What has happened to our city? Contrast the natural beauty of the seaside, year-round sunny skies and the fantastic folly of Hollywood with deep scars of inner-city blight, havoc and the grim consequential reality it spawns. I'm not naive enough to think there hasn't always been these divisions but something has shifted. The City of Angels is fraught with devils and, rather than selling our souls, we need to fight them off otherwise they'll pull us into their hell. LA is overrun with gangs and violence and we have a municipal government that does little more than play the blame game and make excuses. In fact, by it's sanctuary city policies, the government aides and abets this criminal behavior that is a cancer eating us from the inside out. When will we have had enough of senseless, random killing ? What are we afraid of? If it were just gangbangers killing each other I might not care as much. But every single day there are reports of innocent bystanders caught it the crossfire or someone picked off for being in the wrong place or the wrong color or looking "wrong".
I don't profess to know anything about gangs but I venture to guess that it's ultimately a power grab by those who feel it's eluded them. We're told of the litany of reasons kids join a gangs; a sense of belonging, personal security & survival, generational. How have we lost control? Control seems amiss but I can't think of a better word. Is it cultural differences? socio-economic disparity? lack of opportunity? perceptions of inequality? fatherless families? drugs? anger? fear? racism? Godlessness? hopelessness? How did it become them against us? I'm long on questions and short on answers.
The fulcrum has collapsed and it effects all of our quality of life. Apathy has to come to an end or the good people will have lost. For those of us who have been lucky enough to live in the peripheral merely "empathizing" with those living in rough neighborhoods we ought to be ashamed. LA is our city and I'm tired of shitty people. I'm going to call them out whenever I see them. I'm not intimidated, which is the primary tactic they employ. Saving ourselves means saving these kids too. The question is not can we, it's will we?
"Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter."
- Martin Luther King, Jr.
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3 comments:
Wow I have a lot to say here but no energy to do it.
I will say this. As I get older I see things in a different light. I think a major part of the differences in our culture are the haves and the have nots. When you have nothing to lose your actions take on a more chaotic tone. When you have lots to lose you tend to take a more reserved tone. I see this gap widening further as time goes by. This is a shame as the rich get richer and the poor get poorer.
I agree with what you're saying but I don't know if this is the motivating factor for gangs. I think gang violence may have more to do with ethnic cleansing and domestic terrorism. After all, many, maybe even most, members are among the have nots. The "gap" is a whole other discussion. I should say that I am not a socialist. I am a firm believer in equality, justice and personal responsibility. I don't buy into entitlement arguments or income distribution as a means of closing the gap. Closing loopholes in the law? - yes.
I agree. I guess what I was trying to say is that their daily motivation is completely different than ours. Theirs is one of proving themselves to a gang leader by selling drugs or killing someone. Where as ours is making some money in a descent job to pay our mortgage every month!
The gangbangers I use to know while installing car stereos in West LA were proud of their bullet holes. They showed them off like war medals.
Very sad, but when you have no education you have no means escalating up our society's food chain.
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