Good From Evil Part 2

Yesterday I wrote about the astounding opportunities my kids have had through Serve 2 Unite.  

Today, I get to write about the fact that my muppets also get to be part of this.

My husband has come to understand that my control freak nature, is just that, part of my nature.  It is somewhere in my DNA or in the scarring that is my brain, but it is definitely hard wired.  It drives me to madness when I can't control something horrible and leads me to at least do something to make it better.  It might be safe to call it a bit of an obsession.  I have bring attention or try help the pain ease a bit or something to make things better.  Perhaps it is the idea that if you are not part of the solution, you are part of the problem, who knows.  It could literally be due to the immense amount of brain damage I suffered as a child (again, good out of bad).  No matter what the origins, I am also looking to instill this in my muppets.  

Help where you can. If I don't do it WITH them, how will they ever learn this and make it part of their being?

I was so hyped after the success of my kids' community mapping adventure, that I was excited to be part of another opportunity brought to my attention through Serve 2 Unite.  The Bridge Project caught my attention because the Civil Rights issues of the 60s are still impacting us today.  

This very bridge that I was marching with my muppets across was called the longest bridge in the world - it reached from Poland to Africa. Bottles, rocks, slurs, spit and hate met the marchers as they made it to the southside fo the bridge.  This weekend's march was a much needed reminder. A sad testament to the fact that our city was is soooo very segregated.  We are not done, yet.  Saturday, nearly 50 years later, we were invited to join in by S2U.  

Photo credit: Cheryl Polka
The Unity Chant cards

It was cold, it was rainy, the turn out is not what it would have been had the weather from the day before held up.  But it is something that my kids will take with them.  

Photo credit: Cheryl Polka

Armadeep Kaleeka, son of slain Sikh Temple of Wisconsin President Satwant Singh Kaleka, was the Grand Marshall for the portion of the march beginning on the south side of the bridge.  Chants were chanted, my N volunteered to help with the banner carrying - he might have the same drive that I do.  It was an amazing day.  Something that I know the boys will not soon forget and I am hopeful that it will stay with the girls as they make their way into their teen years and adulthood.  Some things are worth standing out in the pouring rain, even with the car is parked a few miles away.  

WE are the Bridge.  If it does not start with us, then when...with whom?  

Be the difference you want to see in the world.

We are the bridge.

N, on his own went out to see if he could help.  He led the way for the southside.

Walking with the DA, some aldermen, and the mayor met us on Canal Street

South meets North...in the middle.

The kids signing the pledge - to be the bridge.

These kids ARE the Bridge.  They are our future.
Let's make sure they reach out to each other.

Good From Evil, Look For It

Not always easy to do. We all have to look for that rainbow that comes after the storm or the fact  that it is always darkest before the dawn.  But, how do you do that when you see nothing but hatred and anger behind it...and the heartbreak left behind in the wake?  Amazingly, I have seen that!  

Since starting at the high school I am currently teaching at, I have been some amazing people - some characters and some simply amazing. The most recent part of that "amazing" came to us in the fall through Serve 2 Unite, funded by Arts @ Large.  Both AMAZING organizations. I'll let you read the back stories of both, but it is found in the temple shooting nearly two years ago. 

I was sitting there, quietly working on my kids' headphones for the coming school year in my bedroom, listening to the kids giggle in the living room...when I got the phone call from my FFW next door - from work.  "Where's J? Is he at the temple?!" I literally looked at my phone.  Why was she asking?  She knew it was a shift day, where do you think he is?  Why would he be at a temple?   I had no clue what she was talking about.  I was watching Oddities and clearly oblivious. "Oh, my god, you don't know."

And my heart dropped.  The tone in her voice.  I hit the news explosion that was upon us and couldn't breathe for a moment.  I studied the rigs, looking for Med 7.  This was the day I learned the difference between those red boxes - MFD has the zig zag gold on the side.  I remember seeing the images...burning them in my mind.  There is one of Pardeep's brother, Armadeep that haunted me.

It is as clear as day.  Even in the dark of this sleepless night. 

As I said earlier, you have to look for that first ray of sunlight that comes out of that darkness.  Luckily, I didn't have to look it found me.  Through Serve 2 Unite.  

Love and acceptance out tragedy, heartache and hatred.

Six lives were lost.  Pardeep's father, Satwant Singh Kaleka, the president of the Sikh Temple of Wisconsin was among the casualties. Countless others, rocked to their very core.  Anger and bitterness would have made total sense for the families involved.  NO ONE would have faulted them,. Instead, they turned that heartache into a chance to mend broken hearts and bring an end to senseless violence and hatred.  Through the amazing initiative of a grieving family and a repentant skin head.

Pardeep and Arno.  They are the most amazing odd couple you have ever seen.   I have to admit, I spent much of the first meeting with them trying to figure things out...who fit where, how this ACTUALLY came to fruition...and don't remember much of the actual discussion in our little social studies department. When Arno came to speak to the Sociology class, I brought my World History kids in as well.  His message was worth sacrificing a day of content.  Watching my kids, who didn't quite trust me at that point, listen to this big, raspy voiced man share is tale of hate mongering, with these kids who are all too familiar with it, was AMAZING.  Instant defensiveness.  One of my big guys refused to sit on the same side of this monstrous room.  Another actually commented to me, "You really want me to listen to this sh!t?".  They could not wrap their heads around it.  Experience has taught them that leopards don't change their spots.  And here was this perceived monster who had a swastika tattooed to his middle finger...and I was asking them to listen to him.

Fast forward to this past Friday.  When my kids, 75 kids from so many different paths of life, converged on one of our southside neighborhoods to do Community Mapping, not only with S2U, but also with UWM's Urban Initiatives & Research, to determine through analysis of data, what we can do to make a difference in that neighborhood.  Watching these same kids who did not think Arno was worth  giving up my elaborate notes for...was AMAZING!  The smiles that Pardeep brought to my kids.  And my FF working with a group that was so diligently trying to update their Neighborhood Safety map, made me smile. 

It was an amazing transformation.  In so many ways.  From that skeptical group of kids in October...from that group of kids that was SO uncomfortable THAT morning, because I separated them from their friends and asked some of them to lead...to this group this community of amazing kids, working together SO amazingly! It made my heart happy.  

Good from evil.  I didn't have to look for it.  It found me.

Photo credit: Serve 2 Unite

Photo credit: Serve 2 Unite

Why would I post the serious pictures?

It was an amazing day.  Seeing me kids leave their comfort zones within their peer group and into unknown groupings - begging me to change them - and move out into the community to reach out a seek to make it better.  This would not have happened this way had it not been for the tears falling to water such a beautiful, life filled group.  

Please know, I am not saying that I am glad that it happened.  It woke me up in the middle of the night, hence this post.  I am, however, grateful, that hate did not turn into hate.  Instead, into spreading a message of love and tolerance.  And, I am indeed blessed to have been a witness to it.

My husband has been permanently temporarily assigned to the TEMS house - another creation in response to the tragedy of the that fatal day in August 2012.  If, God forbid, we were to see an event of that level, I won't have to wonder if he is there.  He will be there, presuming his formal assignment comes to be.  Instead of watching to see if there, I will be finding something productive to do, hoping for that phone call when all is said and done.  

I will be looking for that break of dawn to get me through the worry that will accompany such events.  We have to look for that ray of sunshine...it helps lead us to tomorrow, no matter how dark the night has been.  My kids are my ray of sunshine.  Be sure to find yours.

Peace and love.