somewhat belated because we’ve been really busy again but! we have a docs page up and running, we have the email situation hopefully sorted out, and stuff is flowing again generally. things are going pretty good right now on the backend for Beehaw, i’d say, and hopefully that continues as the week progresses.
when things chill out i’m hoping to get back to finishing a few books which i was reading in May–this has been a full time gig basically, so i haven’t had any real downtime. i only just got in some Stardew Valley last night.
Yes, the organizer is someone who has been active in the community for some time. I like the guy, he’s extremely charismatic, a bit strange, although a little too religious for my taste.
He was already expanding his organization before the death. He now has a space that he’s setting up where younger people can go to hang out or where he can have events. They are hosting midnight basketball throughout the summer just to help people stay busy I guess.
They had discussed the use of grant money to pay chaperones to ensure that they are consistently there. They had also discussed finding opportunities for young people to work. Even going so far as suggesting using grant money to pay kids while they work at local businesses.
As you can imagine there is a high amount of poverty in this town. The kid who was killed was in a car with over 6 lbs of marijuana that was packaged for sale. The driver of the car is in custody and was in possession of 2 handguns. While the one that was killed reportedly had a gun when he ran away from the traffic stop. He was on the honor roll, so it’s not like he couldn’t work a normal job. There is an abysmal lack of economic opportunity in the area unless you know people, so getting involved in criminal activity is pretty tempting, especially if you’re young.
Your last paragraph reminds me a lot of where I live in southeastern Ohio, especially that last sentence. It sounds like you all are doing great work. This was inspiring and motivating to read, thank you!