Categories: Dobel Street, Metro Detroit
The brothers
I don't know the complete family history. I know only what they told me, what others told me about them and what I witnessed during the past four years.
The brothers, who lived very near Fletcher Field, had issues -- to say the least:
One spent time in prison and abused drugs.
The other was kicked out of the U.S. Army after being diagnosed as bi-polar, yet seemed saner, stabler than his brother.
This morning I found out that one of the brothers was stabbed to death last week after a violent struggle with his girlfriend. The other, apparently so despondent he couldn't help his brother kick a drug habit and prevent his demise, is in the hospital after a suicide attempt.
So why should you care?
Despite their issues, they seemed to be very good people at heart -- were always willing to help at Fletcher Field and appeared to be genuinely proud after every cleanup and successful event at the park.
I never felt uncomfortable around the brothers, even when my family was with me at the park.
One afternoon I saw the now deceased brother get between my youngest son and a not-so-friendly pit bull.
They both took care of their elderly father when he broke his hip a few years back.
Bad people don't do that.
Their issues relegated the brothers to the margins of society. They got stuck there. One died there.
Please pray for the other tonight.
Comments, Pingbacks:
· http://lacatholicworker.org The brother may have made some bad decisions, but living under such economic distress and oppressive conditions did not help his decision-making process. Each person has a limit as to how much one can endure. Each person handles such conditions differently. As a society, we cannot keep blaming the victim. This is shameful at best. We should be asking an entirely different sort of questions: like, what is wrong with this system that some people are forced to make harmful decisions; that some people have billions while other have little or nothing. That some get bailed out, while others get crushed. Viva Occupy movemnent!
Peace, Mike W.
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