Welcome to Spring. Spring brings wildflowers, shorts, a picnic and planting herbs in the back yard. For media and first-responders this also means a high workload on the weekend. My wife worked in local media for many years. She knew exactly when she would have a busy weekend. She's not psychic...all she did was take a look at the weekend weather forecast. Warmer temps leads to gatherings, alcohol consumption and violence.
Last weekend, 16 were injured and 2 killed by guns in a 24-hour period in St. Louis. Here is the part that angers me...one of the murder victims was 14 year-old, Jaylon McKenzie. Jaylon was a promising athlete recently featured in Sports Illustrated. I'm a parent of two sons (15 and 17 years old respectively) and a huge sports fan. The loss of a child and never seeing the potential of an elite athlete is tragic. This is not why I'm angry. I'm angry because all of us (outside the state of Illinois or Missouri) would have never heard about the 16 shootings in St. Louis had it not been for high profile individual involved. Just another quiet weekend in a US city. How many shootings happened in Chicago, Los Angeles, Louisville, Phoenix, Fresno or Tacoma last weekend? I don't know either. Do we really care about the violence that happens every weekend? Of course we don'd. There are several individuals, such as Larry Elder, willing to speak up about the impact of a father in the home because they are put in the cross-hairs of social media and called "Sell-outs", "Uncle Tom", "Oreos" or "Coconuts". Young men act out because of pride, respect and the belief of having nothing to lose. This is not a race issue...it is a human issue. Please let's review data and evidence to avoid and prevent additional violent weekends. It's going to be in the mid-80's this Spring weekend in central California. But what the heck do I know...I'm only Joe.
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AuthorI am a husband, father, son, brother, uncle, friend and Biology professor. We are on this Earth for a limited amount of time. Let's think, laugh and love. Archives
August 2022
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