-Tragic Loss

TRAGIC LOSS

A. King

I am living day by day and seeing how my young brothers lose their lives over petty things that don’t make sense. I’m walking by the grave sites and seeing only their names on the headstones. And you ask me, Why I’m sad? I see a future with no black men to stand up and be someone, to be someone great.

In mid-October my cousin Ky’moi became a murderer. I never imagined someone in my family would become that person. I remembered the time when we were both 12 and he and his siblings came over by our house to play when my family lived in Donoe Projects. We played hide and seek, tag, and other games as the sun went into hiding from the moon. We always tried to tell the scariest stories, but he always won, making everyone go under the covers shivering. As we grew older, we started to separate. We heard that he was in trouble and was over in the youth detention center for doing something “stupid.” A few weeks ago as I walked in my house, cries, screams, and cursing filled the air in my household. What happened? What happened? That’s when I found out that he shot and killed someone. My heart felt like shredded meat as I was told the news.

Once again, our young brothers made the statistics. I am living in a house with my parents and four brothers; I want to see each of them become someone great, and I will push them when there is a hint of giving up. I don’t want them to go down that road. That road took too many lives. My heart can’t take that kind of pain. Reading the newspaper is hard for me because it’s always about those lost young men.

As I enter through those metal gates at school, I see young men walk away from education, thinking that the streets can do them good. The graves are rising and the jails are filling. My A.P. Literature class has more girls than boys, and so does my graduating class. Why is it that girls seem to be striving to be someone? Why not the boys? Is it a new trend in the world, that the young men act arrogant, drop out of school, and die young, and that the young ladies succeed? Is living without a father in a one-parent home the cause for this violence? Is it lack of love? Is choosing our own way, and not the way of our parents, a cause?

I know it’s not easy living in the projects or ghettos because I once lived there, but I made a promise to myself to not let my environment make me in to someone I’m not. I have dreams and goals to be someone renowned and to make my parents proud. Violence is all around, but my mind is focused and my grades are up. No matter what happens in my life, I won’t let violence affect me academically. I am the captain of this ship and when storms and waves come, I’ll stay on course. “It's the constant and determined effort that breaks down all resistance and sweeps away all obstacles.” ~ Claude M. Bristol ~