Looking for Peace.....in crime.

Ever since I was a little boy I liked to help people and one of the ways I helped was by making them laugh and as I got older it became by being strong for everyone around me.  Some days it takes its toll on me and other days I breeze right through.  Once the ugly world of racism and hate exposed its face to me at the age of 10 I guard my sensitivity well, so I think.  One of my earliest memories of doing something “illegal” was in 1985 when my next door neighbor would credit me up front with fireworks from Indiana.  I would sell what I had from my doorstep and my neighbor basically gave me a crash course on how to sell to make a profit.  Once I got my first brick of fireworks I got to work and sold items like M-80’s that are considered “illegal” in Chicago.  Not a huge crime but for a 10 year old I had my own firework ring and no one else was selling nearby so I had cornered the market.  One day as customers came and left my doorstep the local beat cop noticed a lot of kids coming and going from my house and began circling my block more often.  I had a customer one day and as the kid is handing me money the beat cop is rolling up in his car going a bit fast and focused on my house.  I took the kids money and told him if he said anything that I would kick his ass and the kid quickly ran from my house without his fireworks.  I tossed the fireworks into the next door neighbor’s bushes and casually walked down the steps.  The patrol car slowed down and we made eye contact and even though I was 10 years old I had already made my mind up that he was my enemy and it was obvious that he thought the same of me. 

I never regretted what I have done only because I never went out of my way to hurt someone and I never was deeply involved in crime in terms of drug dealing and murder.  Those two activities are really the result of frustrated individuals that don’t have the mind to think how to succeed in other ways.  I have sold things that I shouldn't have sold and never really made any money from it because it really has to be in bulk for one to see a worthwhile profit.  I have been around others that have done the bulk stuff and I would observe their behaviors and thought process.  FEW are wise many are just trying to make a buck as if it were a minimum wage paying job because after everyone else you have to pay, the hours, risk, and prep time the money does not add up. 

I did OK for a 10 year old kid in 1985 selling fireworks and what I learned from my neighbor was loyalty.  He had promised to only sell to me in the area (because he had a truck full of stuff) and to have first picks of what I wanted.  I would never disrespect someone that I valued as a friend and as I got older I realized that sometimes I was the only on playing by those rules.  Because of loyalty I know many people thought they could take advantage of me by putting me in harm’s way but what they didn’t see was the opportunity it gave me to build my character.  I remember I was asked to go see someone and there was a great opportunity for this person to take out their anger on me even though I was not the target.  I walked in without any weapons or worry because I knew that this individual was injured and I was going to make him my friend.  After an hour or so we were laughing and talking about how to settle things and when I went back to discuss the issue all I said was that it was taken care of. 

In that process there was a lot I had to exchange in my life to avoid from being viewed as weak even though some people had already labeled me as such due to my lack of incarceration time.  I never understood why people thought being caught and sent to prison was some sort of badge I would think the opposite.  After all they would admit in very indirect ways that their first time in they spent time crying in secret.  In this process I made a lot of friends and alienated others but I went through the process to fill a void left behind by those that could have filled it properly but didn’t.  I don’t blame directly many because I made friends with many that were already older in age and were ready to get out of the “game” both in nonprofit organizations and other types of organizations.  In the end I never did time in prison for any of my stepping over the line actions but I have effectively pushed many people away.  I spend a lot of time thinking of them and wondering what could have been and to be honest it was really a short period of time so my guess is that it must have been a training of sorts for me.  What has me confused is what kind of training was it for?

I know that I could be a criminal and do many things in that line and so much that when I would get caught there would be no exit for me unless I threw everyone under the bus.  There might be some people that I wouldn’t mind doing that to but that’s a life that will never materialize.  The other side of me knows that I can be a deeply serious minister collar and all…the interesting thing is that the two are very close to each other.  I always tell people that if you go far enough to an extreme you will always find yourself in your oppositions backyard.  The thin line the separates the two lives bonds them together in a conflict that the United Nations itself couldn’t handle nor fix.  It makes sense for “criminals” or “ex-gang members” to fall into a religious organization and when they start to see similar behaviors they try to find a way to scam everyone.  That is mostly because the individual thinks they are so cunning that they snuck their way in and no one noticed but what they don’t see is that the door was wide open for them to come in.  It is into the arms of the Almighty that you cannot sneak your way in so when an individual thinks they made it and things don’t work out they curse everything and swear they tried it all.

I know I haven’t tried it all and I know that I will never be a drug dealer or anything like that but I do know that my loyalty is right where it should be.  My actions are guided by that loyalty and to the message it brings.  So I am not ashamed to admit that I sold drugs, stolen from stores, taken money that didn’t belong to me, sold illegal fireworks, driven past the speed limit, rolled through a stop sign, taken a stop sign, ran through a red light, drank beer way before my 21^st, smoked weed, broken someone’s house/car windows, smashed into a car to keep it from going away, driven without a license, gotten into fights in public, been arrested officially once for inciting a riot and unlawful assembly in NYC, etc…with all of that I never tried it all but I learned that regardless of which of these crimes I did not one took me away from God’s grace.  It was the times that I couldn’t service a client, when I worked as a youth worker, because there wasn’t enough funding that made me feel like I wasn’t in His grace.  The times that ministers turned their backs to me because of a gang membership and I wanted to hurt them I felt I wasn’t in His grace. 

After all of that I am left with a deep personal relationship with Him and I am deeply grateful for all of my experiences.  You’re right I didn’t have to go through all of that to reach this point but you tell me, are you willing to place your life on the line for Peace?  I am because I know He will be there regardless of what I have to do to create Peace.  He has been there with me all along when I was stealing, homeless, breaking a window, and helping the youth I worked with He was there. 

So I look back at the moments before I saw that ugly face of the world and I didn’t know what my life was going to be, my biggest problem was I did not know what candy to pick.  I was at a corner store minutes away from being physically shaken by a Chicago Police officer for being Latino not knowing I was too dark to live there.  I was innocently happy with my bottle of coke and some candy and God was there with me preparing me for what was to come.  Now I can see God off to the side behind the officer as the officer stood over me shaking me as he yelled. God was assuring me that I would be OK.  I watched this officer go from being mad to pissed in seconds and I knew right away not to cry in front of him.  I know now the feeling I had then meant, I would have to take the risk of offending everyone around me to become who I am today and who I still haven’t become. 

What are you willing to risk?

Peace/AMOR

Gerardo

Looking for Peace.....for longer than a month.

So what is it about the truth that keeps you from doing what is right?  Have you become comfortable with the violence and soft activism? Or is it that since it is not in your neighborhood it really isn’t your problem?

After a month of people talking about what happened to Trayvon and taking pictures of themselves with a hoodie on people seem to have grown tired and are changing their profile pictures back to “normal” ones.  I’m not criticizing people for it instead it’s an observation to the attention span of our society around issues of violence within our society.  There are whole organizations built around ending the violence in other countries, but the most we can do is deal with it for a month and move on with the expectation that our police authorities will make the right choice.  The day that the shooter in this case is NOT held accountable, people will rise again for a quick protest and within a couple of weeks all will be forgotten.

What will it take for YOU to care longer than a month?

Peace/AMOR

Gerardo

Looking for Peace.....from my Brothers and Sisters at NRC.

Trayvon Martin: National Outrage & The Struggle for Justice

The national wave of outrage and protest across the country following Trayvon Martin’s murder represents an important step forward in the struggle for justice in America. At the same time, the fact that local authorities could defend and fail to prosecute this cowardly act, shows how close we are to a full-blown police state in this country.  First in the line of fire are youth of color, the poor, the undocumented and all those who resist the status quo.

What does Trayvon’s cowardly assassination by a neighborhood watch captain in an upscale, gated community have in common with the police shooting of Iraq War veteran Scott Olsen during Occupy Oakland, the murders of hundreds of our youth every year across the country, the beatings and murders of homeless people, and the thousands of deaths every year from the destruction of the social safety net? They are acts that terrify the population – create a culture of fear ­– that – backed by the police and courts – perpetuates the power, property and profits of the “1%.” They will stop at nothing. Trayvon’s death was not just about the racist vigilante who pulled the trigger: behind him stands a rotten system that can and must be replaced.

Everyone knows that Trayvon Martin was murdered ­– not only because he was a young black male wearing a hoodie while walking in a gated community – but because we live in a society where we fear one another rather than cherish one another. Our society focuses our energy on destroying our class allies rather fighting for human freedom – regardless the color it is wrapped in. The struggle for justice for Trayvon Martin’s murder represents the fight for the future of this country. We have an obligation to fight toward overthrowing this morally bankrupt and illegal corporate class and replacing it with a society that places the interests of the majority as the centerpiece for a just and humane society.                         

Those of us who understand what is at stake must insure that out of this unprecedented national outrage, we emerge with a united core of thousands of leading activists. The time has come to weld together the scattered fronts of the struggle for social, political and economic justice. The wave of outrage over Trayvon’s murder will inevitably subside, but out of it must come something lasting, something capable of unifying our scattered ranks. The Network for Revolutionary Change was formed to help this process.   We urge you to join us. 

                                                                                                                                   

                        

    

                 For more information, visit: http://conferenceofrevolutionaries.com                 

                                                                                                                                            

      Sheilah Garland-Olaniran from Florida and Luis J. Rodriguez from L.A.  

                                                   

“We have much to overcome if we are to take on the real culprits….”

 By Sheilah Garland-Olaniran

 Sanford, Florida  March 25, 2012

As I walked toward Ft. Mellon Park across from Lake Monroe, to join with the tens of thousands from across the country who are outraged at the senseless murder of Trayvon Martin, in this sleepy, economically depressed little town of Sanford, I was overwhelmed with the flow of humanity, predominantly African American, gathering once again to demand some form of justice for the murder of yet another child of the working class. 

Those converging on the park, while primarily African American, were also white, Latino and a few others.  Seeing these emissaries from other racial groups was gratifying but infuriating because their numbers were so small given the enormity of the situation.  The composition of the crowd also brought to surface the racial divide that persists while at the same time shows the glaring need for representatives of the entire working class to organize and defend one another in a show of solidarity and strength against the pernicious legal maneuvers of a growing police state. 

The murder of young Trayvon Martin reminds us of the work we have ahead of us to fight for a humane, peaceful and racially tolerant society where laws no longer exist that perpetuate fear and loathing for our fellow human being, such as the now infamous “stand your ground” laws that permit folks to use deadly force if they feel “threatened” by someone and are not engaged in illegal activity themselves.  You see, I am not sure Zimmerman was not engaged in illegal activity himself…that he had not profiled this young man simply because he was young, African American, wearing a hoodie and walking in a “gated” community.  And the most galling aspect is that the Sanford Police Department did very little to investigate Zimmerman’s deadly use of force under the “stand your ground” law, which they are required to do. 

I was text-ing back and forth while at the rally, with a white nurse who works in the ER of the nearby unionized hospital in Sanford.  I was disturbed that this very intelligent nurse cautioned me that there might be a problem at the rally and that the she too carries a weapon to defend herself against perceived threats against her person.  I didn’t have the heart to tell her that as a white woman, she was perhaps the most insulated person in this country when it came to being the victim of crime or physically assaulted.  That young black children like Trayvon, or black women such as myself were much more likely to be attacked, and yet we were the least protected when it comes to society, the courts, the law, or in need of protection in the minds of many people. 

And that our vulnerability creates the vulnerability she feels.  Our too often divided and divisive working class has much to overcome if we are to take on the real culprits…not one another, but a corporate state that is rapidly and legally setting the stage for a society where the working class fears their class allies and align themselves with the corporate ruling class because of our fears of one another and our belief that the lies perpetuated over the centuries have validity?  We are feeling the grind of the economic depression and the consequences of the instability and insecurity the depression creates.  The voices of genuine African American and White working class leaders are silenced in the cacophony of the corporate political maneuverings.                                                                                                       

The antiquated preachi-fying at the rally served to assure that the demands for real democracy and equality are diverted into the well worn, circular path of “civil rights” and “racial liberation.”  While civil rights and racial equality are absolutely important to fight for, we must be fully aware that we can no longer simply fight to “overthrow” racism.  We must fight for a society that is run in the interest of the majority, and that majority is the working class comprised of white, African American, Asian, Latino, gay, straight, etc.  We threw off the direct shackles of legalized racism in the 1960’s, the shackles of the direct oppression of women, and yet, we find that those victories while very much needed at that time must and can go further.  We have to be about the business of truly liberating all humanity from the clutches of the billionaire corporations that rule us, all of us. 

Trayvon Martin lost his life, not only because he was a young black male wearing a hoodie while walking in a gated community. He lost his life because we live in a society that cherishes corporate greed over human need. We live in a society where our natural class allies fear one another rather than cherish one another. We live in a society that would rather we focus on destroying our class allies rather than focus our anger, disgust, and hatred to fight for human freedom regardless the color it is wrapped in.  We have an obligation to fight toward overthrowing this morally bankrupt and illegal corporate class and replacing it with a society that places the interests of the majority as the centerpiece for a just and humane society.

Sheilah Garland-Olaniran is a union organizer in Florida and a Convener of the Network for Revolutionary Change.                                              

The call for justice in the murder of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin in Sanford, Florida has rippled around the country and world. He's become a symbol of the wanton attacks against young black men--some of this systematically (in bad schools, jails, prisons, and unemployed) as well as singularly as in Sanford. The fact that public officials, including police Chief Bill Lee Jr., have resigned in the face of national outrage says how this case must be brought to justice in a swift and thorough manner. There are still efforts by public officials and some media to "mediate" what happened by indicating that the shooter, George Zimmerman, was "half Hispanic" (what does this have to do with his actions?), had the law on his side (the controversial, for these very reasons, "Stand Your Ground" law, supported by the National Rifle Association), and that Zimmerman was an alleged neighborhood watch volunteer (although he pursued Trayvon, and apparently instigated an altercation before he shot the young man). None of this justifies what happened. We must demand that Zimmerman be brought to trial and that all the facts be exposed so that young men like Trayvon do not have to fear for their lives due to their race or appearance.

--Luis J. Rodriguez, Convener, Network for Revolutionary Change, Los Angeles   

Looking for Peace.....in obligations.

Today the mayor of Chicago and its top cop addressed the violence issue again and to my surprise again the top cop knows what he is talking about.  He said that the police are not the solution to gang violence that the people are the solution.  I’m starting to think that he is either going to run for public office at some point or he really is in tune with what a police force should look like.  I’ve written about this before and I’ll say it again, the police are spread too thin and we are asking too much from them.  We should never look at the police force as the ultimate solution to each and every issue in our communities.  Back in the mid 1990’s the CAPS program came into play in Chicago and basically it was going to bring in a new era of policing to Chicago.  It brought a face to the officers that patrolled our communities and some accountability to an extent. Today it's more of a gathering of community people complaining to the police about issues out of the police's control and announcements of BBQ's being sponsored by the CAPS program. 

Why are we as a society, a “free” society, so willing to give up our power to a police force?  Every time something happens we scream for the police.  We don’t realize that the problem we are so upset about has been a problem for a long time it just got out of control for that moment.  So what is the obstacle for reducing the violence?  Is it you? What is about the community that you live in that is stopping the progress?  It can’t be that you or the community are afraid to talk to a bunch of children and youth on the street corner, is it? Where is that “POWER TO THE PEOPLE” movement that changed how White America looked at people of Color?!  Where is it?!

We have found a place in our lives that doesn’t allow much escape anymore.  Back in the 1980’s as an activist it could take several hours to hear about what happened in another part of the country and maybe a full day to hear about what happened around the world.  Today it is within a matter of seconds that the whole world finds out what JUST happened so we expect a quick response to these issues.  So with that said how is it that we cannot gather our heads to understand that simply the gang violence in our society has everything to do with poverty?  Why is it so hard to JUST simply LOVE someone?  I read an article today from Sojourners magazine written by Dr. Joel C. Hunter and he says “…our obligation as Christians is not just help, it’s love.” Whether you are Christian or not I think this statement applies to everyone based on the fact that we are human, so where is the love then?

There is a deep and dark side to all of this and it involves MONEY and it may not even be that deep but there’s money to be made on violence.  In 2010 the Associate Press wrote an article breaking down some of the numbers in relation to the drug war (source of many acts of violence) and the budget, here are some of those numbers from that article.

Since Nixon started the war on drugs this is some of the money spent:

-$33 Billion was spent of marketing “just say no” types of messages.

-$121 Billion on the arrest of 37 million nonviolent drug offenders - that’s $3270.00 per offender what could you do with an extra $3270?

-$450 Billion to just lock up those people in federal prisons alone- that’s $12,162.00 per person! We are not even talking about what it cost to keep them in prison!

The article says that the US government has spent $1Trillion on this war on drugs and what is amazing to me is that when people think of criminals and “gangbangers” as dumb people I’m going to have to ask, who really is the dumb one here?

Peace/AMOR

Gerardo

Looking for Peace.....in names we don't know.

I remember as a youth being told not to wear a baseball cap in fear that someone might mistake me for a gang member or a criminal so I never worn one.  As I got older and rode public transportation more I would see other youth primarily White youth wearing baseball caps and I couldn’t tell whether they were gangbangers or criminals.  Then it hit me like a bolt of lightning when I overheard a mall cop at Century mall say that he was following a group of gangbangers all wearing black baseball caps.  So I quickly follow from a distance and see who he is observing and it was a group of Black and Latino youth wearing Raiders baseball caps.  What bothered me was that there was a larger group of White youth walking around and they all had on baseball caps as well but this mall cop was focused on this handful of Black and Brown youth.  I realized then that it was the color of their skin that was the wrong accessory to the baseball cap!  So I marched into the nearest shop and bought myself a Black Raiders cap just like those other youth.  As I’m checking out the cashier asked if I wanted in a bag I said ‘no I’ll wear it out’ so the cashier cut off the tags for me and I put that cap on my head and went looking for that mall cop.  Once I found him he was out of breath in a corner trying to “blend in” and I made eye contact with him and he froze.  As I walked passed him I gave him a look to let him know that I was there and wasn’t going away and it felt good.

With everything going on in Florida all these old feelings come up and I get frustrated because all of a sudden “activist” have an opinion about a Black youth being gunned down for looking a certain way.  The reason I get frustrated is because last weekend 40 + people were shot in Chicago and several dead but no outrage from anyone really other than for the death of a beautiful 6 year old girl.  What if Trayvon was a “gangbanger” would we be just as mad?  I can almost bet my life to say NO! Reports would come out about pass arrest and face book postings and drawings found in his room etc… How do you think the parents of a recently deceased “gang related” youth feel right now?  Should they say to themselves ‘well it is sad that our son died but this case in Florida is worse’ does that make sense?  No it doesn’t because the death of ANYONE in an act of violence should not be rated according to affiliation or not to a street organization. 

These are youth that were shot dead (not a complete list) since 2007 from only two out of over 200 neighborhoods in Chicago:

Albany Park community:

Sean Agusto 16 Gunshot sidewalk 7/28/2008

Franco Avila 17 Gunshot sidewalk 3/10/2009

Leon Deakyne 17 Gunshot sidewalk 12/12/11

Nicholas Camacho 19 Gunshot Alley 1/2/2012

Austin community:

Levon McNeil 19 Gunshot street 3/11/2007

Jerel Smith 17 Gunshot sidewalk 9/8/2007

Randy Eiland 18 Gunshot sidewalk 10/25/2007

Marcus Greer 17 Gunshot residence 4/15/2008

Benny Lynch 19 Gunshot residential yard 6/13/2008

Gerald Perry 16 Gunshot sidewalk 6/29/2008

Steven Nelson 16 Gunshot residential yard 8/2/2008

Paris Jackson 19 Gunshot Park property 8/30/2008

Where was the outrage then?  There was none other than the family’s outrage because the rest of society expects this to happen to “these” types of youth because there was some sort of loose link of possible “gang affiliation” in these cases.  Does it really matter?  It shouldn’t but it is obvious that it does matter if you are gunned down while being profiled as a “gang member” because it has become easier to forget the names above.

We cannot expect our society to care if we are choosing who is more important because I’m sure that the shooter in Trayvon’s case wasn’t the first person to think he was up to no good.  While he was alive he was just another Black youth expected to fail.

Are you ready to expect ALL youth to succeed?

Are you ready to release youth from YOUR conditions so you can provide a service to them?

Are you ready to fully educate each and every one of our youth?

Are you ready for Peace?

I know they are.

So am I.

Peace/AMOR

Gerardo