He every once in a while you have to be reminded
of why you teach
I think I told you that I was working a giant mural
With the kids from my school and others.
The mural is coming out amazingly well if I must say so myself
And the kids are actually doing it with my help
And a little patching here and there
Ok the subject of the mural
The school theme is Believe and achieve
After the election of Obama
The ceiling was removed
This flag
This American flag which for a lot of my life
Always seemed to only be partly mine
This flag was never waved in my house
As a child and I didn’t salute the flag
To I was about 22 years old
Yes I was a cop but some how or another
I didn’t salute it
I stood at attention
I respected it
Then one day I was asked to participate in a ceremony
One in which I would have to salute
I refused
It caused a major snafu
In the rants
The other cops were pissed
The black cops begged me to salute it
I refused
I was young and crazy
Rebel
Pain in the ass
Finally some one called my father
They were going to fire me
I didn’t care
My father was my rock
Kevin every one and a while you have to give
Dad but
No Kevin salute it
The job is more important
You being a black cop when they need black cops is more important
My father who had never done this
My father who had fought in wars
Who had fought for civil rights
Talked me into it
So now years later
I can finally look at this flag
Which has been like a brother I could only love from a distance?
Is mine
Mine
So from now on I will fly this flag
Higher than any one else
Did you see the inauguration?
When have you seen this many
African Americans waving American flags
Hell when have you ever seen African Americans a flag
But now on this day
Yes we can
So my mural is about
Obama
Or the promise of Obama
Who will be a generic figure
Who is dressed like the pied piper
Leaders or sounding a trumpet call to the promised
Land
Which is in fact American?
Which I can
Which others who parents hail
From South America
Or Puerto Rico
African can
Can endure
This is a defining moment is history for the nation
Anyway
The mural is being done
By students from my school
And other school
One of the other teachers
Sent a kid to me
This kid Puerto Rican
Lived in Puerto Rico
And hasn’t been here too long
Thus the great manners
Anyway this kid
Omar
17 senior from one of the harder places in Newark
Has been my rock
Works like a dream
He has promise and desire and motivation
A teachers dream
He is rough and honest and I will do every thing in my power
To see that he gets to college
If I have to hand carry him there
Anyway he actually brought in some others who were great also’
Along with a student Brian
Who I have known since he was a child
Have been working up a storm
Ujima Niece is my manager
She is a beautiful well manner museum girl
She runs my class room
There are others
My student cesar is in charge of the graffiti
Aspect of the mural and has come in a few days to
Work with us
He is willing to give back to the others
I have invested a lot of time in him
And he is going to shortly finish art school
Praise the lord
Another really smart
Enormously talented kid
His father and mother are some of my best friends
And each day his father
Who is an immigrant
Tells me of how proud he is of his son
This is what it’s all about
Anyone onto my boss
Gangs and craziness
On Monday
After doing the mural
We walked downstairs
I watched a couple of kids walk up to Omar
It turned out that a rival gang had heard
That kid from a different part of town
Was working on the mural
They threatened him telling him to get out of Dodge
Now let me tell you about my Boss
Ivi
She is a beautiful woman of Puerto Rican heritage
Really smart, functional and running the program in a great way
But most of all she is a mother
And has worked in the community
And she cares
So when ivi heard that this kid had been threatened
Whew
I knew what was coming
Honey she kicked off her shoes
Rolled up her sleeves and went off
She told these kids about gangs
She told this kids of there folly
She told these kids that if a kid is harmed here
Its cop time
She hates gangs
As do I
She got me going too
I turned quickly back into a cop and after we found
The rat
Who actually called up another gang to do this
It was war
And what is the war about
Saving these kids
This mural is some thing else
The thought that it could be derailed because of silliness
Whew
Anyway my hats off to my boss
Y0u need people
Who can not only talk the talk
But walk the walk
And I have learned from my boss
I trust my boss
And that is very rare for an ex-cop
In any case the mural will go on
The gangs wont when
And I am sick of self hatred
And people of color harming people of color
And one more thing
What is up with black people?
That we are robbing and harming
Immigrants from South America
All over the country
Why cant people understand
That poor is poor
I don’t care if you are from
Tennessee or Chicago
From South American
Or Haiti
Black people
Black leaders
Speak up what the hell is wrong with us
Why cant black
Protect
Shelter and help other brown folks
Instead of assaulting them
And they wonder why they still cross the streets
When they see us
Obama hasn’t gotten to many parts of the nation
I guess he will have to trickle down
Or people like
Ivi
Have to be the buffer for a movement
Yes we can
That can change the nation
With a simple
Yes we can
All this
The gangs
The beauty
The art
The struggle
Yes we can
This is why I teach
Instead of making me scared
This puts steel in my backbone
And lets me know why I am here in the first place
These are the kids I want to teach
This is why I am here
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