Change gon' come...

In the short span of time since I last posted an entry (16 months to be exact) there were a lot of things I could have commented on. R. Kelly miraculously beat his case, our former Governor was ousted from office due to scandal, and numerous school kids have been the victims of senseless shootings. Nothing has caught my attention, however, as much as the utterly senseless slaughter of Derrion Albert. This past Thursday ( October 24th, 2009), a mob of Fenger High School students converged blocks away from the school for an all out battle, apparently over neighborhood bragging rights. During the melee, a student was struck in the head with what appeared to be a wooden plank. When he regained conciousness, he rose to his feet only to be punched in the face. From there, I guess, the rest is history. What happened from that point went on to make world wide news and even prompt noted MC Nas to write an open letter to inner city youths. Several things trouble me about this whole ordeal. First of all, this happened a few blocks away from where I grew up. In fact, the center that they were fighting in front of is where I used to play ball as a kid. For the most part, the area is pretty peaceful, but over the last few months it's taken a change for the worst. My daughter goes to school in the neighborhood and a former schoolmate of hers, Toccara Swain, was shot just two blocks away from the scene of the fight two months ago. The second thing I find troubling is that this incident clearly illustrates the mindset of black youth today, in that they equate violence with manhood. These boys beat Derrion with fists, feet, and wood planks when he wasn't in a position to defend himself. I can think of any arena where this would be considered anything other than cowardly, but this is not how alot of youngsters think now a days. I have to give it up to Nas. I think his heart was in the right place, I just am not sure if his words will truly be heard as this is the "Souljah Boy" generation and many kids have no idea what Illmatic was. The solution is simple but not easy, I believe. We as a community can not wait for Mayor Daley or Jody Weis to solve our problems. We have to become more involved in the lives of our young people. Clearly, many parents are not on their job, so it's up to us to fill the void. Like my good friend Dr. Groove said, you may have a good kid, but that bad kid could be the one that kills them. We've got to take responsibility for our community and change our mindset. There's a reason why we were afraid to do alot of stuff as kids; we knew we'd have the whole block on our tails. There's no longer that level of accountability, as many people don't even know their neighbors. Ultimately, the brunt of the work is destined to be shouldered by the dedicated few. Still in all, everybody CAN and SHOULD do something. NO ONE CAN DO EVERYTHING, BUT EVERYBODY CAN DO SOMETHING. Only the fate of our community rests in the balance. No pressure people...