The fruit of society

By Dr. Andre M. Perry
Contributing Columnist

An unidentified easy loans denver co assailant shot my friend and colleague, Rafael Del­ga­dillo, in the head last weekend. Affectionately known as Rafa, he works passionately for peace, justice and social equality through multiple organizations but most notably through his employer, Puentes, a nonprofit dedicated to the improvement of the Latino community. I became familiar with Rafa, the historian, on his way to a masters degree at UNO.

A young, African-American male attacker shot at Rafa’s moving car as he tried to escape. Rafa is now expected to make a miraculous recovery. My heartfelt sympathies for Rafa are only matched by my vehement frustrations to understand why. Why is violence circulated and reproduced so readily in cash advance in daly city New Orleans?

We are all links in the same social chain. The young male who shot Rafa is someone’s son, someone’s friend. He has neighbors and lives near a church. At some point, he probably attended someone’s school. He eats in restaurants and listens to the radio. People know when a young man is in trouble, but in spite of all the social aid and pleasure clubs, government agencies, schools and employers, these school-aged offenders live open lifestyles that condone violence.

When I learned of the shooting, hand over mouth, I thought how up-close and personal violence has gotten. I’m scared; for the shooting of Rafa makes clear payday loans delray beach fl that those on the frontlines of social justice are absolutely vulnerable to our slaying by our children’s hands. Individual righteousness provides limited protections. There is no ghetto immunity, for Rafa should’ve had it. Peace must wash the city’s collective thinking if we want to address why people resort to violence.

Rafa and his family know the restorative power of peace. In multiple interviews, his father said the shooters were also victims of society.

The modus of operandi for improvement in New Orleans has not been a model for peace. I can only imagine what the architects of bigger jails have in store for Rafa’s shooter. Those who 100 instant text loan closed down every housing project after the storm can’t provide a penultimate example of hospitality. What lesson of peace is eventually taught by schools’ no-tolerance policies that teach discipline through long-term suspensions? Our treatment of the immigrant laborers who secured our blue roofs has been nothing short of exploitive.

Rafa works diligently to infuse compassion within these systems. We need Rafa to recover fully because the numbers are wanting for those who will hug a young brother so close and so tight that nothing but love can transpire. Our policies must do the same.

I’m also scared because if people like Rafa are sidelined, who’s left? We need more payday loan mansfield tx Rafas to proliferate peace. We need policymakers who would rather make peace than mean-spirited restructuring presented as tough love. We need brothers to reach for a book instead of a gun.

If you know a young person or old policymaker who’s on the verge of committing an act of violence, find out how to love that person enough to change his course. We’re connected – links in a chain. The fruit of our children don’t fall too far from the tree of society.

This article was originally published in the October 3, 2011 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper