A PLACE CALLED HELL

Often times we hear stories of corruption within our correctional system. When attempting to put things in perspective we rationalize by thinking "deadly criminals usually inspire this sort of thing." Often in these cases it's our nature is to turn our backs because somehow two wrongs will create a right.

In the process of turning our backs to many painful realities we also manage to miss out on horrid truths and events, some that will go on for lengthy periods of time if allowed. One such truth is the story of the Dozier School for boys AKA the Florida School for Boys. For those not familiar, this is the reform school where very recently the University of South Florida uncovered the graves of 55 students.

The school was opened for over 100 years and throughout is history, rather than reform the youth in the state of Florida, it often forced it into a struggle for survival. The school was a den of verbal, physical, and sexual abuse. Often times this abuse would lead to death. A very real truth about this place is the fact that during the dark period of segregation, the biggest level of discrimination was aimed not at blacks, but at orphans.

There was equality in the school, in relation to punishment. Students would be subjected to lashings with thick leather belts, usually in a building referred to as the "White House." These lashings would leave students bloody, frightened and in deep pain, the kind of pain that never goes away. The students at Dozier were often there for offenses that were not always criminal in nature, calling into question the legality of many of the stays.

What exactly did this school do for the youth of Florida? Beyond the abuse, which is well documented, did it foster greater understanding of societal norms? No, this school created a greater sense of darkness, loss, and desperation in children that often came form abusive homes, when they actually had homes.

The exhumation of bodies by the University of South Florida was a huge revelation of the abuse, remains were found with blunt force trauma to the head, among other horrible revelations. This are not things that can in any way be undone, but they can be prevented from ever happening again. This particular story has been circulating for over eight years now, you may ask why not sooner. The fact is that the survivors of these tragedies that are now coming forward have been carrying their scars for too many years, more than humanly bearable.

As a society we owe it to these brave survivors, to the fallen, and to the irreversibly scarred, to speak about this in terms of helping create change. Let's ban together and stop it from happening again. The upcoming documentary "Boys School" will delve deep into the stories of the survivors, as a way to illustrate the hurt left behind by a school that was supposed to help reform youth, not twist it and destroy it.

GETTING BEHIND SOMETHING GOOD

To me campaigns in crowdfunding sites are a clear example of people going after their dreams, and being the kind of person that chases his dreams I like to get behind people whenever I can. While perusing my social media platform of choice (Facebook) I came across a bit of interesting news. Daresha Kyi, a friend, co worker, and mentor of mine started a campaign on indiegogo.com. Daresha is someone that I hold in high esteem because she really taught me a lot when we worked together on a major television show where she served as Story Producer. 

Curious and eager to help in any way I immediately went to the indiegogo site in order to learn more 

about her campaign. The campaign's purpose is to raise funds for her and her partner Kedar's baby known as TRU IMIJ ARTWORK. It was refreshing to see a campaign about something other than the next great flick. As I read on about the purpose of the campaign I began to realize that this was about more than just raising funds to create a viable business, it is about raising funds to help make the world better through the universal language of art. 

Rather than talk about it in my words I'd rather quote some of the words of Kedar, Daresha's partner and the talented artist whose work is the powerful engine behind this project. Kedar states that "As someone with a speech impediment who was unable to read until I was an adult (because no one knew what dyslexia was or how to treat it when I was a child), art has always helped me express my thoughts and dreams. Whenever words failed me, art saved me." Seeing that completely changed my outlook and took me from wanting to help a friend to wanting to help a far greater cause. I read on and noticed the following statement: "Once we're up and running, we intend to donate 15% of our profits to an established charity, such as charitywater.org which provides sustainable clean water and sanitation to people in developing countries. As our sales increase our goal is to eventually donate as much as 40% of our profits to various charities."

I knew this project was special and I knew that it was about more than just making money, but the making a difference part was cemented with the above statement about donating to various charities. We live in a society where we rarely think about benefitting others through our gifts, so this was something that I saw as both touching and admirable. I'm writing this entry in order to solicit support for this campaign.

I want to urge everyone that reads this to go to the indiegogo.com site and read the story behind TRU IMIJ ARTWORK. Support is anything from helping out with a small donation to sharing the campaign link on your social media. I want close by saying that it's campaigns like this, with the goal of helping others far more than ourselves, that ultimately give the greatest amount of satisfaction.