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= F.U.C.K. - Fucked Up College Kids - Born Jan. 24th, 1993 - F.U.C.K. =
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Memorial
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Recently I got pissed at some lamer who made a shitty Jerry Garcia joke.
Something to the effect of "I'm greatful he's dead, ha ha." I asked him
how he thought Garcia's family and friends felt at his death. Don't get
me wrong; I enjoy a good joke like the ones David Letterman is telling
(watch out for the LSD on the commemorative stamps, etc.), but the joke I
read was just plain mean-spirited.
Now here we have a person making stupid, thoughtless jokes who has
obviously never come very close to death. In general, that is, not
necessarily his own death. I have, however. I personally came close, I've
had a grandfather die (admittedly not too close), two uncles, my
stepfather's dad, a student of mine, and, most recently, a friend of my
mother's (also not close). All of the deaths in my family were "natural"
-- that is, one stroke, death from AIDS complications, and a brain
hemorrhage. My stepfather's dad's death was also "natural" -- cancer. But
the last two were the hardest to take.
My mother's friend was beaten to death. Her body was found in a park near
Barnum lake. I didn't know this woman at all, but her death shocked me.
Reading about something like that in the paper is easy to shut out. It's
much harder when it's closer to you.
My student was shot to death by gang members. They drove by in a car,
shouted, "what's up, cuz?" and shot him and his sister. The murderers have
never been caught. This file is about Glenn Taylor, the young man who
dared to sit out on his porch with his sister one evening, and was murdered
because of it.
Perhaps "my student" is a misnomer. I am a math and science tutor for
High School Upward Bound. I help high school kids who are doing poorly in
school. Glenn was an excellent student in high school, so I never saw
much of him in my classroom. But in a program of just 70 kids, each face
is distinguishable from the rest. I saw him twice a week as he came to
the office to get bus tokens for the next day's classes (our students are
given additional English and math classes after high school). He saw me
fucking around with my guitar in the office one day and played some
blues riffs for me. I showed off a little when he asked me to play
something, and he grinned and said, "damn, I'm not that good!" and I told
him, "Yet. You will be, just keep practicing." (as you can see, I like to
brag).
<note: any direct quotes in this file are paraphrased. I have no idea