Finding my voice

One of the things about this project that has been most difficult, especially as it gets closer to the end is switching between the academic brain and the artistic brain. I hadn't really anticipated that, but when Tim asked me to write a monologue about my experience, I found it really hard. I wrote pages upon pages of ideas and paragraphs before finally sending him something. I sent him my monologue as well as one that I had written using a lot of the comments I'd read on the online news articles. And when he called me to give me some feedback, it was really hard to hear.

"This is why I wanted you to write the monologue. It's what I've been afraid of, that is striving so hard to ensure the Camden voices get heard, you have lost your voice. Read the Camden Outsiders monologue out loud and then read yours out loud. Compare them as an actor and which one you would want to do for an audition. Which one feels more honest to you? Why?"

Mine was written more like a letter, trying to prove to people in Camden that I care and plead with them to help me learn how to do that well.

"Don't try to prove something," Tim said, "but just state your voice. Reclaim your voice as the artist and shoot for honesty. Make your objective, 'I want to be heard. This is how I feel and you must hear me' and stop worrying so much about convincing them through facts."

It was really good advice and I knew it because I started crying half way through the conversation and couldn't stop until after I'd written a second monologue from that deep place of vulnerability he'd dug up.

The monologues need some editing, but once they are done I'll post them. The good thing is, I'm starting to reclaim my voice and value it again.

More Positive Comments from Outsiders about Camden

• The residents deserved better government than the blood suckers that have run Camden for years.

• Camden needs a leadership that cares about the city and its citizens, not what would benefit themselves and their friends!

• The hypocrites in Camden do nothing for the citizens, they only perpetuate their own rule to benefit themselves, citizens are just a peripheral issue! 

• 40 more years of these people and nothing will be better for the citizens!

• There will be just a "safe conclave" near the waterfront for the specific beneficiaries!

• I live on the edges of a poor neighborhood in Philly. It’s what me and my wide can afford, despite earning a good but above the median income. Taking public transport every day, and living close to these people who “just sit on their asses and do nothing all day,” I can tell you that it is sometimes true, but not always. I see people from these neighborhoods on the bus going to and from work. I see them working in stores around me. You people really don’t know what you’re talking about. If you want to know why poor areas tend to be black, just go back 50-100 years. They were forced to be poor! Poverty is not easy to break out of. If you grow up poor you are more likely to grow up with bad role models and with bad habits. It’s all well and good to say that “you have to be the change”, but it is NOT that easy. And, year upon year, more and more people are falling into poverty, which makes the competition to ‘get out’ of it harder and harder. Once the middle class disappears (which is slowly happening), expect the s#%t to really hit the fan. Poverty is the problem, not colour.

• When there are no longer enough middle class consumers to support all these service jobs that the working poor are expected to live off of, Camden will be America.

• “To be honest it can’t be fixed, it is what it is, people there will not change its their way of life, I say leave them to their own choosing. Next case.”  

              I wonder what you would have done if you lived in a city with 40% unemployment, where all the jobs have disappeared. A city without some income producing activity to sustain it, be it manufacturing, trade or banking, is just a desert. It is easy to say leave, but without money or skills, where do you go?

• Amazing that this city is just 1 hour and a few minutes from Wall Street, the Financial Center of the world.

Wall Street Set For Best Two Years Ever, Thanks To Bailout Huff Post Business
Two agonizing years for the U.S. economy have been some of the best years on record for Wall Street.
After first receiving billions in taxpayer aid, and now ultracheap funding from the Federal Reserve, Wall Street banks are on track to wrap up two of their best years ever.
According to an October estimate, Wall Street firms are set to pay out $144 billion in bonuses this year, to break a record for the second year in a row. 

   

         Sorry, I need to throw up…..

• This is very saddening. Crime does not recognize justice, however a seemingly impossible question for Camden asks citizens to lower the level of crime. Traditionally economic suppression is followed by low education, poverty, poor health, high crime, and discouragement for businesses. Until area economics increase substantially, Camden will suffer. Socially collective in belief and commitment, the citizen's of Camden may want to belong to a social network that counters the negative conditioning that accompanies economic suppression.

• Maybe after the battle ends (hopefully soon) in Israel, Anderson Cooper can bring his camera crew and report from the war zone in Camden, NJ. We found the money to fund the iron dome to help protect the Israelis from their enemies ($800 million) maybe we can find some to protect poor American families with children living in shockingly dangerous conditions where there seems to be no end to the bloodshed. Or don't our own children count?

• you are so right, sue! we are spending billions in afghanistan building roads and other infrastructure, schools, hospitals etc...maybe when our military is finished there they can invade camden and build roads and infrastructure, schools, hospitals, etc.

• Yes! And maybe take some of the money spent in the Middle East and invest instead in Camden NJ. Reward industries for opening and hiring in that area.

• Camden is not a cesspool. There are good hard working people that live here. People who just want to raise their kids or live out their retirement years in peace. The real issue in Camden; and the other cities you mentioned, is poverty. Also, the breakdown of the family, culture and society are other factors. Don't be so quick to judge Camden and write off an entire City as worthless. Did you ever stop to think that much of the drug selling in Camden is paid for by those coming into the City to BUY the drugs. Who are these customers? Could they be your friends, your neighbors, family members or even your own children. Camden has suffered from years of corrupt elected officials ripping off the money that was to go to help the City create jobs and other needed services, such as public safety. Unfortunately, this METRO Police Plan is just another example by corrupt Camden County Freeholders to take 60 million dollars out of the City and use it to award contracts to their cronies and steal more millions from the taxpayers. Taxpayer funds are drying up and so these corrupt elected officials are looking for new pots of money to control and rip off. Tony, your list of US Cities does have one thing in common; corrupt local government run by powerful political bosses. But beware Tony, this corruption and tyranny is spreading and the disasterous METRO Police Plan may come to a City near you!!

• Those added costs to cities means affording fewer cops on the streets, which in turn increases the risk. A vicious cycle. For Camden, as a city, it has few choices left. What they have now is not working, just getting worse. Maybe the new plan will work, maybe not. But at this point, it deserves a shot, as Camden’s residents deserve not to be shot.

• Sad to say but it is what it is. As long as there are drugs, there will be violence! Therefore, it will not end because the government will never stop the drug game. It employs too many people - judges, lawyers, cops, prisons and rehab centers. So tell me if it's going to stop, I don't think so.

• When I hear the word Camden, I cringe. I fear the worst when I ride into that city because it is obvious the criminals don't care why I am there just that I may not belong. The city itself has some great people living there. But, overall, I do not have any desire to go into a city where my family has lost a beautiful young soul and, to this day, it hasn't been resolved.

• I pray one day that Camden can flourish and become just a statistic of a "bad city" once upon a time.

• No, the violence won't stop me from going into Camden. Between school and doctor appointments I am there daily during the week. I take my kids to the aquarium, my son's neurologist is at Cooper and my classes are there. Why should I let what others do dictate my life?

• I do pray for Camden and I do hope for change. But no comment we make on here will change anything. Only ACTION brings change.

• The primary cause of Camden’s problem, if people listened to the videos, is that the poor population kept getting poorer and growing in size while the wealthy kept getting wealthier. This is the same scenario as the whole nation is beginning to experience. We could use this as a good Blue Print of what America in general will be from sea to shining sea if thing are not done to protect ALL AMERICANS not just the Wealthy. 

It has been over a month since I posted here. Fail. I've been much better on the other blog I have going with the participants, but still, blogging is a lot harder than I thought and a lot more time consuming when one is keeping up with another blog, planning a wedding, teaching classes, researching, writing for other classes, and planning out the thesis in general.

I've been having a harder time lately, though have received much needed encouragement from both my mentor and my advisor. "Just write," they said. So I've been trying. I've been attempting to write a monologue about my experience but that is so much harder to do than even I thought! How do I sum up everything I've been thinking and feeling in just a page or so of writing? How to I really get across to my audience, the people of Camden, that I really do care but I just don't know how to do that well? How do I write about all I have learned in this process? No matter how I write it, I just can't seem to find the right words.

EDIT: I went back and wrote a bunch more blogs after this entry. Some are things that I had posted on the group blog with the participants but wanted to get a chance to write my own opinions. Go me for being productive today! Maybe this blog will actually be useful for my thesis...if I ever get to writing it.

Limitations

In any good research project, there is always a section titled "Limitations" in which one outlines all of the many potential problems one is likely to encounter. It may be written in retrospect as well, limitations that were expected and also the unexpected that one learned along the process.

In the beginning, there were a few limitations I expected:

• Having only a few voluntary participants, but requiring a lot of time from them
• My own slacker tendency when it comes to blogging
• Setting regular meetings
• Motivating others to write on the blog
• Communication
• Cultural differences

However, there are also a number of limitations that I hadn't anticipated, particularly when it comes to my participants:

• Problems with technology and lack of access to resources
• Online blogging on a cell phone is incredibly annoying. I have a lovely MacPro and so typing and submitting usually has few problems or annoyances. However, cell phones often have more difficulty with internet access. It's constantly cutting out, it's really slow with loading, you can't always view videos or hyperlinks, and sometimes the connection fails right in the middle of submitting your blog and the last thing you want to do is write it all over again. Besides, you won't even be able to say it as well the second time anyway. 
• Problems with transportation
• Busses, walking, trains, cars, and rides can all be incredibly unreliable 
• Cultural Barriers
• Access to resources and technology 
• Context of poverty
• Apathy for one's own situation
• "It is the way it is" kind of fatalism
• Survival/Die Young Culture
• Poverty and Problems with Life
• Even if you are doing okay, making money, able to afford your rent, groceries, and bills that still doesn't mean that living in the context of poverty doesn't take its toll. Life happens and things, in general, are just tougher when you live in the context of poverty even if you don't consider yourself poor. Cars that you expect to be reliable break down, your grandmother goes into the hospital, your friend can't pick you up anymore, your mom needs you to watch your sibling so she can go to work, your baby gets sick or you can't find a babysitter, and so many more things that just happen that make keeping your commitments that much more difficult. 

Thesis Mentor

I have the best thesis mentor ever. I know that one of the "rules" was that I was not allowed to choose a friend, but what are rules there for except to be broken? Tim is so much more than a friend, though. He's worn many hats in the 8 years that we've known each other. He's been a mentor, boss, voice teacher, director, and friend and there is no one in the world I trust to be more honest with me about my work. Not only that, he knows how to do that in such a way that I do not feel like a horrible person afterward, but someone who is on a journey and learning.

I've been feeling really discouraged about my thesis and this whole play idea lately and if it hadn't been for his care, support, and advice, I would be quickly sinking into a deep, dark hole of despair in which, despite two years of hard work, I never graduate with my Master's. Luckily, that isn't going to happen thanks to Tim.

With less than two weeks left until the first draft of my thesis is due, the full play idea just isn't going to fly. But instead of allowing me to feel like a total failure, Tim helped me come up with a few ideas of how I can write about what I've learned and still have a valuable artistic and theatrical element to my thesis. All in all, hope is returning, there is light at the end of the tunnel, and I think I might actually be able to do this.

Not everyone outside is buying what they (the media) is selling

It is not a total triumph, but I am encouraged by the fact that not all outsiders are fooled by the media's portrayal of Camden. Even so, this article posted shortly after the NBC Nightly News story came out still seems to miss the point a little. The article, also written by a Camden outsider, quotes another white Camden outsider, Rev. Jeff Putthoff. So even though I'm glad he isn't totally sucked in by NBC, he still is missing a big part of the story.

NBC's Camden: Same old story?

POSTED: Friday, March 8, 2013, 9:17 AM

The national news media are spotlighting Camden again, and so far the view looks rather familiar.

The ruined row house panoramas as seen from a patrol car; the Walt Whitman "city invincible" verse no journalist can resist; the obligatory interview with Msgr. Michael Doyle...all can be found in NBC's special report about America's (choose your favorite un-superlative) city.

Brian Williams launched the occasional series Thursday during the NBC Nightly News (link to the cliphere); Camden also will be featured on the Rock Center with Brian Williams show at 10 p.m. Friday.

With all due respect to the estimable Mr. Williams, and in particular, to Msgr. Doyle -- without whose decades of work the city would be unimaginably worse -- I question the value of yet another cinematic narrative about Camden's ills.

I'm not alone; in a pre-dawn Facebook exchange, Rev. Jeff Putthoff, of the city's Hopeworks youth development program, suggests the media ought to shift its focus.

Healing Camden "requires us to think differently," he tells me. "We need to think new before we do new...the issue (is) we continue to do the old in new way." He describes events like the upcoming Camden Trauma Summit as an effort to look behind and beyond the woeful crime statistics to explore the malevolent impact of poverty on human beings.

And Putthoff wonders what happens to people to make criminal behavior seem like something useful. A switch like that "is powerful... and also quite disturbing," he says.

How Mumford & Sons missed the point and lost a fan

ARTICLE: Camden in a positive light?

A little over a week ago, a music video of the song "Whispers in the Dark" by the British Isles folk group, Mumford & Sons, went public. An article praising it and its positive portrayal of Camden was in the news media right after. It was filmed at the Waterfront. The article states that "After a prime-time network feature, last week, focused on Camden's poverty and crime, Perno says the video sends a very different message. 'I'm hoping viewers will take a look at it and say there's something interesting about Camden City,' he says, 'and maybe it's a place I would like to go to."

For the last few months, I have known that I'm stressed out with wedding planning and thesis work only because my left eye has been twitching mercilessly, otherwise, I have been successfully repressing those feelings for the sake of "just get it done." But this music video ruined all of that. 

I had been able to handle the NBC Nightly News article and all of the horrid commentary, but I was unable repress the intense emotions that surfaced after watching this video. I retreated to the bathroom and cried my eyes out, furious with these musicians that I used to really enjoy and now cannot listen to without feelings of resentment and bitterness surfacing. For all of their lyrics which seem to have a somewhat Christian, social justice message, they totally missed the point and an opportunity to really say something important and meaningful about Camden to the rest of the outside world. Instead, they glorified the Camden Waterfront, a tourist attraction created by outsiders with millions and millions of dollars that the citizens still haven't received any benefit from. They even featured the Camden Aquarium which spent $25 million a few years ago so they could add hippos to the attraction. Let me just make sure I drive that point home: $25 Million Dollars on HIPPOS while over 50% of the houses in Camden have been declared unlivable. 

And here come Mumford & Sons glorifying all of that, probably without even meaning to, but these days I am less inclined to accept "ignorance" as a valid excuse. I don't care if you are British. Only days before this video went public the national NBC Nightly News story came out about how Camden is the poorest and most dangerous city in America and if you didn't bother to do your research before coming in and doing a huge concert and perpetuating the perspective that wealthy, white outsiders are the only people trying to do some good in the city that is not anyone's fault but your own. I'm angry and disappointed with this group, because not only did they perpetuate this perspective that is so dehumanizing and harmful for Camden's citizens, but they missed out on an opportunity to present an artistic piece that showed the REAL beauty of Camden. 

I mean, what impact could they have had on the outside world if they, instead of riding their motorcycles around Camden at night, walking around on the Battleship, showing footage of jellyfish, and getting ready for their sold-out concert at the Susquehanna Bank Center, they had spent time with community members? What if they had shown the way that the Camden people honor their dead and care for the grieving in the midst of the violence, the way they sit on the stoops and talk to each other, the way they work in community gardens, the way they throw summer block parties and children play in the fire hydrants, the way small business owners serve their customers, or the way they play loud Spanish music in the middle of the street while they are fixing their neighbor's car. Those are the real Whispers in the Dark, the whispers of the Divine working in a city that has great darkness, but also real moments of glorious light. Why didn't they show that Camden? 

Maybe because, like most outsiders, they might get close enough to look, but not close enough to see, touch, smell, taste, and hear.

You can read the full article about the music video here:http://philadelphia.cbslocal.com/2013/03/11/camden-goes-glam-as-location-for-hot-new-music-video/#respond

You can watch the music video here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zNaM-N1NdGo

These are some of the comments from the article:

i<3camden • 11 hours ago
−

Although I agree with Perno's thought that through this video a good light is shone on Camden and people may decide Camden could be a place to potentially visit, I think that the NBC news broadcast on the city was incredibly important.
There's a lot that needs to be fixed before Camden will ever be a great place to visit (and I say this as one of Camden's biggest fans). There's nothing more that I want than people to know and love Camden, but it's just that, I want them to know and love the city- not the waterfront that was clearly developed without much of the people of Camden's involvement and input. It's barely Camden and is more of an extension of Penn's Landing in Philly (not saying that's a terribly horrible thing).
But with Coopers Ferry persistence in saying Camden's a great place to visit and live without addressing the major issues that are keeping the large majority of the city in utter poverty, there's going to be no real change and Camden will continue down the same path it's on right now.

word association • 9 hours ago

Cooper's Ferry is correct. Camden IS a great place to visit. I do it about once a week. Thousands of out-of-towners enjoy the city's artistic, musical, historic and educational venues. Thousands more miss out, because of comments like yours. Yes, Camden has "major issues". So do New York and Philadelphia. But tourism hasn't slowed down there. Perhaps you haven't visited Camden for a while. You are more than welcome.

i<3camden • 6 hours ago

I'm actually visiting in June, so will be coming very shortly!
I used to live in Camden for two years. To compare it to Philadelphia and New York is extremely off-base, unless you compare Camden directly to specific parts of North Philadelphia or the South Bronx in NYC. NYC and Philly both have a diverse population spanning all socio-economic classes, whereas Camden, not so much.
I'm a huge advocate for people to go and visit Camden. But I want them to visit Federal Street for Mexican food, Sacred Heart Catholic Church in South Camden, or 7th street right downtown to see the beautiful mural depicting the city.
Unfortunately, many people perceive those areas to be more dangerous than they actually are. Yes, you may need to be more careful than if at the Waterfront, but at least these places are true to Camden's identity as a city.
All I'm saying is that Cooper's Ferry is jumping ahead of what needs to happen first before true economic development can occur in Camden. Basic needs of the people need to be met, which would have a direct effect on crime in the city. Once that happens maybe we can go ahead and heavily promote the downtown waterfront tourism and living options.

Meeting #4

I feel like I've taken two steps backward with my participants, which is really disheartening because I felt like we really got somewhere in our last meeting. I had a lesson plan all worked out that was just as awesome as my previous one. Since one of the girls was missing, I wanted to give her a chance to experience a little of what we had done.

It was supposed to start at 4:00 and end at 6:30 because on of the girls had to go to a meeting for her church. As well prepared as I thought I was, the meeting didn't go anything like my plan. It went more like this: 

3:30 - Pick up one of the girls an hour before start because she couldn't get a ride over.

4:00 - Everyone is supposed to be showing up

4:23 - Facebook message from the other girl telling me that she's waiting on her ride but they are currently at the hospital with their grandma. 

4:30 - Everyone is supposed to be here, but only the one girl is. So I spend time going over with her what we did the week when she wasn't here and asking her questions and showing her the comment boards. 

5:20 - Still only 1 participant present. Other girl Facebook messages me, "Stevie what do you think i should do they still aren't here." Finally get ahold of the guy who is on his way but it would take too much time for him to pick up the other girl and at this point we only had a little over an hour. 

5:45 - He finally shows up. It's looking like the girl won't be able to make it so we work without her. I'm feeling really disappointed now, he's exhausted because he had been working so much and had to go to an all-night shift right after the meeting, and the other girl is worried about making it to her meeting. 

Basically, all we were able to do is talk. We talked about the more positive outsider perspectives of Camden. I asked if they thought anyone from the comments actually understood Camden. We attempted to talk about the play, the ideas I'd thought of, the ideas they had thought of, who our characters could be, the plot, the conflict, etc., but we weren't able to nail anything down. 

We ended and I feel like I am a big failure and the whole thing was a waste of time. I am frustrated at all the time wasted because they were so late. I feel guilty for feeling frustrated with them for things that are out of their control (like broken cell phones, lack of access to other communication technology, transportation, crazy work schedules, etc). I feel angry at myself for not being a better leader and really motivating them and I feel stupid for having relied so heavily on such a small group of participants. I think they are all really great people, but there are just so many barriers and such a short amount of time left to try to break through all of them. I'm running low on ideas and faith. 

Inspiration

"If their words are to enter men's hearts and bear fruit, they must be the right words, shaped cunningly to pass men's defenses and explode silently and effectually within their minds...It means learning how people are thinking and how they are feeling; it means learning with patience, imagination and ingenuity the way to pierce apathy or blank lack of understanding."


By J.B. Phillips, "Making Me Whole," 1975

Character Backstories

I had the participants create some character backstories for the play. I encouraged them to choose one of the negative comments made about Camden and write the backstory for the person who said that. This is some of what they wrote on the blog. I'm not sure how much of it we will end up using ultimately, but I'm glad they are finding ways to think about where these perspectives come from. I think both of them based their characters off of personal encounters with outsiders.

Nancy

"Well my person name is Nancy born and, raised in Moorsetown, NJ she grew up believeing Camden was a bad place due to her parents. With that also came racism and, bitterness towards the city. She looked down on people who had to do with anything involving Camden. Her parents always reminded her that "we are better than them". So as Nancy grew that saying stuck with her as an adult. She had even more of a hatred for the city as she grew. If avoiding had a face it would be her she found any types of new road ways to take so that Camden wouldn't cross her path. Nancy never once entered the city got to know the city nor experienced some of the good that it holds, all because of her being raised to hate it. So she was often considered one sided by those who weren't as bothered as she was with Camden. So her comment she posted extends from a long lifehood of ignorance."

Jake "Moose" Rosenburg

Jake is 17yrs old and is from Santa Cruz, California. Which is also known as Surf City. Moose is a currently attending Santa Cruz High school where he is a junior. He has a small group of friends who he has become very close to over the years. He and his friends all surf. He and his friend Terry "T" Johnson are the best surfers in the group and are always competing for the top spot. Whether it's just for fun or in competitions. His friend John "Wheels" Flatts is the best when it comes to riding anything with wheels hence his nickname. Alex "Brain" Peters is the smart one of the group. Then theirs William "will/Pyro" Roberson who likes to start beach fires. His obsession with fire sometimes scares the other guys but, he never takes it to far. Next is Bruce "Black" Jordan he's considered the cool one of the bunch and no one really knows why he likes to be called black but, it seems to fit. Last is Jake "Moose" Rosenberg He got his nickname when he found and purchased a mounted moose head in a yard sale and brought it with him to a competition.

Moose is an B+ student in school although he is constantly scolded by teachers for day dreaming. His favorite classes are art and Philosophy. His friends all do well in class and share his same distaste for school except for Brain of course. He doesn't know if college is in his future but, what he does know is that he want to try and become a professional surfer. His parents don't like agree with his ideals and want him to at least consider a second option. His father wants him to follow in his footsteps and become a Lawyer and his mother just wants him to have something to fall back on. His mother thinks/knows his surfer career is nothing more than fantasy and wants his to take his future more seriously.

Moose's parents are very into giving back and helping those in need although they very on there approaches. They have both agreed to move into the city of Camden, New Jersey to help out residents in any way they feel that they can. They also think that it'll be a good learning experience for Moose and hope it will make him take his future more seriously.

NBC Nightly News

NBC Nightly News recently did a segment on poverty in America and they started with Camden.

In Plain Sight - NBC Nightly News Video and Article

The segment was, of course, done by outsiders and gave a very outside and very white perspective on the city. A white newscaster, a white priest, and a white Chief of Police were all the main characters in this play. A play which tells the story of compassionate outsiders doing all they can for Camden while Camden folks are either sitting on their asses and receive welfare checks, shooting up people on the streets, or becoming yet another poor victim of the violence. It tells a very one-sided story.

There were over 1,800 comments made on this story and I would be bold enough to state that over 85% of them were made by Camden outsiders. Some are really terrible and some are really compassionate, but still, the dominant voice talking about Camden is the outside voice. Where is the Camden City voice and why isn't it being heard louder? 

Say Something Nice About Camden

“Camden – it’s easy to spell.”

“It’s nice not to live in Camden.”

“It looks good in the rear-view mirror.”

All of the comments above and below were written by people who live outside of Camden in the comments section of various news articles about the city. They have called Camden a “cesspool,” a “black hole,” “the deadliest city,” “corrupt,” “poor,” “a waste of state money and resources,” “crime-ridden.” Read, feel, respond and don't hold anything back, because they won't either. You want people to care? Make them. 

“Camden does not care about preventing any murders. My daughter was attacked by a fellow student after school in mid October this year. The girl grabbed my daughter by the throat and threw her into a tree, threatening to disfigure her face so she could not get any modeling jobs. Threatening her that she will kill her if she tells anyone. To this day this student continues to harass, threaten and intimidate my daughter. When I finally got my daughter to tell me what happened, because she was not going to tell me that I had to drag it out of her. She was not herself, she seemed dazed, and scared. She has several medical disorders and was complaining of head, neck, and back pain so I took her to the ER, I asked them to call the police, they said they had no one to send to take my complaint to go to the station after we left the ER. Well by then it was after 1am and all my daughter wanted was to lay down. I went to the police several times and they refused to take my complaint stating “they are just kids these things happens” I know kids push and shove along with name calling. But the moment that girl put her hands around my daughter’s neck it crossed the line to assault. I went to the school, the student is a known bully, she was on the video the day this happened pushing my daughter into a locker and then went on to push a couple more kids into lockers and a teacher had to break up a fight. The school has also done nothing to protect my daughter. She is afraid to go outside by hearself, the student keeps telling everyone she is not done with my daughter. She now comes to our neighbors house and yells into my daughter’s window that she is a whore and a bitch, and that she can not wait to get her alone. So for New Jersey to have this so-called severe anti-bullying law is a joke. They removed my daughter from school because they refused to accept her doctor’s notes. Not they are saying my daughter started all this. I refuse to send my daughter back to that school is a joke in October I request work for my daughter to make up while she was out for my mother’s passing and some medical problems. They never notified her teachers. Apparently the law needs some work or the state needs to enforce this law because I am not getting any help. I REFUSE TO ALLOW MY DAUGHTER TO BECOME A STATISTIC OF THIS CITY BECAUSE NO ONE WOULD HELP.”

“Once again I am tired of these community leaders, ministers and corrupt politicians always organizing and protesting. Its 50 years later and the direction has not changed maybe they should try something different…Another thing they have no sking in the game either its all about the handout, my view is if the citizens in the down don’t pick another path. I am sorry but we will have to let that city along with the others die on the vine and rebuild. Its is very close to that option and we can no longer expect hard working families who arm barely making ends meet pay the tab.”

“So, the people of Camden protest but what do they do about the problem themselves? Seems they always want others to solve the problems. The city is funded mostly by the taxes of people from other towns in NJ. The violence is occurring inside the city from it’s own residents. When the police try to get tough people claim police brutality. How about the concerned citizens get together and force the criminals out? How about they line the streets and drug selling area and make it impossible to conduct business? Why is it always up to others to solve the problems that the people of Camden caused themselves? Because they let it get out of hand the rest of the state now has to step in and fix it? Who is going to pay for that?”

“Instead of standing around protesting and asking for help, the residents would do a lot more good by inviting the Guardian Angels in to train them on how to clean out the scum from their neighborhoods”

Trueaccount: “I can remember when Camden was a flourishing city with good neighbors, decent schools, and a solid industrial base that supported plenty of jobs. What happened?

“Trueaccount is sarcastic. We are afraid of reality, problems, and real solutions. One side keeps people in the cities of rot by design and the other is blind and afraid to hurt feelings and will pander. So in reality nothing will change.”

“Short of Martial Law, what can be done to help all the poor law abiding slobs who work every day to try to squeek out a living and have to call this place home..”

Comment Exchange:

Person 1: “Add a few Caucasian folks: arm them well, etc.”

Person 2: “They [‘Caucasion folks’] are already here, buying drugs, soliciting prostitution, and adding to the problem. As usual, racism and ignorance go hand in hand.

Person 3: “Yeah, all whitey’s fault. The only time this honkie goes to the ghetto is for jury duty (to report to the deadliest city in the country no less), and then I get the hell outta there.

Person 4: Well said, Person 2. Sad how Person 3 rushing to defend Person 1 racists comments misread the facts.

“You could put 10,000 cops in that city it won’t help. Mayor Redd get those guns working on the USS New Jersey point them at the city and open fire!!!!!!”

Meeting #3

This was the lesson plan I used for our third meeting. We spend about an hour discussing things on the blog because they hadn't been commenting on it much and I wanted to get their feedback. The meeting actually went really well and I was very encouraged. Only two out of the three showed up and we got started late, but we had some great breakthroughs. Both of them commented that getting to role-play an outsider helped them understand better how people outside of Camden can think and say the things they do about Camden. They were angry, but sympathizing at the same time, which I think is really necessary. I also felt like we broke through a little of that apathy. We still don't have much to go off of for the play but we did decide on our audience and theme:

Audience: Camden insiders and outsiders

Theme: the Voices (outside and inside) and the complex relationship between them  (the us vs. them)