I live in what some may consider a small city. It wants desperately to be a big city, but it is not. There are people, rich, poor and other who want it to be a big city. The rich to be richer and the poor to be less so. In the absence of hope of being richer, the rich place their boot on the necks of the middle class. In the absence of hope for the poor, they place their sneakers on the neck of their fellow poor to middle class.
Those in the middle, just try to stay out of the line of fire. But at what point do we all stop being afraid, dust the sand from our hair and take a stand? There comes a point when people get tired. Tired of being afraid of having, to want anything. Afraid of the most common courtesy and how it can be misconstrued, because people are more like animals than humans. Beasts, worse than the most rabid dog.
When they get tired they rise up and woe unto those who have oppressed them. Woe unto the gun toting, doo-rag wearing, pants sagging, ebonic speaking, criminal minded oppressors. You don't believe me? You don't believe that the oppressed rise up, that they one day wake up and say, I'd rather die than live like this. Those same people who witness nothing, who huddle inside well before dark, afraid to be near windows, for fear of stray lead.
Those people eventually rise up. They take to the streets and throw rocks at tanks. When their friends and family are strung up, impaled on bayonettes, those victimized scream in the face of their oppressors and dare them to kill them. Charge them with their crimes and say "Kill me or set me free!" Revolutionary Emiliano Zapata rallied, "It is better to die standing than live on your knees."
Do you believe that? Do we, as a people, believe that? What is to be done when a parent says, my child will not go to that school, no matter what you say because I am not raising a criminal and in a den of criminals, he becomes prey? Who stands up for that paren? We cry for the system to intervene, but truly systems can only do so much. People and conscious change things.
When you say it is unacceptable for you to sell poison on my corner, because my tax dollars pay for this corner. When conscious says yes I saw something. And others' conscious voice joins yours. These oppressors are cowards and unity is what they fear, because they lack true unity. We have opportunity in adversity to join with those charged with our protection and say, Hey, I'll help you if you help us.
What's the alternative? Fear and further unrest. Fear breeds calamity and desperation. Is that what we want? To be afraid and desperate? To bring some hated evil down on ourselves or someone else because we are so scared. This is not a promotion to vigilantism, but for conscious. Speak up and demand justice and peace. You work hard for what you have, shouldn't you have peace in your home? Shouldn't your children be able to play in the yard you pay taxes on?
Every wannabe thug has made a decision. People can lament their home life and circustances until the cows come home. Their is no father in the home, they were beat, afraid. Whatever circumstance, they made a decision to go from oppressed to oppressor. They made the cowardly decision to stop fighting against their circumstance and submit to them. Rather than be part of the solution, they choose to be part of the problem.
For every young person who made that criminal decision, you are the enemy. Until you decide otherwise, we are at war, you and I. There can be no peace in fear. If it is your cause to make fear burn in my breast, it is my cause to see you caged like the ravening beast you are. If the choice be made between you and I, there is no choice. I win.
As someone who loves the youth and hopes for their brighter future. As a person who can see where this path leads for you, I can only hope you would turn back. I don't want you writing jailhouse memoirs about the horrors of the prison system. I don't want to see you struggling in a wheelchair to the welfare office to beg and be demeaned. I don't want to see your destruction.
Yet I see it coming. I see the vultures circling, waiting for what remains of your carcass. I see your family weeping as your blood stains concrete. I see you on the bench at the court house with your public defender in his J.C. Penney's suit telling the bleak tale of your future. I see your mother, angry, hard, sitting beside you, regret and harsh pride her mantle.
I see clearly the results of your decisions. I also see that every child born has a bright and promising future, whether he be born in poverty or with a silver spoon in his mouth. That child has to make a decision. Excuses masked as reasons, don't justify poor decisions. Choose life and good. Fight for them. Death and evil are the easy choices.
Those in the middle, just try to stay out of the line of fire. But at what point do we all stop being afraid, dust the sand from our hair and take a stand? There comes a point when people get tired. Tired of being afraid of having, to want anything. Afraid of the most common courtesy and how it can be misconstrued, because people are more like animals than humans. Beasts, worse than the most rabid dog.
When they get tired they rise up and woe unto those who have oppressed them. Woe unto the gun toting, doo-rag wearing, pants sagging, ebonic speaking, criminal minded oppressors. You don't believe me? You don't believe that the oppressed rise up, that they one day wake up and say, I'd rather die than live like this. Those same people who witness nothing, who huddle inside well before dark, afraid to be near windows, for fear of stray lead.
Those people eventually rise up. They take to the streets and throw rocks at tanks. When their friends and family are strung up, impaled on bayonettes, those victimized scream in the face of their oppressors and dare them to kill them. Charge them with their crimes and say "Kill me or set me free!" Revolutionary Emiliano Zapata rallied, "It is better to die standing than live on your knees."
Do you believe that? Do we, as a people, believe that? What is to be done when a parent says, my child will not go to that school, no matter what you say because I am not raising a criminal and in a den of criminals, he becomes prey? Who stands up for that paren? We cry for the system to intervene, but truly systems can only do so much. People and conscious change things.
When you say it is unacceptable for you to sell poison on my corner, because my tax dollars pay for this corner. When conscious says yes I saw something. And others' conscious voice joins yours. These oppressors are cowards and unity is what they fear, because they lack true unity. We have opportunity in adversity to join with those charged with our protection and say, Hey, I'll help you if you help us.
What's the alternative? Fear and further unrest. Fear breeds calamity and desperation. Is that what we want? To be afraid and desperate? To bring some hated evil down on ourselves or someone else because we are so scared. This is not a promotion to vigilantism, but for conscious. Speak up and demand justice and peace. You work hard for what you have, shouldn't you have peace in your home? Shouldn't your children be able to play in the yard you pay taxes on?
Every wannabe thug has made a decision. People can lament their home life and circustances until the cows come home. Their is no father in the home, they were beat, afraid. Whatever circumstance, they made a decision to go from oppressed to oppressor. They made the cowardly decision to stop fighting against their circumstance and submit to them. Rather than be part of the solution, they choose to be part of the problem.
For every young person who made that criminal decision, you are the enemy. Until you decide otherwise, we are at war, you and I. There can be no peace in fear. If it is your cause to make fear burn in my breast, it is my cause to see you caged like the ravening beast you are. If the choice be made between you and I, there is no choice. I win.
As someone who loves the youth and hopes for their brighter future. As a person who can see where this path leads for you, I can only hope you would turn back. I don't want you writing jailhouse memoirs about the horrors of the prison system. I don't want to see you struggling in a wheelchair to the welfare office to beg and be demeaned. I don't want to see your destruction.
Yet I see it coming. I see the vultures circling, waiting for what remains of your carcass. I see your family weeping as your blood stains concrete. I see you on the bench at the court house with your public defender in his J.C. Penney's suit telling the bleak tale of your future. I see your mother, angry, hard, sitting beside you, regret and harsh pride her mantle.
I see clearly the results of your decisions. I also see that every child born has a bright and promising future, whether he be born in poverty or with a silver spoon in his mouth. That child has to make a decision. Excuses masked as reasons, don't justify poor decisions. Choose life and good. Fight for them. Death and evil are the easy choices.
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