On Anxiety and Feeling Lost
Sep. 21st, 2023 08:02 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rynlingI want to talk briefly about another reason why I have so much anxiety recently, which is the gun violence in my neighborhood. Content warning for real-life homicide under the cut.
Philadelphia Streets Department worker shot, killed inside Point Breeze store
https://www.cbsnews.com/philadelphia/news/philadelphia-streets-department-worker-shooting-point-breeze-police/
Two weeks ago, while walking my dog to the neighborhood park, I was less than a block away from a murder. This is the second time this has happened in less than a year. There have been additional murders within the past twelve months that were two or three blocks over. I'm not afraid that I'm going to get shot, but you can probably imagine that this is still very distressing.
And you're going to have to believe me when I say that Point Breeze is actually a nice neighborhood, despite everything. There are a lot of young professionals with dogs, and young parents with children, and kids on bikes, and older people sitting on their front steps having conversations with everyone who passes by. Our neighborhood park is nice, and we also have a nice little library inside an historic building that looks like a castle.
Still, this bit from the article stuck with me:
Louis Wyche, a local block captain, lives just around the corner from the scene. "The violence is getting worse and worse out here," Wyche said. Wyche says he and others in this community have been trying to work to curb the gun violence, focusing on younger people living in the neighborhood. "They don't have nothing to do," Wyche said. "School just started back, they were just running around the streets. So, we're trying to do something for the young generation out here."
It's not young people doing the shooting; it's grown-ass adults. But still, I agree. It's got to be hard to be a kid here. Honestly, it's hard to be an adult. There are no restaurants, and no stores, and no part-time jobs. There's nowhere to see a movie, and nowhere to play basketball, and nowhere to sit at a computer and play games, and nowhere to go dancing. There used to be places like that, but they closed during the pandemic.
And I try to think about what I can do, but like. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know.
All I can do is go out early in the morning on the weekends and pick up trash from the street, and I'm still trying to get my tree planted while engaging in light guerilla gardening. It's good to see plants and flowers in the neighborhood, but in the end... I don't know. I just don't know.
Philadelphia Streets Department worker shot, killed inside Point Breeze store
https://www.cbsnews.com/philadelphia/news/philadelphia-streets-department-worker-shooting-point-breeze-police/
Two weeks ago, while walking my dog to the neighborhood park, I was less than a block away from a murder. This is the second time this has happened in less than a year. There have been additional murders within the past twelve months that were two or three blocks over. I'm not afraid that I'm going to get shot, but you can probably imagine that this is still very distressing.
And you're going to have to believe me when I say that Point Breeze is actually a nice neighborhood, despite everything. There are a lot of young professionals with dogs, and young parents with children, and kids on bikes, and older people sitting on their front steps having conversations with everyone who passes by. Our neighborhood park is nice, and we also have a nice little library inside an historic building that looks like a castle.
Still, this bit from the article stuck with me:
Louis Wyche, a local block captain, lives just around the corner from the scene. "The violence is getting worse and worse out here," Wyche said. Wyche says he and others in this community have been trying to work to curb the gun violence, focusing on younger people living in the neighborhood. "They don't have nothing to do," Wyche said. "School just started back, they were just running around the streets. So, we're trying to do something for the young generation out here."
It's not young people doing the shooting; it's grown-ass adults. But still, I agree. It's got to be hard to be a kid here. Honestly, it's hard to be an adult. There are no restaurants, and no stores, and no part-time jobs. There's nowhere to see a movie, and nowhere to play basketball, and nowhere to sit at a computer and play games, and nowhere to go dancing. There used to be places like that, but they closed during the pandemic.
And I try to think about what I can do, but like. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know.
All I can do is go out early in the morning on the weekends and pick up trash from the street, and I'm still trying to get my tree planted while engaging in light guerilla gardening. It's good to see plants and flowers in the neighborhood, but in the end... I don't know. I just don't know.
