The Hidden Shame of Having a Poor Education

I've mentioned before that poor children especially those that attend inner city schools are not being educated correctly. 
Even in wealthier school districts poor children in the ghettos are not getting the proper education due to racism and crashing.
I'm 52 years old who graduated from High School without the following skills Multiplication, Division,  Fractions,  and Decimals. I can barely add or subtract.  I was told by several teachers that they tried their best but my brain just couldn't work right enough to learn these skills.  Professional teachers spent years trying to teach me what took an artist in Maine, Carol Douglas,  one day to teach me.  I learned my 3 and 4 tables in one day.
So my brain wouldn't work for the teachers but worked for Carol Douglas. It was then I realized that I was a victim of a society who does not want to educate the poor. 
To many teachers look at poor children and assume they either do not have the capacity to learn or they don't have the parental support.
I had both but they used my so called Learning Disabilities as an excuse for not teaching me basic skills. I have had to live with that decision all my life. 
I spent years coming up with ways to hide the fact that my math skills were poor.  I hid the fact that I did not know my multiplication tables.
I believed their lie until a few days ago when Carol taught me my 3 and 4 tables. I knew then it was a lie. 
A woman from Rockport, Maine decided to give me the Education that the Commonwealth of PA and the General Braddock and Woodland Hills school district did not.

Housewarming Party in the Hood

On Saturday I had a Housewarming party to celebrate my new house. Bell Avenue was quiet all day until my first guests came they all hell broke loose. My first guests were folks from my church. They informed me some man from across the street ODed. Of course I run on Hood Time so I wasn't quite ready despite cooking and cleaning all day. My kitchen table collapsed and the hot grease from the fried chicken spilled all over the floor. My pastor cleaned it up for me. We looked out of my kitchen window and saw several police cars. My very ghetto and racially mixed family showed up next so everyone in the house was white, black, and Hispanic. The police standoff and DEA raid across the street lasted for the entire time of my party which ended at 9 PM. The people who live in the hood are used to this type of thing happening. I had a good time despite the tiny disaster with my table and the police raid outside my door

Writing My Life Story

I am currently writing my life story as I'm writing it I realized I actually saddle the two eras of the ghetto. 
I was born in 1964 four years before the first changing events of the ghetto The MLK riots of 1968.
I grew up in the 70s in North Braddock PA.  I still remember the good old days before everything went horribly wrong in the Hood .
I was a young adult of 22 when the Hood became the violent war zone it is today. I was old enough to see some horrible stuff like torture. 
Most of our problems started after the MLK riots.  Drugs began to flood the neighborhood and folks in the Hood believe the Government flooded the ghettos with drugs to keep us from causing to many problems for the Country and to keep us quiet.  I have no problem believing them after some things I've seen.
I realized that the story of my life is the story of the ghetto in the second half of the 20th century and the first 17 years of the 21St century.

Inner City Education

This is the third time I wrote this Blogger can not find my picture.
I went to an inner city school district 98% of the students received free or reduced lunches. 
The buildings were in disrepair and school supplies were in short supplies.
Most of the teachers were wonderful people who often had to purchase school supplies in order to teach the kids
Some teachers we're cruel while others were lazy.  My fourth grade teacher grouped her students by income level the poorest students we're placed into the group she called the Dummy group.  The Dummies had to do all the physical labor.  We had to wait until the other kids ate before we ate because we had to throw away their food.  Often times she never allowed us time to eat. We didn't have a lunch room. I finally told my mother who told the other parents and they reported the teacher they did not fire her and we we're ignored the rest of the year.
We had a teacher in Junior High  who read newspapers drank coffee and fed the roaches while we drew math
I learned how to write an outline this week my friend who is tutoring me now said I was a quick studies and one of the best students she ever taught.  I know I'm not the only smart person from the Hood and as I told my friend picture what I could have done with a real Education. 

LIVING PAY CHECK TO PAY CHECK

I have a very good friend that I told I was going to get a payday loan. She was appalled because the interest rate is extremely high. I told her I didn’t know anything about interest loans. I was only concerned that I don’t lose my phone. I also didn’t want to be taxed by my phone company because I didn’t have the money to make the second payment. She asked me if I could afford the house. I explained to her that I did I just pay my rent out of one check and the bills out of the second check or vice versa.
I think a lot of middle class people like my friend think the poor are just irresponsible but that isn’t the truth. The fact is that most poor people do not have credit at all rather than bad credit. We tend to purchase what we need and entertainment are often luxuries we cannot afford.  We do not have credit because its an extra bill.
Our pay check must cover the necessities and we have very much room for anything else. If you rely on Food Stamps or Medicaid you can not have a Savings Account because you have to declare it and they check your balance. So there is no way for anyone to save any sort of money especially if you have health care needs and must have Medicaid.
Living Pay Check to Pay Check can be difficult when you are facing a Housing Emergency like I had this past Christmas when I was homeless for 30 days. I was hit earlier that year with a health care emergency and lost my income for several months. I went back to work but can only work as a causal due to my health concerns.
My friend stated that middle class kids are taught things like budgeting and interest rates and most can calculate what any given interest rate is.  In the Hood and in poor families there is no money to budget because most of what you need for the month is the basics. We don’t have money for the movies, or to go out because that may mean a bill doesn’t get paid. We often have to forgo a bill at Christmas time or to take our kids to the Amusement Park.  We have to take our kids to the park and to the Museum.
Living Pay Check to Pay Check is not always a negative thing. It can lead to disaster but you don’t have a lot of debt. My friend thinks that credit is a way to keep people slaves to debt. Ask a poor person who will tell you that they pay the necessary bills like the Utilities and the rent but the Credit card bills get ignored. Having bad credit is not the same sort of threat that having no Utilities cut off or being evicted. Most of us make $20,000 a year or less working very difficult jobs usually caring for people.

Trump's America and Its Impact on the Hood

I read on my facebook wall and also on the Streets of my Hood the question on everyone's mind what do Minorities think of Make America Great Again?.  Perhaps had it remained a campaign slogan then we could chalk it off as racist rhetoric that the GOP love to use.  This time the Hood got a reality check Muslim Bans,  Rounding up Mexicans ripping babies out of the arms of mothers.  Then just so the Hood don't feel left up TWO executive  orders which is genocidal was hit.  The Hood can't be deported or banned we are Americans.  So what they do they first give police officers a licence to kill with no regard to the people they murder.  This racist Baboon literally gave the Cops free reign to shoot and kill at will.  Who do you think is going to be slaughtered?  
The Second one is just as horrific. The Justice Department plans another Mass Incarceration even though the last ones we're a disaster this is what the KKK Attorney General thinks is a good idea.  This one should upset the very people who put him in there the Rural Poor Whites although they are also likely to be murdered by the police or end up serving Life for a low level felony.  They will suffer along side of the rest of us only the rest of us didn't want Trump.
We hear stories of people boldly proclaiming that soon under Trump slave labor will be back.  A few years ago this would be laughed at but no one is laughing now.  We are afraid that we will be forced into slavery.  Not even under Reagan we did not fear this but under Trump we have no choice but to believe him.  We will defend ourselves from any threat and yes you bold enough to come to the ghetto to force us into slavery we will kill you.
We will not sing and pray for peace once cops kill someone we will burn this Country down.  We are not going to rule over and play dead.  A judge over sentences someone then then we burn the Suburbs down completely.  We will not allow our rights and Freedoms to be taken away.  We will fight.  See the days of Peaceful Protest is over it's time to Defend ourselves  by any means necessary.
So to most minorities we believe the slogan means We will make Amerikkka Great Again means back to our Nations long Painful treatment of the poor and Minorities will be permitted.  The Biggest joke of it all is that Poor White Rural whites will be sentenced to the same time behind bars or will be killed by the as police. 
Some of my white middle class friends some of whom are Republican do not understand our fear and unfortunately some White Liberals are feeding this by reporting fake news stories or even Satire Sites which is designed to frighten us into voting for Democrats. 
My Republican friends voted against Hillary more than for Trump and they  will be horrified if the EOs are enforced.  They try to console me but I am still afraid.  I lived through Mass Incarceration  before and with flooding our communities with drugs and weapons.  We we're caught off guard then but now we know the deal. We don't trust Trump's America or Trump himself because he is doing what he said he would do. 
We Resist him despite his efforts to reach out to us we do so because he doesn't listen nor does he tell his Neo Nazi/KKK followers to behave.
God Help us all.

15104 Till I Die

I have lived in the same zip code for most of my life. I do not remember living anywhere else and I don't want to either. I am 15104 till I die which means I will always live in one of three Boroughs; North Braddock, Braddock, and Rankin.  Right now I live in North Braddock having just moved from Braddock.

Braddock was the place where Andrew Carnegie built his first steel mill that is still operating today. The Edgar Thompson plant was built in 1875 and continues to this day. This plant and others in the Pittsburgh Area helped turned the United States into the Superpower it is today.

The Steel Industry began to decline in the 70s and by the 80s the area was turning into a ghetto. The businesses began leaving in droves and now all we have is a butcher shop, a variety store, and a Family Dollar. We also have a wonderful Mayor and his beautiful wife. Who are working hard to rebuild the once great town.

The Streets were starting to get bad when I was a child. Drugs had moved in and the school district was poorly funded and not able to offer a good education. This has shown up recently because I have been thinking of going back to school to get my degree and I do not know how to do basic stuff like Research papers and essays. I am learning how to do this for myself now although I have a great support system that includes my best friend who has a Ph.d. I had to put that in there because I love to brag about my bestie..

I joined a gang at the age of 11 it was just a local street gang with no bells or whistles. In 1986 the CRIPS came to town and we became CRIPS. I began selling drugs at the age of 14 and sold drugs for years. Again with the help of my Bestie I stopped selling drugs.

I will go into that life in a later post because I want to get in the details of this zip code. The Community that the New York Times called "Hell". I'm still salty about that.

The Mayor of Braddock was not born here nor is he poor. His Wife was born in Brazil and she came here illegally as a child. She runs The Free Store where everything is free from donated items. She is another good friend of mine who is a kind caring person. Her husband ran for US Senator and came in third place although he did better than anyone expected. He is a leader and The State Democratic party will recognize what a star they have.

I have included a picture of John Fetterman that shows his tattooed arms. On one arm has the dates of everyone murdered in the town of Braddock since he became Mayor. He has done wonders lowering the homicide rate and not by locking everyone up but by helping the young people get jobs. When young people work they are less likely to be tempted into selling drugs or committing violent crime.  To bad people who are the so called experts never talk to him or even to the people who used to gang bang I'm one of those people.