what to do now...

What to do now…


This tragedy that happened on campus recently is horrible. I do not know why people do these kinds of things. The scariest thing is that it happened so close. It could have been anyone. It really hits close to me because he was an athlete and since I am an athlete it makes me think about my team and how it would be if something like this happened to one of my teammates. I honestly do not know what I would do if one day just one of my teammates was gone and not here anymore. We are family and losing one of us puts a big hole in all of us. It is the same for all athletes.
It is scary that these things happen all around us. People get shot everyday in this city but it does not make the news. If they put all the stories on the news there would be nothing else but shootings on TV. It is sad that I say this because that is not how it should be. We should not have to worry about walking around on our own campus alone and something happening to us. This city is full of crime and hate and it is horrible. We should not have to live our lives scared and think about how our kids are going to grow up in this city and we will have to worry about them playing outside or going to school. We have to do something about it because we are the generation that will help improve this city. The thing is that not just one person can make a different. Everyone has to put forth an effort in making this city better for us and for generations to come. When you see something wrong it is sometimes hard to stand up and help. You want to help but you are scared to get involved. You do not want these things as your problems but the thing is that eventually it could be your problem. If things do not get fixed the bad things will keep happening and spread even more throughout the city not just in the poor areas. The question is, what can we do to help? Honestly we say that we tighten security to try and protect everyone but if someone has the intent to hurt then they will most likely do it and there is not anything we can do. The best thing to do to help prevent crime in the city is to help improve the poverty level. Most of the fighting around this city and pretty much everywhere is about money. If people have jobs and earn money then maybe there would not be so much violence. To help this we should have people out there encouraging others to go out and get jobs. I know there are people that do this now but there are not enough and they do not encourage enough. It is one thing to say you will do this but it is another to actually do it.
It is hard for me to come to Memphis and live my life the same as how I did back in my hometown, Knoxville, TN. Yeah Knoxville is a pretty big city but it is nowhere near the size of Memphis and its crime is nowhere near as high. There is crime in Knoxville but I felt safe walking through my neighborhood by myself at night. It is totally different here. I would not walk anywhere here by myself at night. The only thing I can think of that stands out why Knoxville is not as violent as Memphis is the poverty. I’m not saying that there is not any poverty in Knoxville but, to me, it seems as though there is not as much. So my thoughts on helping this city move away from being the number one crime city in the country is going out there and helping the poor find jobs instead of channeling there anger and free time on violence. Now we just have to take initiative and go out there and do it.