REFLECTION on Walk #30, West Fresno from Victoria West Community Park at Clinton and Brawley. Five FM Walkers started off on a cold, very foggy Saturday morning. But this intersection was already up and going. Victoria West park is big and awesome, and hundreds of families with soccer players filled up the foggy fields and parking lot. Mini vans, SUVs, and older model 4 door cars streamed into the park lot, then unloaded strollers, blankets, sports equipment, all while balancing travel coffee mugs. Coaches coached in Spanish, families watched, and FMWalkers took it all in with smiles. Wonderful! See the photo album for Walk #30.
After the silent walk, the Walkers described this walk with these words: juxtaposition, multi-cultural, looking through the fog, and relaxation.
Walkers moved from a busy soccer field, to a sub-division neighborhood, to a Buddhist temple, to county roads with no sidewalks, to a Laundry Mat memorial for slain Janessa all within a few miles. We heard Spanish and Cambodian. We walked past Indian men in flowing white cotton. Foreign words filled the signs in the strip mall. Taco Bell’s kitchen was already in production.
The stop at the Buddhist Temple on Valentine added about 15 minutes to our walk. We met Nimul and Knour who greeted us and gladly invited us in to their beautiful temples. Knour was there with his wife and family to serve the Monks their daily meal. The 9 monks who reside there only eat once a day, and families sign up to bring in the daily meal. Knour told us this temple is open all hours, and welcomes worshippers any time. The gates are always open. Nimul told us about the upcoming New Year’s celebration with tons of food, we are all welcome to come back.
Walkers talked about the rural feeling of this area, long stretches of dilapidated fences, open fields, dry canals, beware of dog signs, rows of strawberries and dried grape vines.
We entered the parking lot of the strip mall where just 2 weeks earlier 9 year old Janessa Ramirez was shot and killed by a person shooting a gun at someone else. A beautiful tribute of flowers, and signs, and balloons and posters fills the windows of the laundry mat. I spoke with Cecelia who was inside folding her laundry. This was her first time coming to this laundry mat, but she knows about Janessa and prays for her mother every day. Cecelia says she is not afraid because she asks the Lord to protect her, and she knows that the Lord is now holding Janessa with him.
After the Walk, walkers talked about the striking difference between the seemingly safe environment on the surface as families are filling up the park and the busy streets. But underneath, Fresno has a dangerous ‘under belly’ of gangs and violence. Walkers talked about how life goes on even after such a tragedy that should stop the entire city in its tracks.
All five walkers talked with deep emotion after this walk, at the beauty of families, the beauty of many cultures living side by side, the beauty of rural and dense housing mixed together, the beauty of people coming together to grieve.
Here in West Fresno, between Clinton and Shields and 99 and Brawley, live our brothers and sisters, precious children and dangerous gang members and everyone on the spectrum. And all our futures are tied up together.
