During the 2007-2008 school year the community in Turner Courts began coming together to speak out about many of the injustices and inequities in their community. We didn't have the process perfected yet. Each time we had a meeting it was like pulling teeth to get people to come out. But, there were little victories won here and there and some community members gained a little more faith in the process. Click here and you can see many of the efforts we undertook.
Unfortunately, just about the time we were building steam...just about the time residents were beginning to feel a stake in the process and knew they had the ear of the city and the Dallas Housing Authority, the decision to tear down Turner Courts came through. Central Dallas, along with all of the residents, were forced to find other places to settle.
We have attempted to keep in touch with our friends and neighbors from Turner Courts, but we're often dependent on them calling us since their phone numbers often change pretty regularly. I think it is a testament to say that many have kept our phone numbers and call to check in every once in a while.
Yesterday the phone call came from Maria.
Maria has six kids. She makes sure that she takes advantages of opportunities, makes sure to attend Bible study 2-3 times a week, and wants to see her children receive the best opportunities possible. Maria is also enrolled in a GED program. If her car is broken down, she packs up the family (even the baby) and they ride the bus wherever they need to go...planning ahead to manage the extra ride time and the extra distance between where the bus lets off and where she needs to go.
Unfortunately, despite her best efforts, Maria struggles with her oldest two boys--one 16 and one 14. Both have found the "wrong crowd" and both hate school. Every morning, she drops them off at school. All day long she hopes and prays that they will remain there throughout the day. Often they don't. Maria now has more than $1500 in truancy tickets. She takes responsibility for her family, but she does not know what else to do. She is working hard to make sure her other four stay on the right path, but the tickets and the constant truancy issues keep distracting her from her focus on her youngest ones.
Maria called yesterday to get advice. She thinks her boys should be required to work in order to pay off the truancy tickets instead of her having to struggle to pay tickets and risk jail while her boys continue to skip school. She said the truancy officer explained to her that the only way things would change is if she talked to the people in Austin.
My first reaction was that she shouldn't be shirking her responsibilities as a parent. She should be held responsible for her boys' actions. But, the more I listened to her (and I know her boys), I realized that she had a point. She is not just complaining; she has a solution to offer. And she wants to write whoever is making these laws to help them think about it differently as well.
It was because of our community organizing efforts in Turner Courts that Maria called. She wanted to know how to write the letter and who to mail it to. She has already started planning how she can go around to different parents who have truant children and get them to sign on to the letter.
I haven't decided if I agree with Maria's approach. But, the point isn't whether or not I agree. The point is that Maria has a problem and a potential solution and she is taking the initiative by using our democratic system to make her voice heard. My hat goes off to Maria!
Showing posts with label advocacy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label advocacy. Show all posts
Sunday, February 15, 2009
Sunday, July 20, 2008
Guilty...until proven innocent
Think about the last 27 years.
If you're my age, that's the majority of your life. In my younger years, we used to talk about the changes our grandparents had seen over their lifetime. But, truly, the last 27 years have been no less amazing.
We now have cell phones...3-D video games...high speed (and small) computers and laptops...ipods...Internet...email...and those are just the technology advancements.
Along with all of the new technology, of course, jobs have changed as well. Even jobs at fast food restaurants require a basic knowledge of technology. What you have to know in order to get a job is very different than it was 27 years ago.
Imagine being frozen in time for those 27 years. What do you do when you wake up today? What kind of clothes do you wear? How do you quickly acquire new job skills in order to work and survive? If you knew anything about computers at the time, they were probably large main frame computers that filled an entire room. How do you learn to function in a world that most jobs require online submission of resumes and applications? How do you even know where you're going...since major land development has restructured the entire landscape since you were last familiar with it?
Some people are in that very situation.
James Woodard served 27 years of time in prison for a murder charge...a crime he didn't commit.
Billy Smith served 19 years for sexual assault...a crime he didn't commit.
Charles Chapman was misidentified in a photo lineup and served 27 years for rape...a crime he didn't commit.
How can I be so sure? Because DNA evidence cleared them.
In Dallas County, DNA evidence has cleared these three men, along with 15 others. The Innocence Project, Dallas DA Craig Watkins, and Dallas Judge John Creuzot are working tirelessly to reclaim fairness and justice in our "justice" system.
So far in Texas 33 people have been exonerated on account of DNA evidence...a total of 427 years of innocent time served!!
How did this happen?
Saturday evening, Texas Congresswoman Eddie Bernice Johnson convened a panel including Chairman of the House John Conyers, Houston Senator Rodney Ellis, DA Craig Watkins, co-founder of the Innocence Project, Jeff Blackburn, and the exonerees.
Part of their purpose was to listen. They wanted to know, "Where do we start? How do we dig in?" ...and they wanted to hear from people who had been directly affected.
Several spoke about moving our prison system from a punishment system to a restoration system with one person explaining..."because they will be out eventually."
Judge Creuzot brought up the fact that we need a process that will allow formerly incarcerated individuals to move on once they are released. (currently, convicted felons who have already served their time have little ability to get jobs or even find places to live...yet we expect them to come out and be productive members of society and are irritated when they aren't...without realizing why).
An attorney thought it was necessary and crucial that our system begin to fund well-paid, criminal defense, court-appointed attorneys due to the fact that low-income people are many times provided with the least competent attorneys (since more capable attorneys want to profit from their expertise).
In combination with that, others talked about the need for federal mandates to fix the system because we don't have the will to do it on our own.
Evidently some people are angered by the efforts to reform the system. Evidently, it sounds better when prosecutors, judges, and politicians talk about being "tough on crime"--the more convinctions, the better we feel. However, it's also important to realize that for every wrongful conviction, the real criminal goes free.
This is an issue that affects all of us...not just in Texas. Dallas happens to have kept more evidence over the years than most places...which has now allowed for 18 wrongful convictions (to date) to be overturned based on the evidence. Other states and counties have not been immune to these wrongful convictions...but may not have the evidence needed to overturn the cases as readily.
This is an issue we would all be better for if we educated ourselves and got involved. Unfortunately, most of the cases are having to be re-opened by people outside of the system. The lack of will of our political system, at this point, has not provided the funds, despite the mistakes made.
If you would like to help this effort continue, donate to The Innocence Project, write your congressperson, and do what you can to help fix the system.
If you're my age, that's the majority of your life. In my younger years, we used to talk about the changes our grandparents had seen over their lifetime. But, truly, the last 27 years have been no less amazing.
We now have cell phones...3-D video games...high speed (and small) computers and laptops...ipods...Internet...email...and those are just the technology advancements.
Along with all of the new technology, of course, jobs have changed as well. Even jobs at fast food restaurants require a basic knowledge of technology. What you have to know in order to get a job is very different than it was 27 years ago.
Imagine being frozen in time for those 27 years. What do you do when you wake up today? What kind of clothes do you wear? How do you quickly acquire new job skills in order to work and survive? If you knew anything about computers at the time, they were probably large main frame computers that filled an entire room. How do you learn to function in a world that most jobs require online submission of resumes and applications? How do you even know where you're going...since major land development has restructured the entire landscape since you were last familiar with it?
Some people are in that very situation.
James Woodard served 27 years of time in prison for a murder charge...a crime he didn't commit.
Billy Smith served 19 years for sexual assault...a crime he didn't commit.
Charles Chapman was misidentified in a photo lineup and served 27 years for rape...a crime he didn't commit.
How can I be so sure? Because DNA evidence cleared them.
In Dallas County, DNA evidence has cleared these three men, along with 15 others. The Innocence Project, Dallas DA Craig Watkins, and Dallas Judge John Creuzot are working tirelessly to reclaim fairness and justice in our "justice" system.
So far in Texas 33 people have been exonerated on account of DNA evidence...a total of 427 years of innocent time served!!
How did this happen?
- 82% were misidentified (supposed eye witness accounts)
- 18% convicted on false forensic testimony
- 15% convicted on "snitch" testimony
- 9% gave false confessions to reduce their time
- I didn't catch the percentage, but others were simply prosecutorial misconduct (despite our "justice" system)
Saturday evening, Texas Congresswoman Eddie Bernice Johnson convened a panel including Chairman of the House John Conyers, Houston Senator Rodney Ellis, DA Craig Watkins, co-founder of the Innocence Project, Jeff Blackburn, and the exonerees.
Part of their purpose was to listen. They wanted to know, "Where do we start? How do we dig in?" ...and they wanted to hear from people who had been directly affected.
Several spoke about moving our prison system from a punishment system to a restoration system with one person explaining..."because they will be out eventually."
Judge Creuzot brought up the fact that we need a process that will allow formerly incarcerated individuals to move on once they are released. (currently, convicted felons who have already served their time have little ability to get jobs or even find places to live...yet we expect them to come out and be productive members of society and are irritated when they aren't...without realizing why).
An attorney thought it was necessary and crucial that our system begin to fund well-paid, criminal defense, court-appointed attorneys due to the fact that low-income people are many times provided with the least competent attorneys (since more capable attorneys want to profit from their expertise).
In combination with that, others talked about the need for federal mandates to fix the system because we don't have the will to do it on our own.
Evidently some people are angered by the efforts to reform the system. Evidently, it sounds better when prosecutors, judges, and politicians talk about being "tough on crime"--the more convinctions, the better we feel. However, it's also important to realize that for every wrongful conviction, the real criminal goes free.
This is an issue that affects all of us...not just in Texas. Dallas happens to have kept more evidence over the years than most places...which has now allowed for 18 wrongful convictions (to date) to be overturned based on the evidence. Other states and counties have not been immune to these wrongful convictions...but may not have the evidence needed to overturn the cases as readily.
This is an issue we would all be better for if we educated ourselves and got involved. Unfortunately, most of the cases are having to be re-opened by people outside of the system. The lack of will of our political system, at this point, has not provided the funds, despite the mistakes made.
If you would like to help this effort continue, donate to The Innocence Project, write your congressperson, and do what you can to help fix the system.
Sunday, December 17, 2006
My Christmas wish...year-round justice
Call me a bah humbug, but I'm not a big fan of Christmas.
I was in the toy department of Target the other day and overheard a couple of White families talking to each other about purchasing gifts for the "less fortunate." The children were pointing out games and toys they liked and their father eagerly encouraged them to get several of each one enthusiastically claiming, "There will be over a thousand kids there!" A few people walked by and inquisitively asked what they were doing...to which they eagerly told them of their efforts to purchase items for "less fortunate" children who would be coming to their event.
As the kids perused through the toy aisles looking for toys to purchase and give away, I heard their mom say, "These kids are going to be 'dark-skinned' kids so we need to find some 'dark-skinned' dolls." Something about the whole thing didn't set right with me. I suppose I should give them credit and even commend them for taking into account the "darker skin" of the kids they would be giving toys to. Some people don't even do that much. I know that their intentions were probably good. It still struck a nerve with me. I wondered what their conversation sounded like to the other possibly "less fortunate" or "dark-skinned" people who might have been shopping around them.
After thinking about this scenario a while, I finally realized why all of this hype and giving to the "less fortunate" bothers me.
They don't know them before the event, nor do they seek to build a relationship with them after the event.
What happens the other 364 days of the year after Christmas is over?
Are these same people who are "getting into the Christmas spirit" by giving gifts and encouraging their children to "have fun" purchasing the gifts for "less fortunate people" putting the same efforts forth the rest of the year to help raise the minimum wage, hire under-skilled people and train them to have marketable job skills, tutor a child to help him/her grasp necessary concepts, work with someone on a part of the GED they can't seem to pass, or help someone fill out the paperwork and forms needed for them to go to college so that when future Christmas's roll around more families can afford to provide Christmas gifts for their own children?
If Christmas is about Christ, shouldn't we be working toward Christmas (being Christ-like) year-round? What would that look like? Is being Christ-like about charity...or justice?
"Let justice roll down like waters..." Amos 5:24
I was in the toy department of Target the other day and overheard a couple of White families talking to each other about purchasing gifts for the "less fortunate." The children were pointing out games and toys they liked and their father eagerly encouraged them to get several of each one enthusiastically claiming, "There will be over a thousand kids there!" A few people walked by and inquisitively asked what they were doing...to which they eagerly told them of their efforts to purchase items for "less fortunate" children who would be coming to their event.
As the kids perused through the toy aisles looking for toys to purchase and give away, I heard their mom say, "These kids are going to be 'dark-skinned' kids so we need to find some 'dark-skinned' dolls." Something about the whole thing didn't set right with me. I suppose I should give them credit and even commend them for taking into account the "darker skin" of the kids they would be giving toys to. Some people don't even do that much. I know that their intentions were probably good. It still struck a nerve with me. I wondered what their conversation sounded like to the other possibly "less fortunate" or "dark-skinned" people who might have been shopping around them.
After thinking about this scenario a while, I finally realized why all of this hype and giving to the "less fortunate" bothers me.
The people giving the gifts don't know the people they are giving to.
They don't know them before the event, nor do they seek to build a relationship with them after the event.
What happens the other 364 days of the year after Christmas is over?
Are these same people who are "getting into the Christmas spirit" by giving gifts and encouraging their children to "have fun" purchasing the gifts for "less fortunate people" putting the same efforts forth the rest of the year to help raise the minimum wage, hire under-skilled people and train them to have marketable job skills, tutor a child to help him/her grasp necessary concepts, work with someone on a part of the GED they can't seem to pass, or help someone fill out the paperwork and forms needed for them to go to college so that when future Christmas's roll around more families can afford to provide Christmas gifts for their own children?
If Christmas is about Christ, shouldn't we be working toward Christmas (being Christ-like) year-round? What would that look like? Is being Christ-like about charity...or justice?
"Let justice roll down like waters..." Amos 5:24
Thursday, May 18, 2006
Frustration
We are failing our children.
1, 125 seniors in DISD will not graduate this year because they did not pass the TAKS test, even though many (maybe even most) of them met and passed the required courses set up by the school.
I know at least one of those 1,125. He had already sent out his graduation announcements and senior pictures and then was told he didn't pass the test. He is going to press on and work toward taking his last chance test again this summer. I'm proud of him for continuing. He could have easily decided to give up.
I am not arguing that students should graduate "just because." I have never been in favor of low-expectations for students. What I am arguing and advocating for is that our students are prepared BEFORE they get to their senior year!
I know, I know...I have teacher friends who will tell me that I can't put it all on the teachers. Parents have to be involved, too. Parents have to do some of the work at home--of encouraging children, of helping them with their homework, of visiting the school, etc. Though I whole-heartedly agree with that, I think we've got to face the reality that we're dealing with-especially in our inner-city schools.
Some of the parents I know don't have the skill levels themselves to help their kids with their homework. Some of the parents are absent or on drugs and the kids are raising themselves. Some of the parents go to the school when the school calls (unfortunately, the school usually only calls when their child is in trouble).
I haven't met a parent yet who doesn't want their child to be successful. Even drug addicted parents express a desire to see their kids succeed despite their own failures.
I wonder what would happen if the parents and the schools, maybe even the district, actually got together and communicated. What if schools and/or districts asked the parents what they needed and expected and then what if the school really listened to the parents? I have a feeling parents might have a whole lot to say. If they felt comfortable and if they felt like their statements were truly valued, I would guess that parents might be able to tell the schools some of the obstacles they and their children face on a daily basis:
I'm really not trying to offer excuses. I don't want under-prepared kids thinking that graduating from high school means they're prepared when they're not. That is happening a lot these days and it's unfair to the kids as much as it is to our society. But I do think instead of failing them and considering them drop-outs at the last minute, we should be doing something different before it gets to that point. It's not fair to pass a kid through school and tell him/her that they are doing well only to let them get to their senior year and they can't pass a basic skills test.
WE, the people, are failing our kids.
We can choose to write it off as "not my problem" or we can get involved and be advocates whether our children are in that situation or not.
1, 125 seniors in DISD will not graduate this year because they did not pass the TAKS test, even though many (maybe even most) of them met and passed the required courses set up by the school.
I know at least one of those 1,125. He had already sent out his graduation announcements and senior pictures and then was told he didn't pass the test. He is going to press on and work toward taking his last chance test again this summer. I'm proud of him for continuing. He could have easily decided to give up.
I am not arguing that students should graduate "just because." I have never been in favor of low-expectations for students. What I am arguing and advocating for is that our students are prepared BEFORE they get to their senior year!
I know, I know...I have teacher friends who will tell me that I can't put it all on the teachers. Parents have to be involved, too. Parents have to do some of the work at home--of encouraging children, of helping them with their homework, of visiting the school, etc. Though I whole-heartedly agree with that, I think we've got to face the reality that we're dealing with-especially in our inner-city schools.
Some of the parents I know don't have the skill levels themselves to help their kids with their homework. Some of the parents are absent or on drugs and the kids are raising themselves. Some of the parents go to the school when the school calls (unfortunately, the school usually only calls when their child is in trouble).
I haven't met a parent yet who doesn't want their child to be successful. Even drug addicted parents express a desire to see their kids succeed despite their own failures.
I wonder what would happen if the parents and the schools, maybe even the district, actually got together and communicated. What if schools and/or districts asked the parents what they needed and expected and then what if the school really listened to the parents? I have a feeling parents might have a whole lot to say. If they felt comfortable and if they felt like their statements were truly valued, I would guess that parents might be able to tell the schools some of the obstacles they and their children face on a daily basis:
- Transportation--buying groceries, taking kids to and from appointments
during the school day, getting to school functions, visiting the school...all with public transportation (very time consuming!) - Trying to work and be at home with a sick kid at the same time.
- Access to healthcare.
- Understanding homework assignments that don't give adequate instructions.
- Preparing their child for a future of technology when they can't afford it at home and the schools don't offer it.
I'm really not trying to offer excuses. I don't want under-prepared kids thinking that graduating from high school means they're prepared when they're not. That is happening a lot these days and it's unfair to the kids as much as it is to our society. But I do think instead of failing them and considering them drop-outs at the last minute, we should be doing something different before it gets to that point. It's not fair to pass a kid through school and tell him/her that they are doing well only to let them get to their senior year and they can't pass a basic skills test.
WE, the people, are failing our kids.
We fail them when we don't provide them with the resources to keep them up with the times.
We fail them when we tell them their parents should be more involved, but their parents aren't sure how.
We fail them when we lower our standards for teachers in order to have warm bodies in the classrooms.
We fail them when we send the least qualified and least experienced teachers to the schools that need the most help.
We can choose to write it off as "not my problem" or we can get involved and be advocates whether our children are in that situation or not.
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