effect on  my oldest as well as me because i can still recall how the media loves a grieving mother after a tragedy (my oldest was hit by a Metra train 7yrs ago). how it effected her worried me more because it happened 2 blocks away from her high school and she felt so unsafe by the shooting.  seeing and talking to the police, detectives, and csi's - really had her shutting down emotionally in fear.  her recent therapy session with her counselor did reflect on how afraid she is going to school now even thought the school is still on lockdown.  



popeye1250 -> RE: So I was driving across town yesterday (10/26/2007 8:30:51 AM)

"To buy candy."
I remember walking down to the store to buy candy in the 1950's as a kid in Massachusetts in a city just north of Boston.
The difference was that in those days the "good guys" were the ones who had the guns and not the bad guys.
The Boy Scouts would take their rifles to school with them to go shooting that afternoon after school.
From what I can find out about gun laws in Chicago, you "the good guys" cannot even own a handgun in that city much less carry one.
Same thing in D.C. NYC and Boston.
And there is an epidemic of this type of crime in those cities.
All of those cities are considered "liberal" cities yet they restrict the *Rights* of their citizens to keep and bare arms.
And they complain that Bush is trampling on our rights?
One thing they just can't seem to understand is that keeping and baring (carrying) arms is not a "priviledge" like a driver's liscense it's a right.
And then they wonder why they have such high crime rates?
Easy, the "bad guys" don't have anyone to be afraid of!
Look at that city in Georgia some time back when they "required" every homeowner to have a firearm in the home.
Crime plumetted in short order.



pahunkboy -> RE: So I was driving across town yesterday (10/26/2007 8:38:17 AM)

quote:

ORIGINAL: sambamanslilgirl

my UMs and i just happened to be in that area when the boy was shot last week. it had a profound effect on  my oldest as well as me because i can still recall how the media loves a grieving mother after a tragedy (my oldest was hit by a Metra train 7yrs ago). how it effected her worried me more because it happened 2 blocks away from her high school and she felt so unsafe by the shooting.  seeing and talking to the police, detectives, and csi's - really had her shutting down emotionally in fear.  her recent therapy session with her counselor did reflect on how afraid she is going to school now even thought the school is still on lockdown.  


That is sad.  After flight 800 crashed, several of the dead were from Montoursville High School. The media descended on the area like flies on shtt. The folks then set up a fake grieving area- and went elsewhere to grieve in private.

You are correct- the media likes cam shots of people in distress. It is vulgar.



sambamanslilgirl -> RE: So I was driving across town yesterday (10/26/2007 8:46:50 AM)

you would be surprised how fast they can find your name, home phone, mobile, and home address BEFORE going on air for the 5p report.  when my oldest had her accident, our old answering machine was swamped with media calls from all local stations (Telemundo and Oprah included) for interviews.  that was then however i get a few requests time to time from the media but i tell my attorneys to decline. we want to heal and live a normal life now.



pahunkboy -> RE: So I was driving across town yesterday (10/26/2007 8:58:07 AM)

Oprah?  She pays her guests.



sambamanslilgirl -> RE: So I was driving across town yesterday (10/26/2007 2:20:26 PM)

i know - i wasnt' interested in being a pity charity case at the time, PA



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