“AS THE GHETTO TURNS” ep.7 “Mountains of Hot Brass”

Season 1    Episode 7  —” Mountains of Hot Brass ”

©2013 volcanosunsetpress

An argument over the wearing of different colors, gang territory, and gang signs leaves senseless carnage all through our communities.  We watch the news,  shake our heads, and ask ourselves.  “When will it all end? ” But our commitment to end the violence, fails with the next day’s sunrise.  We say “What a damn shame, or that was such a waste” but we go back to the more interesting fictions of the television and internet.    America, your house is on fire!  Once the fire starts to burn, it will quickly get out of control, it won’t be confined just to the Ghetto.  The flames will go wherever it can find the fuel.  We would be naive to think that it won’t affect us.  The violence will inevitably spill over into our lives,  just when thought that we are safe,  from the flying bullets.

In the past, gangs were formed for protection.  The gangs in this century, they are formed for the acquisition of money, and perceived power.  Many of today’s gangs are tied to organized crime.

Stopping the manufacture of weapons, will not slow the social hemorrhage. We have to begin by bandaging the minds of the youth.

There is no magic pill that will solve our problems overnight. No treatment centers or Rehab for this epidemic.  But it seems to me that while I was growing up,  we were too tired from working to go find any trouble to go get into. Our elders made sure, that every child went to work after school, or during any other break in the school year.  The last days of the school year weren’t necessarily welcome in my generation.  If you were still at home when my parent got up to go to work, you had better be deathly ill,  (They had once made a deal with a big Black man called Big Mac, to take us to the fields to work.  Sometimes hay, cotton, peas, turnips, etc.  Big Mac was a good man, but don’t ever piss him off! Not unless you were tired of living.)  He also would take us on Saturday during the growing season. At the end of the day, all of our energy and will to fight was left in those sun-drenched fields. There were gangs in my neighborhood, not as well armed as today’s gangs, but still deadly. But if they had parents like mine, they were out there avoiding snakes and bull nettles,  just like we were.  I was more afraid of seeing a disappointed look on my parents face, than I feared a whole legion of gang members. I don’t know if it’s the cure for this disease,  but sticking our fingers in our ears, will not muffle out the gunfire.  There is just one other thing I should add.  We should make these “kids” responsible for their own actions.  These dealers of death, should be dealt death.  If they commit  adult crimes, then they should receive an adult punishment.  If that means that some of them will go to the death chamber, then so be it. It is far better,  than burying the innocent children.  It doesn’t matter, that they didn’t intend the kill that girl, or little child.  It only matters that they did.  Let’s not wait until our own neighborhoods are filled with mountains of hot brass.

These are the words from the mouth of the Volcano…..

Next time on “As the Ghetto Turns

Episode 8 “That Jiggaboo’s Administration”

How the first Black President has been treated