‘Something Has to Be Done’

Viola McClain, an 82-year old Watts grandmother, was shot and killed on her front porch. “Mother McClain,” as she was called, was a long-time community activist and church member who had lived in the same house in the 1300 block on East 111th Street in South Los Angeles since 1935.

McClain, folks say, lived the kind of life that when death called, the doors of heaven opened and welcomed her home.

A good life, some say, doesn’t ask for sorrow and it doesn’t ask for tears. But no matter how rich and rewarding McClain’s life was and no matter how she lived it to the fullest, her death brings a burdensome and heavy shroud of mourning throughout black communities all across America.

“Something has to be done,” said residents who lived on McClain’s block.

Who’s supposed to do it?

McClain spent her adult life parenting her children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren and all the other children in the neighborhood. But it seems her life may have been snuffed out by a child.

Who’s supposed to do it? Parents, that’s who.

The trouble in our neighborhoods can’t be solved by the police department, the social service agencies or the schools because we are the problem. Too many of us bring our babies home from the hospital and erroneously believe there is no responsibility attached to the little bundle we mistakenly believe is going to be all joy.

As black folk, we no longer bring up our children according to our time-honored tradition of discipline and respect. We’ve changed. When I grew up in Los Angeles, everyone was everyone’s parent. When I misbehaved at the corner of 36th and Budlong, my mother had already been notified by the time I got home. I was in trouble twice--first, because the lady at the corner chewed me out and second, because my mother wasn’t listening to any alibis I had; my sore behind was proof that her sword was mightier than my tongue.

The trouble with our kids, we now say, is the fault of others. We’re giving rave reviews to the just-released movie, “A Time to Kill.” Audience members cheer loudly when Carl Lee, a black man, murders the two white suspects who raped his 10-year-old daughter. We applaud the jury when Lee is acquitted and we talk among ourselves about “whitey” and vigilante justice.

But why aren’t we turning that kind of conversation toward the incident on 111th Street? Why aren’t we looking inward? Why can’t we, as black folk, be just as outraged when it comes to the real-life drama that unfolded last week in Watts?

Neighborhood thugs allegedly gang-raped a 13-year-old girl in an abandoned house and, in an attempt to cover up their crime, locked her in a closet and were going to set a fire. McClain’s grandson, hearing the commotion, went over and told the youths to stop. One of them fired a gun and McClain, standing on her porch next door to the abandoned house, was hit with a bullet and died.

A 12-year-old child with a history of problems has been arrested for taking part in the gang rape and is being questioned in connection with the murder. Other suspects in the rape have also been arrested.

Everybody involved is black, except for, perhaps, the politicians and the government people who didn’t respond in a timely manner when they were contacted about demolishing or boarding up the abandoned house which has been a continuous neighborhood trouble spot.

But does the problem belong with the officials for not taking care of the house? Aren’t there other places where these criminal acts could have taken place?

As a community, don’t we really want to tackle the broader issue that faces all residents who live on streets like 111th in cities everywhere in America?

As a community, shouldn’t we be concerned about the parents of the 12-year-old suspect? What about the parents of the 13-year-old rape victim? And what about these two children with shattered lives?

And what about the parents whose kids are not in trouble? Don’t we bear a measure of responsibility for not having shared our parenting know-how with those in need?

Our communities can use those million men who gathered in Washington to symbolize black solidarity. Now that they’ve returned home, they can join to help troubled families everywhere, because parents need parenting skills and parents and their children need mentors.

Folks say Mother McClain is resting well, that the 13-year-old rape victim isn’t doing so good, that the 12-year-old suspect probably doesn’t feel any remorse at all and that the others who got arrested are busy swapping crime stories with their buddies. Oh, and folks say the black community still isn’t quite sure who the “somebody” is that has to do something.