A tale of two Michael Browns
When the story of the death of Michael Brown first hit the news I was afraid it was the Michael Brown I had in class and in the theatre. When I heard he was shot by a policeman I knew it wasn't my Michael Brown.
My Michael is one of the kindest kids you would ever have in class. He thought of others first and then himself. Michael is an accomplished actor and musician. The only time Michael would ever be physically violent is if the script called for that action on stage. The only time the police ever saw Michael is if they came to a play he was in.
Contrast my Michael with the Ferguson Michael. The Ferguson Michael was shown on video doing violence to a shopkeeper.
What stands out to me as a huge difference between the two Michael's is the violence. When one is violent then bad things happen. Violence is like a rattlesnake. If you keep playing around with it you are going to get bit. Does this mean that he "had it coming? Of course he didn't. I also don't believe the cop picked him out at random. A jury will sort it all out.
My goal in sharing this story of two Michael's is that the violence must end. In my 34 years of teaching I lost too many students to the senseless violence. I came to the conclusion that the most endangered living being on the planet is a young black male. That danger comes from the attitude toward violence. How can we change attitudes toward violence? As a first step strengthen the core of a young person's life, the family. Other steps are to take away the glamour that the media portrays violence in. Economic opportunity.
I once had a student who came back from Christmas break showing off a bullet wound he got in a drive by. I took a ruler and showed him how close he came to being dead. That ended the show and tell. His grandmother got him out of the hood to the burbs. Thanks grandma!
Who can make a difference? We all can! There is one person who stands out though and that is Mrs Obama. She managed to get kids off the couch and outside! I had kids jogging in my neighborhood in November! If she can get kids off of the x-box she can make a difference here as well. I would gladly support any initiative she started to end the violence. She would get the media attention that's needed to have impact.
Thanks for reading the tale of two Michael Brown's. Let's do what we can to have more of the first Michael and less of the second.
All ideas for getting there are welcome. I do suggest we get past the blame game and start looking for solutions.
My source of the injury to the policeman was CNN. Many people are known to the police even though they have no criminal record. Was he known to the police? I don' know for sure. Violent people are usually known to the police.
My goal was lost on many who posted. They failed to even read the whole post. One young black man was raised in a working class family with a mom and dad who would not tolerate violence. That young man would never lay a hand on another human being in anger. The other young man is on video doing just that to the shopkeeper.
As long as violence is seen as acceptable we will have more tragedies like this.
Now! How do we deal with the violence? How do we make it safe for our kids?