Looking for Peace.....in my actions.

I just read an article titled “Why do Christians need to make it all better?”  written by Stephanie S. Smith for Relevant magazine and it touched on why do Christians hurry to hope in tough times and how it sometimes doesn’t get better.  This article came out today in a time that Chicago is reporting that 40 people were shot over this long weekend that happens to be a memorial for those that have given their lives in the military.  Do we rush to say that there is hope that things will get better and ignore the process of what needs to happen for it to change?

As I have written before that 40 people being shot in a city of more than 2.6million (9.4million if we look at it as a Metro area) is not a large number but nonetheless it’s 40 more than anyone of us would like to see and I use the term “anyone” very loosely.  I say that because I see that some people are more hurt over the killings in Syria but make no mention of the killings here in Chicago.  Syria’s population is just over 22million as a whole country and not to say let’s play the number game here to see who’s pain is worst but it does open the eyes a bit.

I cannot stress enough how frustrating this all is when after a weekend like this most people that tag themselves as “progressive community organizers” just ignore the issues and wants everyone they know to sign some sort of petition for something else.  Why are they not worried about these shootings?  Some people will even say “omg that’s not far from my house!  What did I move into!?” is that really your reaction?  Was the trendy neighborhood not so “cool” anymore?

OK back to this article and how it relates to the shootings and violence….

Stephanie S. Smith asks us to “resist the urge to resolve” and that’s hard to do for any of us because we all feel like we have the solution and I could sit here and write about how certain programs are not working and which one’s might do better.  I could say that places like Cease Fire are NOT the solution and they are sucking up all the funding for better services and they should be shut down BUT I just won’t go there right now ;-)  What the article has brought to the forefront of all of my thoughts, as a follower of Jesus teachings, is did Jesus have to die in a violent way to make His point?

For those of you that have watched The Passion of the Christ by Mel Gibson he goes into some savage detail of what possibly happened to Jesus as He walked with his cross to be crucified.  I remember watching that and thinking why didn’t they just snatch him up and yanked up on the cross and just nail him to it, wouldn’t that have been traumatic as well not only for him but for those watching?  His along with many people of that time, death was a gruesome event and meant to horrify people into NOT committing crimes.  So fast forward to present time and I’m thinking are we subconsciously allowing for these shootings to take place so that we can indirectly horrify our youth to the dangers of becoming involved with gangs and drugs? And I say “we” as in the community organizers, clergy, and educators that are supposed to be on the front lines of these issues in a setting like the city of Chicago.  The answer is YES and I dare to say that some of us are doing it consciously as well. 

So then what do we do?  It is a very complicated issue when we allow ourselves to get stuck on this idea of hope and keeping that hope alive because we are unwilling to go through the whole process.  I feel like we are waiting for our “Batman” to arrive and basically do everything that none of us are willing or wanting to do and that is to deal with the pain and ugliness of this all. 

Over the weekend I had plans on enjoying the hot weather and taking the time to do nothing instead I spent all of Sunday dealing with an issue.  A young Brother of mine had some serious events take place in his life and reached out to me for help.  If I didn’t answer him we could very well be talking about 41 shootings and 11 deaths over the weekend.  I knew what his expectation of me was and I couldn’t play the role of “gangster” for him because that’s not what it called for.  I pledged to him as well to his father that I would be a Brother to them and there when they needed me, they could be right or wrong I would be there for them.  So the process begun with an explanation of what happened and I quickly assured him that I would be there for him but also gave him some things to think about while I made my way to him.  Once we meet up I knew that he was ready for action as I was too but my action was different.  We go up to his parents apartment and we sit down and go through it all so I understood what was going on.  Once I knew that the opposition was an unknown character and there’s money at play I knew this could turn out bad.  So I gave him the layout of what my thoughts were and what I felt was the right approach but in all of this I never assured him that things would be “OK” and that “let’s hope things work out.”  Instead I made him aware of his own responsibility in this event and how he could address it properly with the least amount of negative impact.  I knew he didn’t want to hear everything I had to say about certain things but he respected me enough to sit there and listen.  At the end of it things “worked out” but the process wasn’t over because there shouldn’t always be a happy ending in this case instead it just needs to end and it did.  I don’t say that in any way to sound like a jerk but the reality of things is that sometimes things end and no one is happy and no one is sad it just ended.  What we try to focus on is to always make a happy ending and we skip the learning part of these events.  Well the evening ended with one more lesson and that was that we can never control what others do but we sure can turn that wheel and have a different outcome.

The violence in Chicago keeps going because many of us refuse to put ourselves in the position of being that true advocate for change.  

What would be different if ALL pastors TRULY spoke of Gods never ending LOVE without any bias as to whom you screwing in the bedroom? 

What would be different if ALL community organizers TRULY fought for EVERYONE in the community? 

What would be different if ALL educators where given ALL the tools they needed to TRULY educate our youth so that they were better prepared to deal with issues?

I’m not trying to make myself out to be anything other than a Brother that cares…

I’ll leave you with this because this is something I’ve been thinking about for a long time…

If people believe that every single word in the Bible is 100% God then when we turn to the very last book in the Bible we come to understand that a very violent act that cannot be duplicated by us will take place to bring about Peace and Heaven, so does that mean that there are some church folk that just see the violence on the streets as a process that God is going through and that’s why it keeps happening?

Peace/AMOR

Gerardo

Looking for Peace.....just in love.

Over the last few months I have expressed myself in ways that some of my family members strongly disagree with here on this blog and I am sorry.  I’m sorry that they have narrow minds and think that I am doing this to just piss people off and those of you that know me well know that even though that might be part of it it’s mostly out of education and love. 

I have had some family members disconnect with me via FB and I recently heard that it was because I have said things that not everyone agrees with.  So I sat and wondered what I might have said, was it that I believe in same sex marriage?  I believe it for several reasons and really what is it of your business what someone else does with someone they love?!  When I hear a guy talk about how much he hates Gay men and what they do to each other I always ask why is then that they keep thinking about other men’s penises ?  I know the truth is that they wish they could enjoy another man’s penis as well! Oh I’m sorry is that something, again, that I have said that not everyone agrees with? I'll try to warn ahead next time.

Maybe it has been because I have made it known of my strong connections on the street, well to be honest some of these very same family members always thought of me as a criminal anyway so why the issue now?  Maybe because I have been out spoken about my differences with the US government but wouldn’t that then mean that I have a strong love for my land?  How is it that these family members have decided what “everyone” agrees with or not?  Oh maybe it’s because some of these family members are hateful individuals that focus on money as the only form of success or if you hate Gay people then you are sure to get into Heaven…oh wait right you don’t hate them you just know for sure that they are going to Hell so you pray for them every night. And you don't hate people without money you just see them as poor souls you don't care to be around because they are losers in your eyes.

I am well aware of what I say and when I say and to whom I say it because God has given me the RIGHT to say what I want to say even if it is against Him. (I know that some of these family members just read me saying that I’m against God even though I didn’t say that…is that my mom’s phone ringing…) So they chose to “cut me off” from FB like an angry child that doesn’t want to hear anything other than what they want to hear.  I’m not bothered by the FB thing but it does bring up a question, do I visit them when I am in their town?  As I am accustom of doing when I travel is reaching out to people I know if I find myself in a town where I know people.  I think it is not cool to be in someone’s town to visit then leave and say “oh yea I was there sorry I didn’t reach out” so do I or don’t I say at least HELLO? 

Well the good thing is that I really wasn’t raised around extended family anyway so the hurt isn’t deep at all it’s just more of an annoyance because it affects others that do not share the views of those particular family members like a son or daughter or even a sibling.  So then am I supposed to just remain silent and go with the flow? If I did then I wouldn’t be me so for the family members that disagree with the things I say I ask that why wouldn’t you do the “Christian” thing and open a dialog with me to find a peaceful medium so that there isn’t any awkwardness?  To hard?  Right Jesus died for you so you wouldn’t have to lift a leg in life to make a difference for anyone and fight for those that cannot fight for themselves or do the most basic teaching of Jesus which is LOVE because you already saved so why bother! 

Love is a hard thing to do because it means that you have to challenge yourself on a daily basis.  When I decided to Love people for who they are I had to do it in the mist, WARNING to family I am about to say something that might offend you, of a bunch of hard core gang members.  So to ease them into understanding that I didn’t hate Gay people or anyone for that matter I started with telling them that I loved them.  Well at first it didn’t go over so well because I was rejected without hesitation!  I would get looks of disgust or they would take a few steps back as if I were about to jump on them.  For those that took it as if I was hitting on them I quickly reminded them of how ugly they were as well as their lack of proper employment.  So as time went on I kept pushing the envelope with them and since I had a bit of respect I knew no one was going to take a shot at me.  So as time went on I would let them know I loved them before I would leave the corner or their house.  One time I had one of their mothers ask what it was that I said and I told her that I loved her son and she quickly pushed me out of the house and said that she wanted her son to get married but not like that!  We all laughed because I told her I would need a better looking partner with good credit.

Then one day I went to go see one of the main guys and it was around New Years Eve and he was busy getting drunk.  He gave me a NYE gift and I hugged him kissed him on the cheek and told him I loved him and to be safe, I’ve never seen him smile so big, he smiled and said “I know.”  After that I kept showing love for my Brothers and I wasn’t afraid to show it and it became interesting one day when one of these Brothers blew a kiss at me.  He did it in front of other Brothers and his girlfriend.  She was not happy and told him that she was going to go find herself a real man and I got out of the car and walked up to her and said “you have found a real man because he was not afraid to show his true feelings in front of others” So I hugged him and kissed him on the cheek and left.  After that the younger Brothers began to show a strong sense of respect for me and would shake my hand with a lot of strength.  I asked one of them that I barely knew and really didn’t remember his name that why would he go out of his way to say hello to me all the time and he said “because you a real Brother and I admire that!” 

To many that might not mean anything because it was coming from a “gangbanger” but it means the world to me because I knew that this Brother had a totally different understanding of what LOVE meant.  Now isn’t that something a person viewed as a criminal has a better sense of LOVE than someone that shoots out quotes from the Bible about who is going to Hell!  It reminds me of who Jesus had by his side…

I may not have a formal college education, a six figure income, multiple properties, a car, 401K, or even health insurance but I do have my heart full of LOVE and I wouldn’t trade that for the world.  So if I offend you with what I say then I apologize because this is how God made me so, you might then want to complain to Him.

Peace/AMOR

Gerardo

Looking for Peace.....at a NATO protest?

The arresting of NATO protesters begun with a Chicago Police Department (CPD) raid in Bridgeport (a neighborhood on the South Side of Chicago) of an apartment that supposedly had protesters making Molotov cocktails to use during this weekend’s protests of NATO.  Some were quickly released and gave media interviews saying that all they were doing was making beer and that the items confiscated by the CPD were beer making equipment.  Sometime later a person by the name of Darrin Annussek was released and gave this statement “They did not speak to us for 18 hours. They did not let us know what was happening they did not know what was happening next” At some other point of the interview he had also said that they were handcuffed to a bench and shackled by their feet and he said it with so much emotion that I thought he was about to cry.  Now I do not want to sound insensitive but it will come off a bit insensitive…What the hell are you complaining about!?!

OK, OK let me think about this, you mean to tell me that you came to Chicago to protest NATO and given the history of not only the Chicago police but also how authorities around the WORLD respond to NATO protest and you still have the emotion to cry about being handcuffed to a bench?!

See I’m not entirely convinced about the protest not because I do not believe in what people are protesting but because we ALL knew that certain people would come along and provoke confrontations with the police.  Not only that but the lack of control and leadership to address these groups that really don’t have a message but just want to scream and yell and believe they are sending a message.  We knew that people would cause confrontations and that the media would focus on that so whatever message that the positive protesters wanted to send has been lost.  But let us talk about the whole protest itself…what was the overall message?  I understand it to be, and correct me if I’m wrong, to end NATO, right?  If that is the message why do we think that a protest like this would actually accomplish this?  I see a lot of young people in the crowd dressing as the protesters did in the 1970’s and I’m wondering why.  Why would you dress like an activist from that time period?  Do you not know that the war in Vietnam is COMPLETELY different from what we are dealing with here? Back then people were being drafted into the military and it was to fight communism from spreading and NATO was built, basically, to hold off the Soviet Union from getting any bigger.  What war are we fighting?  It has nothing to do with NATO it is the actual fault of OURS that we have been living such a comfortable life all these years and have ignored what OUR government have been doing in other countries.  YES it is OUR fault…don’t roll your eyes research the history. 

In Afghanistan the Soviet Union was battling to take over the country and the US Gov. started to supply the rebels with weapons among other things.  Before that Iran and Iraq were at war in the early 1980’s and the US Gov. had their hand it that as well.  Pres. Regan accepted money from the King of Saudi Arabia to fight revolutionaries in Central America because Regan told the King of Saudi that communism was spreading in Latin America and the King hated communism so he gave the US Gov. money to fight them.  ALL of this going on while people in America were busy being fashionable, getting high, focused on making money, and oppressing the poor of this country.  You cannot attack NATO because America was asleep for decades that caused the ripple effect of Sept. 11 and the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

I’m not defending the US Gov. nor am I defending NATO but I am a firm believer in addressing issues at their root cause and guess what people we are that root cause.  Isn’t it great to go to Walmart and buy a T-shirt for like $3?  Well if you look into where that T-shirt is made and the wages the worker was paid you will quickly realize that you have helped oppress someone far and near just so that you can have a cheap T-shirt to wear to today’s protest because you didn’t want to ruin the one you paid $15 for.

NATO does what it does because we elect the people we do into office and we have not set up a system, yet, to address a public official that gets off target with why we elected them.  So again why are you protesting?  What is the message?  “oh hey yea so I wanted to be one of the people that elected the first Black president but now I realize that I should have advocated for something or someone different so yea my BAD on that so can you like stop making me look like an ass for electing you? Thanks!” Because that is what I am hearing so far especially from FB “friends” and not to say they are asses for voting but it’s like we have gone around this block before why do we keep ending up in the same place!?  OK so we may have not elected a Black president before but we did put ALL of our eggs in his basket to only want to call him a war monger a few years later.

PEOPLE PEOPLE PEOPLE! We cannot keep doing the same play from the same old play book!  Protest worked in the Middle East against their government mostly because they haven’t done that before and well the honest truth, do you think the US government didn’t have their hands in that pot as well?  Back in 1996 I worked with a group of organizers and one of them was named Gabe and he and I got into an argument one day because he didn’t believe me when I told him that the FBI gets sent overseas to investigate crimes committed against US interest, citizens, and do other type of investigations.  Gabe loved to feel like he was the center of the organizing world and with a beer in his hand and that stupid smirk he said “It’s the FEDERAL bureau not the CIA!” And as I started to explain it to him he shouted me down and disregarded me as someone that wasn’t in the know.  Today, if you’re informed about these things, you know that the FBI does travel overseas for investigations as well as other agencies that you may not know about.  The point of that little story is that when you look into a play book, that by the way the other guys know it by heart as well, you tend to forget how to think independently in a situation and find yourself on TV crying about your first experience of having been handcuffed.

I shared with my Nephew, Felix, the other day that action, the type that “they” haven’t seen before, could be the most effect tool against groups like NATO.  We have had a lot of time to organize and I am saddened that “peace organizers” didn’t think about creating Peace to show NATO how it can be done WITHOUT conflict.  Here was the idea, IF organizers in Chicago really had their wits about them they would have realized that Chicago has been dealing with street violence that hasn’t been seen in many years and made an example of how to create Peace among those groups.  Wouldn’t it have been an impressive show to hold a city wide Peace summit of ALL street organizations somewhere in Chicago and SHOW, not only the city, but WORLD leaders HOW a group of people can create Peace without ONE single SHOT being fired! 

WOW wouldn’t that have been amazing!? Oh yea I forgot that would have meant that Community based Organizations, organizers, clergy, and “activist” would have had to put their prejudice aside about these “fucking gangbangers” to have made such a move…yea I said it!

You cannot complain and march against NATO for what they do when you do it right here at home and NO you cannot say that this is different because it is not!  If you cannot realize that street organizations and drug dealers are all humans as well then you got your head somewhere other than your shoulders.  Poverty in other countries has the same problems as the people in poverty here and in those countries they have their rebels and we have ours but you don’t see them in that way only because you have refused to acknowledge them. 

So what will you do different now?

Peace/AMOR

Gerardo

Looking for Peace.....in a protest...not this one.

This week in Chicago is the NATO summit and for the past couple of weeks the drums of protest has been beating throughout Chicago and I refuse to answer to that call.  In fact I’ve ignored it on purpose because I do not believe that these protests will have the impact that people are always expecting.  Not to say people shouldn’t protest they should but they need a clear cycle of events and I just don’t see it.

I will explain why in a minute but let me share a sample of one of many protest I have participated in before…back in 1996 I worked for the Chicago Coalition for the Homeless (CCH) under the directorship of John Donahue.  John was a former priest and one that could kick your ass clear across town both physically and intellectually!  At that time we were under the regime of Rich Daley and he was spending millions on building in the center of the streets in downtown the flower planters that Chicagoans have grown to love.  Some of these projects ran as much as $14 million and as homeless advocates that were fighting for every penny we thought it would be better to invest that $14million in homeless services (today CCH is still trying it’s hardest to avoid the state from cutting funding to homeless services.)  So we all sat down as a team and started to brain storm on ideas, I’m not sure how it came about but the idea of “Tree man” came into play.  The idea was that we would get one of our homeless leaders to dress up as a tree to follow Daley around the city the week before the DNC convention of 96 here in Chicago.  Well we set it up and one of the brightest people at CCH somehow got the phone number that is for media only that gave a daily recording of where Daley would be.  We used that number to track Daley and followed him to events and it was fun the first day because no one expected it.  Back then it was easy to get close to Daley so much so that by the end of that week I was walking side by side Daley trying to get him to commit to a meeting with CCH. He called me by my first name and told me to leave him alone and I said that I couldn’t because he was the target so he rolled his eyes and made a motion to his body guards…the point here is that it was a clear target with a clear purpose and we dressed a man up as a tree because that is what we were talking about.

So why do we have so many people dressed up in military fatigues and covering their faces with the American flag as a mask?  I do not see the purpose behind this is.  I understand why people protest NATO but some of the chants and what people are wearing to show they are protesting as well sometimes leads to confusion.  See here is my problem and don’t take it like I’m bashing anyone because of the color of their skin but when I see white kids dressed like that and covering their faces with American flags or bandanas I have to question what they are really doing there.  Not to say they don’t have a right but I base this thought on the fact that I have sat, watched, and listened to Occupy Chicago live streams at night and some of these same kids talk about how they need to go back to the dorms and study.  Nothing wrong with that but when the mention of Northwestern and Columbia and DePaul come up I have to sit back and play a movie in my head about what is going on. 

I’m well aware of the injustice in our society and I have spent most of my life on the “wrong side of the tracks” according to mainstream society and I’ve never seen these kids unless they were out in the hood buying “medicine.”  Not to say that these same individuals are the one’s I’m talking about and I guess you can say I am shoving them all into one category and I don't mean to do that. The truth of the matter is when you’ve been out on the street you develop a sense of who does what by their actions and habits and some of these kids have some familiar habits.  So it’s not hard for me to point out a pot smoker and now some of you are rolling your eyes saying “weed!? Come on!”  I know it sounds a bit prudish but here is the reality 50,000 Latinos have been killed due to the drug demand here in the USA in the last 6 years.  I don’t think the US military have suffered that much since they started in Iraq and Afghanistan in 2003.  Doesn’t this bother you?  If you live in Chicago Mexico is only 1386 miles to the boarder but Chicago to Iraq is about 6420 miles and that’s who you are concerned about?

Don’t get me wrong I completely disagree with the invasion of those two countries and for the invasion of Iran as well….Oh sorry I’m jumping ahead here….but way before I protest that I have to clear up my backyard and stop the war that this country is not only supplying but advocating for and it’s the drug war in Mexico.  Maybe it doesn’t mean anything to you because you might not feel a connection with Mexico other than a nice cold Corona or a Dos XX commercial but what connection do you have to Iraq?  I’m not only speaking to the white kids I brought up earlier I’m talking to everyone at these protest?  Some will have strong connections to Iraq and other countries but the issues here at home are not being addressed.  I know people will say something about immigration and the foreclosures and to be honest those are safer issues then to talk about people actually dying just over 1300 miles south of Chicago.  Not only over there but also here in the city we are suffering from the same issue of drugs but when these issues come up everyone hops over to the other side of the fence and start damning gang members and they join forces by calling the same police they want to protest against.  See how this becomes confusing?   

Protest yes please do, but I ask YOU then where do you stand when it comes down to drugs in this country?  Is it really “Shorty” on 66^th and King Drive fault that Americans are consuming Cocaine, Heroin, etc…?  Maybe it’s “Chico” on Rockwell and Potomac that is driving America down. Or maybe even “John” at Stevenson HS that has been bringing in Heroin on his private jetliner that is the root of this evil…

I know everyone has their “cause” and not one is more important than the other but there is some clear issues that have been avoided due to just not wanting to deal with it and that’s what is really driving America down, YOU not caring enough.

Just saying…

Peace/AMOR

Gerardo