It's all part of a Chain

It’s a sunny day in Oakland, the kids are playing and simply having fun. Then, “what is wrong with this picture?” you might ask. First of all, when we were walking down East 14th it was no later than 12pm. Then why aren’t these kids at school? Where are their parents? And should that old mattress be part of this picture?

There is a majority of people that believe that Oakland is a “bad and dangerous” city. However, nobody does anything to improve our community. When I saw those kids at first I did not wonder why they were not in school, that didn’t even cross my mind. Is it because I am so use to seeing this that I become numb to it? In my neighborhood not only are there young children that don’t go to school, but also teenagers that decided to drop out.

When I see this picture I don’t see a group of happy kids, but some of the “negative” aspects of my community. The fact that our youth is not in school exposes them to a different type of life. I ask myself, “ Does this occur because of lack of support within families, and schools?

Now, the old mattress, it shouldn’t even be there in the first place. Trash is something that you see around our communities, why do people throw things in the streets? What comes to my mind is that people just don’t care. If someone is walking down a street in Oakland, and they don’t see a garbage can, they’ll throw it on the street. There’s trash all over the place, if nobody makes the effort to throw things away in the trash can, why should they? At least that’s what I think people believe. What they don’t know is that they could be the person to make a change, so that other people are motivated to keep our community clean.

We can’t blame someone for how our community is. It’s all part of a chain and its time for us to break it.