Why Osiris Organization?

May 11^th, 2010, “Searching Outside Of The Family For Similar Values” Part I, Ernest Leaks.

I was very involved in sports.  I loved baseball and attending the White Sox games with my grandfather. Our local community little league baseball team played an important role in maintaining those values.  The most important thing little league did was to help me develop a life long relationship with Ernest Leaks.

Ernest and I met in Kindergarten and remain great friends to this day.

What I admire most about him is his loyalty to his family and friends.  When you became his friend he was always there for you.  He was a great judge of a person’s character and I feel this is due to his family’s value system.   I admired how he respected his mother and stepfather.  Our generation learned to respect our elders, both within our family and outside of it. Earnest’s older brothers had many friends in the community and no one “messed” with them.  Ernest’s older brothers friends were the “Klingons” of our community.  The only thing Ernest had to say was that so and so disrespected me.  The “Klingons” quickly got everyone back on track!

Ernest and I attended the same elementary and middle schools. He was outstanding in math.  He could have been a mathematician if he wanted to be. I read a lot so I was very good at spelling.  We literally helped each other with class work without being asked.

It was sports where we bonded. We gravitated to basketball.  I am not sure if we just got tired of all of the organizing it took for the baseball games against other communities.  It did not take young minds that long to want to do something different.  We did not abandon baseball but we played less organized baseball.  There still were location games among friends in the community.

In gym classes we fell in love with basketball. Our gym teacher, Mr. Trouter, would play with us and taught us the rules and had little tournaments for us during our gym period.  That was it; we were hooked on the game. To this day, I know I gravitate to basketball because I just wanted to be with Ernest and learn and grow with him.

Many older youth would help us with our basketball skill development.  We’d stand on the sidelines of the playground and watch them play. One in particular was a guy we called “Fink”.  In Chicago, we all had nicknames.  Fink took a liking to Ernest and me.  I lived only three blocks from Fink so I saw him often.  One day I was in the local community store and Fink was there with friends playing pool.  We started talking and Fink said that I needed a nickname.

He said I looked like a cartoon character called “Ignatz”, pronounced, “ick-nag” in the cartoon series called “Krazy Kat” by George Herriman. This cartoon concept originated as a comic strip in 1930’s but was shown in the 1960’s as a cartoon. Why Fink decided to name me this was just a moment in time that we will never understand. In those days, you never chose your own nickname, someone who was respected had to give it to you. Once you got one, everyone in the community honored it and called you by your nickname. It was a crazy way of showing respect and affection all at the same time!

Please view the Youtube video on a cartoon segment of the cartoon show “Krazy Kat”.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q4rQwrTymdM

All of my friends in the Chicago just called me “Nag”.  The character was a mouse that was always throwing bricks at people. The female character “Krazy Kat“ was in love with the mischievous mouse, “Ignatz”.  Fink said I had the same eyes as the mouse. To this day Ernest will always be “Brother Ern” to me.

Fink was influential in our community but had his personal challenges and demons. When we started playing in basketball tournaments it was Fink who coached and encouraged us.  He taught us about many aspects of basketball but he taught us to stay away from drugs and alcohol.  We all knew he used drugs but we knew he was sincere and he didn’t want us to do anything that would harm our abilities.  He saw basketball as a vehicle for us to more forward with our lives.  I know most will find this hard to believe but in those days even the drug users and dealers encouraged us to stay in school, stay out of trouble and don’t use drugs or alcohol.  What irony!

Ernest and I never judge the dealers and users because they were our role models outside of our family.  They all were great basketball players and we wanted to learn the game.  We did not judge the sources we just wanted to become better players. We never saw them use drugs in our presence but we remembered their words of encouragement.  They seem to have accepted their position and for some reason they didn’t see any other alternatives in their lives. But wanted more for us.  After the games ended, they would hang around, tell us about their lives and the mistakes they made. I’d listen to every word they said. Another Fink in the community was a guy we called “Ing”.  He was bright and insightful about what was happening in our country during that time.

There were many other “Finks” in our community and regardless of their situations they really cared about the young people in the community.  They literally believed in the concept that it “takes a village to raise a child”. If we got got out of line, they were the first ones to discipline us verbally. They too were influenced by the era in which we were raised.

Not all the “Finks” in our community used drugs or were dealers. Most were hard working family men who worked blue collars jobs. Some were attending local high schools.  On the weekends, they all played basketball in our community. We were their audience on the sidelines watching their every move!

Fink often told us that we had to start watching some real “ballers” and encouraged us to start going down the Gladstone Middle School playground. Gladstone was attached to a city recreational facility and had organized leagues and some of the best players in the city played there in the summer. Most of the local legends lived blocks from the school.

Two years ago Ernest called me and told me someone robed Fink at gunpoint and shot him dead because he didn’t give them the money fast enough!

After a long conversation with Ernest about Fink and his influence on our young minds growing up during those years we concluded our conversation.

That night I cried!

May 18^th, 2010, “Searching Outside Of The Family For Similar Values” Part II, Ernest Leaks, Gladstone Middle School and The Legends, “Hook”, “Heavy” and “Fats”.