It's 9AM
Who helps those who won’t help themselves?
I try to steer clear of topics that make me mad.
Most of the time.
I think about them, I just don’t discuss.
Because some of the things I care about, no one else does.
Or no one thinks should happen.
Like Saving Pine Bluff.
Should dead cities in the Delta be saved?
I talk about nostalgia a lot.
The places I grew up, the things I ate and saw and did.
Pine Bluff is a big part of it.
And by all accounts and records, it’s going to shite.
Since I don’t always believe the news, I took a gander of my own, and yep, it’s been going downhill since I left.
Thirty years is a long drawn out death and enough time for gentrification to happen, but not in one of the ten worst cities in America to live in.
No jobs. High crime. Nothing to do but bide time.
Until what?
Graduation, when you can move, or death, which came Saturday night for a couple of fresh graduates.
Three black kids, gone and done at two AM in a shootout.
Teenagers.
Gangbanging for fun and profit or just hanging to show off their toughness.
Who knows what actually goes through the mind of a young man.
I grew up on Porky’s and Fast Times and Sixteen Candles, so my mind was on one thing.
Chasing that sweet American Pie.
I could side track into scholar mode, just smart enough not to put too much effort into it and squeak out A’s.
I could slide into work mode, but again, those were with young girls my age so that even working I was “working” it.
I never thought about showing off my guns, or pulling one on a kid I didn’t like.
It’s a culture thing, I know.
A poverty thing, some idiots argue.
Except I grew up in the culture, and we threw hands, not bullets.
And I was po poor, so it’s not that.
I read about the “single mom” system and the “thug values” lifestyle, and how people don’t have chances and don’t have opportunity and that steals all hope.
I know it all to be true because I’ve been in Pine Bluff.
I’ve watched some bright minds try to save it.
Except…
They’re bringing a go-kart track instead of jobs.
They did get a casino put in, and they’re adding four hundred hotel rooms.
But starting wage is $16 an hour, which is $450 a week after taxes and insurance.
It seems like it should be enough for two people pulling down $28k each to at least pay for a house, bills and food from, even if there’s not much “living” involved in it.
Besides, that’s what second jobs are for.
Learning how to make money and invest money and get money to build a better life.
Which is what the gangbangers are doing, I guess.
$450 a week or $450 a day?
Which would you choose?
Hustlers hustle and the sad part about a dying city is there’s not much to hustle about, either way.
Why would you work hard, if all you worked toward was this?
Kid’s having shoot outs in the streets, businesses leaving, people leaving and every news outlet in America tells the whole world how awful you are.
Just not in my memory.
When I see the abandoned Main Street, I see how it used to be.
And how I want it to be.
The cheap houses that can be rehabbed back into neighborhoods people are proud of.
And when I tell people how to make it better, they tell me it’s just beyond hope.
Hopeless.
The city voted against a tax to pay the police more for retention.
These are the citizens of the city, and they don’t want more police?
Or more tax?
Neither? Both?
Yes, yes, these issues are complicated.
How do you change an entire culture that idolizes the wrong things?
How do you get back to what was lost?
Not just buildings, but a sense of family?
A respect for tradition?
I know a lot of people say “go to church” but that’s not the answer, not for Pine Bluff anyway.
It has/had more churches per capita than any southern city and since there was nothing else to do until the late 90’s, everybody went to Church.
It didn’t help, didn’t work, not in this case.
It might be because a lot of the Churches lost their sense of community and instead turned on the spigot for the Pastor or Preacher or Bishop.
Tough to believe a man who takes your 10% and pulls a brand new Beamer into the lot next to your two door rusted out Chevy that needs a jump start every now and then.
The same could be said of the City Council that voted in their own raises year after year while denying the police, the Fire Dept, and workers the same.
It’s a laundry list of missteps.
Easy to see in hindsight.
Easy to lament and complain.
But that doesn’t solve the problem of young black men killing each other in the streets.
To the tune of the highest murder rate in the state after a year where we dropped out of the top ten.
It’s a cycle, someone said.
A cycle of stupidity.
Which brings me to my thought.
When does one give up?
When is it time to throw in the towel?
Because I’ve shared before I’ve got one Core Concept that defines me.
Infinite Stupidity.
No, no, just kidding.
It’s Grit.
Sure, I’ve got drive and ambition and I’m pretty good at coming up with ideas and plans.
I practice a lot.
But training has given men one thing I’m just naturally good at.
Keep Going when the world around you is going to hell.
This city I loved seems like it’s there already.
Now I have to wonder how much of my planning and phoning and hoping is just for me.
Selfish.
You would think that if there is a silent majority hoping for peace and prosperity, they would stand up and say something.
Or do something.
Or start something.
Instead, it feels like a whole lot of nothing.
Two steps forward, four steps back.
When have you drawn the line and said no more?
Free for You today
Shady Depths: A Witches of C.R.O.W.
The Watchmaker's Daughter (Glass and Steele Book 1)
And
Plus
There is no fixing it. Just work on preventing it where you live.