This picture, taken from the New Orleans Times-Picayune, is of a man praying outside the house of the next to most recent murder in The Crescent City (there was another one this morning). The woman who was murdered at this house, Helen Hill, was not actually a friend of mine, but a typical NOLA acquaintance (which is pretty much the equivalent of a friend anywhere else in the country); a friend of a friend and someone I had met, but had not really gotten to know yet. 
Helen was the mother of a two year old and an animator and filmaker who, like me, was deeply in love with New Orleans. Her partner, who survives her, is a doctor deeply committed to public health and solid health care for those at the bottom of our economic reality. They were shining, bright, enthusiastic and loving people. Now... Helen is dead, her child is without a mother and her partner is set loose on a sea of confusion (and I would expect no small amount of bitterness).
THIS is the reality of my city at the start of 2007. Less than a week ago Dinerral "DICK" Shavers, the snare drummer for the Hot 8 Brass Band, the up and coming challengers for the Brass Band musical crown previously held by the Dirty Dozen Brass Band and Reirth Brass Band, was shot and killed. The police chief of New Orleans likes to point out that the murder rate is down, but when you consider the fact that less than half the population of New Orleans have come home... well, per-capita, the murder rate is actually UP.In less than four weeks, I am planning to return, but with this - and so many other circumstances - I don't know what that means. When I was living in New Orleans a year ago there was a sense of hope and progress; I'm not seeing much of that now. I hope I see it again when I return in a few weeks.
It seems to me that THIS may be the central issue of peace making in the world right now. All violence seems to be simply a highly expanded version of this "small" violence, a violence that we all seem capable of at one point in time or another, but which seems to strike too often in urban environments and in the houses of the innocent. As Gandhi said... "you must become the change you wish to see in the world." What does that mean... right here and now? How can I truly make the world, the country, my neighborhood, and my home a better and more peaceful place?
Or... to quote the Irishman with whom I share my birthday... "What's so funny about peace, love, and understanding?"
2 comments:
Couldn't agree more. What a damn shame.
Weird small world. I was in S.C. last week (Columbia) working, staying at the hotel I always stay at when in town, and by chance wound up having breakfast with Helen's mom and her mates brother from Vancouver, on the morning of her funeral. They were staying at the hotel as well. Helen was originaly from Columbia and the funeral was there.
I heard some wonderful stories of them, and their lives. Told them about your blog and entry, and they told me they would visit it, pass it along to her husband, and to thank you for your words and remembering their daughter/sister. What a short and shining life, and how senseless and wrong that it was cut so short needlessly.
Her husband is going to be leaving NOLA with their daughter, and moving to Vancouver to try and heal up for a while (if you can heal from something like that). His brother has two boys around the same age, so their daughter will have some other kids and relatives to help with the transition.
So many casualties....my heart breaks for your city, and for the pain so many feel, for so many reasons. Not to sound weird or morbid, but do you remember my words to you when you first told me you were moving to NOLA? I am sorry for those words, and that the warning to you has become real for so many. Such a wonderful city that has given so much. That the hell it has had to endure continues so long after the storm has passed is inexcusable on so many levels. I never thought I would see this in the USA, how sad, and how far we have fallen as a nation...to allow things to slide even farther into the abyss.
Take care of yourself brother. Hope to hear from you again soon, whenever you chose.
With love.
M
I was talking to someone else the other day and I described Helen to him, saying "You didn't know her really, but you'll recognize her." That's the way she was... someone unforgettable even for the little bit of interaction I had.
This whole thing has galvinized my thoughts and perspectives on peace and nonviolence like I have never felt before. As "peace people" we tend to focus on the big issues and forget that peace and nonviolence are very personal issues as well.
I don't know what I'm going to do, but I'm feeling the need to do something (there have been 11 murders in San Francisco since the new year, so it ain't just New Orleans.
It also isn't answered by the standard assumption (reiterated last week in New Orleans) that more cops is the way to solve the problem. Like Bush's more troops to Iraq, more cops on the street is just a way of throwing FORCE at the problem. MLK, whose birthday we just recognized, was the one who pointed out that if we didn't figure out how to live as brothers and sisters we would all die together as fools.
I think Helen would have agreed.
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