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Overcoming Urban Violence
2010-09-30
Cruel Boston
I am rising up against your street violence
by Janel Lynch
I am Boston, and I am here to destroy the weak, weaken the
strong, and open everyone’s eyes to the reality of life on
“the street.’’
DEAR BOSTON,
I want you to know that you have gotten to me, my friends, and
my family. I can never forgive you for the times when you have
injured or killed the people I love. Why won’t you protect
instead of destroy?
We were so good until Dec. 22, 2007, Jan. 17, 2008, and June
18,2008, when you let someone brutally murder my friends
Emmanuel Benjamin Santil, Darrion L.J. Carrington and Qwamane
Williams. I still remember all the tears I shed, the burning
sensation I got in my heart whenever I heard their names or saw
a picture of one of them, and how a little thing such as a song
would break me down for hours.
I blame this all on you, Boston. Your nonchalant attitude for
someone taking the life of another is why I found no reason to
live to my fullest potential during my early years in high
school. That’s when I discovered that a person could be so
heartless as to take someone’s life, maybe even my own, with
just one bullet or one jab of a knife.
I never did my homework or studied; being alone in a room, I
saw only my friends’ faces on my walls, and I heard their
voices seeping in through cracks of the ceiling and windows. In
class, only they were on my mind, not how to annotate a
paragraph or how to solve (x + 8)2. I didn’t care, because I
knew that once 2:50 p.m. hit, I would be back to face my enemy
after a 45-minute bus ride.
After I failed biology and enrolled in summer school, I knew it
was time to take control and prove that you could no longer
affect my life and my decisions. Even if you hurt me, Boston, I
would not let it show. But you really opened my eyes the night
of that party at the Dorchester YMCA when you had someone open
fire at me and my friends as we started walking home. Still, I
wanted to live my life to its fullest potential, I wanted to be
successful. It was time to pull my act together for real and
not just speak about it.
During my junior year, you generally kept a low profile. I went
from a being a D and F student to an A and B — thanks for the
break, I guess. In March you tested me, but just like with my
school tests I passed, even though it cut me deep that you
would involve my friend with your madness. Now she sits in a
cell. Thanks for taking my best friend away from me. Regardless
of what you sent my way, though, I rose above your challenge
and even made honor roll for the first time.
Now it’s senior year, and I am determined to do my absolute
best, even though you have already sent another test my way by
having my friend Justin shot in the neck. And now you are
testing the entire city with yesterday’s killings of four
people, including a toddler.
I think it’s time for you to give up, Boston, because I will
no longer feed into your distractions. But I will promise you a
couple of things: I will end my last year in high school on
honor roll; and I will never leave you. My goal is to reform
you and make you a positive city. After 17 years I believe that
if no one else can, I will.
Sincerely,
Janel
Janel Lynch lives in Roxbury and is a student at Weston High School. Her essay was published in the Boston Globe after it was submitted by her high school English teacher.