Violence (Domestic)

I grew up in a home, with my mom, step dad, and my older sister. I always felt scared and I never knew why. My step dad would drink liquor and get so drunk. He would walk back and forth, all night, and this would frighten me. He would hit my mother for no reason or maybe because he was intoxicated. I really never knew why he would do this. Me and my sister would try to interfere, but she would tell us to go to bed. One night he hit my mom in the head with a ashtray, blood was dripping everywhere. When we saw her crying and her head bleeding, we got real angry. We wanted to call the police, but she would tell us to go back to bed. For some reason, she always got mad at us when we tried to help her. I never understood the relationship that my mother had with this man. He was extremely scary and I had to live each day in fear.  I never knew why she stayed with him for 16 years. This man was overprotected, possessive, bitter, jealous, and mean. Violence is everywhere. I teach my children to treat people the way they would want to be treated.

In Jamaica, there is a lot of violence, because of the poverty level. People turn over rice trucks, just to get the rice, because some people can't afford to buy it. I went to Jamaica years ago, when P.J. Patterson was the prime minister. This man kept up with a lot of negativity and it caused a lot of riots and violence in Jamaica. This riot went on for days, because he wanted to raise the gas prices and this would cause a lot of problems for people. The children in Jamaica either walk to school or ride in a taxi. If, Patterson would have raised the gas prices than this would interfere in how the children get to school, etc.

Violence can occur from different situations, such as poverty, economic issues, people, money, etc. We must learn to pull together and find ways to stop the violence.