Looking for Peace.................

Over the weekend in Chicago over 41 people were shot and about half dozen dead (according to the Chicago Tribune) including a beautiful little girl, it’s not the best weekend. 

I began to read the news reports online and clicked on the comment section and wasn’t surprised with what I found.  When it came to the shooting death of the little girl it was pretty much unanimous that people wanted the shooters dead.  I understand what it is to lose someone and quickly feel the need for an action that will make me feel better because that’s what it’s really about it’s never about justice.  Many of these people might have zero connection to that family but still grieve for that family and they want to hurt these guys.  On a different shooting when it was another drive-by where a couple of young boys got hit people changed their tunes to “well look at where they live they shouldn’t be standing outside…” or “let me guess those boys were NOT gangbangers?  Yea right not in that neighborhood!” Why do we have such different feelings about what child gets shot? 

I saw someone post on face book asking a candidate what he would do about this violence if elected and I don’t think that is a fair question.  ONE candidate cannot save an entire community from violence it will take each and every one of us to do that.  Someone else posted saying that we should “gas them all…” another one suggested “…police cars on every corner where there’s gangbangers…”  So our best reactions to a shooting are, gassing humans or placing a squad car on every corner we suspect has gang activity?  I know that there’s a ton of after school programs, faith based programming, Boys and Girls clubs, other youth focused agencies but, is there an abundance of love and compassion for people in our communities?  It’s obvious that there can be but a tragedy has to take place before it is shown and that is a serious problem.  I’m in no way blaming everyone else I too have responsibility in all of this and will be the first one to raise my hand in guilt but I’m trying my best.

I took my life down a road that was necessary because resources were not available and the community “leaders” lost their faith in doing the hard work that is needed.  That one bullet that can change a life touches so many lives from the person that works at a mine to extract the metal all the way to the cashier that sells the bullet then to the one the bullet enters.  I apologize for saying it that way but we have to truly look at the much broader picture of who is involved here because to simply blame a “gangbanger” for what we all participate in is ridiculous.  You may not think you have any participation in the violence but every day that we do not take action is a day we missed to impact the violence in our communities.

I do not advocate for more police because it is unfair to the police force to have to deal with every single thing in our communities.  I do not advocate for people to arm themselves and take the law into their own hands because we have the Florida incident as an example of how it can go terribly wrong.  I do not advocate for long marches down a street chanting “Stop the violence” because the issue isn’t that people like shooting other people it goes much deeper than that.

What I do advocate for is serious conversations about poverty with an action plan that doesn’t involve millions of dollars spent on a lobbyist to enact a law.  

I do advocate for people of Faith to take a serious look at themselves and take an inventory of your priorities and decide if you are following what you preach.

 

I do advocate for politicians to work full time and be held accountable for that time so that they are spending more time in their communities rather than being in a room arguing that they are right to other politicians waiting to do the same.  

I do advocate for equal and full funding for each and every public school in America regardless of economic and/or demographic background because education is a solution to many of our problems.

I do advocate for review and reform of juvenile detention centers because those places should be about saving our youth from making horrible decisions.

I do advocate for giving the right to vote to our citizens of 16 and 17 years of age because they are informed and proactive in many ways adults are not.

And I do advocate for people to have the WILL for a positive change in our society.  

I think the last one is the toughest one of them all because it challenges us all to deal with our personal issues and we tend not to do that.  This is in no way an easy task or a simple one either but the ingredients are in front of us to make or break our own society, which way do you want to go?

As I wrote this I was listening to the police radio band and heard a call go over the radio like this:

“1752?” “1-7-5-2…”(in response); dispatch—“did you guys find a victim over there?” (1752 response) “No I didn’t find anyone over here……with a bullet wound……oh damn…” in a very sarcastic tone…

Peace/AMOR

Gerardo

Looking for Peace.....in an arrest.

George Clooney Arrested!! OK so for the people I call my Brothers and Sisters talking about being arrested isn’t a big deal but I must admit that I am impressed by his pressure on Sudan.  I usually get annoyed that people focus on issues abroad rather than issues here at home but this is different.  Mr. Clooney is actually very articulate when he speaks about what is going on in Sudan unlike many other movie stars that just read a script.  He has traveled there and has really invested a lot of his time to stop the madness in Sudan.  Being arrested is the badge that most activists wear with pride because they feel that they made the “system” respond to their protest.  Others think that if you haven’t been arrested then you haven’t made a point and if that’s the case then my Brothers and Sisters on the street have made a HUGE point a long time ago. 

Mr. Clooney is obviously fighting for Peace in Sudan and trying to save lives the best way he can, with his celebrity status.  He really doesn’t have to because he can join hundreds of his peers and just live it up and drop a check into someone’s bucket and hope it makes a difference.  What I see him doing is taking responsibility for being who he is and using it to help others.  We all have that responsibility in our lives whether we have the money Mr. Clooney has or not.  Some might say that not only can they not travel to Sudan but they don’t have money to donate to the cause to help.  We all have a role to play in life and we just have to be willing to find out what that role is.  What keeps amazing me is the lack of people willing to take an activist role to reduce violence in our youth REGARDLESS if that youth is gang involved or not.  See when you are ONLY willing to deal with certain people you’ll always leave someone else with the feeling of dismissal.  That person you might be dismissing might have the answer to many problems but we won’t talk to them unless they meet our terms first.  Many people say that the youth violence is a social service problem or even a police problem and that’s where the real problem begins. 

Would it be OK if I said to someone “I’m sorry, I cannot help you unless you believe in Jesus Christ.” Or “I’m sorry I would help you but I only help Latino and African American Men I don’t deal with Women or White men.”  It sounds horrible doesn’t it?  We are under 100 years of not only giving the right for Women to vote but also having the Civil rights Bill that took away ( in theory) the “whites only” signs so why do we still put conditions on helping others? 

Dealing with violence in our own land is very difficult because old feelings about the Civil Rights movement are still fresh in people’s minds mostly because we still have people alive today that marched with Martin Luther King.  We don’t need a history book we can just simply ask people like Jesse Jackson about it or Andrew Young among many others that are still alive.  Many of these Brothers were no one of special background in terms of celebrity back then.  There was support from Artist like Harry Belafonte and others that helped the Civil Rights movement but today we almost expect Hollywood to move the dial of morality for us as a society. 

I may not be a movie star, recording artist, painter, poet, or politician but I am a Brother that spent some time with the Brothers and Sisters in the streets of Chicago.  I am aware of my role and accept my role willingly because I know others won’t. 

All I am looking for is to be your Brother.

Peace/AMOR

Gerardo

Looking for Peace.....in recycling.

Have you seen a pickup truck drive around your neighborhood with a lot of junk in the back?  What do you call them?  Some have called them junk dealers, “those Mexicans,” jerks with their trucks, etc… I heard these and many more references to these individuals that drive around all day sometimes 7 days a week picking up the things we throw away.  When the Green movement begun everyone jumped on the bandwagon of recycling and how it’s everyone’s responsibility to recycle.  I try as much as I can to follow through with that but I’m trying.  Today I had a lot of metal items to throw out and I remember running into a young Latino man that helped me get rid of some scrap metal before.  He was smiling from ear to ear and very respectful giving me eye contact as we spoke.  I quickly realized that his reading level is not where it should be but he try’s by sounding out the word as he writes.  He gave me his card and told me to give him a call whenever I had more scrap metal to throw out so I called him today.

The tough part was that I had all this stuff on a third floor and the temperature is close to 80 and well I’m not the lightest guy on my feet!  I could have made him go up and down the stairs by himself to get everything but when I saw him again he was smiling ear to ear.  Does he really enjoy what he does for a living?  He must because he extended his hand said hello and got to putting this stuff onto his truck all with a smile.  Has anyone gone out of their way to acknowledge people like him?  Do people realize that the work he does saves TONS of metal that could have gone to a landfill?  I can’t imagine the staggering numbers in tonnage of metal that is saved from alleys and curbs on a yearly basis all done by people like him.  They do it for free for us because they take it away but they do turn over a profit once it is sold to a company that melts it down and sold off to someone else, it’s truly a WIN WIN for everyone involved. 

I had forgotten one more thing that I wanted to throw out and it was a small window AC that most likely doesn’t work anymore.  So I called him back and he was only a few blocks away he parks and I hand him the AC and nothing but a big smile on his face.  I think it’s safe to say that he is at Peace with himself and grateful that today he was able to collect a lot of good heavy metal pieces that will most likely turn into a good profit for himself.  So why do people look down on people like him?  Well I know some people just simply see them as “dirty Mexicans” such a horrible generalization of someone but that’s what I usually hear.  At times I will start going down that road to see what people truly feel and once they realize that I’m not fighting them they let loose on how they really feel.  I never understood why you would look down on someone for your careless nature of throwing things out that could be reused by someone else.  

Shouldn’t he be the one giving you the look of ‘what are you doing!?’

His smile brought Peace to me because I knew that I helped him earn a living today as he helped, not only, me but all of us by making sure that the metal doesn't go to a landfill.

Thanks Miguel!

Peace/AMOR

Gerardo

Looking for Peace.....in numbers.

Nine people were shot within an 8 hour time period last night in Chicago…does that shock you?  Well if we look at numbers it might not be a shock, there are roughly 2.7million people living in the city of Chicago so 9 people out of 2.7million doesn’t seem so bad.  Well before you start thinking that it is OK that 9 people were shot last night let me tell you that it is NOT!  How many people do you think live in one square mile in Chicago?  Just under 12,000 is the answer, the avg. in the state of IL is 231 per square mile so imagine every square mile being a small village.  The city is about 234 square miles so that means it’s like having 234 villages; I expand on the numbers like this to help you visualize what the city looks like in numbers. 

Our society runs and lives off of numbers, in social services its always checking that you are reaching your numbers in clients and client chargeable hours.  At church there’s always a head count to determine if the preacher is doing a good job (at least at congregational type churches.)  Obviously in business numbers is the life blood to a profitable year.  At the deli counter you suddenly become number 55…why are we surrounded by these numbers?  I understand the need for having these numbers as part of our life but, have we gone so far with it that we determine how we are going to react to life based on those numbers?  For those of you in Chicago, how many times did you look to see what the temperature was today? It was 81 degrees in Chicago today but most people did not know that 9 people were shot last night so we rather take that 81 as long as it makes us feel better.  What we don’t realize is that those 9 people have family and friends and surely that number goes way past 81.

The process of Peace is difficult and that too has a number, ONE.  It is likely the hardest number because it identifies YOU.  Adding ONE to another number is easy but quickly is absorbed by that larger number but that ONE is still in there which is you.  That means that once that number is part of a greater number it becomes locked into an obligation to be that greater number.  Once you are part of that 12,000 in a square mile that means you are obligated to be ONE of 12,000.  You could choose to not be part of that 12,000 but then you would lose what that 12,000 benefits from collectively.  I might be losing you with all these numbers to simply say that Peace starts with ONE person.  

One person in that 12,000 might have access to employment opportunities. 

One person in that 12,000 might be a doctor. 

One person in that 12,000 might be a minister. 

One person in that 12,000 might be a social worker. 

One person in that 12,000 might be your loved one…wouldn't you do all that you could do for that ONE loved one?

We are all in the position to create Peace as that ONE in 12,000 and if in one square mile those 12,000 could work on creating Peace, violence would be reduced. 

I ask you to please add yourself to me on this movement for Peace in our society because it will take each and every one of us to make it happen.

Peace/AMOR

Gerardo

Looking for Peace.....in a birthday.

Yesterday I celebrated my 37^th birthday and it was a day I never thought I would see nor was ready for.  Since I was about 12 years old I had teachers, police officers, ministers, and adults in general say to me “you might not make it to 18!”  I was confused by this because I felt like someone wasn’t telling me about some sort of disease I might have.  So I lived life as much as I could I would jump roof tops, run through traffic, pick fights with people twice my size and age, dare a drug dealer to shoot at me, and many more things that would make me pass out today.  I did all of that because I wanted to say that I dared death a thousand times before and won before my 18^th birthday.

In 2001 I celebrated my 26^th birthday and by then I had already been married and divorced, reached the ranks I had aimed for on the street level, traveled throughout the US, and had spoken in front of hundreds of people about anti violence.   Eight years after my 18^th I was still waiting for that curse of death put on me as a child.  By the fall of 2001 I began to realize that my life would be much longer than expected and up until then I had done nothing to prepare for it.  So I did a sort of celebration and enjoyed food like I had never enjoyed it before.  The evidence of that celebration is still here in the form of weight.  Ironically that celebration has turned into a risk of diabetes among other things that go with this weight gain.  I’ll be OK but it is unnecessary obstacles that delay one’s progress in life.

Looking back I wonder if I was told that by 18 I would be in college doing great in life if I would have turned out differently.  I do not regret my life at all it has made me who I am today and I’m happy with me.  It didn’t have to hit almost every pothole on the way to 37 but none the less it is my life and I own it. 

I plan on celebrating many more birthdays well into my 90’s because I want it not because someone else has placed that expectation on me.  I plan on celebrating, one day, my child’s birthday and know that they are one more possibility of Peace in our world.  Rather than making them feel that they will one day deal with horrible decisions or money problems or anything like that I will tell them that their lives will be one of Peace.

Thank you to everyone that has offered their prayers of good fortune and love for me.  You have brought Peace into my life and I hope to bring Peace to yours.

Peace/AMOR

Gerardo