[sudo-discuss] my experiences with "crime" in oakland [part 1 of ?]

[rhodey]

Receiving and contemplating the perspectives of others is one of my
favorite ways to burn metaphorical CPU cycles. The level of respect I
show for differing perspectives is something I hope to never be
content with, that is to say I believe it's an endless process and I'm
still working on it. I have a tendency to keep my head stuck in
projects and have realized is that I've been holding out on sharing
many of my most valued perspectives, more specifically my experiences.
It is my hope that through sharing experiences we can better
understand how to conduct ourselves within Sudo Room and how we Sudo
Room can better conduct ourselves within our local community.

I arrived in the "bay area" May 1st by way of some airport in New
England, in search of hackers, activists and uncomfortable
experiences. After subletting an apartment in the mission for all of a
month I moved to West Oakland. Since arriving in Oakland I've been
robbed three times, to me each experience has been indescribably
educational in its own way. However, my first crime related experience
in Oakland was not a crime at all.

There is a corner store within ~6 minutes walking distance from my
apartment by West Oakland BART called Happy Times. To me it is usually
a liquor store, but this day I felt like working through the night so
I bought 2 large redbull energy drinks. Walking home holding the
redbull as best I could in one hand I passed two African-American
youths, one female, one male and both no older than 17. We passed each
other and at this time I was about 20" from home then from behind me I
heard "hey man, can I get a redbull?".

I turned around to face the two of them with a bit of a guilty smile
on my face, after all who the fuck really needs 32oz of redbull?
Caffeine, other energy drinks, productivity and I all get along
swimmingly, all the better if I can help someone else get things done.
"Sure" I said, followed by "make good use of it" in an attempt to make
the situation more casual. I walked up and handed him the redbull, his
face lit up, he went nuts.

**and I quote** "Oh man! Asking is so much better than stealing!"

The smile stayed on his face as he continued celebrating, exclaiming
all possible iterations of the above statement as I stood their
dumbfounded. This continued for minutes until we parted ways, up the
stairs and into the house I could still hear him talking with his friend.

This was certainly not the first time he'd been told of this
sentiment, but after ~17 years of living it was the first time he had
ever believed it. There are at least 3 other experiences I would like
to share in time, but for now I'll leave it at this.

-- 
-- rhodey ˙ ͜ʟ˙