Poverty and Violence: A Reflection

Last updated on: April 19, 2013 at 2:04 pm by Andre E. Johnson

Poverty and Violence: A Reflection 2013-04-19T14:04:00-05:00 Andre E. Johnson

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by Eric Brown

R3 Contributor

I must admit the past two weeks have been slightly stressful in Nashville. I have been to Legislative Plaza to see a state senator running away from an eight-year-old child while calling her a prop. All of his actions based on the fact that he wants to punish families in poverty on welfare, if their kids do not get a certain grade on report cards and make parent-teacher conferences mandatory twice per year. I would say that this does not seem threatening at first sight, until you take some things into account. Why make it seem as if families on welfare are becoming rich from $187 a month? Why only punish families who are poor and not families whose children also are failing but are higher in economic status? Why make it seem as if many parents do not care, because they cannot make conferences when they work two to three jobs or do not have the transportation because school children are bused 30 to 40 minutes away from their home? Why disguise a bill as a health bill issues instead of placing it as an education bill issue? For something to sound so simple, it sure went through a lot of hoops to just pretend it is about parent responsibility. Though this bill was suspended and it feels like a short victory, I guarantee the bill will be presented again next year.

While this happens, a fight is happening in senate, where my TN senators made sure to vote no on background checks for guns. I have to admit that I have a gun, but I have been struggling for the past year of whether or not to get rid of it. I believe in right to bear arms, but I cannot be ignorant to the lenient penalties to obtain a gun and illegal acts people do to sell guns. I wrestle with this because I read more on non-violence action. Though I am not all the way convinced it is a sure fire plan, I understand violence does not stop violence. While debating with myself on these thoughts, 17-year-old Jonathan Johnson is shot down at a bus stop on his way to school. A student who was quiet and rarely bothered anyone, but it was a senseless act over a petty incident. As much as I want to use my past experience of a robbery to me in Cincinnati as a way to defend why I should keep my gun, this situation causes me to say, I cannot agree with having a gun too much longer.

I did not know Jonathan personally, and neither did many people I witnessed sit on the pews at Gordon Memorial United Methodist Church in Nashville to be support to the family at this funeral. What it showed me was not only a mother and father was affected by gun violence, but so were Pearl Cohn High School, North Nashville Community, and the Black Community. And while this situation was barely talked about after a few days in the news, a week later students are still hurting over another black male who didn’t reach 18-years-old. I not only hurt for him, I hurt for the shooter. I know his name, but refrain from using it in this post because the shooter is innocent until proven guilty. I hurt for him, because what he thought was a way to make a name for himself,has him hiding and dealing with the demons of guilt for the pain he caused and the demons and consequences he is and will have to face. He hides and people know the location he is at, and would rather say nothing. This silence should not be seen as rebelling against snitching, it should be seen as covering up a problem that must be resolved. The family believes, like I believe, that there should be no acts of vengeance, but the shooter must be turned in for the purpose of restorative justice. His actions have caused many actions to take place and affects more than just him and Jonathan Johnson. It affects us all.

I need violence against children to be put to rest. Regardless if that violence is done physically as it was to Jonathan, or politically as it is trying to be done through government offices. I understand only speaking out against something does not work on its own. It will not stop until people who think they do not have power to change situations get up and say that I matter therefore others matter. If you have a vote, prove it by making sure others around you team up and use the power through the political system and make politicians show accountability. If you are in the faith community, and always say you believe in God, then prove it by using the power God has manifested in you to do something that says that because you and others are made in the image of God, we cannot allow you to commit systematic violence against children that God created. If you have loved ones that you would not want anything harmful to happen to them but hide the hands of others that throw fatal rocks at the heads of the innocence, you are not about that life of love you claim.

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