Frail Lives Matter

The frail are valuable, as well. Or should I say coin a catch phrase Frail Lives Matter? These are high school and 15 year reunion photos of my friends and our beloved high school art teacher who got us all into the colleges that launched our careers. I would’ve had a very different life as a green card bride if it weren’t for Mrs. Pannone. I would’ve produced unwanted children that ended up shot up by the police, not lovely paintings, books and films. I would’ve been your stereotypical, angry Black mother; abandoned with her children with little or no futures. More statistics. Marsha saved me and did the same for everyone in these photos and more.

High school teachers like Marsha Pannone are RARE. I see people who should’ve gone to Otis, SVA and other more prestigious institutions sucked into their local Art Institutes because their teachers didn’t know any better and frankly didn’t care. Our school districts don’t know what to do with people who can’t fathom algebra or don’t have other academic interests. So, after 9th grade, we are relegated to overpaid baby sitters, not proper teachers who can open the doors to our futures. Marsha and Jerry Pannone, Frank Lilith and Mr. Heafy, on the other hand, knew just what to do with us. They had the power at the height of their careers to challenge the system and guide art students to the best art schools in the country where the degrees were valuable to the artist community, not just glorified receipts.

Mrs. Pannone died of lung cancer three weeks after the second photo was taken in 2003. We had a “Hopefully Not Farewell” party for her before she left us. Despite being attached to an oxygen tank, she still twirled around like sylphide, had us create art and told us wonderful stories. Now, imagine being a COVID-19 or SARS carrier and infecting this wonderful person dooming her years before her cancer developed? Could you live with yourself? I couldn’t! So, please, wear a mask in crowded areas, respect social distancing, and help our leaders, sociologists, and scientists come up with workable solutions for returning to work rather than hyper-criticize and protest in large crowds. You don’t know who you’re going to infect. Speaking of existing people who invested greatly into their lives as an expendable percentage is horrible, too. Where’s your humanity? Frail does not equal useless. Have a care.