Happy Fall to Ya (or is it?)

Note:  I had a different title.

Park or Roses (c) 2016 P. Lynne
Designs

Hello, I am here to greet in the autumn (Fall) weather, with a little heat left over.  So does this qualify as an Indian Summer moment?  I cannot tell. I just know that today is my niece’s birthday (yes, she is a fall baby).  I am afraid for several reasons, more on that in a moment.

First of all, I had to step back a little, and I am not fully to my writing capabilities as of yet.  I am taking Physical Therapy for the next few weeks because of my left side (wrist and ankle), and the typing had to be cut back to a bare minimum.  I tried a text to speech program called Dragon Natural Speak, which is a pretty good program, but it is not cooperating with my computer.  Nothing is cooperating with my computer, I will explain that in a moment as well. Probably in the next article.  I will finish the series I started on making extra money.  For now, I am just getting back in the groove of things.

You know my writings by now.  Some are quirky, some are sweet, while others are of concern.  This is of deep concern.  If you do not want to read this, I fully understand.  No one but another person of color will understand this.  Heck, we barely understand it ourselves, having to deal with it for several decades.   In the last few years, however, this has escalated to a new level, because it involves guns and the police, something that none of us have seen before, or have we?

I am scared to adopt an African American male.  My reasons are simple.  I want my son to have all the privileges I had as an African American female and more.  I know that every African American parent wants that for their child.  I want him to be able to get into the best schools, have the best jobs, and to basically be able to survive in this world without harm.  I know that for right now that is not possible because I fear for my nephews and all African American males.  I want them all to just live their lives.  My most fear is my 20-year old nephew.  He is trying his best to be a good citizen, going to school and finding a job. In fact, he may have landed one today, according to my mom.  Not that he is bad, but just stepping out of the home of his grandparents each day puts a target on his back.

Last week, Columbus saw its first killing of a 13-year-old by a police officer, so yes, it just got real here. Even though he had a BB gun, he was not pointing it at anyone.  The police thought it would be OK to just shoot him, instead of asking him why he had it.

Without learning the reasoning behind these last few shootings, can anyone justify why a person is shot by police because they are asking for help for a car that is broken down, reading a book, or for a simple traffic stop for a ticket?   Oh sure, come up with the excuse that they all resisted arrest, had drugs in the car, or some other excuse.  The fact that Terence was unarmed, Keith was disabled, and so on.  It does not give that cop the right to shoot first and ask questions later.  Guess what?  There is no later.  They are now a body. 

What does a cop in question get? An all-expense paid vacation, courtesy of the tax payers.  No jail time, maybe an atta boy or an atta girl from the KKK for a job well done for putting us in our place again (not trying to be funny, just real).

For all of this, I am sad that white people get all bent out of shape when we scream Black Lives Matter.  We know that ALL lives matter, every single person’s life matters. You do not seem to understand that when a black mother has all hope for the future of their child, suddenly has to bury that child, because some cop randomly decides to shoot him. What do you tell a child who questions if they are going to live or die in the streets just for going to school, or even riding a bike to their friend’s house?  Do we have to start homeschooling our young?  A young man at my church is learning how to drive.  I am afraid for his life as a young African American male.

We need to be vigilant about this.  Please do not get me started on Donald Trump.  He is the worst of everyone. 

I, myself have started to have my driver’s license, car registration, and insurance card next to me, just in case.  It is better safe than shot.  I have nothing in my hatchback to give suspicion, except a first aid kit, and now I am wondering if I should have that in the car (it is a Hello Kitty first aid Kit-how cute, not dangerous).  I have other thoughts I will share at a later time.   

Well, that is me in a nutshell for the moment.  I want this place to be safe for all, include black and brown men.  I am not sure if my own father, brother, uncles, cousins, and male friends are safe either, so this includes them too.

I will explain my computer problems later….