Oh no, no one can talk about any of this!!! Facebook did the same to me. They don’t want us communicating or sharing the truth!!! It doesn’t fit the narrative they are enforcing in everyone.
Yep. I've written a few pieces about Elon Musk as I don't believe that he's the savior of free speech, far from it. But a lot of people (conservatives mostly) don't agree with me. My most recent piece: Is Elon Musk the Anti-Christ (no, I don't think he is 😆)
I completely agree with you! I never believed his hype. Never joined X either. I post mainly on Facebook to piss them off. I am disturbed with the mind set of so many conservatives and they can’t see they are part of the problem. I didn’t read that one. I’ll check it out. Thanks!
I only stay there for research purposes. But it takes a mental and spiritual preparation to go on X now, it is so filled with hate and division, worse than it ever was before he took over.
I think part of the problem are the political trolls. I’ve seen the pages of really good conservative officeholders rampaged with these trolls that value nothing!! Not the innocence of children, life….nothing. We try to ignore them as responding actually gets them more money for trolling. I never knew this, plus you can’t wake up such hate filled and evil people. They are truly walking with Satan.
I served for 18 years as a local elected official and I watched the decline and serious change in thinking by the left. I retired in 2015 as the corruption and unlawfulness was getting too wide spread! I actually took my oath of office to heart unlike most new officials these days. It’s really a sad day for America to see us sliding so far down. I also taught Sunday School for 16 years and our church really went far left! I refused to bend to their new philosophies. I raised my kids there and once 2020 hit and they really drank the plandemic nonsense, we left.
You’re 100% right when you say that it’s that “it’s beyond belief”that “x” actually put a warning on your essay, suggesting that it might contain “sensitive content!” I don’t use Twitter (never have). However, I have read material that was or is on “X” occasionally when sent to me by others, so I have a little understanding of how it works. It appears that those who get these warnings, or are de-platformed usually happen to be the most eloquent writers, with well formulated opinions, and in my opinion, are the best truth telling warriors who possess the ethics held by the best investigative journalists. Those who shed light on the truth during oppressive times such as these, always draw controversy and may strike a few “sensitive nerves.” Instead of being offended, angry and negatively reacting, it would be so refreshing to see people simply responding with their opinion, along with some questions. That might result in opening a fair and informative dialogue along with the opportunity for the person to learn. At the very least, the offended party might find it’s ok to have a different opinion. Often those who respond with anger are projecting or may be reacting because you hit home. But to put a warning on work like yours is ridiculous and a little frightening.
I’ve found your essays here and they always ring true. You are so well researched and provide content that is both rich, deep, and beautifully written, no matter how difficult the subject matter may be for some to absorb. You also are quite skillful in dealing with those who respond to you in anger, usually due to misunderstanding or simply a lack of historical knowledge.
I agree with Susan Skinner’s comment about your writing. And you so touch the hearts of many. Please don’t stop.
(I haven’t read your last article and am looking forward to it. Now my curiosity is even more peaked)!
Karen, This is beautiful. Oh so beautiful on so many levels. I taught school for 40 years. What you have given to others is a wonderful gift . God gave you these special gifts in order for you to give them away. You have touched souls. There is no life better than that. Thank you...
I loved teaching every day and loving each child as if he/she was my own. Teaching was creative back in my early days. It gradually became more directed from the powers above just as large hospital corporations with administrators are managing doctors and nurses. It is sad to see the individual’s own unique talents and knowledge be gradually fazed out. I am old now, but if I had youth on my side, I would be a part of the underground to stomp out the tyranny of collectivism. I pray to God every day for my beautiful America to be set free again. My life of freedom has been so blessed, and my heart is beyond grateful to the Almighty. America has turned away from God and we are seeing the results. Read 2Chronicles 7: 14
Best wishes to you as you share your beautiful writings.
Thank you. It's so sad. You experienced these changes first hand. I have hopes that by passing on some of these stories they will continue to touch lives of children in the future.
Karen, this brought me to tears. You make the world a better place. I wish I could give you a hug. Your words, your artwork~ YOU
are beautiful beyond words. The video of the little girl boxing - her expression said it all~ love and strength expanding. You are surely changing lives. Please share more of these stories. 🙏💚🙏
Thanks, this is beautiful and inspiring. I was in juvenile hall in San Diego a decade earlier, and mental hospitals and jail and a bit of prison. I like to write. I love words. We win this thing with words. Check out my new word, coincidist, describing people who blame medical harm on coincidence. Coincidism is a filthy thing that goes right along with fascism and communism. We counter coincidism with creativity, humor and love. Keep writing everyone!
What a wonderful thing you did for these girls, while their families abandoned them to the tragedies of the streets and abusive relatives. Reading about each one of these girls really touched my heart. Gangs became their families but they weren’t families, they used and abused them. This is what the welfare system has done to every family sucked into this life! They were never raised to love their children and teach them responsibility and caring. My grandparents used to have a neighborhood grocery store that we would frequent and stay overnight at their house. We saw the families who came in and how so many kids were abandoned by alcoholic and drugged out parents. My grandparents would always make sure the kids got something good to eat and never expected payment. When the sixties riots came, they were forced to close because the very people they helped turned on them, robbed them and tied them up executionary style to kill them. Fortunately someone walked into the store and the black man ran out. None of us were ever prejudice. But it became a sign of the times. All the issues we’ve ever had were from violent blacks! And they wonder why others didn’t want them anywhere near them! This was all by design by the powers that be! I’ve tried to reach people about that and this was purposely done to them to create this nightmare, but they don’t believe it. They prefer to believe the lies. They never look at the fact that there is no family responsibility or goals to become responsible people. Mom has had many children without even knowing who the fathers were all for those promised babies for benefits. I met women with 10 kids who had a different father for each and they never cared that these kids were never raised as a real family. It wasn’t this way for other minorities and whites. I am sick of the white privilege BS! My dad came from a family of 9 and lost his mother from a fall while she was pregnant with his youngest brother. The difference was they all took care of each other and kept the family together. He watched the decline in the cities and he and one of brothers moved out to a suburb and built homes next to each other. The saddest thing not enough people want to change the narrative. Now its open season on innocent children, and anything goes, while loving parents can lose their children for,protecting them.
This is so sad to read. I wouldn't lump all blacks together as "they". But it is such traumatic experiences as your grandparents had that make an imprint on us and it's hard to ever recover. I've met too many wonderful people all over the world and see how prejudice and hatred do the same thing in all countries, in all communities. I just try my best to fight against it in every way I can. When my kids were growing up, my house was filled with kids from all backgrounds, ethnicities, black, brown, Jews, Persians (they didn't like being called Iranians) and so on. The kids that sat on my sofa had no prejudices against one another and I really thought those days were behind us. Well, the powers that be had other ideas. It's so disheartening.
I understand and try not to. I’ve met many wonderful black people over the years who didn’t like what was happening either. My kids had black friends who were great kids. It’s just that whole time growing up watching what happened to my grandparents and these great old neighborhoods was so disheartening. It was hard not to become prejudice. My dad was almost killed a couple of times trying to protect my grandparents property from being burned down. Another time six black men came in and took him by gunpoint to a warehouse to kill him. One of the black men had a change of heart and they fought their way out. After that another time they threw a gasoline soaked mattress in front of his car from an overpass and he drove on to it. He had to stop and pull it out. It burned his hands so badly that he had to knock on the front door because he couldn’t open it. It was horrible as a kid watching your dad break down sobbing. Before the riots everyone got along and it didn’t matter your color, but why did so many black youth and adults turn on the people that were their neighbors. These neighborhoods became very unsafe and you had to be prepared for anything. I had about sixty black adults try to stop my car in the seventies and I knew I couldn’t stop or I’d be killed. There was no reason other than they formed two large groups on each side of the street and they were trying to make us stop. I refused to be a victim and stepped on the gas. They had to jump out of the way. These neighborhoods never recovered and are some of the very worse there is. Human trafficking, shootings, you name it. I could write a book about what really happened then, but it doesn’t fit the narrative. I’ve tried to speak to black families about how it was then, but they don’t want to believe the real truth. It’s sad because those who stayed are now the victims or their families have become victims or statistics.
I'm so sorry you endured that. You should write it all down, if you can. Even if it's never published, it helps to put it on paper. These often become deep-rooted and bitter hatreds. I saw it in Yugoslavia. I lived there when the Yugoslavia was united under Tito, but once he died the facade fell away and all the hatreds formed over hundreds of years came to the surface. As long as people can't move on from the past and forgive one another, there will never be a different future. On the other hand, as I've talked about so often in my essays, when you are attacked, you can't just let it happen, you have to defend yourself. We are put into these horrible predicaments. It often feels impossible to solve them. I believe the answers are spiritual and won't work just by replacing one government with another.
Thank you. The thing is with all of this I don’t hate black people and I am still not prejudice. It would be very easy to be that way. My grandmother was scared to death of them after what they went through, but I really have tried to bring awareness to what happens when people allow complete strangers to put out a narrative about things that didn’t happen in many peoples lives. I’ve even been stalked at work and it was two different black men, and one of the women in an adjacent office was raped in our common bathroom by a black man. But I also had black men who worked by me come to my aid or to call them if I needed help. I was the first office when you walked into the building. Sorry for the long discussion, but I have a lot of situations that would have changed most people in how they feel about others.
Even in 2010, my youngest son and three of his friends went to a college party and all the houses were having spring parties. They pulled up to the house they were going to and a large group of black men came out of the house next door and started attacking them and they had to fight their way out. So twenty some men against four. By the grace of God they got out of there after they broke the windows out of the back of my car trying to get in it. Apparently no one was safe that night from this group and they continued their attacks all night. So you have to ask yourself why when everyone else was trying to enjoy themselves with no thoughts of race, this group was out to injure and hurt others. So unfortunately this is what so many people experience.
In the USA at least, you cannot be punished for crimes committed by your family. If, say, your parent or grandparent cheated someone, you as the child cannot be punished by law for it. In other countries, this may not be the case. I would like to know then how it is that anyones 'whiteness' can be held over them in this way, to the point where that which we might contribute to society is thwarted. I think at times of trying to teach music skills (I play brass instruments like trombone and flugelhorn) to incarcerated people, but this blame whitey forever movement dissuades me from even trying.
It's very difficult now, although it might be a bit easier now than it was a couple of years ago during the BLM mania. None of this makes any sense, but it doesn't matter. Insanity has replaced reason.
Beautiful and moving! You are speaking the truth, and we all should re-member the things that make us human, and stop allowing them to be taken from us. In the beginning was the word!
A powerful tale, more so bein' real an' true an' lived experience! the genuine power of words is that they kin tear down barriers--race, male-female, rich-poor, faith, an' so much more an' that's whut ya did Karen, ya calmly tore down the barriers an' let the girls' words come out (untethered from the walls that held those young women whose paths--it sadly seems--were twisted an' beaten down from the start). With words, you changed their lives--that's sumthin'! Whut struck me was not only that today ya couldn't've done this b/c of the whole racism/whi'pee-pull thing (hate that stuff beyond words) but because...today....young people DO NOT READ an' DO NOT WRITE.
THIS is the double crime of the century (the 21st). Young'uns that could not even do what your class girls did are the norm--some kin barely print their names, some are full-out illiterate, most just text--half-words, inarticulate an' lost. There is no poetry in the voice of a finger pokin' a shortcut key to say bye... buttons an' clicks cannot replace words an' the beauty of stories... Even computers (no more longhand, no more manual typewriters, not even any more typin' on them nifty electric IBM Selectrics) didn't kill writing or words... Humans adapted (fer better 'er worse) as did writing. BUT I fear the age of the cell phone did finally kill writin'--making the POWER of shared human experience only a delete key away.
Kin we regain our footsteps in the digital age? Even if we erase the false-gawd "identity" barriers they put up between folks, what will they say in the void left? (I worry.... ) Meantimes my girls still have ta write real stuff on college-lined paper... outliers fer sure-
So true. It hurts me that most young people will never know the magic of opening a book and losing themselves in the pages. This really is something that must be done during childhood when life hasn't yet so completely bogged you down. But kids these days just like adults have no "time". There is no luxury of just lying about and reading. They can't stay still for that long, at least not without some constant over-stimulation from the Vast Machine. It's just so tragic.
tragic, yup. an' ya raise an'uther good point--attention span--it's gone! lyin' on yer floor on yer tummy an' readin' fer hours--none've these digitally "enhanced" kids will know that pleasure... Also so true, it MUST start when yer little. Lord knows my fambly warn't perfect but as long as I kin remember we had books all around an' everyone read'em! Aloud too! My eldest is nearly 22 an' I read ta my girls every night (doin' all the funny voices too). Now even teachers cain't read aloud ta save their lives... (sigh)
Thank you Karen. I was an instructor at the biggest state prison in Pennsylvania called SCI Graterford...100 year old max security prison with 40 foot walls and sniper towers it wad the biggest and bloodiest prison for men in Pennsylvania. I was there for 4 years and I'll never forget it. There's a very raw but honest way a lot of the men have in there.... I led a gang leader to the Lord. I had a Bible on my desk in the shop and I could talk about the Lord in the whole prison...on death row and in all of the blocks in the prison..I had a good reputation with the staff and the inmates. I always thought to myself if they allowed the Bible in public schools most of those men would not be in the prison where I can freely have a Bible on my desk. Oh the irony....I have many stories and miss my time there where the Lord showed me so many things about myself and His faithfulness...
Wow, this is wonderful thank you for sharing. I always thought of juvenile hall as a kind of pergatory. It was an in-between place where they were open to more reflection than usual. It was also a terrible, dehumanizing place. Kids as young as eight years old were housed there because they didn't know what else to do with them. Thank God there are people like yourself that bring some light to such dark places. God bless you.
Well, that was glorious! (Your words express what so many of us instinctively know, that hate and prejudice are taught behaviors.) I look forward to all your writings, but these “uplifting” essays are some of my favorites. My email Inbox is stuffed full because of all the weather issues we’ve had here in the last week (frozen pipes, no heat, etc), but one of the first things I did when I got on line was to seek out your posts. What a reward…thank you.
Oh, the power of YOUR words, Karen. To transport us to a world we will never know, show us the beauty of every human soul, and inspire us to act as you did, from compassion, non-judgment, and freedom. My heart is overflowing. Thank you.
Well, I've learned not to assume that I can just take a quick look at something you post and then get back to my day. Now, an hour later, I have to figure out how to rearrange my day. All your fault! ;-)
It was amazing to watch you make your way from that most inauspicious starting point to actually succeed at creating a writing group. Wow. Throwing a lifeline to wounded people drowning in deep turbulent waters. And watching each soul grab hold for dear life as they begin to recognize the value of the gift that you had placed before them. Wow.
Haha, thank you. There is so much more to the story, of course. Of how I first managed to finagle my way into juvenile hall, since I wasn't any kind of expert, and then the disapproval I got from friends, my husband, even my own family. In those days, there weren't really any writing programs like I started. Once it became "cool" in Hollywood, a whole other set of problems arose. Slowly, but surely, I will tell the whole story.
But I'm gonna quibble about the horse. That is no horse "dancing." That is a horse urged forward and being yanked back. See its mouth hanging open? It moves via threat of the whip. There is no joy in this "dancing."
One more reason why I can't stand Elon Musk's X. When I shared this essay, they put a warning on it that it might contain "sensitive" content. I refuse the "blue check" and am censored there but this is beyond belief. https://twitter.com/karenalainehunt/status/1749068315585294622?t=TRwuy87Ps0ABbMB9lycRDA&s=19
Oh no, no one can talk about any of this!!! Facebook did the same to me. They don’t want us communicating or sharing the truth!!! It doesn’t fit the narrative they are enforcing in everyone.
Yep. I've written a few pieces about Elon Musk as I don't believe that he's the savior of free speech, far from it. But a lot of people (conservatives mostly) don't agree with me. My most recent piece: Is Elon Musk the Anti-Christ (no, I don't think he is 😆)
"The thing that people, I think, don’t appreciate right now is that they are already a cyborg...I think people—they’re already kind of merged with their phone and their laptop." ~ Elon Musk https://open.substack.com/pub/khmezek/p/is-elon-musk-the-anti-christ
I completely agree with you! I never believed his hype. Never joined X either. I post mainly on Facebook to piss them off. I am disturbed with the mind set of so many conservatives and they can’t see they are part of the problem. I didn’t read that one. I’ll check it out. Thanks!
I only stay there for research purposes. But it takes a mental and spiritual preparation to go on X now, it is so filled with hate and division, worse than it ever was before he took over.
I think part of the problem are the political trolls. I’ve seen the pages of really good conservative officeholders rampaged with these trolls that value nothing!! Not the innocence of children, life….nothing. We try to ignore them as responding actually gets them more money for trolling. I never knew this, plus you can’t wake up such hate filled and evil people. They are truly walking with Satan.
I served for 18 years as a local elected official and I watched the decline and serious change in thinking by the left. I retired in 2015 as the corruption and unlawfulness was getting too wide spread! I actually took my oath of office to heart unlike most new officials these days. It’s really a sad day for America to see us sliding so far down. I also taught Sunday School for 16 years and our church really went far left! I refused to bend to their new philosophies. I raised my kids there and once 2020 hit and they really drank the plandemic nonsense, we left.
It's very disheartening what happened to churches. Very few stops up. They were afraid to lose their congregation. And they don't speak up now either.
You’re 100% right when you say that it’s that “it’s beyond belief”that “x” actually put a warning on your essay, suggesting that it might contain “sensitive content!” I don’t use Twitter (never have). However, I have read material that was or is on “X” occasionally when sent to me by others, so I have a little understanding of how it works. It appears that those who get these warnings, or are de-platformed usually happen to be the most eloquent writers, with well formulated opinions, and in my opinion, are the best truth telling warriors who possess the ethics held by the best investigative journalists. Those who shed light on the truth during oppressive times such as these, always draw controversy and may strike a few “sensitive nerves.” Instead of being offended, angry and negatively reacting, it would be so refreshing to see people simply responding with their opinion, along with some questions. That might result in opening a fair and informative dialogue along with the opportunity for the person to learn. At the very least, the offended party might find it’s ok to have a different opinion. Often those who respond with anger are projecting or may be reacting because you hit home. But to put a warning on work like yours is ridiculous and a little frightening.
I’ve found your essays here and they always ring true. You are so well researched and provide content that is both rich, deep, and beautifully written, no matter how difficult the subject matter may be for some to absorb. You also are quite skillful in dealing with those who respond to you in anger, usually due to misunderstanding or simply a lack of historical knowledge.
I agree with Susan Skinner’s comment about your writing. And you so touch the hearts of many. Please don’t stop.
(I haven’t read your last article and am looking forward to it. Now my curiosity is even more peaked)!
Karen, This is beautiful. Oh so beautiful on so many levels. I taught school for 40 years. What you have given to others is a wonderful gift . God gave you these special gifts in order for you to give them away. You have touched souls. There is no life better than that. Thank you...
Ah, thank you so much. There is no more important job than teaching children. I'm sure you touched countless lives. God bless you!
I loved teaching every day and loving each child as if he/she was my own. Teaching was creative back in my early days. It gradually became more directed from the powers above just as large hospital corporations with administrators are managing doctors and nurses. It is sad to see the individual’s own unique talents and knowledge be gradually fazed out. I am old now, but if I had youth on my side, I would be a part of the underground to stomp out the tyranny of collectivism. I pray to God every day for my beautiful America to be set free again. My life of freedom has been so blessed, and my heart is beyond grateful to the Almighty. America has turned away from God and we are seeing the results. Read 2Chronicles 7: 14
Best wishes to you as you share your beautiful writings.
Thank you. It's so sad. You experienced these changes first hand. I have hopes that by passing on some of these stories they will continue to touch lives of children in the future.
AND I will be praying that each one you write will touch the souls of your readers. Keep that pen moving across the page.
Karen, this brought me to tears. You make the world a better place. I wish I could give you a hug. Your words, your artwork~ YOU
are beautiful beyond words. The video of the little girl boxing - her expression said it all~ love and strength expanding. You are surely changing lives. Please share more of these stories. 🙏💚🙏
I will. Thank you so much ♥️
Thanks, this is beautiful and inspiring. I was in juvenile hall in San Diego a decade earlier, and mental hospitals and jail and a bit of prison. I like to write. I love words. We win this thing with words. Check out my new word, coincidist, describing people who blame medical harm on coincidence. Coincidism is a filthy thing that goes right along with fascism and communism. We counter coincidism with creativity, humor and love. Keep writing everyone!
https://open.substack.com/pub/coincidism/p/ive-created-a-concept-i-call-coincidism?
What a wonderful thing you did for these girls, while their families abandoned them to the tragedies of the streets and abusive relatives. Reading about each one of these girls really touched my heart. Gangs became their families but they weren’t families, they used and abused them. This is what the welfare system has done to every family sucked into this life! They were never raised to love their children and teach them responsibility and caring. My grandparents used to have a neighborhood grocery store that we would frequent and stay overnight at their house. We saw the families who came in and how so many kids were abandoned by alcoholic and drugged out parents. My grandparents would always make sure the kids got something good to eat and never expected payment. When the sixties riots came, they were forced to close because the very people they helped turned on them, robbed them and tied them up executionary style to kill them. Fortunately someone walked into the store and the black man ran out. None of us were ever prejudice. But it became a sign of the times. All the issues we’ve ever had were from violent blacks! And they wonder why others didn’t want them anywhere near them! This was all by design by the powers that be! I’ve tried to reach people about that and this was purposely done to them to create this nightmare, but they don’t believe it. They prefer to believe the lies. They never look at the fact that there is no family responsibility or goals to become responsible people. Mom has had many children without even knowing who the fathers were all for those promised babies for benefits. I met women with 10 kids who had a different father for each and they never cared that these kids were never raised as a real family. It wasn’t this way for other minorities and whites. I am sick of the white privilege BS! My dad came from a family of 9 and lost his mother from a fall while she was pregnant with his youngest brother. The difference was they all took care of each other and kept the family together. He watched the decline in the cities and he and one of brothers moved out to a suburb and built homes next to each other. The saddest thing not enough people want to change the narrative. Now its open season on innocent children, and anything goes, while loving parents can lose their children for,protecting them.
This is so sad to read. I wouldn't lump all blacks together as "they". But it is such traumatic experiences as your grandparents had that make an imprint on us and it's hard to ever recover. I've met too many wonderful people all over the world and see how prejudice and hatred do the same thing in all countries, in all communities. I just try my best to fight against it in every way I can. When my kids were growing up, my house was filled with kids from all backgrounds, ethnicities, black, brown, Jews, Persians (they didn't like being called Iranians) and so on. The kids that sat on my sofa had no prejudices against one another and I really thought those days were behind us. Well, the powers that be had other ideas. It's so disheartening.
I understand and try not to. I’ve met many wonderful black people over the years who didn’t like what was happening either. My kids had black friends who were great kids. It’s just that whole time growing up watching what happened to my grandparents and these great old neighborhoods was so disheartening. It was hard not to become prejudice. My dad was almost killed a couple of times trying to protect my grandparents property from being burned down. Another time six black men came in and took him by gunpoint to a warehouse to kill him. One of the black men had a change of heart and they fought their way out. After that another time they threw a gasoline soaked mattress in front of his car from an overpass and he drove on to it. He had to stop and pull it out. It burned his hands so badly that he had to knock on the front door because he couldn’t open it. It was horrible as a kid watching your dad break down sobbing. Before the riots everyone got along and it didn’t matter your color, but why did so many black youth and adults turn on the people that were their neighbors. These neighborhoods became very unsafe and you had to be prepared for anything. I had about sixty black adults try to stop my car in the seventies and I knew I couldn’t stop or I’d be killed. There was no reason other than they formed two large groups on each side of the street and they were trying to make us stop. I refused to be a victim and stepped on the gas. They had to jump out of the way. These neighborhoods never recovered and are some of the very worse there is. Human trafficking, shootings, you name it. I could write a book about what really happened then, but it doesn’t fit the narrative. I’ve tried to speak to black families about how it was then, but they don’t want to believe the real truth. It’s sad because those who stayed are now the victims or their families have become victims or statistics.
I'm so sorry you endured that. You should write it all down, if you can. Even if it's never published, it helps to put it on paper. These often become deep-rooted and bitter hatreds. I saw it in Yugoslavia. I lived there when the Yugoslavia was united under Tito, but once he died the facade fell away and all the hatreds formed over hundreds of years came to the surface. As long as people can't move on from the past and forgive one another, there will never be a different future. On the other hand, as I've talked about so often in my essays, when you are attacked, you can't just let it happen, you have to defend yourself. We are put into these horrible predicaments. It often feels impossible to solve them. I believe the answers are spiritual and won't work just by replacing one government with another.
Thank you. The thing is with all of this I don’t hate black people and I am still not prejudice. It would be very easy to be that way. My grandmother was scared to death of them after what they went through, but I really have tried to bring awareness to what happens when people allow complete strangers to put out a narrative about things that didn’t happen in many peoples lives. I’ve even been stalked at work and it was two different black men, and one of the women in an adjacent office was raped in our common bathroom by a black man. But I also had black men who worked by me come to my aid or to call them if I needed help. I was the first office when you walked into the building. Sorry for the long discussion, but I have a lot of situations that would have changed most people in how they feel about others.
Not to worry, I appreciate that you were able to share your difficult experiences here. Thank you.
Even in 2010, my youngest son and three of his friends went to a college party and all the houses were having spring parties. They pulled up to the house they were going to and a large group of black men came out of the house next door and started attacking them and they had to fight their way out. So twenty some men against four. By the grace of God they got out of there after they broke the windows out of the back of my car trying to get in it. Apparently no one was safe that night from this group and they continued their attacks all night. So you have to ask yourself why when everyone else was trying to enjoy themselves with no thoughts of race, this group was out to injure and hurt others. So unfortunately this is what so many people experience.
In the USA at least, you cannot be punished for crimes committed by your family. If, say, your parent or grandparent cheated someone, you as the child cannot be punished by law for it. In other countries, this may not be the case. I would like to know then how it is that anyones 'whiteness' can be held over them in this way, to the point where that which we might contribute to society is thwarted. I think at times of trying to teach music skills (I play brass instruments like trombone and flugelhorn) to incarcerated people, but this blame whitey forever movement dissuades me from even trying.
It's very difficult now, although it might be a bit easier now than it was a couple of years ago during the BLM mania. None of this makes any sense, but it doesn't matter. Insanity has replaced reason.
Beautiful and moving! You are speaking the truth, and we all should re-member the things that make us human, and stop allowing them to be taken from us. In the beginning was the word!
Amen!
A powerful tale, more so bein' real an' true an' lived experience! the genuine power of words is that they kin tear down barriers--race, male-female, rich-poor, faith, an' so much more an' that's whut ya did Karen, ya calmly tore down the barriers an' let the girls' words come out (untethered from the walls that held those young women whose paths--it sadly seems--were twisted an' beaten down from the start). With words, you changed their lives--that's sumthin'! Whut struck me was not only that today ya couldn't've done this b/c of the whole racism/whi'pee-pull thing (hate that stuff beyond words) but because...today....young people DO NOT READ an' DO NOT WRITE.
THIS is the double crime of the century (the 21st). Young'uns that could not even do what your class girls did are the norm--some kin barely print their names, some are full-out illiterate, most just text--half-words, inarticulate an' lost. There is no poetry in the voice of a finger pokin' a shortcut key to say bye... buttons an' clicks cannot replace words an' the beauty of stories... Even computers (no more longhand, no more manual typewriters, not even any more typin' on them nifty electric IBM Selectrics) didn't kill writing or words... Humans adapted (fer better 'er worse) as did writing. BUT I fear the age of the cell phone did finally kill writin'--making the POWER of shared human experience only a delete key away.
Kin we regain our footsteps in the digital age? Even if we erase the false-gawd "identity" barriers they put up between folks, what will they say in the void left? (I worry.... ) Meantimes my girls still have ta write real stuff on college-lined paper... outliers fer sure-
So true. It hurts me that most young people will never know the magic of opening a book and losing themselves in the pages. This really is something that must be done during childhood when life hasn't yet so completely bogged you down. But kids these days just like adults have no "time". There is no luxury of just lying about and reading. They can't stay still for that long, at least not without some constant over-stimulation from the Vast Machine. It's just so tragic.
tragic, yup. an' ya raise an'uther good point--attention span--it's gone! lyin' on yer floor on yer tummy an' readin' fer hours--none've these digitally "enhanced" kids will know that pleasure... Also so true, it MUST start when yer little. Lord knows my fambly warn't perfect but as long as I kin remember we had books all around an' everyone read'em! Aloud too! My eldest is nearly 22 an' I read ta my girls every night (doin' all the funny voices too). Now even teachers cain't read aloud ta save their lives... (sigh)
Best memories reading to my kids at bedtime. Also telling them stories. It was a magical time.
Thank you Karen. I was an instructor at the biggest state prison in Pennsylvania called SCI Graterford...100 year old max security prison with 40 foot walls and sniper towers it wad the biggest and bloodiest prison for men in Pennsylvania. I was there for 4 years and I'll never forget it. There's a very raw but honest way a lot of the men have in there.... I led a gang leader to the Lord. I had a Bible on my desk in the shop and I could talk about the Lord in the whole prison...on death row and in all of the blocks in the prison..I had a good reputation with the staff and the inmates. I always thought to myself if they allowed the Bible in public schools most of those men would not be in the prison where I can freely have a Bible on my desk. Oh the irony....I have many stories and miss my time there where the Lord showed me so many things about myself and His faithfulness...
Wow, this is wonderful thank you for sharing. I always thought of juvenile hall as a kind of pergatory. It was an in-between place where they were open to more reflection than usual. It was also a terrible, dehumanizing place. Kids as young as eight years old were housed there because they didn't know what else to do with them. Thank God there are people like yourself that bring some light to such dark places. God bless you.
Well, that was glorious! (Your words express what so many of us instinctively know, that hate and prejudice are taught behaviors.) I look forward to all your writings, but these “uplifting” essays are some of my favorites. My email Inbox is stuffed full because of all the weather issues we’ve had here in the last week (frozen pipes, no heat, etc), but one of the first things I did when I got on line was to seek out your posts. What a reward…thank you.
Thank you so much 🙏
Oh, the power of YOUR words, Karen. To transport us to a world we will never know, show us the beauty of every human soul, and inspire us to act as you did, from compassion, non-judgment, and freedom. My heart is overflowing. Thank you.
Thank you so much for your encouragement. It keeps me writing!
Well, I've learned not to assume that I can just take a quick look at something you post and then get back to my day. Now, an hour later, I have to figure out how to rearrange my day. All your fault! ;-)
It was amazing to watch you make your way from that most inauspicious starting point to actually succeed at creating a writing group. Wow. Throwing a lifeline to wounded people drowning in deep turbulent waters. And watching each soul grab hold for dear life as they begin to recognize the value of the gift that you had placed before them. Wow.
Thank you for your service.
Haha, thank you. There is so much more to the story, of course. Of how I first managed to finagle my way into juvenile hall, since I wasn't any kind of expert, and then the disapproval I got from friends, my husband, even my own family. In those days, there weren't really any writing programs like I started. Once it became "cool" in Hollywood, a whole other set of problems arose. Slowly, but surely, I will tell the whole story.
Loved this.
But I'm gonna quibble about the horse. That is no horse "dancing." That is a horse urged forward and being yanked back. See its mouth hanging open? It moves via threat of the whip. There is no joy in this "dancing."
Oh, I agree. It's horrible. They do not treat their animals well.
I’m so glad I read all of this article. All you said was true. What a gift you gave them.
Thank you. They have so much to me, too. I'm so thankful for the experience.
Thank you for shining the true light once again- so people's blindness can be cured.
Love this essay!!!
Thank you!
Bravo!