This Sunday morning I see that the List is still continuing the discussion
of the Simpson housing project and the debate on the responsibility of
African American "Leaders" for addressing crime and criminal gangs in that
community. Both of these issues are ones of "Expectations" and the power
those expectations have to shape the human lives in the world around us.
Perhaps later I will talk about the Minneapolis "Expectations" of which
neighborhoods are the ONLY ones that deserve affordable housing and to
contain poor people. For now, knowing how wordy I might become and how many
words I have used before about it, I will put that off for another time.
Mr. Mann, writing as "Socialist", appears to think that because the
political "powers that be" are racist, and do not give Black people equal
power, that the leadership of the Black community should work on overcoming
that system and have nothing to do with the individual lives of the people
affected by those forces. And perhaps bear NO responsibility to offer
leadership to find those fewer paths out of poverty. It is almost as if he
and some (and I repeat only some) Black leaders "Expect" young Black people
to be condemned to a life of crime and gangs because of the racism of our
society and culture. Apparently some think Black leadership, and society
as a whole, should realize this terrible fact and to only expect young Black
people to fail. Such "leaders" seem to only teach Black youth that the only
thing to look forward to is a life of crime and drugs. Unfortunately many
young people hear and believe this terrible lie, and do not even seek the
admittedly fewer paths out of that poverty. Such "leadership" with its
expectations of only failure commits to ultimate sin, it creates a poverty
of the soul as well as the body. When believed, it robs that young person
of a future.
A long time ago a very wise man named Marcus Aurelius said, "You have power
over your mind - not outside events. Realize this, and you will find
strength." Almost 2000 years later a black leader named Douglas understood
that "expectations" of both Black people and White people are the very real
chains that bind each of their minds. He knew that people must realize
their own internal strength to change their world. A while later a minister
named Martin Luther King taught, and lead by example, that Black people
should "expect" the same as White people. Martin Luther King was not shy
about giving his Christian "Values" to ALL of America! Of course Brother
King had those wonderful dreams, didn't he? Who hasn't gotten goose-bumps
when hearing him talk about not expecting to get there himself, but knowing
his people would get there? That very real expectation has changed how many
lives?
I remember a time when families and mothers with children (mired in a
poverty the depths of which today's urban families can only dream of in dark
nightmares) still expected their children to do better. They cared enough
to teach them to expect to do better, and BE better! Not only taught them,
but had such expectations themselves that they DEMANDED with a fierce will
that their children fulfill those expectations. The ministers and "leaders"
of the community taught those values, the mothers believed them and taught
their children. Those mothers believed them enough to DEMAND that those
children become better. And many of us did.
What would have happened if those mothers had not had those "expectations"?
Had expected their children to become drug dealers and criminals. Perhaps
Mr. Terrill is simply calling for Black leadership to have those
expectations of both the individuals and the families of the gang members.
Perhaps Mr. Terrill is saying that the community at large also needs to have
the very real "Expectations" about the families of those young people.
Expecting, and DEMANDING that their children not participate in such self
destructive lifestyles. Families should be given responsibility for
children, and the community should demand that those children be given what
they need to succeed. The community needs to give those mothers and
families the tools to build better lives and futures for their children.
Those mothers from the cotton fields and tar-paper shacks in Mississippi and
Arkansas of fifty years ago can tell you what the most important tools for
that success is. The most important and powerful tool is "EXPECTATION".
Let's not continue to rob those inner-city youth of a future. Real leaders
are leading to a better future, because they expect to get there. They are
not sitting in a hole teaching people this hole is all we can expect from
the political world, and to not "Expect" a better future. They expect a
better world, and DEMAND that people and families give their children
something of value to get there. That something is VALUES, and the
expectation that those values be transmitted to children.
Sorry for the long sermon, but it is Sunday morning. You folks go out and
have a wonderful holiday with your families. And value them enough to give
them the most valuable thing you have. You!
Jim Graham,
from the porch steps in Ventura Village
"We can only be what we give ourselves the power to be” – A Cherokee Feast
of Days
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