The blood of our youth that flows in the street stains the hands of the adults in our communities. We can point our fingers at various factors: the music, the media, the parents, society and it still comes back to us.
If we think that some of these children are monsters, then we must take responsibility for being the Dr. Frankensteins that created them. We went into the labs that are our homes, our schools, our churches and our communities and we took the worst of ourselves and molded them into the monsters that are terrorizing our neighborhoods.
We filled our children with self-loathing and self-hatred and tried to disguise it as arrogance and false pride. We gave them indelible minds but no moral compass, and they are lost in the wilderness of a world gone mad; a world that we created. And they are angry because they are afraid and they don't know what to do because we are not there to guide them.
We have failed our children because we lead by poor example. We smoke, drink, drug, sex and shrink away from our shared responsibilities. "These kids" as we like to refer to them, belong to someone else. We have adopted an "it's-all-about-me" attitude of greed and entitlement and passed it on to our children. They may not do as we say, but they always do as we do. IF they are monsters; it is because we made them.
If we want our children to stop being fodder for police blotters and yellow tape; if we want our children to stop being at the bottom of the national test scores, and the top of the dropout rates; if we want our children to stop being statistics for STDs including HIV and out of wedlock pregnancy; we must return to the labs that are our homes, our schools, and our communities and rescue our children. They're waiting for us to be the adults that we're supposed to be.
Otherwise, the blood will continue to flow and no matter how hard we try, we'll never be able to wash our hands clean.
Reflections and Observations on Noteworthy Things & Themes, Unbiased and Uncut...
Interesting. I was wondering, how do you suppose collectively the community work together to resolve the on going issues that "Black America" suffers from. Who has a clue? What do we do with those parents and other adults in our community that are negligent, do we scold them, punish them, support them more, educate them. What about the generation of "Dr. Frankensteins", the "ignorant", "less informed" that are on a
ReplyDeletedownward cycle and teaching their children to repeat it. Is it the resources and the lack and support that is at the core of our issues. And last but not least, "What responsibility does America has in the plight of Black America". Or is America not responsible and it's simply an issue that belongs to our community and our people. You have my open ear!
- Robin Dixon
Bravo, Steph! Keep championing worthy causes.
ReplyDeleteI love this post.
Jennifer
Hi Stephanie,
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed your posting. I do believe that we are particularly challenged right now in identifying ways to reach our parents, children and the community. I am apt to believe that love answers all things. Now, how do we go about putting this into action? We can mentor moms and dads who will allow us. We can provide positive alternatives to what the children/teenagers have to do now.
I teach and I asked my class what they thought happened that led to the brutal beating the the student. The following are some of the replies: they are fighting over territory...is it that we have so little that the urge to own or govern something leads to actions that produce this type of violence? Some say that a closing of one school forced youth to go to another school where they were not particularly wanted. Here again, love is the answer. We need to teach us how to love one another. We need a societal change, where being number one is not as important as being in, among and part of the number.
Arlene