I always hated the idea of cliques at school. These were the arbitrary groupings of individuals based on characteristics of some sort. There were the beautiful and popular crowd, the geeky crowd, the athletes, the shadow people that nobody much noticed, and those who rose above such silliness and simply associated with the people that they found to be interesting and friendly. The concept of mean girls and snobs are the stuff of movies. We laugh at the manufactured angst of the teenage years and yet there is a grain of truth in the stories of young people who feel bullied and alone because they have not achieved a desirous social status. Those who bleed into the edges of oblivion at school are often the victims of a complex web of dysfunctional parenting, mental or learning problems, abuse, and abandonment. They are the strange ones who tend to remain misunderstood and unloved by both their peers and the adults charged with their care. Because they are mostly quiet and unseen these shadow children rarely receive the attention that they so desperately need. The truth is that they are crying out in their silence and brooding but few people hear. Continue reading “Stop! Look! Listen!”
Category: Tragedy
My Kind of Town
Our fall traveling adventures are coming to a close. We will camp near Memphis, Tennessee today from whence we will set out to visit Shiloh National Military Park in honor of my great grandfather, John William Seth Smith, who was a member of the Army of the Ohio, Kentucky Infantry, during that bloody melee in the early years of the Civil War. Tomorrow we will head to New Orleans for a couple of days of fun and food. From there we will head home to slowly make our way back into our normal routine. Continue reading “My Kind of Town”
In the Heat of the Night
There are no words for this. All the language that I know is inadequate for what I want to express, but for Darren I will try. I can’t describe him with cliches and platitudes – I need to do better than that. He deserves better than that.
My husband was an incredibly, intricate blend of toughness and gentility. He was loyal…fiercely so. And he was ethical; the right thing to do is what guided his internal compass. I admired this quality, perhaps the most. For that’s what made Darren good and he was good. So, if people want to know what kind of man he was….this is it. He was who you wanted for a friend, a colleague and a neighbor.
However, it is I who was blessed so richly that I had the privilege of calling him my husband and my best friend.
–Kathleen Goforth
Until last Friday night I had never heard of Darren Goforth and probably never would have were it not for a random act of violence that took his life. He was a ten year veteran of the Harris County Sheriff’s Department whose beat took him around the Cypress community. From all accounts being in law enforcement was something that he had felt called to do, a vocation. I’ve known other people who also felt that they were called by a higher power to be peace keepers but for one reason or another they were not able to make it through the grueling process of becoming an officer. I remember being quite surprised at how much testing and education is involved. Like many I had always assumed that if one wanted to be a policeman it was just a matter of signing up and undergoing a background check. I learned that there is so much more to it than that. It seems that many are called but few are chosen. Frankly I find it to be such a dangerous and sometimes thankless career that I can’t imagine why anyone would want to do it and yet there are men like Darren Goforth who somehow feel compelled to serve society in one of the most hazardous jobs that there is. Continue reading “In the Heat of the Night”
Going Home
On the evening of October 4, 1968, I found love twice. It began with an exchange of wedding vows to Michael Lynn Burnett, my soulmate and best friend. The day ended with my first encounter with New Orleans, Louisiana, a magical place that immediately caught my fancy and burrowed into my heart just as Mike had done. For forty seven years now I have found bliss with Mike again and again, especially in the most difficult times. I have also returned to New Orleans over and over and never tire of the feeling of being in a place that somehow speaks to my very soul. I will always be a die hard native of Houston but if I ever needed a second home I suspect that I would feel as comfortable in New Orleans as I do in my place of birth. Continue reading “Going Home”
Attacking Ignorance
Mike and I discuss current events constantly. He always puts an interesting spin on most topics because he has been a voracious student of history for most of his life. As a boy he read the encyclopedia for fun. His tastes evolved to a study of the social sciences and finally to a concentration on the stories of our past. We have both been distraught over the events of the past week in Charleston, South Carolina. Even as an educator who has seen some very sad cases of young people who have gone off of the rails it is still incomprehensible to me as to how someone becomes so filled with hate that he becomes capable of murdering innocent people based solely on race. I asked Mike what he thought was the root cause of such horrific behavior and his response was interesting, measured, and in keeping with his background in Sociology, his major in college and graduate school. Continue reading “Attacking Ignorance”
All It Takes Is A Little Love 