Bad.

I woke up early this morning to see four or five images of little children who have been shot and killed in Los Angeles. Because of some kind of gang warfare that is going on there. Then I saw a photograph of Jamiel Shaw, his blue casket being rolled into his funeral, his mother walking behind it. She returned from her second tour of duty in Iraq to bury her son, who was shot a few doors down from his home. Two hispanic men asked him what gang he belonged to and he failed to answer. The boy was a good student, well liked, and had a bright future. His parents raised him right. And now this.

A six year old boy was shot in the head and critically wounded, riding in an SUV with his family, by gang members flashing a sign. Although the gang homicide rate is down (overall homicides in LA are up, by the way), it just really made me feel bad to hear and then read about these things. It didn’t even matter that these particular victims were black. I just felt as a mother of sons, who tries to teach them to be young men of character, what kinda mess is this? Shooting into a family SUV? Shooting somebody on the sidewalk? Are these dudes being raised by wolves?

I’ve seen a lot. I’ve been to funerals of folk who were killed cause somebody just decided to walk into their door and start shooting. This stuff really made me outraged, frustrated and depressed. If LA can’t get it’s shit together with all of the money floating around there, who can? I wonder.