Today was the "Save Sam Houston" town hall meeting. Sam Houston High School is my alma mater, I graduated in 2001. It is located in the predominantly African-American side of San Antonio....the Eastside.
I heard about Sam closing about five months ago when I ran across an article on www.mysa.com while I was in Korea. I was upset, not because the school was closing, but because everyone was all of a sudden up in arms about it! Why all of a sudden did everyone want to raise hell now? What happened during the past two decades when Sam was performing below state AND district averages in every single statistic? ACT scores, SAT scores, TAAS scores, TAKS scores, graduate rates and dropout rates are the six factors I researched and found to be more than unsatisfactory, they were shameless. Here are some numbers for you that I researched and calculated myself based on the past five school report cards from the Texas Education Agency. (http://ritter.tea.state.tx.us/perfreport/aeis/index.html)
2004 report:
State's passing rate average for standardized testing based on students who passed all tests: 85%. That means an average of 85% of students in the state passed all four components of the state's standardized test.
District passing rate: 75%
Sam Houston Passing rate: 57%
c/o 2003:
State SAT/ACT average score: 989/19.9
District average score: 802/16.9
Sam Houston: 726/15.4
State average graduate rate: 84%
District: 79%
Sam: 72%
State average dropout rate: 4.5%
District: 7.6%
Sam: 13.4%
2005 report:
State's average for standardized testing: 62%
District: 48%
Sam Houston: 20%
c/o 2004
State SAT/ACT average score: 987/20.1
District: 814/16.9
Sam Houston: 733/15.6
State average graduate rate: 85%
District: 79%
Sam Houston: 80% (one of the few times we beat district average...by one point?)
State average dropout rate: 3.9%
District: 6.4%
Sam Houston: 10.5%
2006 report:
State's average for standardized testing: 67%
District: 53%
Sam Houston: 23%
c/o 2005
State SAT/ACT average score: 992/20
District: 831/17
Sam Houston: 746/15.4
State average graduate rate: 84%
District: 76%
Sam Houston: 70%
State average dropout rate: 4.3%
District: 8.0%
Sam Houston: 16% (yeah, 16%)
2007 report:
State's average for standardized testing: 70%
District: 58%
Sam Houston: 34%
c/o 2006
State SAT/ACT average score: 991/20.1
District: 838/16.9
Sam Houston: 753/15
State average graduate rate: 80%
District: 66%
Sam Houston: 57% (What happened to the community meeting about this?)
State average dropout rate: 8.8%
District: 20.6%
Sam Houston: 31.4% (Yes, I actually TRIPLE-checked that one and it's listed on the 2007 report AND the 2008 report)
2008 report:
State's average for standardized testing: 72%
District: 59%
Sam Houston: 26%
c/o 2007
State SAT/ACT average score: 992/20.2
District: 834/16.5
Sam Houston: 748/15.6
State average graduate rate: 78%
District: 61%
Sam Houston: 60%
State average dropout rate: 11.4%
District: 26%
Sam Houston: 23.4%
So, the average difference between District averages and Sam Houston averages on standardized testing for the past five years is 27.8%. The average difference between State and Sam Houston is 41.4%. (FYI, our average difference on the Math component alone? District, 29.2% higher and State, 41.6% higher.)
Okay, so, many people may think I am providing these numbers to discourage and disgrace. I assure you that is not the reason. I am providing these numbers because apparently no one else in the district, state or school has exposed them to the community. I am sure that if they did, then there would have been marches, protests, door-to-door campaigning, and all the other tactics I heard about today to get Sam Houston back on the right track...right?
I stood up during the "open floor" portion of the meeting today and I knew no one really knew me and therefore no one knew my stance on this issue, so I decided to switch up my planned approach at the last minute. I asked the audience, "When is the last time there has been a community meeting for Sam Houston?" I received a lot of confused looks (maybe cause the mic was messing up) so I repeated myself, to which I received an overall response of, "None.". So I acted surprised to hear that. I continued by asking if there was anyone in the audience who had been attending PTA meetings in recent years. Two or three (literally) ladies raised their hands. I asked them, "How many people do you usually have show up to the meetings?". They told me that an average of ten or twenty people show up at the PTA meetings. I replied, "Ten or twenty? For a school of 800+? hmmm..." I then continued by expressing my anger with, not the district, not the school, not the students, but the neglectful community that allowed this high school to fail. I questioned why there were no community meetings when all the statistics were (not just lower) SIGNIFICANTLY lower than state and district averages for the past two decades. Where were the major uprisings and petitions then? No one cared then, did they?
What also upset me is that at the beginning of the meeting they mentioned twice that we had 11,273 taxpayers in the Sam Houston High School area that were paying taxes and wanted a high school in there community. We had, what looked like, about 40 people in attendance. (I don't think I need to go any further with that point...)
Considering the facts I have provided above, I can understand why the district wants to close Sam Houston. There is nothing to respect in a school with that type of disdain for excellence or even mediocrity. (It's pretty bad when we are content with less than MEDIOCRITY.) Why should the district put more money into a school that hasn't shown to be a good investment for the past two decades? If one of my subordinates is taking the money I'm giving them and wasting it, then why am I going to continue to allow that to happen?
Okay, time for me to talk like a Cherokee. :) Why in the hell did it take this long for the district to do something? Why was their first push for reform an entire closure of the school?! If I was on the school board for the past twenty years, ten years or even five years I would have raised hades with the community leaders, parents, administration and everyone to get this fixed a loooong time ago. Where have they been?! Do the Eastside residents pay their taxes just to pay board members to close schools? Or do they pay them to keep schools from getting to a point where they need to close? It hurts my soul to know that when I was a student at Sam Houston for my four-years that I had people that were supposed to be looking out for me, but did not. It hurts me to know that this has happened for so many others. I remember all the lost souls along the way when I was going to school. So many, with so much potential wasted, because of carelessness, laziness and complacency. Why was it so easy for them to set up a committee to get rid of Sam Houston, but there was never an effort to find and address the issues that have plagued the school for so many years?
When I got into the military I learned not to complain about things unless you have a solution to follow your complaint. Anyone can complain about everything. It takes a certain kind of individual to provide a solution along with it.
Door-to-door campaigning on the Eastside. Recruit all those people that showed up to the meeting. Have them recruit others. Grab the NAACP members and their counterparts, grab the Masons and make them get off their behinds for once, grab the Frats and Sorors from their parties and make them come out. Talk to every person on the Eastside and create a COMMUNITY for once. If you look at SAITSU's mission statement, this is our main focus, Community.
During the door-to-door campaigning get phone numbers, e-mail addresses, mailing addresses, etc., to provide as many means of communication as possible. The biggest thing lacking for the Eastside is a means of communication. We have a lot of older folks and elderly folks who are not very capable when it comes to 21st century communication (i.e. Facebook, Blogspot, e-mail, etc...). If we have to call everyone on the phone at night to notify them of what is going on, then so be it. Do what we need to do! The door-to-door campaigning should be a one-time thing. We should be able to reach everyone in person one time and then maintain communication through more reasonable means from then on.
Provide a listing of Eastside attributes that are worthy of investing in a high school in our community. The district/state isn't going to save the school because 40 or so people showed up to a meeting. They MUST have a reason to save that school that will rebuild trust in regards to their wallets. How do they know that five years from now it won't be the same story for Sam Houston? If we could just show a con-joined effort from the Eastside community that we are willing to step up and correct the situation I believe that would be enough of a reason. It must be an very impressive showing though. We can't show up with 40 people and think that will work.
All of my solutions are going to revolve around the community aspect because, from what I have seen, it has always been a lack of community involvement that has caused us to get to this point. We have no one else to blame.
Here's some news coverage the meeting received from our local WOAI news station...yep, I'm on TV!! ;)
Please sign the petition to save Sam Houston High School...
http://www.thepetitionsite.com/2/save-eastside-sa-high-school
Saturday, August 15, 2009
Wednesday, August 12, 2009
Crackville (12 Aug 2009)
My goal today was to engage some of the residents in the area I visited a couple days ago. I changed at work out of uniform into some shorts and a plain black t-shirt. I didn't want to approach folks houses in slacks and a polo, b/c I know I automatically think it's the JHs coming to introduce me to Jesus.
I began my journey and remembered that I didn't write down any questions as I had prepared to do before. Oh well, guess I'm gonna have to "wing it".
I got down to the Dignowity Hills area and started out by looking at some houses I had been looking into buying. This area is supposed to be building up in the next few years due to the expansion of the downtown area. The city is throwing a lot of money into the urban district and it's all going to expand east towards our new sports arena, the SBC Center, which is smack-dab in the middle of the Eastside. Anyways, yes I am looking to buy a piece of property because the value of it will be good later on, but I am also looking to buy a home in this area, b/c what would it look like if I fought for the Eastside and lived elsewhere?
After I looked at the homes I drove around a bit before stopping to speak to a guy who is renovating one of the houses. I asked him if he was the owner, he told me no and that he was just doing the cleaning out of the property. I spoke to him about the area and about how much it would cost to renovate the house he was working on, to which I received a vague price range. "Thousands". Thanks. We kept talking and he told me the story behind the house. Apparently a young lady was tortured, raped and burned inside the house. He said that the new owner was a burn victim (not by that same situation) and just wanted to rebuild the entire house and start new. He did notify me that the owner was going to rent the house out, not actually stay in it himself.
After my short convo with the young man I moved on down the street. I stopped at a house where I saw two older folks sitting outside on the their porch. As I got out of my car and approached their gate I noticed a look of surprise and confusion on their faces. I asked if I could come up and speak with them, to which they gave a hesitant approval. I introduced myself and let them know I was looking to move into the neighborhood. They began to speak about the houses and that they had been hearing that the city was going to be expanding downtown in their direction. I asked them about the neighborhood itself and that's when their positives went negative. They told me about the rampant prostitution and drugs that ran the street day in and day out. They mentioned nothing about it being a violent or unsafe neighborhood though. The lady told me that she takes walks around the neighborhood quite often and nothing has ever happened to her. They didn't seem to be afraid of the neighborhood or it's residents, just disgusted by the condition. They then recommended I speak with the lady next door to them, who may have more info for me.
The home next door was beautiful. Modern, spacious and luxurious. This wasn't our typical cookie-cutter home and it wasn't a renovated home like the others. I rang the door bell and was greeted in Spanish by a middle-aged Mexican woman. I asked if she spoke English and she said, "Not much." I then thanked her and politely said nevermind and proceeded to leave. She yelled and stopped me and told me that she would get her son. I was surprised that she was so adamant to speak to me. When her son came down I told him who I was and that I used to live on the Eastside and that I was thinking about moving back. I asked him what the neighbor hood was like. He relayed the message to his mother who began to say that the neighborhood was fine. Of course, there is the prostitution and drugs, but no violence or anything. They notified me that they had only lived there for a year and had no problems so far. I asked the young man where he went to school, he told me Highlands. Nice kid, great attitude. I thanked them and was on my way again.
My third stop was at the Carver Academy. It's a private school on the Eastside that consists of 120 students, K-6. $10K/year tuition...yeah. I was driving by when I saw a security guard walking out to have a smoke. So, I flipped a U-turn and parked. As I walked over I could see confusion in his eyes. lol I introduced myself and began to ask him about the school. He knew hardly anything about the school, except that it is a private school. He said that the school had 24/7 security, wow! Even in the summer-time when school is out, he said security is on post 24/7. I asked him about the neighborhood and he told me that he didn't live on the Eastside, he lived on the Westside. I began to talk to him about what I was seeing and hearing about and he agreed that it looks really bad. He began to tell me that when he is patrolling at night on the campus he sees the prostitutes walking up and down the street and hopping in cars, but nothing more than victimless crimes such as that and drug addicts. These kind of occurrences, he began to tell me, were none of his business. Which was true. He talked most of the time and I just nodded my head and listened. He told me about his growing up on the Westside and how things used to be. He told me about how there used to be ONE gang on a side of town and they would protect and take care of their neighborhood. "Now there are several gangs that fight amongst each other in the same neighborhood.", he said. "You can have one guy in a gang that lives at 113 Pine and a different gang's member at 111 Pine, so how does that work? It doesn't!" He spoe about his kids and numerous other topics that I won't mention for length-sake. The main thing I took from everything he said is, "No one is going to do anything unless someone else has their back. You'll never get the people in this neighborhood or any neighborhood to do anything, b/c they all feel threatened if they do it alone." I had already mentioned the SAITSU program to him, so he knew that my main focus was Community Organization. He agreed that a community is what would be needed to make any kind of difference. I spoke with him for about 30 mins before it began to rain (yeah finally).
As I drove to what I thought would be home, I ended up stopping at a house with two gentleman sitting outside on the porch. There was an Expedition parked out front so I figured they must've owned the place and were remodeling. The door was wide open and there was garbage piled in boxes across the front of the property. I walked up and introduced myself and received another confused look that non-verbally said, "WTF do you want?". I told them I was looking to buy a house in the area and they pretty much laughed in my face. The older gentleman informed me that I was in the heart of "Crackville". He discouraged my thought of moving to the neighborhood and said I was better off living in some suburb. I told him that I was from the area and that I was looking to do community work, therefore I wanted to live IN the community. He nodded his head and seemed to give me a more respectful tone after I explained my reasoning. Him and his counterpart both spoke to me about the things that were known around the area. They pointed out the new condos that have been built about a half-mile away. They told me that they were selling at high prices and it was only a matter of time before they made their way over in his area and took over. I mentioned "gentrification", but I don't think he knew what the word meant. He told me about the cops putting cameras up around the neighborhood to monitor any drug dealing. He said that he has warned "them dudes" that those cameras were watching, but they never stopped. He also mentioned that they were never caught either. While he was talking I took numerous glances into the house and realized that it other than a few old dusty chairs a couch and an old coffee table, the house was barren. We spoke for about 45 mins about the neighborhood and how it had become run down completely since '69 when he moved here form Cali. He went into the military and was a Vietnam Veteran, yet now he is strung out on crack. He told me about the Eastside and knew it like the back of his hand. I guess I would too if I had nothing to do except walk around it all day. He then began to tell me about his own downfalls. He told me that he was a crackhead and that he deals it time to time. He then corrected himself and said that he doesn't like the term "crackhead", and prefers "crack addict". This showed me that regardless of the blank stares that I receive from the addicts, they still have feelings and sensitivities. He began to tell me that he chose the wrong path and that he has learned to accept it. I could almost sense tears about to come to his eyes, until he laughed it off and said, "But I'm good now, you know? I just say fu** it. hahaha" I forced a laugh, but inside it hurt.
As me and the gentleman continued to speak about my ambitions for commuity action, he told me that I needed to start off in a different place, b/c there was no hope for that neighborhood. He said that everyone has given up and it is a lost cause. He then informed me that I better not come up there in my AND1 tennis shoes ($30) anymore or I might get jacked. He also mentioned that if I want to keep coming up there, that I better buy a hoopty and not drive my new car around there anymore. I then thougth back to what everyone else said about the lack of violence. Was that b/c there was nothing to be violent about? How do poor people steal from other poor people? Or maybe this guy was just trying to scare me off. I stood and talked to him for about five more mins before we were interrupted by his friend. As she walked up he stood up and extended his hand and I shook and asked his name. I told him I was Brian and that I would be back to talk more with him. As I walked away the young lady said, "Ooh, he got pretty eyes." to which I replied, "Thank you ma'am.". I wonder what she thought about me calling her ma'am. They shut the door quickly and I imagined them both huddled over a pipe taking their evening trip out of "Crackville".
I began my journey and remembered that I didn't write down any questions as I had prepared to do before. Oh well, guess I'm gonna have to "wing it".
I got down to the Dignowity Hills area and started out by looking at some houses I had been looking into buying. This area is supposed to be building up in the next few years due to the expansion of the downtown area. The city is throwing a lot of money into the urban district and it's all going to expand east towards our new sports arena, the SBC Center, which is smack-dab in the middle of the Eastside. Anyways, yes I am looking to buy a piece of property because the value of it will be good later on, but I am also looking to buy a home in this area, b/c what would it look like if I fought for the Eastside and lived elsewhere?
After I looked at the homes I drove around a bit before stopping to speak to a guy who is renovating one of the houses. I asked him if he was the owner, he told me no and that he was just doing the cleaning out of the property. I spoke to him about the area and about how much it would cost to renovate the house he was working on, to which I received a vague price range. "Thousands". Thanks. We kept talking and he told me the story behind the house. Apparently a young lady was tortured, raped and burned inside the house. He said that the new owner was a burn victim (not by that same situation) and just wanted to rebuild the entire house and start new. He did notify me that the owner was going to rent the house out, not actually stay in it himself.
After my short convo with the young man I moved on down the street. I stopped at a house where I saw two older folks sitting outside on the their porch. As I got out of my car and approached their gate I noticed a look of surprise and confusion on their faces. I asked if I could come up and speak with them, to which they gave a hesitant approval. I introduced myself and let them know I was looking to move into the neighborhood. They began to speak about the houses and that they had been hearing that the city was going to be expanding downtown in their direction. I asked them about the neighborhood itself and that's when their positives went negative. They told me about the rampant prostitution and drugs that ran the street day in and day out. They mentioned nothing about it being a violent or unsafe neighborhood though. The lady told me that she takes walks around the neighborhood quite often and nothing has ever happened to her. They didn't seem to be afraid of the neighborhood or it's residents, just disgusted by the condition. They then recommended I speak with the lady next door to them, who may have more info for me.
The home next door was beautiful. Modern, spacious and luxurious. This wasn't our typical cookie-cutter home and it wasn't a renovated home like the others. I rang the door bell and was greeted in Spanish by a middle-aged Mexican woman. I asked if she spoke English and she said, "Not much." I then thanked her and politely said nevermind and proceeded to leave. She yelled and stopped me and told me that she would get her son. I was surprised that she was so adamant to speak to me. When her son came down I told him who I was and that I used to live on the Eastside and that I was thinking about moving back. I asked him what the neighbor hood was like. He relayed the message to his mother who began to say that the neighborhood was fine. Of course, there is the prostitution and drugs, but no violence or anything. They notified me that they had only lived there for a year and had no problems so far. I asked the young man where he went to school, he told me Highlands. Nice kid, great attitude. I thanked them and was on my way again.
My third stop was at the Carver Academy. It's a private school on the Eastside that consists of 120 students, K-6. $10K/year tuition...yeah. I was driving by when I saw a security guard walking out to have a smoke. So, I flipped a U-turn and parked. As I walked over I could see confusion in his eyes. lol I introduced myself and began to ask him about the school. He knew hardly anything about the school, except that it is a private school. He said that the school had 24/7 security, wow! Even in the summer-time when school is out, he said security is on post 24/7. I asked him about the neighborhood and he told me that he didn't live on the Eastside, he lived on the Westside. I began to talk to him about what I was seeing and hearing about and he agreed that it looks really bad. He began to tell me that when he is patrolling at night on the campus he sees the prostitutes walking up and down the street and hopping in cars, but nothing more than victimless crimes such as that and drug addicts. These kind of occurrences, he began to tell me, were none of his business. Which was true. He talked most of the time and I just nodded my head and listened. He told me about his growing up on the Westside and how things used to be. He told me about how there used to be ONE gang on a side of town and they would protect and take care of their neighborhood. "Now there are several gangs that fight amongst each other in the same neighborhood.", he said. "You can have one guy in a gang that lives at 113 Pine and a different gang's member at 111 Pine, so how does that work? It doesn't!" He spoe about his kids and numerous other topics that I won't mention for length-sake. The main thing I took from everything he said is, "No one is going to do anything unless someone else has their back. You'll never get the people in this neighborhood or any neighborhood to do anything, b/c they all feel threatened if they do it alone." I had already mentioned the SAITSU program to him, so he knew that my main focus was Community Organization. He agreed that a community is what would be needed to make any kind of difference. I spoke with him for about 30 mins before it began to rain (yeah finally).
As I drove to what I thought would be home, I ended up stopping at a house with two gentleman sitting outside on the porch. There was an Expedition parked out front so I figured they must've owned the place and were remodeling. The door was wide open and there was garbage piled in boxes across the front of the property. I walked up and introduced myself and received another confused look that non-verbally said, "WTF do you want?". I told them I was looking to buy a house in the area and they pretty much laughed in my face. The older gentleman informed me that I was in the heart of "Crackville". He discouraged my thought of moving to the neighborhood and said I was better off living in some suburb. I told him that I was from the area and that I was looking to do community work, therefore I wanted to live IN the community. He nodded his head and seemed to give me a more respectful tone after I explained my reasoning. Him and his counterpart both spoke to me about the things that were known around the area. They pointed out the new condos that have been built about a half-mile away. They told me that they were selling at high prices and it was only a matter of time before they made their way over in his area and took over. I mentioned "gentrification", but I don't think he knew what the word meant. He told me about the cops putting cameras up around the neighborhood to monitor any drug dealing. He said that he has warned "them dudes" that those cameras were watching, but they never stopped. He also mentioned that they were never caught either. While he was talking I took numerous glances into the house and realized that it other than a few old dusty chairs a couch and an old coffee table, the house was barren. We spoke for about 45 mins about the neighborhood and how it had become run down completely since '69 when he moved here form Cali. He went into the military and was a Vietnam Veteran, yet now he is strung out on crack. He told me about the Eastside and knew it like the back of his hand. I guess I would too if I had nothing to do except walk around it all day. He then began to tell me about his own downfalls. He told me that he was a crackhead and that he deals it time to time. He then corrected himself and said that he doesn't like the term "crackhead", and prefers "crack addict". This showed me that regardless of the blank stares that I receive from the addicts, they still have feelings and sensitivities. He began to tell me that he chose the wrong path and that he has learned to accept it. I could almost sense tears about to come to his eyes, until he laughed it off and said, "But I'm good now, you know? I just say fu** it. hahaha" I forced a laugh, but inside it hurt.
As me and the gentleman continued to speak about my ambitions for commuity action, he told me that I needed to start off in a different place, b/c there was no hope for that neighborhood. He said that everyone has given up and it is a lost cause. He then informed me that I better not come up there in my AND1 tennis shoes ($30) anymore or I might get jacked. He also mentioned that if I want to keep coming up there, that I better buy a hoopty and not drive my new car around there anymore. I then thougth back to what everyone else said about the lack of violence. Was that b/c there was nothing to be violent about? How do poor people steal from other poor people? Or maybe this guy was just trying to scare me off. I stood and talked to him for about five more mins before we were interrupted by his friend. As she walked up he stood up and extended his hand and I shook and asked his name. I told him I was Brian and that I would be back to talk more with him. As I walked away the young lady said, "Ooh, he got pretty eyes." to which I replied, "Thank you ma'am.". I wonder what she thought about me calling her ma'am. They shut the door quickly and I imagined them both huddled over a pipe taking their evening trip out of "Crackville".
First visit to the Eastside (10 Aug 2009)
So, I started this community organization group called SAITSU. If you don't already know about it, please hit me up on FB to learn more. The purpose of the group is to, in short & simple terms, clean up the Eastside and make it into a respectable, sustainable community.
As a result of this program, I am going to be making trips to the Eastside to survey and speak with residents. I will try to do this at least twice a week...with my schedule, we'll see how it goes.
I have been looking for a house in the Dignowity Hills area of SA. This is the area between downtown SA and the middle-Eastside. I drove over to the area two days ago to look around and was interrupted by a phone call from my mother letting me know that someone had just tried to break into the house. (yeah...they live in the suburbs.) Before I got the call I drove around a bit to survey the area. I was happy to see a street full of new homes that had manicured lawns and clean driveways. They were a bit smaller than I would like, but they were nice nonetheless. This street was named after a prolific African-American civil rights leader Claude W. Black, who was from SA and did great things for our city during the civil rights era and many years after. I was excited to see a street named after him.
Unfortunately, I drove a block east and ran into a totally different environment. Yes, ONE BLOCK over. I saw drug addicts posted up on abandoned businesses, while a woman who I could only imagine was a prostitute walked down the sidewalk. I drove a little further and saw what I think was a hand to hand occur right on one of the main streets (N. Hackberry). I then remembered that there was a cop sitting directly around the corner...guess that didn't bother the dealer very much. I saw all of this within a three block radius!
This corruption and waste of humanity was all existing among abandoned buildings that had been boarded up, tagged up and forgotten. Among garbage ridden yards, sidewalks and any other open place. Among homes that were still being occupied, but looked like they should have been abandoned and demolished years ago. Among several (more than three) abandoned churches that once were the rock of the black community, but were now ghostly sights of the past.
I thought about all the funerals that occurred in those churches, the revivals, the community meetings, the civil rights rallies, the sermons, the weddings and I wondered what all those folks before would think if they walked through their old neighborhood today. If they walked through and saw their own daughters, sons, grandchildren, neices, nephews, etc...walking around with hopelessness in their eyes and a stark grimace for anyone they didn't recognize.
It's a discouraging feeling seeing all of this desperation and despondence. At the same time, the vision of it in my mind is what I needed to know that I am fighting the good fight, whether it is a waste of effort or not...I pray to God that it is not.
As a result of this program, I am going to be making trips to the Eastside to survey and speak with residents. I will try to do this at least twice a week...with my schedule, we'll see how it goes.
I have been looking for a house in the Dignowity Hills area of SA. This is the area between downtown SA and the middle-Eastside. I drove over to the area two days ago to look around and was interrupted by a phone call from my mother letting me know that someone had just tried to break into the house. (yeah...they live in the suburbs.) Before I got the call I drove around a bit to survey the area. I was happy to see a street full of new homes that had manicured lawns and clean driveways. They were a bit smaller than I would like, but they were nice nonetheless. This street was named after a prolific African-American civil rights leader Claude W. Black, who was from SA and did great things for our city during the civil rights era and many years after. I was excited to see a street named after him.
Unfortunately, I drove a block east and ran into a totally different environment. Yes, ONE BLOCK over. I saw drug addicts posted up on abandoned businesses, while a woman who I could only imagine was a prostitute walked down the sidewalk. I drove a little further and saw what I think was a hand to hand occur right on one of the main streets (N. Hackberry). I then remembered that there was a cop sitting directly around the corner...guess that didn't bother the dealer very much. I saw all of this within a three block radius!
This corruption and waste of humanity was all existing among abandoned buildings that had been boarded up, tagged up and forgotten. Among garbage ridden yards, sidewalks and any other open place. Among homes that were still being occupied, but looked like they should have been abandoned and demolished years ago. Among several (more than three) abandoned churches that once were the rock of the black community, but were now ghostly sights of the past.
I thought about all the funerals that occurred in those churches, the revivals, the community meetings, the civil rights rallies, the sermons, the weddings and I wondered what all those folks before would think if they walked through their old neighborhood today. If they walked through and saw their own daughters, sons, grandchildren, neices, nephews, etc...walking around with hopelessness in their eyes and a stark grimace for anyone they didn't recognize.
It's a discouraging feeling seeing all of this desperation and despondence. At the same time, the vision of it in my mind is what I needed to know that I am fighting the good fight, whether it is a waste of effort or not...I pray to God that it is not.
First Post
So, I've decided to start a blog. This decision was based on the interactions of one evening on the Eastside of San Antonio. Now, I don't want anyone to think that anything I say on here is making fun of anyone I reference. If you as a reader happen to laugh at the situations, then so be it. The main purpose of this blog is for me to get my thoughts out, and I figured what a beter way to do that, than PUBLICLY! lol So enjoy...
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