Ruskin Heights Fight Night.......... You want the truth? You can't handle the truth!

Nobody else wants to say it, so allow me to throw myself under the "You dirty ofay racist" accusation bus. Seventy five individuals took to the field in lovely Ruskin Heights for Ruskin Heights Fight Night. Okay, so it was really not planned or scheduled, then again neither was the reenactment of the OK corral shoot out that took place last month at a west side community center. In both cases, there are a few common denominators, Large groups of Black kids from different schools or parts of the city, lax or nonexistent security, and not nearly enough arrests. It all begs the question; Why can't these black kids take Rodney's advice and just "all get along"?

That's the 65,000 dollar question, and the answer is as complex as the road that led to a subculture within the African American community, one that involves a minority of that community, yet reflects upon each and every one of them. While it is unfair and untrue to say that all black kids have reverted to a no brains all brawn type of attitude, that doesn't stop us from thinking it, or saying it, with a practiced sigh, a tsk tsk, and a "those people" attitude. For our part, and by our, I mean myself and most of my readers who are white, we can rest easy , hey it ain't our kids. We can just move, sprawl out a little more, and let them beat hell out of, and or shoot one another to smithereens. After all, young Biff and Muffy are performing splendidly at Abercrombie High. And much like the Ostrich who hides his head in the sand, only to be surprised when he gets bitten in the ass, we will rise up in righteous indignation and bewilderment when one of theirs takes one of ours. When the occasional rolling gun battle spills over to Brookside, or someone gets capped in the great white north land, we can take comfort in the street side interview on the nightly news. You know the one, the nice looking soccer mom, or the biz guy with graying temples and Tom Watson golf shirt. The reporter standing in front of windows dotted with bullet holes, and then comes that classic line, " This type of thing NEVER happens here" or "I can't believe this happened in my neighborhood".

There is a domino effect that takes place, the precursor to urban sprawl and white flight, it starts with one family, just one. There was a time, in the not too distant past when sleepy little bedroom communities like Grandview, Raytown, Hickman Mills, Ruskin, ....need I go on, were products of whites abandoning the city for safer ground. Then THEY followed, one black family, then another, and another. And we fled, first one, then another, and one more. Schools that were once bastions of education became thunder domes, replete with metal detectors and armed guards. Funny thing is, those first black families who moved in were just doing what any law abiding hard working person would do when their family was at risk. The whites would look up and see the new neighbors , say "Holy Shit, they've found us" Further mass exodus ensues, and eventually the bad guys move in among the majority of decent black folks, the area deteriorates, lather, rinse, and repeat, the cycle perpetuates.

I know, I seem to be rambling here, just stick with it, there is a point to all of this.

You can't blame white people for fleeing a sinking ship, any more than you can blame the people of color who follow them, trying to escape the insanity of the urban core. People want to feel safe, they want their children to prosper and grow in to adulthood. Wanting what is best for you and yours is a common thread that knows no racial or economic boundary. In the past, I've been a little tough on my white brethren who choose to flee, deep down, I get it, I understand, and who can blame them. The soccer mom who grew up in the Ruskin of 1975, is not to blame for the Ruskin of 2009. When she fled to Jo Co, or Blue Springs, it was an act of self preservation. It was also a lesson in futility, because eventually, they will follow. First one, then another, and on it goes.

Undoubtedly, some wise acre will pop up in my comments section with that proverbial 65,000 dollar question,"well whats the answer?". How do you stop a small minority of ill mannered predators, from pissing in every ones Post Toasties? Groups like Aim For Peace are impotent and ineffectual. There is no single group or person who can fix shit in the urban core, or in the burbs that have turned in to high crime annexes. It has to start at home, naturally, but a parent can only do so much. A single mother with two jobs can only do so much. The schools could do something about the mob mentality at its events, either increase police presence or stop having them altogether. Same goes for community centers, stop having events that bring rival groups together. Before anyone starts snivelling "The kids must have an outlet other than the streets", allow me to retort ; sponsoring events from rival schools or areas hasn't really done anything but provide a breeding ground for what we saw at Ruskin or at the West side community center, has it?

I don't know the answer, if I did I'd be more loved than Gandhi and rich as Bill Gates. The truth is, we, all of us, have a hand in this. The floodgates have gone from open to completely washed away. Urban schools no longer teach, they are bedlam, the administrators worry that some irate parent will sue or cry racism, if they demand some young thug to act like a decent human being or face consequences. They leave the teachers to fend for themselves, and blame them when they can't do it on their own. Parents blame everyone but the little prick they half assed raised. Law enforcement is a joke, not due to their own ineptness but because of cuts or constraints, or fear of lawsuit. The answer, as much as it pains me to say it is this; There is no answer. We are as fucked up as a soup sandwich. We can throw money at the problem, we can hold vigils, we can all run out and buy security systems and get gun permits, but it's not going to change anything. The die was cast several generations back, and now both sides of the divide are paying the price.

While I don't know what the solution is, I know what it isn't. It isn't cutting an already thin police budget by 10 million, it isn't groups like Aim for peace, who make grabs for tax payer dollars after a season of high murder rates reveal their impotency to curb crime, it isn't white flight and urban sprawl, it isn't ineffectual schools or night time basketball games in community centers turned in to war zones. It isn't anything that has been tried and failed. Greater minds than mine will need to figure it out. In the meantime don't be a stranger, drop me a postcard when you land in Louisburg Kansas or Peculiar Missouri.