Well, New York State has taken back $2,000,000 from the promised money for the Rochester Surround Care Community (formerly RCZ). In a matter of weeks, the state turned around and gave $4,000,000 to a local, wealthy private college to remodel their performing arts center!
One more time this community has been put to the side for the purposes of profit and the rich. One more time, the youth I have been working with have the rug pulled out from under them. They were crushed. They were especially angry when they read the comments their "neighbors" wrote on the local newspapers online comment space after the article broke. A few comments in particular helped to spur them to take action. One person wrote that he "wasn't the one having all those 'chirrun'" and shouldn't have to pay for them. What?! In the other one, the person said that if "these people" don't want to work to pull themselves out of it, then they should go ahead and starve. Excuse me! It was heartbreaking for me to watch as the kids realized their worst fears were true. They couldn't believe people actually thought this, let alone would write it online. Then to learn that so much money went to the suburbs sent them over the edge. How may times do they have to be hit with the message that they don't count?
We are not sitting back though. They wrote the following letter and sent it to our assembly people, and Senators Hillary Clinton, Chuck Schumer, Joe Robach, and the new governor. They even sent one to Obama!
Dear Senator Clinton:
We are writing to you with the utmost respect to ask for a change. The current events are very discouraging to both us and other youth groups. We represent the youth of the Rochester Surround Care Community Corporation (RSC2). We are just one of many different groups of youth working to better our community through grants provided by the RSC2. We do outreach with the kids in our community by trying to do things that people would enjoy, reaching them through music and videos, and getting our friends involved in change. This grant isn’t just helping our friends, however. It’s helping us because we are given the opportunity to obtain and keep a job, helping us overcome our own issues with poverty. But since the funding for the RSC2 was cut, our chance to be a part of positive change is in danger. Look at it from our perspective: Do you know what it’s like to not have hot water running in your house, the electricity turned off, and an eviction notice on the door? In these circumstances, most people would crumble, but, with the help of the RSC2, we were using them as stepping-stones to make us stronger. But we feel like every time something safe or fun or really good for us gets cut, the government is telling us that we are supposed to crumble, that there must be an inferior class in society and that it is impossible for us to rise up and better ourselves. People tell us to go out and do positive things, but when the funding for those positive things is taken away, people assume it’s our fault. Without this opportunity, it would be very easy for us to “hustle” to make a living, but that’s just not safe, and it reinforces the negative views people have about us. The grant gave us a safe and productive way to earn an income. It also taught us about work ethic and prepared us for later on when we will need to get jobs, empowering youth for the future.
Since the budget cut happened, people are discouraged. We’ve lost membership; some members have been forced to find other ways to make money because they need it to survive. We feel like children whose parents gave us a bike for Christmas and told us the ground rules for riding our bike in the neighborhood. We followed all the rules and began to explore our newfound freedom. But then one day our parents took the wheels off the bike, and we couldn’t go anywhere. We are in danger of becoming so discouraged that we don’t even want to leave the house anymore. Restoring the funding to the RSC2 will allow us to continue to achieve our goals for community change. Please help us continue to help the youth of our community.
Sincerely yours,
The youth of AMP’D
We are circulating a petition and they are writing a response to the newspaper comments. We've been talking about how they will deal with the inevitably racist comments that will result. Of course they say they don't care, but I know they will get really angry and hurt. How do we work with youth to do this kind of activism and prepare them for the pain of response (or lack thereof)? On the one hand, this is critical literacy in action. On the other, it could be a painful lesson in the depths of human hatred. My heart hurts.