While I am paying considerable attention to the ongoing election I must keep on carrying out my little crusade, the Million Gun Victims March. Please meet artist Ash Morani, who has offered this exquisite watercolor as her first piece toward the ultimate goal, which is to literally bring one million gun victims to the light. Neshantae Green and her first born Chloe , bathe in the soft golden glow of unconditional love, blessed by starlight kisses. If there’s any relationship on this Earth that should be exempt from human violence you’d think it would be the timeless and priceless love of new mother and wonder-filled innocent child.
The man who shot them both didn’t think they were worth six hundred dollars a month in child support.
Equally baffling is when three lads from the same school get gunned down together in August 2015, yet no one has brought forward to face charges to this day. Tyrik Adams, age 17, the one with the skittles, Marquise Caldwell, age 19, reaching his hand out to you to be his competitive dance partner, and Franklin Morris III, age 17, the one with the tea, were all students at the Baltimore High Achievement Academy. Who would want all three dead, and why? No one seems to care.
Some of us can never forget our best friends, especially if she was gunned down over twenty years ago. This is especially true of a young woman like Lucianna Torrecella, who gave the ultimate sacrifice to protect her child from a hail of bullets as they were coming out of the playground. I hope as an adult, this person does not blame him or her self for this. Only shooters are to blame.
At 71, James Gaylord is the second senior to join the March. As a lifelong Baltimorean, what could James have told us about Civil Rights history? As a virile young man of 19, did he see Martin Luther King Jr. give his “I have a Dream” speech in person? I wish any of us could take up his offer to join him for a cup of coffee and chat. But his link to the past is broken. It doesn’t matter if he wasn’t the intended target, this once living link to events greater than our little daily lives is snapped for good.
Equally snapped short is the promise of budding actor Marcus Downer. A graduate of Baltimore City School for the Arts , Marcus dreamed of forging a breakthrough film acting career for himself and try for parts black actors still have trouble getting. There’s the legendary Paul Robeson, also unable to keep within a narrow frame, encouraging him on. His mother, Cynthia Downer, heads the Baltimore chapter of Mothers of Murdered Sons and Daughters. I will be going to their meeting on the 13th. I hope this is the group I can truly start to help answer questions like, what right has anyone to come up to a beautiful young man like this ( this portrait doesn’t capture half of it), and strake him fourteen times with a semi while he’s resting on his own front porch?
Also aged 17, Rayshawn Jones is furious. I question this habit I see of mostly young men posting pictures of themselves holding great wads of cash in their hands. These were the kinds of pictures I saw Rayshawn doing when he arrived at the studio. This case is also unsolved. What good is all that cash to Rayshawn now? Might as well burn it.
I don’t do criminal background checks . I only know about Tabitha’s record because the police captain in the article used her as a cautionary tale to all you other drug dealers out there. Oh? What about the customers that used her to grab their quick fix from the mind numbing boredom of their gated community American Dream lives? Until you get serious about the privileged elite hypocrites who used Tabitha without a seconds thought, don’t malign Desparate people like Tabitha!
Whether the same goes for young father of three Dante Juan Jordan, I don’t know. He was shot in the street by another guy in an argument about money. At least the shooter is serving a sentence for murder. I will not ask what the argument stemmed from. Because the Million Gun Victim March must be open to all victims, no matter what the background. Anyone comes up and shoots you, you go back to a state of innocence. This portrait is for three young girls left behind.
Which makes the final portrait most difficult, the one of Warren Thomas. He is only the 4th suicide to join the march. But he is also the 3rd one to have shot someone else first before turning the gun on himself. He is the one who pointed his gun at his 11 year old on, the gifted science student Matthew Thomas and blasted his magnificent promise to smithereens, then killed himself. (See Fifth Squad of the Million Gun Victim March) For a grown man to be so jealous of a talented offspring is sad. For people who HAVE to be the Big Boss in everything is like living in a toxic swamp hell. The atmosphere around them is muggy, sticky, sweltering, poisonous. This comes through in the portrait. You kill your offspring you abdicate the title of parent. That’s my belief.
Should Ash and I keep working together, the two of us will reach the big 100 before spring is through. I will update you on the meeting with Mother of Murdered Sons and Daughters. I apologize if the placement within this article is awkward, but I always have a little trouble with these library computers. I appreciate that they are here. Check out the steadily growing webpage at mgvm1million.net.