Guns At The Field House

Noel asked if I wanted a snow cone.  He and his sister Mikaela have been buying me snow cones from a woman who runs a little concession stand in the park.  "Sure! Get me the orange flavor," I smiled.  Their class was over, and their mother and older sister were beginning the adult class.

About ten to fifteen minutes later, Mikaela and Noel came running into the gym, holding the snow cones.  "There was shooting outside, and Noel almost got hit!" Mikaela said.  Their mother and I froze.  "They shooting outside again?" I asked.  "The bullet hit the ground near my foot, and the woman selling the snow cones saw it coming and pushed me out of the way.  I was going to give her five dollars, but she wouldn't take it.  She told us to get to safety and worry about giving her the money another time," Noel explained.  The bullets did hit someone else; an ambulance showed up.  I also learned that the football players had vacated the field when the shots rang out.  The siblings and their mom rushed upstairs to let whoever may have been at the front desk know what was going on.  I went to secure a crash door that leads to the parking lot and Shay, the siblings oldest sister followed me.

As soon as we got to that door, a couple of cops coming in told us we had to evacuate the premises.  More police cars showed up.  The cops said the shooter had run inside the field house.  A search was done for nearly an hour, but the person was not found.  A police helicopter flew back and forth.

Finally, the all-clear was sounded and the staff was allowed back into the building.  On the drive home, I kept thinking about how horrible I would have felt if Noel and/or Mikaela would have been hurt.  Every few days at the field house I keep hearing about shootings that took place three blocks away, two blocks away, one block away. . .I'm tired of that.  Why is it that the go-to solution for a conflict these days is always a gun?

A Lack Of Sparring, A Lack of Training

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Recently saw a short video done at Garfield Park boxing gym where George reigns.  It's a plea for people to put the guns down and get into the boxing gym.  A kid in the video states that they want to be able to play outside.  Gun violence has been dominating the local news in Chicago, and I'm sure it's been plastered on the national news, too.  The west side of the city, where both Garfield Park and LaFollette Park sit, has been responsible for most of the recent mayhem. Summer is wonderful in the city, but unfortunately, gun violence usually increases during the season.

The teen and adult boxing classes were empty yesterday.  I kind of expected that, coming off of the Memorial Day holiday.  Only Jermaine, TJ, and Earl showed up for the kids' class.  Jermaine came in first, flying into the boxing equipment room and asking, "Am I the first one here?"  "If you don't see anyone else here, then common sense would say yes -- duh!" I replied sarcastically.  I wonder what logic Jermaine is working with most of the time.

Turns out that Jermaine was the only one with a mouthpiece, so no sparring took place.  Earl still hasn't replaced the one he lost, and TJ left his at home, giving me the usual, "I forgot", excuse.

Then TJ told me that he and his family are moving soon.  TJ doesn't know where; apparently his mother is keeping that a secret.  That meant the possibility that TJ won't be able to continue with boxing, which is too bad.  That was also not good news to hear so close to the LaFollette boxing show.  TJ has some skills, and so does his cousin Earl.

I suspect that Janaye's continued absence from the teen class may have something to do with the fact that I called her father with my concerns about her attendance.  She's been hanging around the field house, but not attending class.  I like Janaye, but if she's not going to take the sport seriously and train, then she might as well not sign up again.  I want to support females who sign up for the boxing program, but if they don't put the effort in, there's not much else I can do.
TJ asked about the status of the equipment I ordered for the gym, in particular, the youth hand wraps.  I had forgotten all about it.  The order was put in months ago.  All I know is, I'm not spending any more of my money to put any boxing equipment in the gym.  If we don't have it, we'll have to do without it.