Good folks win on a typical day
/The Boston Herald
BEVERLY BECKHAM
She was in Springfield. Never been there before. Dropped her daughter off at a swim meet. Decided to run.
"Take a right when you leave the building," a stranger told her. "That's a right. You don't want to go left. It's not a safe part of town."
Not safe. Not white. The thought is automatic. She turns right, runs along the street, comes to an intersection. Two cars have collided. Three black men are arguing. She thinks: I am going to get caught in crossfire? I am crazy? They are just talking. She continues running, comes to a track. Nearly a dozen people are on the track, all of them black. She joins in.
Nobody knows about this. Nobody tunes into the news that night and sees a thin white woman jogging along with black teens and adults. Nobody reads in the paper about a white woman jogging on an unfamiliar street, past three black men without incident. None of this is news. It's normal. The abnormal is what catches the eye, makes headlines and makes us all afraid.
The murder last weekend of Charles Haniton, 20, a black man found shot to death in a stolen car off Liberty Street in Randolph was abnormal. People aren't killed in Randolph every day. Randolph is not awash in violence.
And yet listen to the reactions of residents questioned after the killing:
"It's just not the same town it used to be," said Michael Pasquantonio, who lives with his wife and son a block from where Haniton's body was found. Pasquantonio plans on moving. "We want to go someplace that isn't on a T bus line to Boston."
Translation: We want to go someplace where there are no blacks.
Katherine Pitts, who has lived for 25 years just 200 yards from where Haniton was killed said, "This was disgusting for a suburban area like Randolph... I'm scared now. I want to put my house up for sale, but I don't know who would buy it in a neighborhood where someone was killed."
Translation: The town isn't safe anymore. It used to be. Until the blacks came.
A teacher at Randolph High, who wouldn't give his name, (why does anyone give credence to someone who won't back up his words with his name) told the Boston Globe that the high school is becoming "a dangerous place... There is a lot of violence in the high school. I've been here for many years, and I look forward to my exit."
Translation: I've been here for many years. Before the black kids came, there was no violence. The black kids are here now and look what's happened. I'm glad I'm getting out.
Along with the unstated but implied message that blacks are at the root of all the town's/cities'/society's problems is the rejoinder that there's nothing we can do except get out, leave, move.
I grew up in Randolph. I grew up in the town when it was small and rural and there were as many dirt roads as paved and you didn't have to lock your doors, day or night.
I can see that Randolph has changed. It's grown. It's expanded. I've hated the change - the cutting down of trees for condominiums, the paving of fields for parking lots.
But the Randolph in which I grew up, the Randolph of woods and streams, was white. Now it is multi-colored. This is the good part of the change. Randolph today America.
Are there drugs? Is there violence? Are there more problems than there used to be. Yes. There are drugs and violence because America is full of hate and dissatisfaction and a fear that someone's going to come along and take what we have or not give us what we want. Because we in this country, more than ever before, are divided by race, segregated not only in body but in mind.
The news reinforces this. Look! A stabbing at the T. Girls stabbing each other. Can you believe this? Black girls, of course. White girls wouldn't do this. That's the buzz. That's what lingers. The perception that if you're black, you're trouble.
And so the fear grows and the antagonism and the talk about moving and getting out of here and being safe.
I taught a course at Randolph High this year, journalism for seventh and eighth graders. Some 1,556 kids between the ages of 12 and 19 attend Randolph High - different sizes, different colors.
I saw kids getting along, working together, learning from one another.
Randolph is not going to the dogs - and won't as the good guys don't flee.
So many good guys.
Look at them walking down the street, driving, taking the bus, shopping at Shaws and Sudbury Farm, stopping at Dunkin' Donuts for coffee, pushing baby carriages, carrying books, riding bikes, working, relaxing, jogging.
All without fanfare. All on a typical day.
