The senior editor sat in the jacuzzi at the downtown Y with the boxer, asking about one of his colleagues, who had trained at the Y’s boxing center. The colleague had been the subject of a New Times story, achieving some success in the Golden Gloves after a stint behind bars. The colleague had been in and out of jail since the story was published, the boxer said, back in at the moment, but soon to be released. “He had a job and a new girlfriend,” the boxer noted of his colleague’s last excursion through the world. “He had everything going for him but his self.”
The boxer talked of his colleague’s wanting to quit the ring, and his distraction with alcohol. “I told him whatever,” The boxer said. “I told him just stay clean.” Then he grew contemplative. “As a writer,” he asked, “what’s the difference between what’s real and what’s the truth?”
In five decades of writing, it was a distinction the senior editor had never thought to make. The ensuing silence was amplified by the water jets creating an urban mountain stream, swirling the suds left by someone’s previous soap or shaving cream, a violation of the rules posted on the wall. “What’s real is a story that gives the facts about something that happened that might prove interesting or entertaining,” the senior editor said finally. “The truth is a story with emotional impact, one that has the potential to teach a life lesson.”
A bid for a body
The senior editor had seen the difference in a writing workshop he conducted at the Justice Center with the 16 to 18 year old male residents. The workshop, and a separate one conducted with the adult female residents, were conducted to solicit assistance for the scripting of the Media Unit’s now annual summer performance tour on teen violence. After noticing the proliferation of “Don’t Snitch” T-shirts in inner-city neighborhoods, the senior editor had hoped that focus on that issue could be included in this summer’s edition of the Media Unit’s Angels with Broken Wings series.
What’s real with snitching became quickly evident in the rote response of the young males. Most of them wrote that the practice was the “Number 1 Sin” on the street, and echoed the mantra, “Snitches get stiches. Rats get a hole,” with explanations that “you can really get hurt or maybe even killed.” The females, many of them mothers who had felt a personal impact from the street violence, generally made a distinction between fingering someone who had hurt a loved one, maternal duty, and tattling on a fellow inmate for personal gain, unacceptable manipulation. But the young males, even those who wrote about hardships to their families resulting from their maintaining silence, maintained that silence as an inviolable rule.
Except for Bundlez
About to do “a bid for a body,” Bundlez noted, he and “my manz,” whom he had know since pre-K, and had each other’s backs their whole lives, were being pressured by the D.A.’s office, threatening each of them with 15 years to life, but dealing with them separately. “But me and my manz ain’t no snitches,” Bundlez maintained. In court, however, after being sentenced to the 15 years, he was told by his attorney that “his manz” had signed a statement in return for getting off completely. “I guess in the end,” Bunlez wrote, “there ain’t no rule on snitching.” Ain’t that the truth!
Pressing priorities
This summer’s Angels with Broken Wings tour kicked off last week with a press preview on Columbus Circle. Last summer’s preview had been crowded with press people and dignitaries, but with the Governor and Hillary in town the same day, no media showed except for the senior editor, who was there for other than journalistic reasons. Introducing the preview performance, County Executive Joanie Mahoney reflected, “I’ve been affiliated with the Media Unit for a long time. Year after year after year, the opportunity it has afforded young people is fantastic. I hope everyone gets to see the show this summer. It’s a great program, and we’re here to help in any way we can.”
After the performance Pat Driscoll, Commissioner of the Syracuse Department of Parks, Recreation and Youth Programs spoke on the impact of the performances staged each summer at each of his agency’s park sites. Deputy Police Chief Frank Fowler proposed that this summer a t-shirt with the Media Unit logo and an anti-violence slogan be produced and distributed to all the youth attending the shows in the parks. Anyone interested in helping sponsor the shirts should call 478-8648.
