Our Communities Need You

Day in and day out reports on the news contain many violent acts, most notably those crimes that involve guns and murder in one form or another. Today for instance there was a shooting reported in Aurora, Colorado where three people were found dead inside a home. It seems as if most of us, particularly our government appears to be numb to the carnage and accept it. I say accept it because nothing substantial is being done to stop the violence. I am going to admit that I don’t know the answer or claim to have a solution but the numbers say – ENOUGH!

A very recent report by the government says the violent crime rates fell for the fifth consecutive year in 2011 in the US. But in urban areas like Detroit the homicide rate rose to a level higher than nearly 40 years ago when the city was known as the Murder Capital according to the Detroit News. The same day the city's official crime statistics were announced, a Detroit woman was charged with fatally stabbing her 8-year-old daughter and a cab driver was killed in a double shooting on the city’s northwest side. I am sure there were others as well.

At the same time homicides have declined nationwide for years, most notably in New York, where in 2012 there were 414 homicides and a rate of one per 19,915 people. New Orleans reported a small drop from 199 to 193 in 2012. With a population 360,740, the rate was one per 1,869 residents and in Washington, DC there were 88 homicides in 2012, the lowest total since 1961. With a population of 617,966, that puts the rate at one per 7,023 people. All of this is good.

It was also reported that elsewhere across the country, homicide rates made only slight jumps compared to Detroit.

• In Los Angeles, the homicide rate increased from 291 to 294 last year, with a population of nearly 3.8 million.
• The homicide rate in Chicago went up nearly 17 percent in 2012, topping 500 for the first time in four years. Last year’s total was 505, up from 433 in 2011.
• Homicides in Cleveland, Ohio, spiked in 2012 with 97 and a rate of one per 4,060 people.
• Philadelphia homicides increased from 324 to 331 in 2012. With a population of 1.54 million, that amounts to one per 4,642.
• In St. Louis, which has a population of 318,169 people, the rate stayed the same at between 2011 and 2012 at one per 2,815 people. There were 113 homicides last year, well below the average of 141 for the five previous years.

So ladies and gentlemen I would like to suggest that we look at ourselves because these people are our people, family, and friends more often than not. Let me also suggest that we change the dialog from “Hood” to “Community” that will induce inclusiveness. So my advice is to reach one teach one and empower our youth to do better than we did. And that’s my Thought Provoking Perspective…

Knowledge is the gift that keeps on giving.

http://johntwills.com

Legacy – A New Season 

AMAZON

Just a Season

ARE WE TO BLAME?

I am someone who believes “Knowledge is power and power produces an understanding that education is the single most important ingredient necessary to neutralize those forces that breed poverty and despair.” With that said, I read an article on the Urban Source blog that spoke to the issue of how the education system has failed the black male for three reasons. Before I continue I want to give credit to the written for this profoundly enlightening piece, which I wanted to add a thought or two and share with you.

The article began with this statement: “This article is going to make many people mad but I ask you to just think about what I am saying. The First, Parents are not involved in the education process. Second, Instead of praising education we marginalize it as African Americans. Third, we accept mediocrity as the standard in the Black community.” I will capture and quote parts of the article because I think the writer was on point.

It was this point that got my attention and profound and it deserving of our attention. “How can a single parent, who works 45 to 50 hours a week at a full time job, cook, clean, and still have time to help with a child’s homework. Since most of our boys are being raised by, undereducated women education is not instilled in them.” Hmmm! I can't say I completely agree with that but it could be argued.

The author went further adding; “Look at the Statistics 65% percent of the prison population are black males. Out of that 65%, 80% do not have a G.E.D. and, 74% percent come from single parent households. Here is where the marginalization comes into play with a lot of or boys. Instead of saying, you have a one percent chance of going to the NBA or NFL… let us become an Engineer or Doctor the parents’ pushes the black male to a less than realistic dream.”

You can’ argue with numbers and we all know that the prison industrial complex was and is designed to be the “New Jim Crow”. We know that this concept is as American as apple pie and used effectively since the nation was born. Now, the problem, as I see it, rests solely on the foundation of the home and the dysfunction within our community. Somehow this proud race of people has become confused and fooled.

“... It is not the people who call you nigger that’s racist but, it is the people who lower standards and give us a handout that are they true racist. …Let’s stop saying the Pinnacle of success is LIL Wayne or Lebron James, because to be honest they are not - they keep us entertained and black people loved to be entertained. We are better than that our ancestors who taught the Greeks math. We built the pyramids. We need to get back to basics - it starts at home. We need to stop failing our boys. It is easier to build a man than fix a broken one.”

This kind of thinking and truth is not rare among us and there are many black men who are holding it down. The system, wink, has used the ol’ divide and conquer strategy throughout time against naive people. We should have listened to Malcolm, Martin, and Garvey, and if we had we would know that we are better than that.

And that’s my Thought Provoking Perspective…

http://johntwills.com

Trayvon Martin Shooting & The 911 Call

IN THE NAME OF GOD - GIVE THIS FAMILY JUSTICE...

SHOCKING!!!



From The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander:

A heavy and cruel hand has been laid upon us. As people, we feel ourselves to be not only deeply injured, but grossly misunderstood. Our white country-men do not know us. They are strangers to our character, ignorant of our capacity; oblivious to our history and progress, and are misinformed as to the principles and ideas that control and guide us, as a people. The great mass of American citizens estimates us as being a characterless and purposeless people; and hence we hold up our heads, if at all, against the withering influence of a nation's scorn and contempt.

---- Frederick Douglass, in a statement on behalf of delegates to the National Colored Convention held in Rohester, New York, in July 1853. [Now what has changed]

My prayers and sympathy go out to this family.

Use whatever means at your disposal to call for justice in this case. And that's my Thought Provoking Perspective!!!