Blast from the Past!!

Today I am re doing a blog I did two years ago, it was titled "Things done changed". It was about Derrion Albert a 16 year old Chicago honors student, who was brutally beaten and killed for being in the wrong place at the wrong time . The wrong place was the street was during a gang fight. The wrong time was after school. The only reason I wanted to re do this blog, is because of the senseless violence in my original hometown of Norwalk CT . Charlotte is where I am trying to put down roots, but Norwalk is the foundation.We would fought amongst each other all the time, but the next week it was all good .Over the years Norwalk has lost so many kids, that if I listed all of them this would be an obituary and not a blog . The point I wanted to make in this blast from the past is that we are all responsible for what goes on in our neighborhood.What are you going to do to make a difference. Remember each one teach one!!

You know today I had a blog all ready to talk about Derrion Albert. The 16 year old honor student, who was brutally beaten last week and died from his injuries, I was ready to talk about the stupidity and lack of guidance in the lives of the young “men” that attacked and killed him. I was going to discuss the cause and affect of this type of ghetto mentality. I was all set to place the blame on everything from BET to Hip Hop music for their portrayal of black men in society. I had to take a long look in the mirror and place the blame where it belongs, squarely on our shoulders. Yes we are to blame for these incidents. As much as I want to disagree with Bill Cosby's comments on the black community, Dr Huxatble is on point.

Had this incident been racial, The NAACP, Al Sharpton and a host of others would be up in arms. Right now everyone is talking about it and saying what a tragedy it is. The problem is, it happens all the time. Nationally, homicide is the leading cause of death for black young men ages 10-24, and the second leading cause of death for black women ages 15-24. While African Americans comprise 13.5% of the U.S. Population, 43% of all murder victims in 2007 were African American. We are killing ourselves; we need to take responsibility for our actions. I want to see all the black organizations and so called black leaders take a stand against that. Right now we are our own worst enemies. When does it stop, when do we begin to take back our neighborhoods? We are going to mourn this young man as we should. What about all the others that have been lost to senseless violence.

The blame should be placed with us; the problem is what we do to correct the situation? I remember when I was young our neighbors could chastise us even spank us if we did wrong. Nowadays you will end up getting into an altercation with someone for trying to correct their child. In the words of The Notorious B.I.G “Things done changed”. I’m not going to blame it only on single parent households, the lack of black role models, Reaganomics or any of the other myriad of excuses we want to use. The problem is us and until we change us and our attitudes as a people, there will always be another Derrion Albert. I do send my condolences to the Albert family and all families that have lost a child to violence, as no parent should have to bury their child. We have to wake up and do something about the destruction of our people, and our communities. No jokes today, peace and love people.