Lost for words in this tragedy of how to respond, I came across another blog entry, Go see The Interrupters, on Feminste, written by Captain Awkward. You can find it here.
The author is or was a resident of Uptown and writes about her experience of having both watched The Interrupters (a documentary about Ceasefire! in Chicago) and have watched another tragic death to gunfire here in Uptown, the death of Aaron Carter, last summer.
The following is an excerpt:
I moved through the rest of the summer in a bubble. Every time I stepped outside my door, it was with me. Every time I heard gunshots in the night, it was with me. I couldn’t sleep one day, and then I’d spend 2 days in a row doing nothing but sleep, wanting to cocoon myself away from everything. I obsessively read the neighborhood blog, and watched my neighbors basically have a KKK meeting in the comments. Obviously Carter’s death affected his friends, family, his girlfriend, and his unborn child far more than it affected one middle class white girl who lived across the street, but if it could crack my world open like an egg what was it doing to them? I don’t want to act like he is important only as some catalyst for my own personal growth. He was a human being, and when he died something of value went out of the world. He was connected to every single person who lived on that street, whether or not we wanted to own the connection. I can only write about my own experiences, so that’s what you get.
There was another shooting yesterday afternoon.
No comments:
Post a Comment