“No more lies or somebody dies!”
Tuesday, August 7th, 2007Had an interesting experience at a forum hosted by the Mayor of Baltimore & The Family League of Baltimore. The occasion was intended to connect ” Struggling Male - At-Risk Youth” with summer youth programs. Finally, Baltimore has a mayor who seems to care about the people & the communities moreso than ‘The Inner Harbor’ …tourist attractions and etc… Mayor Dixon seems to ‘get it’, she realizes that because of the crime rate in Baltimore, few folk want to live here, work here or even visit for fear of losing their life…Wait, pay to risk their life…humm…, that sounds like the makings of a good reality show, “Baltimore: Dead or Alive, How Long can you Survive”… pull the ‘texas hold-um’ poker shows , i’ve got something better…
It was a noble task, very much needed activity, as well as funding for more recreational & social programs especially for youth. They are our future and with the murder & crime rates rising all over the country, I wish we had a social & political system which values people, especially our youth more. I can understand the cries of the people, “We have wars at home to win - why are we in Iraq?” …Is anyone else listening?
Statistically speaking, according to the book “Black Son Rising”, by Michael Jones, (e-mail:jones_michael@hotmail.com - for copy of book - highly recommended reading) there are more african-american young men: ages 15-24, in jail than in all the colleges & universities in this country.
During the ’question & answer’ session, one young man arose shouting - “Don’t Believe the Hype - these folk are in it just for the money”. I imagine he was tired of the wretchedness of the past Mayor (author of ‘Believe Baltimore political slogan’) - police commissioners convicted of stealing money, schools paying for things that were never done, blatant lies it seems to the people about how he was going to help them.
At first, I was jumping out of my chair. I work on the front lines with little or no pay to provide some type of aftershcool activities for youth. How dare he say I’m in it for the money. Wish I had some, rent is due…Brother if you only knew…
Ms. Mayor nodded at me & I took that to mean ‘let him speak’ so I quenched my wrath & listened. Truth be told, the Young man had a point. We, as the older generation - their parents, their leaders, their roles models, are not on task with the business of raising them right. We choose to build prisons rather than schools, we increase funding for police rather than recreation centers. Someone commented ‘with the salary & overtime of one police officer (reported by the Baltimore newspapers to be in close to & over $100,000 in some cases) I could run my program. We send them mixed messages - consider the law which states ‘no dirt bikes are allowed in Baltimore City, yet our official policing policy states we can’t chase down violators & arrest them… I guess if I wanted to rob a bank, i’d use a dirt bke in Baltimore as my ‘getaway vehicle’, the police couldn’t arrest me & i’d be rich… (don’t try this…).
About a week later I myself was robbed & beaten. While waiting for my body to grow strong enough to undergo needed surgery (facial skull damage), heard of similiar beatings - seemingly random, speculated to be gang initiation rituals. I got my wake-up call…the present political ‘business as usual mindset’ will result in blood shedding on the streets our our cities- it’s not just Baltimore, examine Philly, Miami, LA, heck even in the usually peaceful “Amish areas” of Pennsylvannia, VA Tech University… !
If this world is to be, let it start with me… The Bible states, ‘Do unto others as you would have them do unto you”. Make a positive difference in your community - be it on the job, at home or just as you go about the cares of the day - Somebody is Watching!
many continued blessings
pawnmaster