It was extremely difficult to read through this article, especially part I because the pain that from losing a loved one to gun violence is still fresh for me. The setting of this story took place a few blocks from where I grew up and where my nephew and his father were murdered. Drew Leon Deon Jackson was only 16 months old, we just celebrated his birthday in March of 2013, and on August 7, 2013 my sisters and I had to figure out how to write his obituary. There is not much to write about a 16 month old child in an obituary, all you have are memories, no major life accomplishments because he didn't live long enough to accomplish them. In our family, we have lost one too many family members due to gun violence, dating back to 1994. I was only 5. After loosing so many family and friends to this senseless violence, you become numb; the crimes continue, not much is done to prevent of stop it, so you press on and pray the God protects you, at least.
From my observation I have noticed a huge disconnect within my community, culture and generation. The disconnect is with who we are as individuals and as a whole, how we love, and how we co-exist with one another. I believe this disconnect is a result of a few missing factors that have been lost along our journey through history. Among other things, we lack unison, self-love, self-respect, knowledge of our history. I must say that i was very amazed to hear about the programs that are currently going on in Oakland for young black males attending school. This made me wonder why there is no major media coverage on positive efforts such as these programs, when instead you just hear reportings on the updated death toll or yet another sketch of a black male suspect. More importantly, why do we not take the initiative to praise, broadcast and promote programs like these ourselves?
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We complain about our young black boys and girls not having anything constructive for them to excel, but there are many programs in existence that are intended to offer them support and many other things. The first thing I recommend as part of my constructive response is that we be more active in getting involved in our community; rebuild unity. We complain a lot about the lack of interest from law enforcement and government officials, which is very agreeable; however, we need to take more action about the things that are going on in our community, that includes and is definitely not limited to, being more proactive with the political affairs that concern our community (voting). How can we be expected to be taken seriously, if we don't stand up and take action? Too many complaints about how bad the city of Oakland has gotten, and not enough effort is put into actually making a change; I feel this creates another problem by running away, and that is just ignoring the problem. I use "we", "us", and "our" as a means to show relation, connection, and unity because it is not used often enough. My grandmother would tell me stories about growing up during the Civil Rights Movement and how different things were among blacks back then. Just from her stories I got the sense that we once cared for one another, looked after each other and weren't killing each other. "It takes a village to raise a child". What happened to the village? What happened to "us"?
