Walking in other people's shoes

sketch a day #16 -30 min

I read a couple of stories today that I found terribly disappointing. 

 First, a young man of 16 years was accused by someone he had never met of stealing the person's backpack.  He was arrested and placed in Rikers Island because his family could not come up with $10,000 bail. He stayed there for 3 years without a trial.  He attempted suicide several times but was unsuccessful, and received beatings from the guards for his attempts.  Soon before being released he was brought before a judge who told him if he pled guilty, he could go home with time served.  He refused. He was not going to take the rap for something he had not done.  Soon after all charges were mysteriously dropped.  He is suing.  I hope he wins. 

I don't know what the young man's personality was.  I don't know what his track record was. I don't know anything about him except what I have seen on TV.  He is 21, meek, mild, and broken.

Personally, as a parent, I would have found the bail money somewhere, but I don't live in the Bronx, and I don't know the position of his parents. So while I cannot understand that he was left in jail for 3 years without a trial, I can step into his shoes long enough to believe that a young black man can and will be railroaded by the justice system and then kept in jail even though the district attorney was repeatedly "not ready" to try him.  Stuff like this makes me worry about my own children.



A parent laments on how he thought he did everything right with his kids. Raised them in as an elite environment as he could afford. Taught him diction and rules for a black man behaving in a not so black society.  The kid excelled and was doing fine.  All of that was broken with one word, heard at the age 16 while studying at an elite summer program. "Nigger." He realized that all the hard work he had done would not protect his kids from prejudice and injustice. I made this same realization a couple years ago when young black men started getting shot because someone was "afraid of them".  Not because of what they did, but of what someone thought they might do. These are my shoes. I pray someone will try to step into them and see things from my perspective.  My son is HUGE, and meek and mild. I've taught him to clear his throat when he was walking up on someone and to never surprise anyone.  To look people in the eye and speak, and to always be a gentleman. But I have this nagging fear about his safety when he is away from me.

This is difficult and this is sad.  Is this why I wear out my shoes so fast?

The election is over, and I just don't care

sketch a day #14 - 15 minutes

I was done with elections before it even started.  Obvious lies on tv directed toward idiots who don't know any better (both sides).  Constant calls to my house, from both political parties (because I am not beholden to any group).  

And then there's the fact that I am an area manager for my county's elections.  They started us working on hiring and managing staff 3 months before the election, a month earlier than usual, and still we were short-staffed.  But the biggest problem is that the general public does not know if they are even registered to vote (if you think you are not, you probably aren't and should go ahead and do that) and those who are don't know where to vote.  The rest of the people have no idea WHERE they are supposed to vote, so we, the workers get yelled at because YOU showed up at the wrong location.   I blame this on the county. We used to get post cards before every election.  I haven't seen a post-card with voting location come to my home in years.  

Why?

Sure, you can go online and find out where you are supposed to go, but the elderly are the most active voters, and they don't even know how to do that... others don't have that kind of access to computers. It is very frustrating to have to try to explain to person after person why they should vote where they are registered, and why they can't just stop at any "vote here" sign and vote.  

I just did an extensive online search in an attempt to place a link that would explain to people why it is important they vote at their own precinct.  There was NO official information online at-all.  So, here's my simple explanation. (from my educated opinion)  You are registered to vote based on where you live. They make a concerted attempt to get you a voting location as close to your home as humanly possible.  They can't give you a precinct based on here you work or go to school, because that information will change.  If you show up to vote at just any location to vote, your name won't be in that locations computers.  There is no way to network these computers as the locations are temporary and not permanent, and the risks of having a temporary network to allow you to vote just anywhere are huge.. with hackers and all.  So... if you insist on voting where it is most convenient for you, either where you work, or just happen to pass by, that precinct will not be able to process your vote by computer, because you are not on their computer.  They can find your name and tell you where you should go (maybe) but they cannot process your vote.  If you want to vote there, you have to issue an old fashioned paper ballot.  Which by the way, may not have all the races you would vote on at your home precinct. It is a complicated and difficult process, and they have to make phone calls to get approval (for many reasons... one being that some people might try to vote at their home precinct, and then go somewhere else and vote. ) That have to look up your info and they approve your paper ballot... than there's all the paperwork... so be patient.  You made the decision to vote elsewhere. Be patient and let the workers do their due diligence.  It is for your protection and theirs.

sketch a day #15  10 minutes

And those people who come in there to vent their frustrations with the government, or even the voting process... that can't understand the phrase "you can't have that conversation in here", and think we are impeding their free speech.  I think we need humongous signs that say "it is a crime to discuss politics at a voting precinct"... BECAUSE IT IS ILLEGAL!

And then, there's the fact that I started working at 4:45 am, when I got my first call from one of my staff on election morning, and I stepped foot in my home at 11:30 pm.  Gives new meaning to Beyonce's line "I woke up like this. 

3 minute line drawing

Sketch a day #13 3 min

Detailed drawings that take hours to complete are a great way to relax and to practice all the techniques required in portraying a subject.

However, a quick 3 minute line drawing is a great way to capture the essence of an image.

This quick line drawing is my lunch.  You can see why I didn't want to spend hours drawing it... it wanted to eat it.

The drawing is of a glass of milk in a clear square-ish glass,  and a square glass saucer that holds my lunch... a Kind bar with peanut butter on top. I am trying to be good.

We might be too young to downsize

sketch a day 12 30min

This is for yesterday.  I missed a day.

Hubby and I spent the day looking at houses.  We would like to downsize. Our house is huge... frankly too big to really keep clean with only 2-3 people living in it 80% of the time. So we went looking at new home developments in the area, hoping there was something out there for middle aged folks who wanted something smaller, but nice.

No-siree...there wasn't.  Based on what we found, I have come to realize that in our suburban area if we want to downsize will will either have to buy something in a less desirable area of town or wait 9 years.  Apparently we are too young to downsize.

The the two-3 bedroom houses with nice finishes are reserved for 55 and older communities!  Sure there are starter houses here and there but they are finished with poorly done laminate countertops and linoleum floors. This is not the kind of thing that 40-something year olds is looking to move into.  Our best bet would be to go to an area closer to the city that is gentrifying, and buy something old and redo it.  That is not my idea of a good time either. Unless, I could find something that wasn't really built to be a house that I could transform into one.

The sketch above is of a neighborhood association club house that I have redrawn as a home.  (I turned the sitting and storage areas into bedrooms. When I go smaller, I don't want to move into a bunch of tiny cramped rooms.  Instead, I want fewer large rooms.  Still that would include less square feet, but unless I am living in NYC... (long story) I don't want to live in a closet.

It seems to me that because houses are built so large in the Atlanta area, it is hard for homebuilders to fathom that homeowners might want something more reasonably sized.  But even those huge houses are built poorly. In one house we looked in, the bedrooms were too small, and the closets would literally hold 10 outfits max!  And that would be if the closets were packed full!  Who does that?

One that I did like costs $70,000 more than what I already have and had a third floor.  That would just be taking my basement space which I don't use and stacking it on top of the house... Still it was nice, but that would not be downsizing, it would be the opposite.

I don't know what we are going to do... .about a lot of things. A job assignment that would take us to New York has been put on hold.  This started the whole conversation about getting a smaller house here, and getting a little tiny nest in NY.  Regardless of what happens, we know that we want to downsize, but in order to do that, we will have to get a lot closer to the city to find something acceptible and then we will have to gut it to get what we need.