Today Marna of the DMZ gardens had scheduled a meeting with the principal of the elementary school across the street from our DMZ garden vacant lot. All went well except Marna was not there. Her son and her nephew were victims of a shooting last night. Her son survived but her nephew, like her other son some years ago, was a victim of a senseless homicide. Dawn and I still went on and had a good meeting and came up, with the principal, of a way to involve the children and hopefully their parents in this community DMZ garden. However, afterwards, I felt this deep sense of sorrow. My friend, Marna, co-founder of Mothers Against Gun Violence had lost another family member to senseless violence. I was happy for the children of the elementary school to have such an understanding principal, but sad for Marna and her family to lose another member to violence. However, we need to move ahead with the children of this school, working in the DMZ garden, from respect for the young man, Marna’s nephew, who died early this morning. Talking to the reporter in charge of the The Milwaukee Homicide Report this evening, I observed how there has been a lull in violence when it has been exposed as it is, senseless, but that it comes back again.
Violence is like a garden with a bad bunch of weeds and insects. You expose them but they return. Violence, like a bad weeds, needs to be uprooted in our lives. Talk will not do. We need action, to take a tool and uproot it. Without some major action, like a weed or insect, it will come back again and again. I had an infestation recently of some bugs in my GP box in the sunroom. I just went to the store, purchased some organic Safer soap and sprayed it liberally on the plants. We cannot hesitate in uprooting violence. We must grab firmly and uproot it. Otherwise every time we move ahead we will move back.
The DMZ garden in the central city will be established with the help of the community, a safe zone where weeds and violent persons will be uprooted and thrown in the waste.
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