ANOTHER SHOOTING, ANOTHER DEATH OF A YOUNG BOY - WHEN WILL IT END

Ladies and Gents

For the past year now we have been bombarded with so much bad news regarding our young black boys. Stabbings and shootings for no plausible reason at all other than sometimes being in the wrong place at the wrong time, being wrongly identified and killed as being part of some gang.

Whatever the reasons for these murders, when it comes down to basics, there should be no reason whatsoever for them to occur.

Many are saying we are living in a lawless society where the very basic element of humanity’s core, which identifies us as beings is being eroded. Respect for both the self and others is almost non-existent. Respect is used in the same vein now as “you git me” “blud” “yeah, yeah, yeah” - words that have no meaning or character of thought. What does the word Respect really mean to these people. It’s perceptual connotations seems to have eluded this current generation.

Valuing life and others, the environment, property, possessions, other people’s possessions seems to be an alien concept.

The older I become, the more I realise the absolute importance of why our children must have at least a basic understanding of where we as a people are coming from.

Rampaging around the streets with a gun in the pocket, being part of the pack, a “bad buoy, I and I is King” attitude seems to be new street cred, without even a thought for the depth and the seriousness of implications this generates and more so the reverberating effects this is having on the demise of the Afro community.

The implications of this do not even touch the base of this generation’s most primitive and consciousness level. These perpetrators seem to be living on the very edge of man’s most primitive and carnal form of existence. Why can they not aspire to be more than they are, why can they not see the hurt and pain they are causing not only to immediate family members, but the devastation it is having in their own homes, their environments, their community, and society as a whole?

Can they not see that they are dissecting and dismantling the structure of certain young lives who were in the process of making good, of young men who had dreams and visions for their future. Of young men who could be the leaders and role-models for tomorrow whom our society so desperately needs and is crying out for? Young men who for all accounts could’ve been pillars and shining lights in a world where darkness seems to be pervading at an alarming rate?

Many of my friends and I have been in heated discussions of late, especially with the last shooting of Olympic hero John Regis’s nephew. Wasted. For many of us now, it is time to get serious with a no-holding back on tougher sentences. The cry from those of us incensed is that we can mentor and spoon feed many of these lost souls to help them to get to a better place, but peoples, wrong is wrong and on this level and on this scale, wrong is about to get worst. Rehabilitation and youth offending institutes are seen as holiday camps for these young people. Yet, what is felt by a growing number of 40 something year olds is that it is time to get radical. Chain Gang, Public Exposure, some have even ventured to say flogging. Come on now, people are getting angry.

Whatever the solution, the problem goes much deeper than what is spilling out on the streets. It is festering in our homes, the very core from which stability, security, the nurturing, raising and understanding of standards and values come from and a knowledge at least of ones faith, which is one of the foundations upon which anyone can build their lives upon.

I too am getting angry and this has prompted me into action. I am tired of just standing by and watching these individuals walk through and cut short the lives of our yes our young men. We have a collective responsibility because at some point it could be yours or my children. I have two boys and my concern grows each day for them. Remember:

“It Take A Village to Raise A Child”
Old African Proverb

Peeps, it is time to take up the battle and go out into the streets and take back what this current generation are stealing from us. What saddens me most is that our parents and ancestors all fought the good fight. They put up with discrimination, racism and in a place called the Motherland to seek their fortune. Through their toil and sweat they paved a way for where we are today. It might not be an ideal place to be, but it’s a better place than our ancestors knew and what are many of this generation doing spitting on their graves and the paths which they opened up for us.

It’s time to stop these individuals in their tracks and take back control in our community, before we actually enslave ourselves within our own
Communities

We’ve been enslaved for too long – we cannot let it happen again
And this time if we do
It will be from the enemy within our own walls