Here's something you might be interested in.
I had another post all written and ready to post, but am pushing that back to talk about this killing in Chicago that was reported in the news yesterday. A young man was beaten to death by a mob, and the beating was caught on video.
According to information from news articles, Derrion Albert’s home life was not terribly stable as he was growing up. No mention of a father. His mother moved away. The boy lived with his maternal grandparents for a time, then lived with the maternal grandmother of a half-sister, then went back to his maternal grandparents. His grandmother got sick with cancer, and died in 2007.
For all that, he was apparently a good kid, doing well in school. His grandfather told a reporter that Derrion helped take care of his grandmother when she was dying. He says Derrion “never raised his voice. Not in 16 years have I had one day of trouble.” An Associated Press article quotes his church pastor describing Derrion as “just a nice young man that grew up in the community.” The nice young man had earned awards for attendance and high grades. The Sun Times article describes his room as covered with inspirational messages he had written to himself, including one that said, “I would do something nice for someone, just because.”
But, after all, Derrion lived in Chicago, and children in Chicago are rather regularly killed in the course of trying to get an education. According to the Associated Press, “[b]efore 2006, an average of 10-15 students were fatally shot each year [in Chicago]. That climbed to 24 fatal shootings in the 2006-07 school year, 23 deaths and 211 shootings in the 2007-08 school year and 34 deaths and 290 shootings last school year.” By comparison, San Diego had one student shot and killed in a gang incident last year. The same pastor that spoke kindly of Derrion also said that “[f]olks just bullied on him, they tried to rob him, they tried to do everything they can.”
On Thursday 24 September, Derrion had left school and was walking to the bus stop, when he was dragged into a brawl between two groups he had nothing to do with, and beaten by several attackers. Reports indicate that he was struck twice with boards, passed out, woke up and when he tried to get up, was beaten again, stomped, and kicked to death. Someone there caught the beating on a cell phone, and from that video capture and surveillance video, some of the attackers have been identified and arrested.
Well. It’s painful to think about what life was like for this child who was hardly wanted, noticed, taken care of, protected. It’s painful to think about this nice young man who would do something nice for someone just because, living in a place that would kill a young man just because. Derrion tried to get past his past, to survive his circumstances, but he didn’t make it. The lead article in the Reader this week talks about a woman who appears to be dissatisfied with her life in San Diego after growing up in Chicago. San Diego isn’t, thank God, Chicago, but there are Derrions here. It’s no good saying that we don’t know who or where they are, that just goes to show how we fail them.
Years ago, I heard an interesting explanation of childbirth pain on the television show Northern Exposure. The theory was that we suffer a great deal of pain bringing babies into the world because if they were easy to deliver, we would take them for granted. Pain makes us pay attention. Once it fades, we tend to forget about it and move on. It would be nice to believe this young man’s terrible and painful death could help lead us toward a place where we live as we were meant to, loving each other, taking care of each other, free of violence and hatred and pain. Very likely, he’s just one more hurt that’s soon forgotten.
I had another post all written and ready to post, but am pushing that back to talk about this killing in Chicago that was reported in the news yesterday. A young man was beaten to death by a mob, and the beating was caught on video.
According to information from news articles, Derrion Albert’s home life was not terribly stable as he was growing up. No mention of a father. His mother moved away. The boy lived with his maternal grandparents for a time, then lived with the maternal grandmother of a half-sister, then went back to his maternal grandparents. His grandmother got sick with cancer, and died in 2007.
For all that, he was apparently a good kid, doing well in school. His grandfather told a reporter that Derrion helped take care of his grandmother when she was dying. He says Derrion “never raised his voice. Not in 16 years have I had one day of trouble.” An Associated Press article quotes his church pastor describing Derrion as “just a nice young man that grew up in the community.” The nice young man had earned awards for attendance and high grades. The Sun Times article describes his room as covered with inspirational messages he had written to himself, including one that said, “I would do something nice for someone, just because.”
But, after all, Derrion lived in Chicago, and children in Chicago are rather regularly killed in the course of trying to get an education. According to the Associated Press, “[b]efore 2006, an average of 10-15 students were fatally shot each year [in Chicago]. That climbed to 24 fatal shootings in the 2006-07 school year, 23 deaths and 211 shootings in the 2007-08 school year and 34 deaths and 290 shootings last school year.” By comparison, San Diego had one student shot and killed in a gang incident last year. The same pastor that spoke kindly of Derrion also said that “[f]olks just bullied on him, they tried to rob him, they tried to do everything they can.”
On Thursday 24 September, Derrion had left school and was walking to the bus stop, when he was dragged into a brawl between two groups he had nothing to do with, and beaten by several attackers. Reports indicate that he was struck twice with boards, passed out, woke up and when he tried to get up, was beaten again, stomped, and kicked to death. Someone there caught the beating on a cell phone, and from that video capture and surveillance video, some of the attackers have been identified and arrested.
Well. It’s painful to think about what life was like for this child who was hardly wanted, noticed, taken care of, protected. It’s painful to think about this nice young man who would do something nice for someone just because, living in a place that would kill a young man just because. Derrion tried to get past his past, to survive his circumstances, but he didn’t make it. The lead article in the Reader this week talks about a woman who appears to be dissatisfied with her life in San Diego after growing up in Chicago. San Diego isn’t, thank God, Chicago, but there are Derrions here. It’s no good saying that we don’t know who or where they are, that just goes to show how we fail them.
Years ago, I heard an interesting explanation of childbirth pain on the television show Northern Exposure. The theory was that we suffer a great deal of pain bringing babies into the world because if they were easy to deliver, we would take them for granted. Pain makes us pay attention. Once it fades, we tend to forget about it and move on. It would be nice to believe this young man’s terrible and painful death could help lead us toward a place where we live as we were meant to, loving each other, taking care of each other, free of violence and hatred and pain. Very likely, he’s just one more hurt that’s soon forgotten.