Before the weeks pass, I want to share in my blog that I lost my computer or in better words it was stolen from Barnes and Noble when I was there reading magazines…I left it there ..and never saw it again…
I do not know why I thought that I could write while taking a brake of homeschooling from my children at Barnes and Noble that famous Friday night, but I did. That day, my son had finished presenting his science fair project at Kettering University and I was brain dead. For the few that know that my son has dyslexia and ADHD and his mother has too, doing the science fair is quite big endeavor. My job is to guide him to finish on time and help to translate his thoughts/pictures (physic by all means) into comprehensible lines of thoughts written in English…not an easy task.
So, that Friday night, I left my husband with the children at home, and went to charge my brain again around books and magazines. In that process, I left the computer next to the magazine rack.
Saturday and Sunday was consumed by more activities than usual in the children’s schedule: there was the Science Fair interviews and the judging, etc. Sunday, was the Science Fair ceremony and so, by Sunday night, it was the time I found that my lap top was not at home, I went back to Barnes and Noble to see if somebody has returned the computer, but it was gone.
So because I live in Flint, MI, instead of calling the Flint Police, I did my rounds to the burgeoning business that are the pawnshops. Why? Because the business of selling stolen computers is a thriving business inFlint. Yes, with so many college students like Kettering University students living in close proximity to extreme poverty, there is a juicy market for pawnshops (we have one around the corner and two few miles away from home). More or less, there is one pawnshop next to each of what was consider solid middle class neighborhoods. There is one next to Mott Park, one next to College Cultural, etc. Yes, it is like we are their pumping oil from our backyards.
For you information in this fast economy that pray on poor people like some of my neighbors, please read- Broke, USA: From Pawnshops to Poverty, Inc.: How the Working Poor Became Big Business by Gary Rivlin-http://www.democracynow.org/2010/7/9/gary_rivlin_on_broke_usa_from
And so, because my computer was left and Barnes and Noble and somebody took it but not from my house, I did not have a report from the Flint Police and I could not see if my computer was in any of the pawnshops….nice business ah? No protection for owners of computer or anything that has enter the stolen market…
The visits to the pawnshops were pathetic, and at the same time interesting. You could see how money flows in those places. When pawnshop owners realized that I was a possible customer because I look that I have some money, they offered me all kinds of deals …computer loaded with software and the like…
And so, I felt one more time defeated in this town-Flint, Michiganthat pray on people and create a loop of incentives for young men to rob around the city neighborhoods. Selling stolen property is a piece of cake. Nobody ask, nobody wants to know….so between drugs and pawnshops, the under the table economy is thriving and the Flint Police Department is a joke…few regulations, few spaces in the jail and plenty of places to sale the labor of a work day of stealing….Yeah!
With my computer down, and with all the things that are important to me- the children pictures, the information, I felt depressed for some weeks. And I stop writing…but it is time to go back, for I dream of a place that is good for my children and for all the children in Flint.
Am I crazy to believe that I can change some of the pawnshop industries, of the system in Flint that is so CORRUPTED? I do not know, but I will keep trying.
As you could see crime in Flint is more dirty that the kids entering in you home and taking your computer for a few pennies. Crime in Flint is embedded in a system of corruption…Please by drive by Coruna Road, and see the shameless stores painted in Yellow Bright colors telling you …YES, we are here doing very well in Flint Michigan. And business is so good that they do not open Sundays. How about that.
Here I am back again trying to write and see what comes next…And did I buy a computer from some of the pawnshops inFlint…NO WAY.
And please, help me to turn Flint in a nice place to live for rich and poor folks and everybody in between!
Until next time, do your part and start by saying no to changing neighborhoods.
Thanks
Marta
FlintMichiganchangingneighborhoodspovertyandcrime 