No One Really Knows...

...cries she with silent lips.
"Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"
from the sonnet "The New Colossus"
by Emma Lazarus.

No one really knows what happened. Will anyone investigate or is it just another black teenager dead out on the highway? Another youth gone from us too soon.
ak

-Someone just awoke and arises from the natural elements. He begins to walk down the highway and to the 24 hour convenience store about two miles away. It's the middle of the night, but he's hungry.

-This is the Midwest, supplier of food to the entire world. A good place to raise your kids. A balanced people with traditional values.

-He's homeless and weak. A new graduate, only 19.

-He falls, trips really, as his jeans get into the way of his feet. He's lost weight.

-There he is on a highway near the interstate. Waiting, gathering strength to get back up again, he hullucinates. He hears a wolf cry. May be its a dog. He's too upset. "How did it get this way?" he thinks and cries to himself.

-Around the bend comes a semi-truck...may be. It could be the moon. Did he notice the moon before. "Oh, what the fuck!' he yells as he pulls his arms and slowly positions himself to stand upright.

-How many days has it been since he'd had enough food and drink?

-Shallow puddles nearby. It's springtime in Iowa. A semi-truck is coming 'round the bend.

-He didn't know the number was two. Two semi-trucks not one. He never found out. Does it matter? It only took the one.

-One semi going down the highway near the interstate hit and killed a teenager last night. "No charges will be brought." That's what the news said, anyway.

"No one's to blame. That's good," we all think.

-In my mind, he's still there lying on that highway. I wonder what his parents think.

How did it all get this way?

moonlitetwine
pic, http://www.voamass.org/Portals/21/African%20America%20teen%20boy%20b_w.jpg

Mothers' Day for Mothers Torn Apart

"Most (mothers apart) used to be part of a family structure and were, in the main, its lynchpin. After divorce or separation, many were ostracised from that family, deliberately and maliciously, and denied the opportunity to support the well-being of their children." MATCH Mothers Apart From Their Children



As Mothers' Day quickly aproaches here in the United States, it is a time when children remember Mommy kisses on the forehead or cheek as they finally go to sleep each night. It's a time to remember your mother and how much you were begging for mercy, after you flipped to her last switch, and you knew full well something severe was deserved. It's a time to try counting how many times you said, "I'm sorry," or "I love you."



As a mother, no one can deny your identity in being a mother. You were there at the time. Even if a mother is under sedation, mother and infant know one another, passively as a flower knows its leaves. Assuredly, you recommend survival of your child. Redeemingly, the child eats for you.



Throughout a child's ups and downs, a mother cares for her child, as a lion cares for her cub, gently and protectively. A mother will look around outside before her child goes out to visit a friend, ride a toy or just to play in the dirt. She guards her child in the aisles of the store. She advises, hoping her child has listened well, then, repeats the advice again and again just to be sure.



But, if there is some reason that you have been torn apart from your child or children, there is no substitute or remedy. Far too many times mothers are being intentionally kept from their children through manipulation, brainwashing and other pschological advantages another adult can place over a child. Sometimes, the battle to just see your child is overwhelming and seems to be harming her or him by the process. Sometimes, a mother will intentionally stop trying to make contact with that person she's known since before its birth in order to give him or her some kind of peace deservedly needed.



It is all too true, that children may never see their mother for months, years at a time. Often Mother is gone, and there is no regret, no desire, no missing Mother and no wanting to wish her a "Happy Mother's Day."



I feel saddness for these children and for the mothers apart from them, really apart. How much does a child miss without a mother's gentle caress on her son's back or a semi-good haircut her daughter stopped receiving. I feel badly for society, when any mother is apart from her child. Who better to know when a bully shows up on the street than the bully's mother? Can anyone more readily teach a youngster "Stranger Danger" on a daily basis, than a mother if she's there and not torn apart during upbringing?

Whether at home, at school or out in the neighborhood, mothers are one of the most valuable qualifiers for a healthy child and a stable society.

Bugs and H1N1

Wow!

A new threat for America's homeless became apparent late last week, the now famous Swine Flu or H1N1. Of course, again Swine Flu can affect anyone, the rich and poor. But, there was a very telling statement made by a woman living in Mexico on the Public Radio Station, NPR,

'They say to wash our hands. All the time we should be washing our hands. But, how will we do that with no water, which will run out by the end of the week.'

I don't think most homeless folk here in the US are too worried about a possibly life threatening virus. Meals, a safe place to sleep, as well as, bed bugs, head lice, body lice, public lice, scabies, shoes and socks are carrying a much higher priority. If a homeless person gets Swine Flu, may be he or she will be lucky and get sick enough for a day or two stay in the hospital.

If H1N1 does become more widespread and people in the US begin to stack up in local hospitals, most people can hold on for awhile. Plus, it is a distraction from our sour economy. But, similar to the Mexican woman, how will the poor be able to afford masks, enough disinfectant wipes or even babysitters if schools close for months at a time. How will the homeless be treated? And, will shelters have to make exclusionary rules?