Casting stones

Today in Toronto there is a woman who is living out my worse nightmare. I have never met her and probably never will meet her. Nonetheless, she must now tread where my some of my darkest fears reside. There is no point saying one has nothing to fear but fear itself because that is just not true. Some fears are bigger and darker than the most vivid imaginations can begin to make allowances for.

I have no idea or not if the latest school shooting victim was a gang-member and/or a former Jamaican national. I do not know if he was just an ordinary run-of-the-mill grade 9 or A student. What I do know is; his family loved him, he was black and only 15th years old. And I also know this much is true; 15th years is far to be shot to death at school, and sometimes –young black males are every bit as much of a victim as teenage white girls, and just as deserving of a little compassion for themselves and their families.

But for the grace of G-d, it could have been my son 14th year old black son who was shoot dead at school yesterday. He was a former valedictorian at his elementary school, and now attends one of the highest academically ranked public high schools; which unfortunately, is also located in one of the highest-risk areas of the inner city. He has never been a gang-member and he does not possess a handgun but he did learn how to shoot at Army Cadets. His father was a naturalized Canadian citizen who originally hailed from Jamaica. And if that isn't enough to withhold compassion; there is always the fact he is being raised by a single widowed mother….and why yes, some black men do die from natural causes.

So leave your inner cracker/peckerwood/wonder bread/wasp self on the high shelf in the closet where it belongs. Oh yeah, and for the record – at least my son knows his father was not his uncle.