Way Late & Too Many (Thousands of) Dollars Short

One of the things I committed myself to doing more frequently is updating my blog.  I have more than enough to write about, given how insane this world is and the myraid of issues that have drawn my attention.  However, I find that the issues unfold so rapidly that I can't seem to keep up because the moment I take my eye off of MSNBC or Twitter or any other medium modern technology affords me---just to write, I find that I am already late and behind the eight ball on any number of topics; just pick one.

Take my last post.

The last post was nearly a year ago in the wake of the Newtown shootings here in my state of Connecticut. Since that traqgedy, gun violence in Connecticut hasn't ceased anymore than it has in any other state in the U.S.,and I definitely feel hurt by al of it; the only difference, to me, is that I haven't written about it, publicly.

This was not a conscious decision on my part as things in my own life have interferred with my ability to have the time to write; mainly my health and the need to earn a living to afford the daily necessities that just seem to get more and more expensive.

I love writing.  I love thinking about issues and writing my thought and perspectives on them.  I have very strong ideas about the direction I think we should go in and the direction I think we are headed and I have every desire and intent to express them, publicly.  But what am I to do when that interferes with my ability to provide for my family?

Most people want to do what it is they love. I don't know an adult on the face of this earth who would turn down a liveable salary that afforded them the pleasure of living their dreams. Yet, some in our country and in our governing bodies seem to think that not everyone deserves to be happy, despite the fact this clause is written explicitly in those writings of the founding fathers they cling to so mercilessly.

The Ted Cruz's of the world seem to think that if you were born poor, female, black, brown, yellow, red, or beige, disabled, gay, are elderly or under the age of 26 that you deserve exactly what they see fit for you to have or not have.  What that is, exactly, can never and should never be equal to what it is they have.  They preach opportunity, but promote a sub-standard way of life for some, including those whom they pimp at the polls.

That is not freedom.  It is political prostitution and it is immoral.

When it comes to living out what Dr. Martin Luther King called the "true meaning of... [the nation's] creed," some have decided that equality no longer has a place in America so long as a person of color runs America. It's the same old bogus bullshit, it's just wrapped in a nice, "new," politically correct pacakaging.  They codify it using sound bites and hashtags, but the meaning---moreover, the sentiment---is still the same, if not worse.

My grandmother used to say, "if you throw a rock into a pack of dogs, the one that yelps is the one doing what he knows he shouldn't be," and politics is no different.  We have been throwing rocks for years.  When an entire political party cannot attest to the validity of the certification of a President that was voted for democratically, mostly by Democrats, or find reasons to justify taking $1.35 lunches from babies they don't even care to protect from gun violence, then they have a problem and not only do we know it, but they do as well.

Not only are they way late and many thousands of dollars short in catching up with where the REAL America of 2013 is, they deny that the America of 2013 even exists.  The idea that this America, our America, looks no different than it did in 1963 is beyond the pale; it is schizophrenic, for they have given in to seeing things, images, ways of life and viewpoints that just no longer exist.  Congress and many state legislatures are not beacons of governance, they are mental institutions for the negligent and the politically insane.  And at this point all I can say to them, and to myself, really, is "catch up!"  We've got work to do.  We can no longer afford to be in the business of crazy.  It is killing us all and if we aren't careful, it will once again kill the Union, if only metaphorically.

With that, I welcome you back into my world where the left is (almost) always right and so is the true majority. 

Makes Me Wanna Holler....The NRA, They Just Don't Understand!

Today, the National Rifle Association finally broke its silence and took the time on this, a National Day of Mourning for the victims of the December 14, 2012 shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut.  In a "press conference," NRA Executive Director, Wayne LaPierre gave every parent/child/friend?spouse who lost a loved one that day or happened to be in that school and survived the middle finger as he sought to steer the conversation away from the protection and honor of children to chastising society and even blaming the hero principal, Dawn Hochsprung, for what happened last week.  Watch LaPierre's diatribe and then read my comments below.

Video from CNN via YouTube

"Love Wins!"

On a Facebook page where the mother of Ana Marquez-Greene, a Sandy Hook victim, pays tribute to her "spunky" 6-year old who is no longer here, she writes the statement above, "Love Wins!"  I cannot fathom the depth of her pain, as a mother, I don't know how I would even be able to write again if my daughter had been taken from me in such a devastating manner.  But, I also cannot go on any further today holding in all of this anger and frustration I have over the thoughtless and insensitive statements by Wayne LaPierre, Executive Director of the NRA late this morning, a little more than an hour after the nation shared in a moment of silence on this national day of mourning for the 26 in that school last week. As I sit here feeling my blood boil beneath my skin, I take a deep breath and repeat that mantra, "Love Wins!"

"Love Wins!"
"Love Wins!"
"Love Wins!"

Mr. LaPierre, you are an indignant, insensitive, petulant, inglorious being.  You shame this country and all we are supposed to stand for.  Your and your positions are beyond disappointing!  YOU, no one else, took a very tragic situation and turned it into an infomercial for the NRA's next "great endeavor."  You can't even begin to imagine what I would like to call you (hint: Jay-Z said he would no longer use that word), but I can't and I won't: 1) because we are talking about the murder of children...babies; 2) you aren't worth the energy it would take to form my lips to even say the words!

So I will say this and and bid you a good day:

A military state is not what I envision for my child. "Love Wins!" in our schools!  My mother has been teaching for 40 years, she's had some of the most difficult students you could imagine during periods of terrible violence in our city, but "Love Wins!" when it comes to stopping "bad guys with guns."  If we put more of ourselves as a community that cares about all children, no matter how awkward we think they are into loving them all, then maybe we will see fewer Adam Lanza's in this world.  Teachers are trained to educated, not to form an educational militia. Your comments were "pornographic" and have no place in the discourse of this discussion or the solutions, and ultimately the prevention of another Sandy Hook!  For years, you all have won this debate, but recognize this is different!  These were babies in a place where they should have been safe, where that particular person had no documented reason for even being in the vicinity of the school.  You will NOT win this one with ugly rhetoric. Not this one.  Not this time. You don't win.

 "Love Wins!"

And I suggest you find some!

Blue Friday

Early on, I decided I would not write about the tragic events that occurred in Newtown on December 14, 2012.  I had decided that far too much would be written about it and most of it would focus on the victims.  I was wrong.  Far too much is written on a person I care to not think about and/or an explanation that may never come.  However, upon seeing an interview with little Jesse Lewis' father on CNN, it made me cry in a way I hadn't over this situation.  Yes, I shed tear, but Jesse's dad's tears...wherever he is tonight, I wish him love and peace.  My words won't free him of his pain, but hopefully he will know that I understand his.

Photo Courtesy ABC News

           
Connecticut.

This is my state; this is my home.  This is where I was born and where I return to for sanctuary when the rest of the world grows grim and falls short of my warped and idyllic expectations.  It is not a perfect place.  Far from Utopia, it is; but it is my home and these are my people.  Connecticut people.

Over the years, I have seen many of my former classmates succumb to the gun violence wreaked upon them, usually at the hands of someone they knew.  Far too young they were to die, but in some way the very idea that these children mostly males, mostly of color and mostly poor were not likely to reach the age of maturity seemed acceptable.  There were times when I would hear of young children, babies, being hit by random gunfire…bullets that had the name of another written on them in the blood of the innocent. For a moment it appeared that those deaths were unacceptable, and they were until the next shooting took place and they were forgotten.  

Just two months ago in New Haven, a one-year old was caught in the midst of a drive by shooting. This isn't right, but the sad reality is that innate and systemic inequities do not afford every family the opportunity to find shelter in a community that is relatively safe. But the other reality, a second most fundamental reality is that all children, regardless of where they come from should always feel safe and find sanctuary in their schools. When that space is violated by outsiders whose sole agenda is to inflict immense pain on as many undeserving people as he can seek out, then we have a choice.  Do we try to figure out why this happened?  Do we try to prevent this from happening again? Or do we just do nothing?  Until now, we have been content in our efforts to make no effort whatsoever; so in some way, we all are to blame.  But the answer is all in how you look at what occurred in my state, in a small town, just a week ago today. It was a sunny start to the weekend that quickly turned blue.  And when the dust settles, though we may all make an effort to assuage our own feelings of guilt or prior indifference, the answer is the same.  There was one person responsible for what happened in Newtown.

I will say this and I don’t know how better to state it: there will never be any explanation or motive that will make the loss of those 26 inside Sandy Hook Elementary School feel better.  There will be no explanation that will give comfort to those who had to bury their babies nor soothe the cries of a grown child who just wants her mother to "come back," though she died heroically trying to save the lives of 500 other children.   The need to know why is purely for those of us in the public who need to be able to excuse this event so that we can go back to saying, “this can’t happen here;" for us to more easily turn a blind eye to the truth that evil does exist and can be personified.  We seek this out so that we can go on with our lives and absolve ourselves of any guilt we might feel for moving on to the next cause.  But I imagine that for those families, there will never be any explanation that will ease the pain of losing a child, a parent, a sister, or a friend.  There will never be an excuse that will make that empty chair at the table on Christmas Day be any easier to look at without shedding a tear.

Just as there will never be an explanation that will make any sense, nor will there be any living person to blame for this tragedy.  Again, I will state it, plainly: there will never be another living person to blame for violently taking the lives of those educators and their students.  We know who was responsible, we know we cannot punish him.  Saying that he was mentally ill or had other issues, in my opinion, is a way of alleviating the guilt and blame from the source all because we (outsiders) feel the need to make sense of senselessness.  That person was responsible for what he did and he knew it was wrong.  In the seconds it took for him to think of taking his own life upon hearing the sirens of police cars, indicates, at least to me, that he knew there was no way out of that situation on his terms, he had lost control, and was fearful of the consequences.  That said, I don’t care about the person who did this, who took so much from so many.  I care about those families…and all those babies and professionals who are no longer here.  I am sad for them; I weep for them.

And I am disgusted!

I am disgusted by all those people who speak using their rear end instead of the right end as they postulate any number of reasons that do not lie within the mind of the perpetrator, but with their unyielding political agenda.

Get off your proverbial political soapboxes and let's deal with the facts! No one was killed because we "systematically removed God"  from school, Mr. Huckabee.  From what I have read about how these families choose to honor each of those 26 lives, faith was at the heart of it.  Grace O'Donnell and Jessica Reko's mothers both expressed how deep their faith was to the point that as a mother of a young child, I was brought to tears. They had God in their lives and on  their side.  Whether that unfortunate being had found God in his, we can only assume that HE did not.  And even if any of those families that lost a loved one was unaffiliated with a faith or religion, what happened to them was not the wrath of God avenging his absence in school.  We haven't had "church" in schools in over 60 years.  But perhaps your needing to find God in your life is what led you to assert such a vile and horrific explanation for the insidious actions of another who, if had he found Him, would have found a far less deadly way to cope with his misery.  And then there is the obvious, that individual was an adult, he had no recently documented affiliation with the school, therefore, this point is moot.  He was not supposed to be anywhere near that school; he had no reason to be.  Those children were right where they were supposed to be: in school, with teachers who cared about them, learning.

           

Teaching, for a long time, has been a field dominated by women, just like nursing.  Oftentimes, the best schools are the ones run by women.  The shortage of males in the classroom is no secret, this has been an issue for a while, but men are being steered toward other career fields.  Further, more women are graduating from college than men, so the teaching pool looks just like any graduating class.  But let me be clear, an unarmed male teacher would have suffered the same fate as the six women.  Principal Hochsprung and School Psychologist Mary Sherlach did rush to stop that individual to protect the kids, the same as any man would have.  Vickie Soto, Rachel D'avino, Lauren Rousseau and Anne Marie Murphy all huddled children or attempted to shield them from the bullets in some way; they failed, but they tried.  There are plenty of men who wouldn't sacrifice a hair on their heads for anyone, including their own children, so this is ridiculous talk.  Think about the first victim. He shot his mother.  That takes a level of anger beyond anything I can comprehend in this lifetime or the next several.  He shot 18 females. Did it ever occur to any of you that it was a transference of that anger he had for his mother?  Find an ex-girlfriend or lack of one, and you will find a person who had issues with women.  The number of women in the building was NOT the issue, he HAD issues with women.

            

Now, we can say could've, should've, would've all day long.  The point is this: 26 people lost their lives in the school that day; 20 children and six women.  It was a blue, blue Friday morning when an adult male decided that he would take as many lives as he could before taking his own.  Every possible precaution the school leadership could have taken to protect students was implemented.  There was nothing that anyone in that school could have done in anticipation for the vulgarity that was unleashed upon them.  No one knew he was coming and the one person who could have warned anyone was shot to death as she lay sleeping. Do we need better gun laws regarding semiautomatic weapons? Yes.  Do we need to fix our mental health system? Yes. Do we need to recruit more male teachers in our schools? Perhaps.  Could we all stand to pray a bit more? Of course!  But would having any of this in place beforehand have prevented the events of that day? No.  Not when we all have free will and the ability to discern right from wrong, or to do good rather than bad with the life we have been given.  That person CHOSE to do bad; it was HIS choice.  We need not finger point anywhere else.  It was him.  And it is very, very sad.

But rather than dwelling on the bad, think about all the good things their families and friends have shared with us.  In their short time on this earth, those children and their teachers had a lot of goodness in their lives and for me, hearing about that lifts away the veil of ugliness from the situation.  I’m not saying that what happened was not ugly; for it was all too ugly.  However, the lives that were taken were far from it and I appreciate the strength and resiliency of those families for sharing their loss with the rest of us.  I am happy they have been pushing past their grief to help us focus, as a nation, on the victims and not someone I feel is unworthy of my understanding.  And as I go on with my life, not giving a care about his, I will remember that Ana loved to sing; James’ favorite dinner came from Subway; Jessica wanted cowgirl boots for Christmas; Grace “was all about peace”; Charlotte loved the color pink and was excited to wear a brand new pink dress to school that day; little Catherine loved animals; Jessie went everywhere with his father; Avielle was her father's "little humming bird"; Dylan would play tag with his neighbors at the bus stop in the morning; Daniel was "affectionate" and "thoughtful"; Allison would give you her snack, if you wanted; Madeleine was shy, but how she loved dogs; Emilie could find something good in anyone; Benjamin loved the Beatles; Olivia was only supposed to play an angel in a pageant and now she had become one in real life; Josephine loved purple and was looking forward to her birthday party the next day; Chase had just won his first minitriathalon; Jack loved the Giants and Victor Cruz was his favorite player; Noah was a prankster; Caroline was always smiling, "Silly Caroline" is what they called her.   

I will remember and I will stay here, in my home, just outside New Haven and not intrude upon theirs so that families and a community can grieve in private.  And when they are ready to emerge, I will be listening.  See, good and evil exist simultaneously. That person’s actions were pure evil, but he was surrounded by so much good in that school and in those first responders he heard off in the distance and in the community of Newtown.  To seize upon them, even with good intentions, or to blame the school or anyone in it for any of this is to give in to the whim of his evil; and that is just not something I am willing to do.  Someone loved him and rather than accepting that love he destroyed it.  But those 26 beacons of light knew love and gave a lot of it in return.  It was thought that if extinguished, that light would cloud the rest of the world with darkness.  He was wrong.  Love grew exponentially!  Perfect strangers are giving their love and their prayers to people of whom they never met.  There are a lot of individuals like the one who took these lives in every city and every corner of America, waiting for a chance to turn our sunny Friday's blue once again.  We can't let them.  We must remember.  Remember Chicago.  Remember Philadelphia.  Remember Columbine.  Remember Hartford.  Remember Bridgeport.  Remember New Haven.  Remember Newtown.  But above all, remember love and live in love; if not for yourself, do it for 26 who had so much more in them to give.

Aisha

Welcome to Inner City Blues!

Welcome to my blog!

After having written my thoughts and observations for a number of other sources, I have decided that it is time I take the reigns and unleash my ideas and opinions in a forum of my own choosing, of my own design and of my own creation.  There will be expressions of many emotions, as life is a series of emotions triggered by events; our emotions are not only our responses to these events, but when properly channeled, emotions are the catalysts for change.

It was true in 1955, when after 14-year old Emmett Till was brutally murdered in Mississippi, the Civil Rights Movement that was already underway became fueled anew with a vigor and determination that can only be inspired by pain, anger, and the desire to protect children from matyrdom.

It was true in the 1970's when after decades of being told they did not fit the "standard" of beauty that was America, African Americans ignored the conventional chatter of exclusion and reconstructed the narrative for themselves, proclaiming themselves BEAUTIFUL, regardless of what mainstream ideals of beauty were being touted as the ONLY ideals of beauty that were acceptable and "American."

It was true in the 1980's and 1990's when an emerging genre of music offered an alternative, yet real, view of what was really going on in the lives and communities of the poor and ignored.  When politicians and others wrote them off as a volatile and violent counterculture personally responsible for their own despondency,  they pointed to the crude and often systemic social inequities that contributed to the conditions in which they lived.  Their language was vile, but so are poverty and prejudice.

It was true in November 2012, when after four years of coordinated attempts by one party to destroy the legacy of one man was felt by over 600 million, that majority arose from the shadows and the pain to say, "apparently, you did not HEAR us four years ago, some lessons must be relearned...two terms!"

And it will be true in the decades to come.

I hope that I cannot only share my emotions and insight, from my perspective, but that I can offer ideas and reasons as to why you need to continue to have your voice heard as a voter, as a citizen, and as a human being.

Take Care,

Aisha

Next Blog: Shook Ones, Part II: What We Can Expect From the Right in a Second Obama Term