While the term “Blue Christmas” is usually used in Memphis with regards to “the Kang,” this temporary Memphian has a different wish for a Blue Christmas. (No, silly! Not a bottle of Blue Christmas wine.) I only wish I’d seen this a little sooner this holiday season.
A Blue Christmas in Memphis
Today, when I was driving back home from a high school that’s out East, I rounded a corner, and there was a huge number of black birds. I thought I might hit one! Turns out, it’s another one of those Memphis things
Kinda like the fact that if I am not enjoying one radio station playing Christmas soul music, There are others likely to be playing that format, too! I am usually not a radio listener, but I like the music on the radio here, and the commercials are hilarious. Also, for some strange reason, Howard Stern is on here. I thought it would be too conservative for that. Here are some of the local offerings:
Radio Stations
Some of these comments are ridiculous. I hate how reactionary people are, how they suddenly have an opinion before they have real data to back it up.
Gangs are everywhere. People just want to move away from the bad stuff, but there’s always more bad stuff. Cordova High School was a Shelby County school last year. Now it’s part of Memphis City Schools. I know a little more than the average person about the inner workings of this school, and from what I’ve heard working on the inside a bit, the gang situation has little to do with it being a Memphis City School.
Here’s some info I found online about gangs in Memphis:
Gang activity persists as a significant source of crime in Memphis. The Shelby County District Attorney General’s Office has estimated that roughly 125 gangs and approximately 10,000 known gang members exist in Shelby County, although Bolden says that the gangs “here are not very well-organized.” The Metro Gang Unit, which comprises MPD officers and Shelby County Sheriff’s deputies, continues to work to curb gang-related crimes.
There’s more info here and general information about gangs here and here. When I did that Ride Along at the end of October, there was a gang expert at Role Call before the shift started. It’s amazing how much this guy knew. He knew who was the leader of each gang, where they lived, all kinds of stuff. I couldn’t believe they let me stay, although I wasn’t taking notes, and I’ve forgotten the details now. We learned what the disses were for different gangs, what the symbols were, it was an overwhelming amount of information. And it seems a problem that is not solvable.
When schools and health care fail, kids go where they can find love, and sadly, that is often in a gang, or it’s from the love of a child they had when they themselves were still a child.
Memphis depresses me sometimes. It seems it can never dig itself out of the hole it’s fallen into. Jails can’t rehabilitate generational poverty, addiction, hopelessness, and lack of role models. It’s like a straight line from slavery to modern day Memphis, and I wonder how much help I am. I do what I can, but it can be defeating. And yet, I frequently have the pleasure of meeting parents who are struggling yet really care about their child, and I have wonderful supervisors who do all they can, given a disaster of a system.
Do what you can, kids. Keep fighting for your lives, your dignity, and your education. I don’t want you to end up in jail. Not even for a night.
I need a few days to nap, to blog, to read, to relax. Not much sleep this week. Up late working on cover letters, reports, etc. Last night I woke up thinking I was terribly ill. Turns out the radiator went crazy, and I was slowly being steamed like a mussel. I got up, and after a failed attempt at getting the radiator off, I opened all the windows in the apartment that open (that’s exactly TWO windows), turned on the fan and AC in my room and Tribed until it was bearable to go back in.
The primary school I’m working in is Cordova High. Luckily, the mother I tried to get to meet me there today said she wasn’t feeling well and would rather meet tomorrow. If I’d been there, I would have been in the Guidance Office, one of the three locations of today’s brawl! Yes, I said brawl. I also heard that at another school where I work, a student was stabbed in the mouth today, and other students tried to poison the librarian. The librarian is really sweet. I don’t know who’d poison her. I mean, COME ON!
Luckily, even though these are two of the schools I’m in, I wasn’t there for the action today. Although there was some pretty heavy action last time I was in the librarian-poisoning school. Some kid ran into the library, bleeding, and fleeing from the on-site police officer. When I got there, I walked in behind another officer. When I got into the library, the librarian (the one who was poisoned when someone switched her water for bleach today) told me what had happened.
Never a dull moment! I tell you what!
