And it strikes me several times how strange the world has become. You read among other things about gangs in the US. Vividly on their thoughts and feelings. Sometimes I just want to yell or shake them because they are so wrapped up in lies. How the power they have through guns is what’s important. The respect they get from being feared. Not to forget that everyone that’s not living like them are taking orders from someone else than themselves. They don’t wanna know that the respect you earn is uplifting, that taking orders because you choose to is more freeing than doing it out of fear.
There is one place in the book that I love. Some gangers’ talk proudly of the marks they spray around town and the main character points out that one of the marks is the Star of David. And the ganger says that no Jew is going to take that away from them, it is the mark of that gang. The ignorance is striking. The Jews can't take away something that has always been theirs. It will never be the real mark of a gang, even if you ignore the truth it doesn’t change. The gangers’ are someone that has never really grown up. Always acting like teen that rebels against the grown up’s. Sort of like bad Peter Pan’s. They refuse to see things from another side, they wear their emotion on their sleeves and they feed of rage and revenge. Never really thinking about the consequences it will bring to themselves or others. Life and death is just something that is as natural as choosing your clothes. They are more animals than humans. Only when someone they care for is being caught in the crossfire it’s more than a game of sorts. They never want to think about the other gang members as fellow human beings. I feel rage, and sometimes I do want revenge. Doesn’t mean that it is right or that I can do something about it. I believe that revenge belongs to the Lord. It’s not my call to say what it should be or to whom. Is it our decision to kill the shooter because of what he did? What if he was revenging his brother? What if it was an accident that is eating him up inside? How can we know??
I keep thinking about the ignorance. Everything they refuse to learn in school (or by the older generation) because they say it’s worthless. Not knowing that they are actually doing the same when they teach younger kids that the street life is the better life. They do have a lot of street smarts, but are naïve when it comes to being a fellow man, a real human being. Their ignorance is hidden by being tough, mean and fearsome. They blame those that make it out of the gangs as cowards, worthless and betrayers. They think that they caved in, surrendered.
I’ll never have to deal with these issues, and I am very grateful for it. It doesn’t mean that it doesn’t affect me that people can be so mislead that they’d rather believe the lie than the truth. I’d like to be able to do something about that, but instead of moving to another country I can try to help those in my own community that is stuck in that same pattern without the gangs. (We don’t really have those here yet…)
I am far from finished reading the book, and for that I am thankful. It is my kind of size so I don’t have the opportunity to get so hooked that I’ll basically do nothing but read for a day or two before it’s finished!!
