Open Your Eyes: Enough Is Enough

Ashley Brown
Graduate
Martin Luther King, Jr. High School

Anger fills me when I think how often I receive phone calls telling me that I will have to attend another peer’s funeral due to the act of gun violence. Not to mention, I’m over whelmed with sadness when I look through my wardrobe and notice that I own too many t-shirts with pictures of my friends on the back, labeled “rest in peace.” Because of these facts, I become enraged that people find the time to take someone else’s life. I become furious when someone doesn’t realize the value of the life they are taking. Do you know the value of a brother, sister, mother, father, aunt, uncle, son, daughter, and loved one?

Many people need to understand that a gun is not the answer to their problems. The state of mind that comes with receiving a gun illegally is that you buy it for protection. You obtain a gun for power, and you use it for respect. Did you ever notice that you lose your self in the process, not thinking of the consequences or the ones you will hurt? For one life that is taken; many lives are breaking down with sadness and pain.

Someone has to stand up against gun violence. And when I say “someone” I mean many because there is strength in numbers. You have to understand that the longer we sit back in our communities and let violence invade it, break down our families and take the lives of the ones we love, the more it will happen. We have to show that we are angry, and that we will no longer protect the thugs of Detroit. The code of not snitching epidemic has gone too far. We are letting murderers run free through our neighborhoods. We are letting the enemy sleep in our own guest rooms.
Think of that the next time you think of purchasing an illegal fire-arm. Think of what you are doing to your community the next time you choose to use it. There have been more than 200 homicides due to gun violence in the city this year and Detroit is on pace for 450 by end of the year. We cannot afford to lose any one else to gun violence. Guns are not the answer, and killing does nothing but make more problems. Please wake up! Become enraged and fight back for justice in the city of a Detroit.