Broken

The boys are taking swim lesson this summer at the East Oakland Sports Complex.  As the name would indicate, it's in the heart of East Oakland - the part of Oakland that most families which look like ours don't venture into very often.  It's not exactly the most scenic or the "safest" part of town. 

But the East Oakland Sport Complex is a gem in our city.  It's a brand-new, beautiful sports facility with a terrific indoor pool - and a giant waterslide.  The boys love it there.  And I love the price of the swim lessons (the best deal in town!) as well as the friendly staff.  We are the only white people every time we go and I swear that when the pool maintenance guy (who is white) asked me if we had ever been there before, what he really was asking me was, "Did you know you were coming to this neighborhood when you signed up for swim lessons?"  What he didn't know is yes, I knew.  And yes, we still came.  And by the way, we love it here and we hope that in time, we will have many friends here. 
        
The short, four mile drive from our house to the pool is a sobering one.  We wind down 55th Avenue, to International, down Seminary, to San Leandro, down 85th, and finally to Edes Ave.  If you want to get a quick glimpse of poverty in a major city, this is route you'd want to take.  It's littered with graffiti (ev.er.y.where), vacant lots, busted-up windows, empty buildings, over-grown weeds, and trash.  It's a little overwhelming if you think about it too much.  

But I like having a reason to drive into that neighborhood twice a week.  It's good for me and my boys to see that.  It's harder to ignore the problems of your city when they are regularly right in your face. 

This morning, as we were driving to swim lessons, Riley was looking out the windows of the van when he shouted out,

"Why is this town so broken?"

Really good question, son.  Don't ever stop asking the hard questions.

When I pressed him for why he thought the town was broken and what he thought we should do to make it un-broken, he initially told me that we couldn't fix it because we weren't "workers" so we should just leave this town.

When I told him that we were the workers, he said,

"We need a wrench.  And a hammer.  And some paint."