I am frustrated. I spent the better part of today comforting a very sweet young man I know. Yeah, I like 'em young too.. only thing is that is often accompanied by foolish. So this particular young man, call him Junior, is about 22 and we are fairly good friends. He used to intern with me in the summer. JR usually calls me about once a week to chat shit and tell me of the latest on the party scene. I enjoy his stories, jokes and company. Today he called to tell me that last night, his brother got shot. In the chest, outside his home. He is alive but in serious condition. They had just finished playing some ball and were heading inside for dinner when a car drove up, someone pulled a gun and fired.
Now Junior does not live in the ghetto, far from it, he lives in a nice townhouse complex in a desired neighbourhood. His suburban housewife mother is in shock. Me? Not so much. I know more Juniors / JR's as well as seniors than I can count. Heckler & Koch, Beretta, Glock, Rugar and company have made a home amongst us.
When I reached out to hug him, I felt a bulge in his waist. I knew he wasn't that happy to see me. I gave him the look. A slight frown. He gave me the nod. A handsome smirk. A wink. Cocky lil bugger. That was the last time I saw JR alive. I spilt my morning coffee in my lap when I heard he was dead. Killed on the sidewalk outside my New Kingston office. Outside the club. In a party crowd. Relaxing out back. Playing ball. In a flash. Just like that.
Why? Why? Why would a fine young man take or attempt to take the life of another fine young man? The explanations don't equal excuses. Music, alcohol, fights, girls, knives, attitude and guns. Live by it, die by it. This situation breaks my heart. As I said to Junior repeatedly today: 'When will it end? When we are all dead?' Bed's made, now lie in it. Reprisals are being plotted as I type. When will it end??
14 comments:
What a sad, sad story. Such a waste of young people who are supposed to be our next generation. (From where I stand. I'm sure I'm older than you.)
It's always a terrible shock to lose someone you know and have feelings for. I feel worst for his mother, who has now outlived one son and has to nurse the other back to health, if she's lucky.
You have to wonder why kids take the law into their own hands. They seem to think they're invulnerable. I'm sure JR believed he was avenging his brother, but he paid too high a price.
My heart goes out to you and to JR's family. I'm so very sorry this happened.
I'm sorry about your friend and his brother. When will it end?
I lost my first true love to the same senseless violence.
When will it end?
Wait, let me understand, sometimes I might be a little slow. JR, called on you today to tell you his brother died last night and then Junior is dead tonight?
Wow!
As you said live by the gun, die by the gun. Tit for tat, reprisal killings will never end, as one youth takes the life of another.
How did society get this way? You don't hear of our parents having to deal with this. (Ok, I am old, but still!)
I hope the youth of today wakes up before it is too late. Living in a burb of Detroit, Michigan I hear this nightly on the news how some 14, 15, 16 year old shot up a house killing a 5 year old. Why???
Welcome Heartinsanfrancisco. Sorry if my post was confusing... I am actually talking about many different guys [Junior aka JR]. One's brother was shot but he is alive. The others are JR's who died in different situations but so similar they rolled into one. My apologies.
I too feel your pain, I live in what is supposed to be the "City of Brotherly Love" yet, love is hard to fine when young men and women are dying daily and for what? I can only pray that one day these young people will wake up and think about what the consequences of this violence is.
Sorry about your loss. I guess it's all about manhood. "Bad man nuh tek backchat."
Sad indeed. Also sad that people who try to avoid the path of the "gun" are nonetheless affected by all the violence going on in Jamdown.
It's a shame that most JR's don't get it. I work in a prison system around plenty of JR's. Prison is what saved their lives--and they still don't get it.
Actually, Gela was the one who asked for clarification. What I understood was that JR's brother was seriously injured and that JR went out to avenge his shooting and ended up dead himself. I apologize if that's not accurate.
But it's terribly sad that young men are dying and killing each other because such a cycle of violence won't end until someone decides to do something different. Since machismo is a powerful motivator, nobody wants to be the one to take a stand against violence. It's really sad.
The way we live is the way we will die. That's why it is important to live a good clean life. It will only end when the world ends ... sad, sad, sad.
Kingston. The new "Wild, wild west!".
I lost someone close to me in 2004. He was 26, the boy that killed him was 18. My friend wasn't "packing". Probably had never seen a gun in his life. He was killed outside one of Trinidad's more exclusive clubs in a so called good area. I still miss him.
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