Mr Joe

Pop-pop Joe was the local number man. I remember getting excited everyday as he would answer the phone at noon, three, and six for each number as it came out.  I remember that we used to go collecting the money twice a day too.  

Everybody called my Pop-pop Mr Joe.  They never called me by my name.  I was Mr Joe's Lil Girl.  None of us kids could understand because Mr Joe was black and I was anything but black.  But it was what it was, and local culture said to just deal with reality.  That was back when neighbors stuck together around Jewtown.  It really was a tight knit community. 

Mr Joe also worked in a box factory and would bring us home boxes to make clubhouses with.  He'd bring his bicycle tools on the front step and get all of our bikes out.  Then he'd fix everybody's bicycle problems while he was out there watching us and talking to his friends.  One of them was a white man by the name of Mr Max.  He looked like a hood version of Santa Claus, so he would convince all the local kids that you'd never know who Jesus was walking down the street, but He's always watching you.  Santa too, checks his list twice. We never quite knew what to make of him, so until we were old enough to bust his lies, we were careful around Mr Max.  Personally, I wondered about him and how he came to love pigeons so much.

Mr Joe was a kind and quiet man. He had a gentle spirit that could soothe almost anybody. He cared for everybody and people respected him for that.  But he was also the controversial and lone black man on the white side of a racially divided family.  It never bothered me much when we were with the black side of the family because we kids really didn't understand the racial issues yet anyway.  We used to ask each other lots of questions about the other color.  What I found to be the most weird was how we used to compare households and I found out that ours was just completely different. I couldn't pinpoint how.  Years later, I would call that the infusion of several different cultures on a limited resource level.  This meant that we didn't know enough of any one culture to really do much, so my family would fuse a party into an Irish Southern Black Luau that served Korean food and featured a "China Doll" for entertainment.  That was always me because I can pass for any race.  But we weren't taught anything about that because they didn't know what to teach us, other than to hide our identities like the Jews.  We were always pushed to mingle whiter and preppier as well.  This was the only kind of people who were accepted into society.  No more questions, just follow protocol.  We could only be ourselves behind closed doors and that was a lot to keep up with.

Our home was very loving and open to others.  As time goes on, I will add to this one, but for now, thanks for getting to know Mr Joe.

Child Abuse is Acceptable in Charlotte County Florida

The shrill cries of two children screaming "Stop!! Please stop!" broke the silence in the air at 8:46 on the rainy morning of September 26, 2013.  The two children are homeschooled, due to state and local tyranny within the school board.  While both children study in four languages, the older of the two also studies international affairs.  Both children are well above their academic level in achievements and successes.  

On that miserable morning, the children were taking out the laundry when their five year old bulldog pushed his way out the door. Usually, he would only stay in the carport during rain, but he has been missing his long walks and car rides that both stopped when mom had to get rid of the car, then broke both her feet.  Sam, the dog, was simply ready for a long walk. 

See, mom is a single mother with no family, who has been very sick for the past three years.  In the past year, mom underwent many surgeries including two more rounds of cancer, kidney failure and a brain surgery.  The dog was simply eager to roam as he was so used to doing when mom was healthy enough to keep his routine. 

When Sam got out, the two children immediately headed out on their bikes to capture him.  But it was raining pretty hard and mom called them back to put on safety ponchos. While she looked locally, they searched the broader area, knowing that mom couldn't.  

What mom heard several minutes later would be something from any mother's nightmare.  The sounds of her children crying and she wasn't sure which direction to look first. Unlike gridded neighborhoods, all the streets ran in circles, so one would have to physically go through them all.  She could hear their pleas, so it was obvious that someone was hurting them.  The sudden rush of hopelessness to help them overcame her. 

With adrenaline kicking in, the fact that she was sick and in pain no longer mattered.  Where were her babies?  What was happening?  Was it the babies or the dog getting hurt?  She began to ride faster when she almost crashed into the seven year old upon turning a corner. He was screaming for his mommy at the top of his lungs, screaming for someone to come help his sister.  He didn't even realize who he almost crashed into.  The rain began to come down harder.

Together they rode to the ten year old who was crying in a pool of blood on the sidewalk, holding the dog.  Her eyes flooded with pepper spray, the girl was clearly having an asthma attack on the ground.  Several neighbors were outside shouting curse words at the children but nobody helped the girl on the ground. Just then, a woman pulled up in her big dark truck and began spouting threats at the family and dog.  The mother had already called the police and was unable to get her children home without assistance.  She allowed the children to tell the police what happened and allowed the police to do their job, as asked.  In the end, the police found that nothing was wrong with what the woman did. They said that she panicked in the moment and when she pointed the pepper spray in the girl's face, sprayed and cursed at the little girl, that was a normal reaction.

This is not the first time this has happened in Charlotte County. Just two years ago, the sheriff's department found it a normal reaction for a 30 year old man to strangle the same boy who was present in this incident.

To further provide ample proof that this is not a controversial trash family that we're talking about here, nobody in this family has a criminal history or any trouble with the law.  Each member of the aforementioned family has been repeatedly in the newspaper for hosting or working church events, coaching community teams, and the girl is the only youth poet in southwest Florida and is well known for her work.  The mother spends all of her time developing the children and whose life is dedicated to children altogether.

Yet and still, law enforcement fails to do it's job.  An unnamed sheriff told the mother that only money will win in Florida. Unfortunately, those who the mother is fighting against have more money, therefore the mother and her children are thus left unprotected.  They advised the mother to not allow her children to come out to play.  Way to go Charlotte County. 

This is the sixth time in one year that this unprotected family has been targeted and not once, has anyone been brought to justice.  Yes, leaving Charlotte County is the only option.