Letter to All

[Roxinos]

I'm not one to do this, but it was a request from my brother. He's deeply hurt by the murder of one of his old teachers which happened a few days ago. This is a letter he wanted me to send to as many people as possible. If you can, and want to, send it on.

 

 

 

 

This is for all those to understand my grief and the grief of others. A great Man was lost. Let this letter go on to let everyone understand Mr. Lawrnece will live on in all of us.

 

An open letter to the killers of Mr. Lawrence

By Leonard Pitts Jr.

lpitts@MiamiHerald.com

G ood morning, gentlemen. I don't know your names yet, but I want to talk to you about the man you killed.

I read about it in The Miami Herald. How Lemroy Lawrence walked out of his house in Miami Gardens at about 9 p.m. Tuesday to get some papers from his truck. How you approached him out of the darkness. How there was a struggle. How he was shot in the back.

Police put out a description of the suspects they're looking for, a description of you: young, black and male. Maybe you'll be in custody by the time these words see print. Maybe it'll take longer. But you'll be caught. For some reason, I have no doubt.

Afterward, you'll show up in court and they'll have your picture on the news, and you'll be wearing one of those jail jumpsuits and giving that scowl of hard-as-calculus and dead inside that young men like you like to show the world as a way of saying nothing matters to you and you can't be touched. Inside, you'll be puking your guts out.

PLENTY OF TIME

They're going to give you life. Or maybe death. Either way, you'll have a long time to contemplate what you've done. You'll turn 30 in jail, 40 in jail, maybe grow old in jail, and the person you are now will be a distant memory, a stupid young punk you'll wish you could reach back in time to slap, scream at, shake by the shoulders and beg to turn his life around, not do this terrible thing. Maybe you'll find Jesus. Maybe you'll find remorse. Maybe you'll read books, become educated, change your life.

And all the while, Lemroy Lawrence will still be dead.

Moreover, the ironies of that death will still be sharp as razor blades. Lawrence was a husband, father, high school shop teacher, yes. He was also a mentor in the 5000 Role Models of Excellence program, a program that exists to save young black men at risk. Young black men like you.

I spoke at one of their assemblies years ago. They made me an honorary member. Somewhere in my closet, I still have the tie they gave me, the tie that is the uniform of the program: against a field of red, it shows hands reaching out.

It was all the brainchild of state Sen. Frederica Wilson. According to Role Models literature, 95 percent of the boys who graduate from the program get in no further trouble with school officials or police. Point being, you destroyed a man who had dedicated his life to saving yours.

LAWMAKER MUGGED

It's painful but hardly coincidental to note that in May, Wilson herself was mugged -- outside the Role Models office -- by a young black man.

In a very real sense, of course, it's a waste of time talking to you. You stood in the endless moment before the awful act, the moment when all things were still possible, and you made your decision. You pulled the trigger. You crossed a sacred line, and there's no going back.

But I find myself thinking about the young black men for whom there is still time, the ones who stand at that line but haven't crossed it yet, the ones who still live in the moment before, and thus, still have time to reclaim their futures, redeem their lives.

With any luck, they will learn from this. With any luck, they will understand that they are both the hope and the despair of the African-American nation and that we've known too little of the one and far too much of other. We are a people who are killing themselves, one heartbreak at a time. So maybe those young men will look at what you did and realize they need to be better than this. We all need to be better than this.

TOO LATE FOR YOU

Better than drugs. Better than guns. Better than ignorance. Better than fear. Better than handcuffs. Better than poverty. And yes, Lord, better than death.

It's too late for you. But I think of all those other young brothers out there walking the edge of that sacred line, and I hope they step back before it's too late for them.

Before it's too late for us all.

[JenniferL]

I'm so sorry about your brother's loss.

 

Incidently, Leonard Pitts is one of my favorite editorialists.

[Azshaya]

Im actually torn here

 

No disrespect if your brothers teacher really was killed

But this is how chain letters start

And it seems like the sort of thing Rox might post as a prank, he's the type to start a chain letter

 

Anyways, if your brothers teacher really was killed, Im terribly sorry (maybe you can find a source, yes?)

[JenniferL]

This doesn't seem like a prank to me.

[BenTGaidin]

*nods* Me either...

 

Especially since the Miami Herald website has this column reprinted on its website. ( http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/living/columnists/leonard_pitts/15713039.htm ) *grins*

[Roxinos]

Rai. If I were you. I'd be wary the next time you dare to step your *ss in SG.

 

And thank you Ben, saves me the trouble from doing that myself.

 

I may be the bloody Nae'blis, but I do not mess with death. And I do not mess with my brother's feelings. Do not mess with me.

[Tessandra]

Rai, Rox isn't normally a pranker. He's normally the one posting a real discussion. However I can see how you might be a bit wary.

 

Rox, I really don't think Rai meant anything by it. He wasn't sure if you were sincere or not so please don't take offense.

[BenTGaidin]

Roxinos said:

I may be the bloody Nae'blis, but I do not mess with death. And I do not mess with my brother's feelings.

 

Eh, we didn't think you were. *grins*

 

But you're welcome; it wasn't really very difficult, given that the author's name and email address were at the top of the column. A quick check on Google turned up the source quite easily. I think it was the just wierd bits of formatting that got undone when you copied it over to these forums that made it look like it might be a chain-letter thing.

[Azshaya]

I appologize now that I know its real

 

However, Ive seen waaay to many chain e-mails come out of my school (seriouisly), that were similar to this

 

Anyways, yes, it is terrible that your brothers teacher got killed, and this is probably a good way about going around to it

However, if I might make one small suggestion, include the link to the story in with the other text, just so others will aviod mistaking this as chain mail

 

So, Im sorry Rox, I really didn't mean anything offensive by it (like Tess said) and may the culprits be caught

[Roxinos]

I have no need. You're the only one who would dare to presume such of me, and who has. And as Ben said, all it would've taken you was a simple Google search seeing as the author's name is provided (as well as the newspaper he writes for).

 

And Tess, Rai may not have been sure, but even if I was 99% positive that it was a chain letter, I wouldn't have said a word until I had proof that it was such. Rai didn't even try to figure out if it were true or not.

[Tessandra]

Yes I understand dear but not everyone thinks the same or knows you as well as I. He apologized however so I think we can all let this thread go on its way now.

 

*hugs*