8th week of school finished. First Quarter grades are due November 2nd.
#SavetheCrew
This week the owner of the Columbus MLS team the Crew announced that if they didn't get a new stadium downtown he would move the team to Austin Texas.
Columbus Crew Stadium, built in 1999, it was the first soccer-specific stadium built by a Major League Soccer team, starting an important trend in MLS stadium construction. The stadium is named for Madrid-based Mapfre Insurance after the company signed a sponsorship agreement announced on March 3, 2015.
If the crew somehow stay and the stadium stays eventually it will go down as a historic landmark being the first soccer-specific professional stadium built in America a very cool thing to have.
I like the crew, I want them to stay but I have to be honest I haven't been the best fan. I've been a handful of times and usually on a discount night. Columbus isn't a real city so an MLS team seems like the perfect fit. The city is a college football town which is perfect when the MLS season goes through the summer.
Friday night we went out in the short north, Bodega, This woman came up to us asking for help with her hair tie stuck in her hair (very relateable) One of the servers stepped in and said she would handle it. Moments later after a loud crash the demeanor of the hair tie woman had changed, the body language of the server was less than friendly and cherries and berries were lighting up the walls as the police arrived.
It felt strange, not that this woman was creating a scene but that everyone in the bar gawked and talked (myself included) In moments like these it feels like such a herd mentality. Like we are all sheep. It reminded me of the man at Zenos who stumbled and bumbled around endlessly talking to me. It reminded me of all of my friends back at the pantry. Poverty, trauma, and mental health all seem to go hand in hand. We as young adults wanting to enjoy the nightlife in the city without having to deal with the realities of a city are ridiculously unequipped. I doubt any of those bars downtown have trainings on how to deescalate a situation or trauma informed reactions.
I have always said this but honestly two wrong turns in life possibly even turns that are out of my own control and I am that homeless person arguing in a bar bathroom. Lets say I broke my leg and my medical doctor prescribed me an addictive legal opioid pill suddenly my body is craving this chemical and it's controlling my decisions to the point where I lose my job, my friends, and I'm on the street doing anything to curb my opioid addiction.
What if my parents both died in a car crash leaving me to grow up without relatives around putting me in the foster system where I'm never adopted, craving community and family and needed financial help I turn to theft and robbery after my criminal record reaches a point I'm unemployable living on the streets growing bitter as I watch young people my age party every night ignoring me on the sidewalk or messing with me while recording on their phones.
We are a suburban generation wanting to live in the city, without any of the realities of the city to bother us.
I'm uncomfortable when I see the panhandlers waiting by the off ramps, I'm uncomfortable when I see the mentally ill shouting from the street corner at no one at all, I'm uncomfortable walking to my gym at the residents from the YMCA congregate near the stoop. I'm uncomfortable when a woman needs help getting her hair tie out.
But it isn't wrong to feel uncomfortable, the question is, something inside of me is signaling, something inside of me is reacting to what I'm experiencing in my environment and my uncomfortable manner is an internal call to action. I have the choice to ignore, avoid eye contact and walk by, or I have the choice to engage. It could be as simple as a smile with eye contact, to tell the person, I see you and yes you exist even though it might feel like your invisible at times when everyone walks past. It could be as easy as tossing a dollar. Or it could be as intricate and stopping my evening plans for a moment to get in an uncomfortable, unknown conversation with a person on the street.
A person whose gotten where they are because of circumstances, some controllable, others out of their control.
It doesn't make the person any less than me.
It doesn't make me any better because my lot in life played out this way.
As I've mentioned before, not all people are created equal.
We, the people who have chosen the city over the suburbs have an obligation to act when we feel that uncomfortable condition. We may have no training, we may not know what to do, but we can start with a kind smile and asking how they are doing and we can learn from our own mistakes and successes understanding that every person and situation is different but ignoring is one of the most hurtful forms of communication.
No one wants to feel ignored.
Tempestt has talked about gift cards, bus passes, and such, and I really like those ideas, why haven't I done it yet? She's an amazing woman.
I hope I made the impression
That I was always interested
All the feelings I kept in
What should we do?
Whatever you want to
Therapy - Khalid
#SavetheCrew
This week the owner of the Columbus MLS team the Crew announced that if they didn't get a new stadium downtown he would move the team to Austin Texas.
Columbus Crew Stadium, built in 1999, it was the first soccer-specific stadium built by a Major League Soccer team, starting an important trend in MLS stadium construction. The stadium is named for Madrid-based Mapfre Insurance after the company signed a sponsorship agreement announced on March 3, 2015.
If the crew somehow stay and the stadium stays eventually it will go down as a historic landmark being the first soccer-specific professional stadium built in America a very cool thing to have.
I like the crew, I want them to stay but I have to be honest I haven't been the best fan. I've been a handful of times and usually on a discount night. Columbus isn't a real city so an MLS team seems like the perfect fit. The city is a college football town which is perfect when the MLS season goes through the summer.
Friday night we went out in the short north, Bodega, This woman came up to us asking for help with her hair tie stuck in her hair (very relateable) One of the servers stepped in and said she would handle it. Moments later after a loud crash the demeanor of the hair tie woman had changed, the body language of the server was less than friendly and cherries and berries were lighting up the walls as the police arrived.
It felt strange, not that this woman was creating a scene but that everyone in the bar gawked and talked (myself included) In moments like these it feels like such a herd mentality. Like we are all sheep. It reminded me of the man at Zenos who stumbled and bumbled around endlessly talking to me. It reminded me of all of my friends back at the pantry. Poverty, trauma, and mental health all seem to go hand in hand. We as young adults wanting to enjoy the nightlife in the city without having to deal with the realities of a city are ridiculously unequipped. I doubt any of those bars downtown have trainings on how to deescalate a situation or trauma informed reactions.
I have always said this but honestly two wrong turns in life possibly even turns that are out of my own control and I am that homeless person arguing in a bar bathroom. Lets say I broke my leg and my medical doctor prescribed me an addictive legal opioid pill suddenly my body is craving this chemical and it's controlling my decisions to the point where I lose my job, my friends, and I'm on the street doing anything to curb my opioid addiction.
What if my parents both died in a car crash leaving me to grow up without relatives around putting me in the foster system where I'm never adopted, craving community and family and needed financial help I turn to theft and robbery after my criminal record reaches a point I'm unemployable living on the streets growing bitter as I watch young people my age party every night ignoring me on the sidewalk or messing with me while recording on their phones.
We are a suburban generation wanting to live in the city, without any of the realities of the city to bother us.
I'm uncomfortable when I see the panhandlers waiting by the off ramps, I'm uncomfortable when I see the mentally ill shouting from the street corner at no one at all, I'm uncomfortable walking to my gym at the residents from the YMCA congregate near the stoop. I'm uncomfortable when a woman needs help getting her hair tie out.
But it isn't wrong to feel uncomfortable, the question is, something inside of me is signaling, something inside of me is reacting to what I'm experiencing in my environment and my uncomfortable manner is an internal call to action. I have the choice to ignore, avoid eye contact and walk by, or I have the choice to engage. It could be as simple as a smile with eye contact, to tell the person, I see you and yes you exist even though it might feel like your invisible at times when everyone walks past. It could be as easy as tossing a dollar. Or it could be as intricate and stopping my evening plans for a moment to get in an uncomfortable, unknown conversation with a person on the street.
A person whose gotten where they are because of circumstances, some controllable, others out of their control.
It doesn't make the person any less than me.
It doesn't make me any better because my lot in life played out this way.
As I've mentioned before, not all people are created equal.
We, the people who have chosen the city over the suburbs have an obligation to act when we feel that uncomfortable condition. We may have no training, we may not know what to do, but we can start with a kind smile and asking how they are doing and we can learn from our own mistakes and successes understanding that every person and situation is different but ignoring is one of the most hurtful forms of communication.
No one wants to feel ignored.
Tempestt has talked about gift cards, bus passes, and such, and I really like those ideas, why haven't I done it yet? She's an amazing woman.
I hope I made the impression
That I was always interested
All the feelings I kept in
What should we do?
Whatever you want to
Therapy - Khalid