Planning For The Future is The Only Thing That Lights Up The Present. . ,

The outcome of the last election wasn’t what many of us had hoped for. AT ALL. But here we are. 

Many of us feel a level of despair that makes the aftermath of Election Day 2016 seem downright jubilant. Others feel confident that they made the right decision and that the incoming administration will put cheap gas in their tanks and seventy cent  a dozen eggs on their tables. I truly hope that that’s what will happen.But I sincerely doubt that it will. 

Like it or not, we should all really be hoping that they’re right because if they aren’t, it won’t be good for any of us. One thing I know for sure is that we can’t afford to sit around and say that’s what THEY get for voting for him. “They” aren’t some group that inhabits another part of town or the country. They are our neighbors, co-workers, and family and friends. You can be mad as you want, but what happens to them will ultimately happen to us too. There will be no separation along the lines of who you voted for. 

If things go sideways after Inauguration Day, as most of us fear they will, literally all we will have will be one another. We will not only have to learn how to care for one another, but we may even have to learn a new way to survive. 

That’s what I’m planning for. 

I refuse to be angry with other poor people who didn’t vote the way that I did. It doesn’t matter anymore. Moreover, it’s counterproductive. A fight with each other is a fight we no longer need and can no longer afford. We did that before the election, and look where it got us. 

Before, during, and immediately after the election I saw several cracks in our community, one of which was an enormous lack of information. It wasn’t just disinformation or misinformation. There was no information. And the missing information Black voters needed was, in my opinion, vital.

Instead of being angry at Black voters, who many of us feel voted against their own best interests, I am committed to bringing more information and context to Black folks. I’m introducing a new podcast where I will invite elders to tell the stories of their migration and their histories. I believe those stories have value and that they will be helpful for younger generations to better understand why so many Boomers vote for Democrats. Our young people need to hear about how we got here. I am convinced that providing Black voters with more context and information will provide them with a better understanding of the world around them. Perhaps this will help create a different, better informed voter in 2026, 2028 and beyond.  

I’ve also decided that I am going to learn as much as I can about MUTUAL AID (PLEASE, Google it if you don’t know what that is), and I am committed to working with as many other organizations as possible to make sure that the people in my neighborhood and on my block can get what they will need to survive if their SNAP or Medicaid benefits are cut or even eliminated.

My organization, Mothers and Men Against Senseless Killing (MASK) will be partnering with Black farmers to buy fresh meat and produce for people who don’t have access to healthy food. We will also be working with those same farmers to create a whole campus on the block. This will require the acquisition of the six vacant lots behind the liquor store on 75th and Stewart Avenue that currently belong to the City of Chicago and to two private owners who haven’t paid taxes on the properties in nearly two decades. On those reimagined lots, kids  will learn agronomy and animal husbandry (Yes, in CHICAGO!!!). On the lot that MASK currently inhabits, we will continue to offer traditional supplemental educational classes. This is important for so many reasons, not just because there may come a time in the not too distant future when we have to be able to provide our communities with meat and vegetables of our own. 

MASK is grooming young people to become elected officials. We want to create a new generation of leaders we don’t have to hold our noses to vote for or are seen as the lesser of two evils. 

We don’t need to worry only about the next four years. We need to address and alleviate the deep divisions that exist now so that polarization won’t be such a massive problem in the future. 

Living in the past is hopeless. And thinking and planning for the future is the only thing that lights up the present. 

Other than leaving the country, what are your plans? I would love to hear them.

Tamar

8 shot, 3 dead, and the City holds a meeting to discuss all of the violence...

A nice gesture, but reminiscent of so many other gripe sessions public officials are forced to hold in the wake of the rare not so rare crimes that are so violent they still somehow manage to shock us.

It was right around this time last year that this administration held a similar meeting where they introduced a new “Safety Plan”, yet oddly enough, I haven’t noticed any uptick in safety levels since then. I have no reason to believe that this administrations new plan will yield different results than their previous one. Don’t get me wrong, it’s great to hear the people out, but it becomes an insult when you make them believe that their voices matter when they really don’t.

And I  say this from experience; I was contacted by City Hall following a shooting on the block over the summer, while the children were playing. I was promised a meeting to discuss my ideas for keeping my children on the block and potentially all over the city safe from drive-by shootings.

That meeting has yet to happen. But, maybe if it had, PERHAPS, SOME of the shootings that have occurred in the past four months could've been prevented?

Maybe not Monday's mass shooting, but maybe the one where a teenager was shot in his head in broad daylight on 75th while the Democratic Convention happened just a few miles away, or the one where the 7-year-old was murdered on the West Side in front of his house. Perhaps over 100 people wouldn’t have been shot over the 4th of July weekend, and maybe one of the 19 who died might still be here.

Most people in this city don't have their own private security detail. And not everyone can live in well-to-do areas with less crime. The mayor and other elected officials are far less likely to become victims of violent crime in this city than the people who voted for them.

I keep asking whose job it is to come up with the plans that will actually make us safer. Is it the mayor's office or the police, or is it  anti-violence organizations?

If not, why do we even exist? Are we included in our cities safety planning strategies, or are we just here to manage the discomfort of people in the community living in dangerous conditions?

Is it the job of the people who walk around with security details, or is it left to us, the people  that the security is there to protect them from?

Who knows better what's going on in our neighborhoods than the people who live in them. There's never an answer to that question. And more people die because we're either not educated enough, not connected enough, or not contrite enough to advise the mayor and his advisors on how to keep us safe. It’s a shame that summer is coming again in a few short months, and there will be more shootings and more meetings about violence prevention after some particularly violent weekend.

But no one will be listening because it’s not time to ask for our votes yet.

Tamar

More Thanksgiving Market Blues@ 75th & Stewart- A Short Video by Matt Ross