DODGING BULLETS ON MEMORIAL DAY.... HOW IRONIC!

A friend of mine sent me an email today hoping I'd had a nice Memorial Day with my family. Wow!  If it had only been that simple!  This was my response.....

 Hey Brian! (name changed to spare him any association with last night's drama :-)

Actually, my family (cousins) got together and "forgot" to invite me.  Guess they're just too used to me being away.  I took the chance of inviting another relative, who's a brilliant artist, but with "issues", to a free jazz concert at the park behind the Museum of Science and Industry.  I'd hoped for the first time in 30-something years, we could spend some time together without her having an "episode".

Not!

I woke up this morning to texts and four voicemail messages accusing me of stealing her nail polish and why I'm always stealing from her.  What?!  I called my mother just to tell her, up front, that I did NOT, since she tends to blow off her insanity... no matter how extreme, and, she agreed it was ridiculous but, as usual, she turned it into a monologue about HER. Typical, but then, I've been watching "Two and a Half Men" and "Everybody Loves Raymond" for awhile, so now I've come to accept that this kind of "mother behavior" isn't so unusual).  I just eased myself off the phone.

At the park, there were hoards and hoards of Black teens.  Like locusts!  Are teenagers the dominant population in Chicago now?  I had the top down and young, testosterone filled boys leaned all in the car offering me "footlongs".  I wasn't faded.  Thought it kind of humorous, actually.  I'm old enough to be your GRANDmother, I thought to myself, but just graciously told them, "Thanks, I'm straight".  Noticing that a LOT of young brothas here are locking their hair, I complimented them.  Naively, I was thinking it was some beautiful, proud expression of their African heritage, until I witnessed the behavior.  Then, it hit me... They're emulating Lil Wayne!  What the...?!

When I left the concert, at 11pm, a couple dozen of them got into a fight, and then, right before my eyes, shots rang out and they scattered like roaches when you turn on the lights.  I mean FAST!  It's a shame so much has been stripped from the schools, including Sports.  Some of them would have been shoo-ins for The Olympics!   Since I'm not accustomed to gunfire (Thank GOD!), I wasn't sure what I was hearing.  "Are those firecrackers?" I wondered.  But, when I saw everybody break and run, I knew it was gunfire.  I saw one kid limping away.  I was in my car, stopped at the light.

I got so confused that I turned the wrong way, and went back INTO the crowd that was walking and driving away, and got stuck in traffic.  Everyone was on their cellphones.  Police cars, ambulances and firetrucks started roaring by and descending on the scene.  I heard young girls, saying "Oh God!  Oh God!"  I asked if anyone was actually shot (about 5 or 6 shots had rung out).  She said a girl got shot.  I was still trying to figure out which way to go once I got an opening.  I'm still so turned around in this city.


I wanted to ask some boys how it started and what was the beef, but by the time I got into Hyde Park, I wasn't sure if these were the same kids that were by the museum so they probably wouldn't know.  I finally made my way out of the crowd and continued to hear sirens and see flashing lights all around.  I decided I wanted something to eat, and like I've commented, so many of the food options here don't agree with me, so I drove allll the way over to 79th and the Ryan to that Chinese Restaurant by Dukes Lounge.  They were closed.  On the way, I naturally drove through packs and packs of more Black teens along 79th street-- still with the top down.  They didn't really seem to take much note of me, though.  They were being entertained by a battle between a guy and a tow truck driver.  This guy's car was up on the tow hitch and he was IN THE CAR, GUNNING IT, TRYING TO RESIST THE TOW!  And, the tow driver was just as aggressively, trying to hoist the car up!  The guy was grimmacing and burning rubber trying to pull AWAY from the tow truck and the driver was concentrating on shifting gears and flipping switches to take the car!  This guy was gonna tear his own car up trying to get away, I thought!  Meanwhile, bystanders shouted, "Take the mother f**ker!"  A ghetto spectator sport.

I cruised on through the midst of that, thinking, "Wow!"

But, that wasn't all.

Like I said, I finally get to the Chinese spot and it's closed so I go all the way BACK East, deciding to get some White Castle at 79th and Stoney Island.  Somewhere along the way, at around 1am or so, I decide it might be a good idea to put my top up.  Now, again, I say, I DON'T EAT THIS CRAP!  But, I'm tired of eating Salmon (not anymore :-)  Bet I'll be gobbling it up today!), so I don't want to go home and cook.  I just want something tasty and fast that I haven't really eaten in years.  White Castle, here I come!

I get there.  There is a HUGE motorcycle brigade in the lot.  "That doesn't look good", I thought.  "That looks like trouble waiting to happen."  But, those bikes aren't cheap, and the few riders I catch a glimpse of look beyond their teens, and, I've just driven from 57th and the lake, to 79th and the Ryan, and back to Stoney Island, so I'M GOING TO get something to eat!  Doggonit!  I inch past the bikes and pull in the drivethru.  Not a lot of cars in line but it still takes awhile.  "What are White Castle burgers gonna taste like after all this time?" I muse.  While sitting there, I hear about 4 or 5 loud pops from behind me.  I look up.  No one is running, so I'm hoping it's just a motorcycle backfiring.  "PLEASE, Lord, let it just be a motorcycle backfiring," I pray.  I sit... I inch up.... I sit... I finally get my food.  Police are again marching past me, descending on the restaurant from the other side of the drivethru.

A young woman, in flip flops, micro mini shorts, and a tight T-shirt with her boobs hanging too low and her stomach sticking out too far, skips by with a manic smile on her face.  She's apparently seen someone she recognizes in a car next to me.  She stands there chatting.  "What happened?" I ask her.  "Oh, they started shooting," she says casually.  And, keeps right on talking!  The female Security Guard walks past.  "They were shooting HERE?!" I ask her.  As if, the police envoy, the shots I heard, and the report I got wasn't enough confirmation.  The Guard just sighed "yeah", shook her head heavily, and went back to her post.  Another day in the office.

A policeman directed traffic out of the lot and I was forced to go right on 79th instead of the left I wanted to make down Stoney to get back on the Drive.  I didn't dare turn down a side street, to get back to Stoney, so I just kept going all the way BACK over 79th.  The whole way, ambulances, police cars, and assorted sirens whizzed past me.  A friend called me who was heading back home to South Shore from visiting friends on the North side.  He commented on all the yellow taped off crime scenes along HIS route!  He said it's always like this and especially since it's the first hot day of the season.  If this is the case, it's going to be a long, brutal summer.

Interestingly, he's entertaining friends from Japan who are staying at his house.  They are getting the REAL Chicago.  Not just the roped off "tourist playground" The Mayor has carved out for public view while the South Side has desintegrated into a Third World border town!

Ironically, I'm glad I witnessed all that last night.  I "knew" that Chicago has led the nation in Black teen homicides for the past six years, but it's one thing to "know" about the earthquake in Japan, or the Tsunami in Indonesia, or the tornadoes in Missouri, and it's TOTALLY another to be in the midst of it!  I "knew" all this before I came back with my galant "youth programs" but SEEING the wreckage lets me know that something so much bigger is needed.  These teens have had no "youth".  Something so much more mobilizing, Psychiatric, and indeed, even Supernatural, is in order.

Last night was a "defining moment"... or rather a "REdefining moment".  A new agenda is being shaped and I pray for the strength and wisdom to hear and act accordingly.

What made it all the more ironic for me was what I discovered about "Memorial Day".  Did you know that Memorial Day was originally known as "Decoration Day", and was first observed in 1865 by freed, enslaved, Southern Blacks in Charleston, South Carolina?  Yeah!  It was a day first honored at the Washingon Race Course to remember fallen Union soldiers of the Civil War.  The recognition of the fallen victims was then enacted under the name of "Memorial Day" by an organization of Union veterans-- The Grand Army Of The Republic (GAR)-- to honor Union soldiers of The American Civil War.

A day to celebrate the hard won freedom of Black people from slavery.

Ain't THAT 'bout a blip!
 
After World War I, it was extended to honor all Americans who have died in all wars.  (Wikipedia)

NOW, African American communities, in cities all over the country, are  in the throes of a different kind of "war".   And that this "Memorial Day" weekend would be marked by gunfire and the marring of dozens of Black lives, that have not been honored, just magnifies the irony.

Lord, help us all.

Nothing stays contained forever.  I learned today that that girl last night got shot in the head!   Had just graduated college two days earlier.  Went to the lake with a couple of girlfriends.  Started heading out when she saw the fight break out, but got caught by one of the bullets.  One more of our children... This is ALL our problem.

What do YOU think?