West Montgomery’s “A day in the life “ will always remind me of my brother
I just got off the phone with some of the kids I am teaching and who have been working on the mural with me.
They are from Clinton aver, 7th aver, 1st ave
These kids check in with me almost daily.
These are kids from different back grounds
All incredibly talented and able
Kids
Some of whom belong to gangs
Others who because of their art talent have always felt different
And now feel what I feel
A love an art
Anyway working with kids
That are in gangs
Isn’t my idea
I love to teach
But one day my Brother Ron, (who died two years ago), was representing one of my adopted kids in court
So I went there, about four years ago
Anyway after he helped out James who was in trouble for some silliness
I sat their watching my brother
Three of the hardest young men that I have seen for a while
Walked up to my brother
How you doing Mr. Sampson
These guys were leaders of a local gang
And they had been being tried for a murder that they didn’t do
My brother was their lawyer and had gotten them off
Anyway they hugged my brother
And the look of happiness and respect that they had on their faces was some thing to see
The look of pride on their faces was some thing to see
They liked knowing him and he didn’t care who was looking
He stopped talking to another lawyer
And gave them his complete attention
And the way my brother treated them was just like they were his nephews or kids
It was incredible to see
They were like little kids talking to a grand pa that they loved
That they admired
That they feared
They feared what he thought of them
He asked them you staying straight
And they looked like little kids being affectionately scolded by an elder
This is how it should be I thought
And it never left me
Anyway
My brother Ronald was 6’4” and 250 easy
They called him big Daddy all of his life because he was well so big
And I don’t mean fat
My mother used to pinch us in church when we would giggle
And Ron was so tight my mother could never get a good pinch in
I wasn’t so fortunate
Where was I
Oh ……………………
A big big man
Gentle in many ways
He didn’t kill my skinny little ass and any other brother would have
I was a legendary pain in the ass
And to this day no one can make me laugh like my brother could
He would call me up
With a story of a movie he had just seen
We had exactly the same taste in movies ……….but that’s because he taught me
He would crack a joke about some one
And we would laugh like school kids until I would drop the phone………….
Those were the days
Anyway
My brother was a lawyer in Newark’s biggest baddest law firms
And he stumbled a bit in the law, finding what he wanted to do
My brother graduated from Amherst and Wesleyan college, before attending Georgetown Law
He was simply brilliant
I used to think that I was the street on in the family
The guy who knew every one…………………Until I watched my brother
Until he started getting some high profile cases
They wound up calling him the gang lawyers
It wasn’t about the money
He felt as though the system was against these kids and he was the equalizer
When my adopted son was in jail, I refused to see him
My brother went in several times to see him and to give him money
James still cries if you mention my brother
He said that the one person in the world that he could always call besides me
Was my brother
The day my brother died I was standing out in front of my house
Trying to understand how my big brother my friend and hero had died
A group of kids 22-27 walked up to me
And saw the look on my face
Their were four of them
Were in gangs
I am sorry if I am not being politically correct
Kids at risk
What ever I don’t mean to make these kids seem like any thing less because they are in gangs
On the contrary their enlistment in gangs is part of societies
Part of my failure
Anyway
Their were two guys and two girls
My brother had helped each of them to either get out of jail
Or to get reduced sentences
Anyway
When I told them that my brother their lawyer
Had died
All four of them began crying and hugging me
It was a Kodak moment
They cried and then told me stories of my brother
One ill call him Jim
Was about to go to jail for 6 months
But he said he could have gotten 8 years and was so grateful to my brother
Two of the others got off
The last one, got less
They cried and healed me too
I learned parts of my brother now that I didn’t know
At his funeral the whole family showed up in force
And every one said the same thing
What are we going to do with out Ron?
He had helped so many members of my family
With problems, that the family was actually scared
So was I
But I looked watched and learned
This guy
My brother was so involved in things that I couldn’t even touch on
That he continues to inspire me
So today when I work with kids
Who are partly lost?
Because of where they hail from
I think of my brother
My biggest regret that he isn’t here to help me with these kids
They need him
But his work will go on
Ill see to it
I am not a genius of a borrower of things
And teaching these kids
I owe to my brother
Right on Ron
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