Be an agent for change

Since I was a kid teens and young people have been killing each other over various things. Starter jackets, sneakers, jewelry, gangs, and other stupid things. People act like this just started and that this generation is somehow to blame for it. Here is what the problem is and has always been. When you have a lack of male role models, and positive female role models then the youth will find their own way. When you have a lack of parenting, then the youth will parent themselves. There is that old phrase that goes it takes a village...well back in the mid to late 80's that village started to be dissolved. When the positive adults don't step in to be mentors and guide them, then guess what happens...the streets will guide them. Every soul on the face of this earth wants to be loved and needs guidance at a young age. If they don't get it at home then they will find it somewhere.

People always say it starts at home (that is true), but if we know that home is not a good learning environment then other people need to step in. It's not just blacks that kill each other, latino's kill each other, whites kill each other, so it's not a race thing it's a social and economic thing. This problem is one that exists mainly in poor communities no matter the race. It's not secret that most poor people aren't happy and they are angry a lot. So when you have a poor or low income community it is a pot of water on the stove just simmering, until it reaches that boiling point. Peoples anger simmers until one thing triggers them to react. Here is the thing. If GROWN RESPONSIBLE people don't start reaching back and mentoring these young teens then it will continue. They need people to show them that someone cares. They need people to show them how to navigate through life. They need someone they can talk to about anything. Organizations like the #bigbrothersbigsisters are fantastic, but they can only be effective when they have enough mentors to mentor the kids on the waiting list that they have. Here is what is amazing to me. There are many caucasian males that mentor young black teens (I have no problem with that. I think it's great), but where are the black men? It doesn't take a particular race to mentor a child, but why is there a lack of black men that are willing to step up and mentor? There shouldn't be a waiting list for these kids, but people are so selfish that they can't see past their own lives.

If we expect things to change then we have to get up and change them. Carrying more guns if one of them robs you is not the solution. Sitting behind a screen and watching the news stories when they commit crimes isn't the solution. Speaking negatively against them won't solve it. Getting up off your behinds (Positive people only), and guiding them is the solution. Does this mean that you will change everyone? No, but you will change more than not. All it takes is some effort. I get tired of seeing teens killing it is ridiculous. So if you have made it to this point then kudos to you, you actually care. So now I challenge you to challenge someone else, to challenge someone else, and they challenge someone else to be an agent for change. Become a mentor and help change a life. In the process of you changing their's, I promise that they will change yours. Cheers