Lately I can't stop thinking how nutty this world is. I mean, I'm surrounded by media and people telling me that to be the best you should tweak as many things about yourself as possible.
For instance, right now there is a chick on The Insider (trash, I know) talking about her addiction to plastic surgery. Seriously? The recovery from those procedures is a nightmare and people are addicted to it. Not to mention just the simple alterations of tanning and other seemingly innocent attempts to appear to be different than we actually are. Why do we do this? Why are we all so tempted by the fantasy of being someone else? Why are we so dang self addicted?
I'm sure we could blame the media pretty easily and wipe our hands of any guilt, but I think there's a catch 22. I think somewhere either the media responded to what the people were already doing and then perpetuated it OR the people began to respond to the media thus making it worse. Either way we'll never know which came first... the chicken or the egg. The problem still remains.
Speaking of problems.
Today at work there was discussion about the issue of gang violence in the area of Boston where my office is located. The Dorchester/Roxbury area of Boston, referred by my co-workers who live there as "the hood", has been on fire in the media. A woman hanging out all hours of the night last weekend was shot by accident in a drive by and the whole city is up in arms... the problem is she was white. Now, I'll be the first to say there are prejudices and injustices for all people, but I can't deny that being in this environment it does appear that the non-white citizens are regarded differently by the government. This year -2007- there have already been 13 shooting deaths- that's 10 more than this time last year. This woman is the first death that has made the news in this capactity. People are pleading for it to be declared a state of emergency, but the mayor would never do that as it would drive tourism WAY down. The Guardian Angels are on their way here from NYC this weekend... have you heard of them? Google it. Pretty cool stuff. Although I guess if your city is in enough trouble to need them to come it isn't all that cool.
The thing is I drive to Dorchester everyday, park my car and go into my office. I work all day and then get back in my car and drive home (north of the city). Until this conversation today I hadn't really thought a whole lot about the dangers of the part of town I'm in. The crazy thing is that I think on some level because I was raised in a predominately white community I don't entirely understand the living in danger concept... keeping one eye open & "watching your back"-- I've never had to do that. **CORRECTION** After Kristen commented I realized how this statement sounded... she's right that I didn't intend for it to come off that way. The truth is that the community I was raised in was suburban and affluent... the difference was not race, rather money.
This isn't to say that I think I'm in danger at work... but I guess I can't say with complete certainty that I'm not in danger. See, I don't even know because I just have no idea about what's really going on in these communities. Am I naive? Yes, I'm sure I am. Am I being irresponsible? Well, I don't think so... I mean, I have to live my life, right?
I just left work feeling frustrated. Frustrated that these people I work with and care deeply for have to live surrounded by fear and worry. The fact of the matter is that life in the innercity is hard. It's scary and it can be dangerous. To pretend it's fine is just lying to yourself. How can it be changed? How can it stop? The violence... it's out of control.
Days like this I just feel helpless and annoyed with human beings. ha.
I'm going to go escape into a novel now. :)
1 comment:
"The crazy thing is that I think on some level because I was raised in a predominately white community I don't entirely understand the living in danger concept..."
Somehow I just think you have to be careful about a comment like that...I think the reason you weren't watching your back in Plano isn't because it was a predominantly white community but because it was a suburb, an affluent suburb. You weren't safe because you blended in...the 13 other deaths, I believe, in Dorchester were people who were members of the majority population of Dorchester, no? It's a suburban vs. urban thing. which you focused on later, this one statement just struck me as not quite what you meant.
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Lettuce talk about it...