Not many well-raised kids have a dad and brother busted for dealing in meth.
The article paints an overall picture of an area so overrun with gang culture that people had gotten used to it. Complacency. Jessica supposedly was going to write a book about how she survived her brush with gang culture. So she knew too much. Plus her dad was, despite his meth bust, allowed to work for the police dept. Not an officer, some sort of maintenance activity. So Jessica was the most natural target for a racial revenge crime.
My dad was a principal in a south side high school in Chicago, had a lot of first had experience with the degeneration of black inner city culture. He had a program that was working to find kids who wanted out and got them on an academic track that helped them escape. But the program was shut down by the original Mayor Daley, working with Jesse Jackson. JJ sat in my dad’s office and told him to his face he was the wrong color for the job.
So there’s a monstrous evil at work here. I’m not convinced it’s right to blame a young lady for the home and town she’s born into. Yes, she could have made better choices. Maybe when she was five she could have run away from home. But the fact remains she was trying to get it right, even after all she’d been through. I am impressed with that. It takes courage, and the rare ability to see beyond one’s immediate circumstances. I am very sorry it didn’t work out for her.
But the people who did this to her are to blame for her death. Not her. It’s cutting them an excuse to be feral if we blame the victim. It serves their purpose. That’s what gangs want. Fear and avoidance. We give them that, and they’ve got from us what they want. We become victims by extension, just like they want. What they don’t want is to be held to account. One way or another, that’s what’s got to happen. We have no choice. We can all be Jessica Chambers now, by choice, or we will all end up being Jessica Chambers later, whether we like it or not.
“Not many well-raised kids have a dad and brother busted for dealing in meth.”
Exactly; she wasn’t brought up to believe she could be better, she had to end up learning it herself after a series of messes. I’ve been there so I completely empathize. She had so much working against her it’s no wonder she ended up in several bad situations.
“But the people who did this to her are to blame for her death. Not her. It’s cutting them an excuse to be feral if we blame the victim. It serves their purpose. That’s what gangs want. Fear and avoidance. We give them that, and they’ve got from us what they want. We become victims by extension, just like they want. What they don’t want is to be held to account. One way or another, that’s what’s got to happen. We have no choice. We can all be Jessica Chambers now, by choice, or we will all end up being Jessica Chambers later, whether we like it or not.”
I’m sick of it; people who try to better themselves are dragged down. I’ve recently made a conscious choice to make a break with family members and while it’s poignant, it’s well worth it in the long run if it means an uncomplicated life for myself.
” had a lot of first had experience with the degeneration of black inner city culture”
So have I; these people are so lost and yet, determined to wallow in misery and not let anyone else get out.
“I’m not convinced it’s right to blame a young lady for the home and town she’s born into.”
This guy gets it. We allow evil scum to move freely into almost every nook in this Country, allow it to grow, and we blame it on “bad decisions” BS!
You know who is to blame, me and every other able bodied man who allows this to spread without exterminating it.
You are correct.
I don’t know how it’s possible to be so stupid as to want to blame Jessica for this.