How About Just Vote Youth, Vote

           Every 4 years, it seems to be a new voter slogan comes out to entice young voters to vote.  We’ve come from “Rocking the Vote” to “Vote or Die” to “Yes We Can!” to “Shut Up & Vote”.  However with each voter slogan comes opportunist’s willing to gain a profit because of good old capitalism.  Now I’m all for capitalism and for making a profit but what affect if any has any of these movements had on youth voting outside of the Yes We Can! 2008 was a rare occasion not expected to repeat itself this year because many millennium voters have become discouraged over the past 4 years due to what they see as a lack of change or progress.

           Thus the real question is why youth voters just can’t tell each other to vote because elders marched, fought and dead just for us to have a right to vote.  Why can’t youth voters just tell each other to vote because it’s the cool thing to do, it’s the new "it" trend, and it will be all anyway talks about on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and any other social network site on Tuesday, November 6, 2012?  We don't need anyone  to tell us to rock a vote when the vote won’t be rocked in no shape or form unless every single American in this nation actually votes in an election.  Simply having youth vote more won’t rock the vote but it will tip the scale of balance from more attention being paid to the elderly and middle classes to perhaps the millennium voter in future elections.

           When P.Diddy or Diddy, whatever he goes by today launched the whole “Vote or Die” campaign in 2004, it was cool, trendy and thought provoking.  Many youth across America sported the shirts and others who didn’t sport the original sported knockoffs.  Nonetheless, the message on the shirt at the time was never questioned.  However I’m going to question it because actual people actually dead trying to vote when they weren’t allowed to vote but in 2004 was that the case.  Nobody’s life was in danger in 2004 by casting a vote, in fact, no one would die by simply voting at the time of the slogan debut.  Still 8 years later and Diddy still a millionaire with a trademark on “Vote or Die”, has not been actively involved in the political process the last 8 years whatsoever.  In fact, more “Vote or Die” t-shirts are being sold yet alone the slogan is not even been mentioned until I just brought it up.

           We all know what happened in 2008 where there was a spike in the millennium voting with the “Yes We Can!” slogan.  I don’t have the actual statistics but last I checked at The Center for Information & Research on Civic Learning and Engagement (CIRCLE)—http://www.civicyouth.org/PopUps/FactSheets/FS_08_exit_polls.pdf—estimated that youth voter turnout rose to between 52 and 53 percent, an increase of four to five percentage points over CIRCLE’s estimate based on the 2004 exit polls.  However 2004 was considered a large turnout for youth compared to 1996 and 2000.  However the 52-53% is almost identical to that of 1992.  Even further research shows just how much the youth vote changed in 2008:http://www.civicyouth.org/quick-facts/youth-voting/.

           As we approach the 2012 election season and I look on my twitter feed and see Shut Up and Vote, I have to question does that mean if you don’t vote you have to shut up or just vote and shut up.  Either way I have to question, does that mean everyone who was eligible to vote in previous mayoral elections, state elections and so on have to shut up since they didn’t vote in 2011, 2010, or 2009 since they have been eligible to vote.  How does telling someone to shut up and vote encourage anyone to vote when voting is about exercising a right and it is a freedom of expression?  Therefore if we truly believe in the voting process than we couldn’t want to be disrespectful by telling people with different opinions than us to shut up and vote especially if you want that person to vote for the candidate you like. I’m just saying.  Nonetheless while the slogan looks good on a t-shirt, it doesn’t push the needle to get youth to vote.

           If we truly want the youth to vote than why not have a discussion with all your friends and you all encourage each other to not only register to vote but to vote not in just this election but every election.  If people are serious about voting and not just selling slogans on t-shirts what about telling people to vote and they will get a free t-shirt at certain polling stations.  If people are serious about getting the youth vote out than what about have a party on college campuses or at clubs near universities and colleges that offer discounts to those sporting I voted stickers or if you have the sticker stub from your ballot.

           The truth is youth have voted in a decent amount in Presidential elections since 1972 (40% or above) and at almost the same rate of (20% or above) in every midterm election since 1974—http://www.civicyouth.org/youth-turnout-about-20-comparable-to-recent-midterm-years/.  So why do the news media and everyone like to make it seem that we as youth aren’t voting.  While the truth is, those of us between 18-29 years of age, make up one of the largest voting blocs yet we are not one of the most sought after votes because we don’t vote consistently in every election.  If we as youth voted more constantly and could be depended on to vote in every election from mayoral, county, state legislature, U.S. Congressional and Senate races as well as Presidential and ballot proposals than perhaps more ads will be geared toward us similar to how campaigns gear campaign ads toward the elderly in Florida or Hispanics in Texas, Florida, New Mexico, etc.

           So until we as youth reach that point of just vote, we need to stop with the gimmicks on t-shirts as if they are actually going to persuade someone to vote.  Simply having the discussion of voting in one’s vocabulary is the first step to getting the vote out.  Just tell people to vote but not who to vote for.

The Pastime I used to Love

           Since 1992, I have been intrigued with politics from campaigns to governing to elections and voting.  However each year my intrigue has dwindled to disguise and quite frankly it has to a point of complete disdain for a process that I once endured.  As a little boy, I couldn’t wait to actually vote but I refused to allow my age to stop me from participating in the political process.  In fact I was encouraged by my parents to get involved in my community.  I was encouraged to speak out any injustice that I saw at the age of 7 and even more than that, I was brought along to community, neighborhood watch, political and all types of organizational meetings by my parents.

           It was those moments that defined my political interest.  In was during that grooming phase of my life that I saw what right and wrong was and how passionate people were about not just people voting for a particular candidate but for issues that affected the majority of us.  Now granted I grew up in a impoverished neighborhood on the eastside of Detroit but it was in that neighborhood that we stood up for community issues.  It was that community that fought against city government, state government and even against those in the community who tried to sell it off, write it off and give it away.

           Now as I watch politics in 2012, I’m ashamed to call it the pastime I love anymore.  I hear most politicians and their talking heads today talk about the middle class and how they want to help, however they ignore the fact that it’s not just the middle class that needs help, it’s the poor.  Most Americans are living in poverty today so who is going to fight for them.  I hear most politicians talk about getting Americans back to work but most of them don’t understand that Americans don’t just want jobs, they want careers and the jobs that are available aren’t good paying one’s so how will they fix the problem.

           I hear politicians talk about the importance of making higher education more affordable but not one person has suggest raising the Pell Grant maximum to $10,000 or more as the cost of living is steadily going up thus the cost of tuition, room & board, books and more things in higher education are steadily increasing.  How can higher education become more affordable and attainable when parents and students are being forced to take out more student loans due to the fact Pell Grants and other federal grants don’t cover the full cost of an education at a university or college?  Some might say more people need to seek scholarships but even getting a scholarship isn’t that simple and most scholarships are attached to certain majors, stipulations of GPA standards, etc. so even more added pressure are added to students seeking a higher education.

           Don’t let me even get started on issues of healthcare, equality, minimum wage, immigration reform, and a host of other issues.  My point is simply, politics has changed not for the better but for the worst.  Even the two party majority political system has lost its way as each side steadily blames each other for the problems our nation faces but when their guy is in office, they make it seem as if all is rosy or that it’s the previous party in control fault.  The fact is that Democrats and Republicans are to blame for America’s mess, like it or not, they both had added to our  nation’s deficit, have ignored fixing illegal immigration and have even ignored curving the cost of healthcare at the expense of just passing a healthcare bill to say we finally did it.

           You don’t have to believe it or like what I’m saying but if you look at the tone of every political ad running today on television: they are not ads of hope, prosperity or positivity.  Quite simply they are ads of despair, fear mongering, and negativity that cast their opponent or the other party as evil and full of dislike for a certain group of people or issue.  Is this the way politics has always been?  Whatever happened to ads that displayed where candidates stood on the issue?  Whatever happened to ads that discussed a candidates plan for the future?  Whatever happened to candidates standing up for the people and being held accountable for their word?

           The pastime I love has become a sporting event where even the media are picking sides, which leaves people like myself who are unbought, unbiased and unwilling to give in to one side or the other feeling betrayed.  The media used to be one of the most unbiased things to go but even the news they give out is tailored to make things seem one way when it actually isn’t.  Therefore the news reporters on television and even the investigative journalists are even taught to chose sides and stick with it, all in order to ramp up ratings.  This used to never be.

           Now as I sit hundreds of thousands a miles overseas, I realize now more than ever that the pastime of I used to love has politics has definitely left me behind but I’m not willing to go away without a fight.  I’m not willing to conform to the norm just because the masses say so.  I’m not willing to stand by and allow candidates, politicians and political parties to ignore the real issues plaguing the people.  I’m not willing to allow the news media to betray the sacred trust to give the news to the people unbiased and full of the truth.  Therefore I encourage all of you to not give to what the majority is doing because the majority is not always right and the masses don’t always know what is right.

           If the pastime I love is to come back, it will have to do it by the people demanding more from the political process than the two bit sound bites we are getting that a small majority want the masses to hear in order to manipulate us into thinking one way instead of the other way.  Enough is enough, it’s time to change the culture for the better.

Don't Ask, Don't Tell Policy

As a soon be member of the military, I say to our Congress particularly our Senators to repeal the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" Policy of our military. No one cares if someone is openly gay or not on the battlefield, all one cares about is can they shot and protect our country. If gays want to openly serve in our military they should be allowed. Not allowing someone to serve in our armed forces because they are gay is not right and its discriminatory.

Classism

Does Classism exist in Detroit? Does classism exist in America and the world? Having a degree doesn't make you better than one and not having you a degree doesn't make you less educated than others. The reality is, it is about what you are doing with your life that matters not what degree you have.

Education Reform

Education Reform is critical to the future of America and to the future of winning this war on our youth.

My Perspective: Promises vs. Actions

"Vision without action is merely a dream. Action without vision just passes the time. Vision with action can change the world."
--Joel A. Barker

Patrick Henry once said, “Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death.” Well I say, give me actions not just promises. When I heard of President Barack Obama winning the Nobel Peace Prize, I had mixed emotions not because I have ill will toward Obama because I want him to succeed on those policies I know are right for me and other Americans and not because I am an African American because us sharing the same race makes me proud just like us being Americans makes me just as proud but my emotions were mixed because it brought about the issue of words vs. actions. I was raised to believe that one’s actions should speak louder than their words and one’s promises should always be kept. Therefore Obama winning the Nobel Peace Prize for his promises and words as well as perhaps his attempted actions although still incomplete toward peace is why I had mixed emotions.

So as I posted a link on Facebook page to an article done by Yahoo! News entitled, “Analysis: Obama's Nobel honors promise, not action” I wrote the following comment, “Now I hope this is encouragement to our youth that the promise of doing something is just as good as the action itself. This is what I take from this great analysis of Obama winning the Nobel Peace Prize. Still I say Congrads President Obama.” Now some people such as my friend Ayesha J. Johnson commented on the link and said, "Promise of doing something is just as good as the action itself." While others such as William Richardson said, “But what if he reneges on his promises? Then what? Do we still tout him as a worthy Nobel Prize winner. I think that there were many other much more deserving people who actually DID something this year especially the two activists from China and Columbia. On that too I have to say that continuing two wars, pointing the barrel at Iran, supporting Israel in its war crimes and handing over billions to the banks is not my image of peace. Or am I just blind lol?”

Still I have to say that both individuals bring up good points but while promises can be the beginning of an action, I don’t agree with Ayesha that a promise of doing something is just as good as the action itself because it is action itself of doing it that should be watched and carefully examined while the promise itself is simply words but if we don’t hold a person accountable for doing it than it means nothing. Also people go back on their promises and as William stated, what if someone reneges on their promise and no I am not saying Obama will do that but the truth of the matter is, I have seen moments when Obama campaigned and promised to get certain things done but to a degree he has reneged or stepped back off of some of his promises. However this is not just about Obama because tons of people make promises or say they are going to do something but they eventually renege on their words.

Which is why I told Ayesha and William that I prefer actions over promises because a promise can be broken but showing action on an issue is what people need to be rewarded for not simply promising to do something. Still in life, many people win awards and even scholarships contests, or grants based off the promise they are going to do this as they stated in their winning essay or proposal. Nonetheless I do think William was on to something in some of what he said. However the notion of “Promises vs. Actions” is the very issue that some people including supporters of Obama have with him winning the award or should I say should have but nonetheless Congrats are still in order for President Obama regardless of that issue.

Still the honoring promise, not action really needs to be discussed and analyzed more deeply as the article I posted on my Facebook page as link does. It reads, “The awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize to President Barack Obama landed with a shock on darkened, still-asleep Washington. He won! For what? For one of America's youngest presidents, in office less than nine months — and only for 12 days before the Nobel nomination deadline last February — it was an astonishing award. But the prize seems to be more for promise than performance. Obama so far has no standout moment of victory. As for most presidents in their first year, the report card on Obama's ambitious agenda is an "incomplete."”

It goes on to read, “He banned extreme interrogation techniques for terrorists. But he also promised to close the globally controversial U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, a task with difficulties that have Obama headed to miss his own January 2010 deadline. He said he would end the Iraq war. But he slowed the U.S. troop drawdown a bit. Meantime, he's running a second war in the Muslim world, in Afghanistan — and is seriously considering ramping that one up. He has pushed for new efforts to make peace between the Israelis and Palestinians. But there's been little cooperation so far. His administration is talking to U.S. foes, like Iran, North Korea and Cuba. But there's not much to show from that, either.”

However Obama also said he wants a nuclear-free world. But it was one thing to show the desire in his April Prague speech, and quite another to unite hesitant nations and U.S. lawmakers behind the necessary web of treaties and agreements. He pledged to take the lead against climate change. But the U.S. seems likely to head into December's crucial international negotiations in Copenhagen with Obama-backed legislation still stalled. And what about Obama's global prestige? It seemed to take a hit exactly a week ago when his trans-Atlantic journey to win the 2016 Olympics for Chicago was rejected with a last-place finish.

Nonetheless for the Nobel committee, merely altering the tone out of Washington toward the rest of the world seemed enough. Obama got much attention for his speech from Cairo reaching out a U.S. hand to the world's Muslims. His remarks at the U.N. General Assembly last month set down internationally welcome new markers for the way the U.S. works with the world. But still. ... Obama aides seemed as surprised as everyone else, not even aware of his nomination along with a record 204 others. The president was awakened with the news about an hour after the vote was announced, and aides scrambled to prepare a statement.

The prize is not necessarily a big plus for Obama in the tricky U.S. political arena. He won election last year in part because voters weary with the nation's battered image abroad were attracted to his promise of a new start. But Republicans have been criticizing Obama as being too much celebrity and too little action, and they immediately seized on this new praise — from Europeans, no less — to try to bring him down a peg. From Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele, for instance: "It is unfortunate that the president's star power has outshined tireless advocates who have made real achievements."

For Nobel voters, the award could be as much a slap at Obama's predecessor as about lauding Obama. Former President George W. Bush was reviled by much of the world for his cowboy diplomacy, Iraq war and snubbing of European priorities like global warming.
And remember that the Nobel prize has a long history of being awarded more for the committee's aspirations than for others' accomplishments — for Mideast peace or a better South Africa, for instance. In some cases, the prize is awarded to encourage those who receive it to see the effort through, sometimes at critical moments.

Nobel committee chairman Thorbjoern Jagland said as much. "Some people say, and I understand it, isn't it premature? Too early?" he said in an interview with The Associated Press. "Well, I'd say then that it could be too late to respond three years from now. It is now that we have the opportunity to respond — all of us." Obama certainly understands his challenges are too steep to resolve quickly. "It's not going to be easy," the president often says as he sets tasks for the United States. The Nobel committee, it seems, had the audacity to hope that he'll eventually produce a record worthy of its prize.

Still after reading the article, I had to ask people, “Do you prefer actions or promises? This is a critical issue in the wake of President Obama's Nobel Peace Prize. Is the promise of trying to have peace just as important as actually bringing peace and if so what does this mean to many future promises of peace and other promises that could be broken or not achieved. So do you prefer actions or promises? One individual named Patrick R. Comer said, “There is more to this than the "promise" of achieving peace that one must look at. It's the actions that one has began to take to achieve that promise as it's the ability to motivate others to believe in that vision. Obama has shown the ability to motivate others to believe in his vision. By which, he makes the road to achieving peace easier than other before him.” So as I read Patrick’s comments I responded by saying, “The real question is do you believe in promises or actions. I believe that one's actions speaks louder than their words and Obama's promises of peace so far have not been made easier when all his initiatives for peace are incomplete. All I am saying my friend is that in life, we can't award for promises but instead need to reward for actions more so than simply promises of possible action.”

I also continued to say, “ I am proud of he got the Nobel Peace Award as well as anyone who receives any honors but nonetheless this doesn’t excuse the fact that that this is setting up a debate that I have had for years about actions vs. words. Actions speak louder than words my friend and I understand words inspire people and give hope but if actions which are results don’t follow those words than the words itself are meaningless to me. I think you can agree upon that which is why I believe in actions rather than promises because actions mean you worked toward it or achieved it. Promises simply mean you plan to do it but that doesn’t mean you will actually do it.

Lastly I had to disagree with Partick’s statement that Obama has made peace easier than others before him because I think people such as Dr. King and Gandhi and others inspired others toward peace just as much as Obama but if Patrick meant American Presidents than I think Jimmy Carter is the standard barrier for peace which is one of the reasons he was not re-elected because he was seen as too peaceful and friendly by members of his own party as well as the opposition party.

However some columnists even agree that actions not promises need to be awarded with Nancy Gibbs writing a piece entitled, “Obama's Nobel: The Last Thing He Needs.” She writes, “The last thing Barack Obama needed at this moment in his presidency and our politics is a prize for a promise. Inspirational words have brought him a long way - including to the night in Grant Park less than a year ago when he asked that we "join in the work of remaking this nation the only way it's been done in America for two-hundred and twenty-one years - block by block, brick by brick, calloused hand by calloused hand."”

She continues to write, “By now there are surely more callouses on his lips than his hands. He, like every new president, has reckoned with both the power and the danger of words, dangers that are especially great for one who wields them as skillfully as he. A promise beautifully made raises hopes especially high: we will revive the economy while we rein in our spending; we will make health care simpler, safer, cheaper, and fairer. We will rid the earth of its most lethal weapons. We will turn green and clean. We will all just get along. So when reality bites, it chomps down hard. The Nobel committee cited "his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples." His critics fault some of those efforts: those who favor a missile shield for Poland or a troop surge in Afghanistan or a harder line on Iran. But even his fans know that none of the dreams have yet come true, and a prize for even dreaming them can feed the illusion that they have.

Nancy Gibbs continues on to say, “Maybe the prize will give him more power, new muscles to haul unruly nations in line. But peacemaking is more about ingenuity than inspiration, about reading other nations' selfish interests and cynically, strategically exploiting them for the common good. Will it help if fewer countries come to the table hating us? To a point. But it's a starting point, not an end in itself. At this moment many Americans are longing for a president who is more bully, less pulpit. The president who leased his immense inaugural good will to the hungry appropriators writing the stimulus bill, who has not stopped negotiating health care reform except to say what is non-negotiable, whose solicitude for the wheelers and dealers who drove the financial system into a ditch leaves the rest of us wondering who has our back, has always shown great promise, said the right things, affirmed every time he opens his mouth that he understands the fears we face and the hopes we hold. But he presides over a capital whose day-to-day functioning has become part-travesty, part-tragedy, wasteful, blind, vain, petty, where even the best intentioned reformers measure their progress with teaspoons. There comes a time when a President needs to take a real risk - and putting his prestige on the line to win the Olympics for his home town does not remotely count.”

Nancy continues to write, “Compare this to Greg Mortenson, nominated for the prize by some members of Congress, who the bookies gave 20-to-1 odds of winning. Son of a missionary, a former army Medic and mountaineer, he has made it his mission to build schools for girls in places where opium dealers and tribal warlords kill people for trying. His Central Asia Institute has built more than 130 schools in Afghanistan and Pakistan - a mission which has, along the way, inspired millions of people to view the protection and education of girls as a key to peace and prosperity and progress. Sometimes the words come first. Sometimes, it's better to let actions speak for themselves.”

Therefore what matters, is it the words or the actions that follow the words or better yet does the actions speak for themselves. That is truly the debate that should be discussed as we go forward with awarding any type of prize or reward. However there is still a need to understand how the Nobel Peace Prize is awarded. "The exciting and important thing about this prize is that it's given too someone ... who has the power to contribute to peace," Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg said. Nominators include former laureates; current and former members of the committee and their staff; members of national governments and legislatures; university professors of law, theology, social sciences, history and philosophy; leaders of peace research and foreign affairs institutes; "We trust that this award will strengthen his commitment, as the leader of the most powerful nation in the world, to continue promoting peace and the eradication of poverty," the foundation said.

In his 1895 will, Alfred Nobel stipulated that the peace prize should go "to the person who shall have done the most or the best work for fraternity between the nations and the abolition or reduction of standing armies and the formation and spreading of peace congresses." Unlike the other Nobel Prizes, which are awarded by Swedish institutions, he said the peace prize should be given out by a five-member committee elected by the Norwegian Parliament. Sweden and Norway were united under the same crown at the time of Nobel's death. So with understanding that it is understandable why Obama got the award or is it.

Still when we award things based off of promises or words, it does create expectations or even great expectations for one to do what they said and more to a degree. However response to President Obama’s Nobel Peace Prize seems to be falling into two broad categories: the overwrought and the overthought. Why not a simple note of congratulations? The right-wing blowhards, of course, are braying that this is some kind of surrender to the wooly-headed, socialistic, One World ideology of cheese-eating (or herring-chomping) Eurocrats. These same bags of wind were delirious with joy when the sports division of the One World conspiracy, the International Olympic Committee, turned down Obama’s personal appeal in Copenhagen. If someone else had won the Nobel, they’d be cackling that the president had been given another comeuppance. All this just proves that if Obama were to cure cancer, the blowhards would complain that he’s put thousands of hard-working, red-blooded American oncologists out of work.

Others say the award is “premature.” Okay, I can see that argument, but the Nobel committee apparently considered Obama’s redirection of American foreign policy toward multilateralism a groundbreaking accomplishment. The committee, it seems, thought that for the most powerful national leader in the world to embrace international cooperation and envision a world no longer menaced by nuclear weapons was a giant step forward. I can see that argument, too. In fact, I think I agree with it. Still others, claiming to have Obama’s best interests at heart, say the award is an unfortunate blow because it “creates expectations.” Excuse me? When you’re president of the United States, aren’t great expectations – even unrealistic expectations – pretty much part of the deal? You think they haven’t figured that out at the White House by now?

Maybe I’m insufficiently cynical, but I never thought of the Nobel Peace Prize as having such a tremendous downside. Still when you think about it, it's not all that remarkable that President Barack Obama was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize based on a nomination made just nine days after he took office. It fits perfectly with the rest of his resume. Obama won the White House after serving just four years in the U.S. Senate, half of which he spent on the presidential campaign trail. While in the Senate, not a single piece of legislation was passed because of his championship.

Before coming to Washington, Obama spent six unremarkable years in the Illinois Senate, and prior to that he was a law professor and community organizer. Obama's resume has never been his strength. He has advanced in leaps and bounds based on his promise and ahead of his actual achievements. Now he's won a Nobel Prize, apparently for talking a good game about a more civil world and, in large part, for not being George W. Bush. But the hard work to justify that prize is yet to be done.

However perhaps Obama made the best indication regarding promises and actions when he delivered the following remarks: “To be honest, I do not feel that I deserve to be in the company of so many of the transformative figures who've been honored by this prize -- men and women who've inspired me and inspired the entire world through their courageous pursuit of peace. But I also know that throughout history the Nobel Peace Prize has not just been used to honor specific achievement; it's also been used as a means to give momentum to a set of causes.”

Obama went to say, “That is why I've said that I will accept this award as a call to action, a call for all nations and all peoples to confront the common challenges of the 21st century. These challenges won't all be met during my presidency, or even my lifetime. But I know these challenges can be met so long as it's recognized that they will not be met by one person or one nation alone. This award -- and the call to action that comes with it -- does not belong simply to me or my administration; it belongs to all people around the world who have fought for justice and for peace. And most of all, it belongs to you, the men and women of America, who have dared to hope and have worked so hard to make our world a little better. So today we humbly recommit to the important work that we've begun together. I'm grateful that you've stood with me thus far, and I'm honored to continue our vital work in the years to come.”

While for some people that won’t close the debate over promises vs. actions but for me, it does one thing and that is Obama himself is humble enough to realize that his promises have not yet been fulfilled and he recognizes that actions speak louder than mere awards, words or promises. Therefore I hope everyone understands that we need to let our actions speak louder than our words and like the quote above by Joel A. Barker, it is when vision with action that we can change the world but the two by themselves is simply a dream and a way to pass time. Therefore we as people must always keep our promises by doing the actions necessary to complete those promises and at the same time, we must hold people accountable for their promises and their words so that they do the actions necessary to do what they said or promised to do. This is the only way.

Reference:
If Obama can get one, you can, too
http://www.freep.com/article/20091011/COL01/910110484/1318/If-Obama-can-get-a-Nobel-Peace-Prize--you-can--too

My Perspective: The War on Our Youth—Are Adults Afraid of Youth and the Violence?

A mother's worst fears
An-Janette Albert talks to CNN's Don Lemon about losing her son, an honor student, in a senseless street brawl.

Is An-Janette Albert right when she say, “We've become a bunch of onlookers and rubberneckers, watching while an entire generation destroys itself.” Have adults become afraid of youth and the violence that is prevalent around many of their communities. Albert is the mother of Derrion Albert, the Chicago honors student who was killed recently when he was hit in the head with a railroad tie and then stomped and kicked as he lay injured during a fight just blocks from his high school. The 16-year-old was a good kid who some say was trying to help out a friend or just happened to walk into the middle of a melee.

During a heartbreaking interview with CNN, An-Janette touches on what I think is one of the primary reasons that some teenagers are running wild: fearful adults. An Janette said, “I believes they are afraid. If these kids are beating kids in school with sticks, what do you think they are going to do to a woman trying to take her bags and stuff out the car? I'm afraid. I'm scared of standing out on the porch," Albert said when asked by CNN's Don Lemon about the role adults could have played to stop this tragedy. "I don't want to go anywhere, and I don't want my baby to go anywhere."

Why should we fear sitting on the porch in our own communities, bringing groceries from the car or (dare I say it) disciplining one another's kids? One write wrote about an incident where his wife and him were waiting for an elevator in an apartment building while visiting a friend. A young lady walked in and was unwrapping an ice pop. Once she got the wrapper off and put the blue ice in her mouth, she threw the wrapper on the ground. All of a sudden the writer’s wife yelled, "Pick that up now! Who's supposed to clean up after you?" The young woman immediately bent down and picked up the wrapper and apologized. Not only that, her friends began ribbing her for being a litterer and not caring about the cleanliness of her own community. She knew what she did was wrong; she just needed a responsible adult to remind her.

Now from listening to that story it is clear that what some of our youth need is reinforcement of certain morals and values while others need to know what are good morals and values because they didn’t learn it at home. Adults shouldn’t be afraid of their own children or other people’s children. However from using that story as an example, the writer who talked about it wanted to make sure that he was in clear in saying that we as people should not run to the corner and wrestle the gun from a drug dealer's hands, but instead adults need to get themselves together and take control of their own homes and communities. Adults had to know that the fighting at Derrion Albert's high school was a chronic situation. An adult should have been there to yell, "Put that board down. Take your behinds home."

Now more than ever, we need adults to intervene in young people's lives before they pick up a gun or a board. After tragic events like this, we always hear about how there aren't enough after-school programs or how we need better schools or more police presence. We should come together first and then the resources to deal with the problem will line up behind us. In fact, these resources are not going to come close to solving the problem unless parents, relatives, neighbors and friends step up.

President Obama sent U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder to Chicago Wednesday to talk about the violence there. I hope the message he delivers is: "We will provide resources, but the most important resource is you, the parent." An-Janette can barely make it through the interview without breaking down. She is amazed, as we all should be, that no one stepped in to help her son until it was too late. "If that was anybody's child...there's no way in the world I could have just stood by and watched that happen...to anybody," said Albert. Neither should we.

Therefore the question of are adults afraid of youth and the violence, is one that perhaps can’t be answered by me because I don’t speak for all adults. However the reality is that if some of our youth are afraid to simply walk to and from school and feel safer in school than in their own homes or neighborhoods than I can imagine how some adults feel than since many of them are not in a school building. I also can imagine how some educators and personnel staff feel when they are with many our youth on at least 5 days a week for 8 or more hours.

The reality is that our youth today can smell fear like a lion or tiger can smell its next prey. Many of our youth today have no fear of death or harm because many of them know or have developed this mindset that their life will be short lived anyway so why not live it to the fullest and do harm or damage to anyone who stands in their way. Thus the real issue for us as adults is to ask ourselves why should we fear anything especially since many of us are religious people and we know that our God will protect us and deliver us with the protection necessary to fight our when necessary. Now what I am not saying is for us as adults to go out and challenge a robber who wants our wallet or our car because that is just foolish.

However what I am saying is that we as adults should be willing to tell our youth to pull their pants up, stop the cussing and most of all tell our youth to stop the fighting or the arguing when it seems like it is about to happen. I am not too far removed from this generation of violence and I can say that a lot of our youth today don’t really want to fight but instead just want attention. You see youth who want to fight don’t do a lot of talking and smack talking but they just fight, however those youth who do, really are telling adults please stop this before something bad happens because neither one of us want to fight but instead we don’t want to seem like a punk or soft in front of our quote unquote friends so we have to shout and yell at one another as if we are tough.

Our youth need attention and guidance so as adults we can’t be afraid to meet them where they need the help the most which is not always in schools but sometimes at the corner or at the ball courts or where ever youth in our communities gather. Now I know we can’t save our youth but perhaps we can save more youth than we are saving if we as adults just reinforce our authority and our will over our communities. We can’t expect President Obama, AG Holder or any other politician to do for us the people of this nation that we are unwilling to do. Until we as adults work with youth to help protect and prevent them from destroying each other than we are simply allowing the madness and the war on our youth to fester to a point that we are witnessing genocide to a generation of young Americans that could ruin our nation’s strength in the future.

Now is the time to end this war on our youth and to stand up to our youth and the violence that is festering everywhere. Our youth need our help and us as adults need to meet this challenge with as much energy and vigor as we have met previous challenges in our nation’s history. This is the call to action that all Americans need to make sure we solve so that the world can see we are serious about the future of our nation by protecting our youth and giving them the opportunity to have a better present than their past and a greater future than their present. This is the call to action that we as Americans must stand up for. We must end the war on our youth and stop being afraid as adults and as youth!

SAVE OUR YOUTH!

Source:
http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/crime/2009/10/04/lemon.mothers.worst.fears.cnn

My Perspective: Americans Civil Liberties’ Continue to be Violated

It seems as if as Americans our civil liberties will continuously be under attack and violated by our federal government federal agencies as a partial Patriot Act extension was approved by a Senate Panel on Thursday. The Senate Judiciary Committee approved a bill Thursday that would renew portions of the USA Patriot Act in an effort to address administration concerns about protecting terrorism investigations. But several Democrats and civil liberties advocates said the legislation would do little to strengthen privacy protections. And some Republicans said the bill, despite amendments worked out with the administration, would still unduly burden investigators.

By a vote of 11 to 8, the committee sent to the Senate floor a measure that would extend until 2013 three surveillance provisions set to expire Dec. 31. They would allow investigators to use roving wiretaps to monitor suspects who may switch cellphone numbers, to obtain business records of national security targets, and to track "lone wolves" who may be acting alone on behalf of foreign powers or terrorist groups. The bill would also slightly tighten the legal standard for the FBI's issuing of administration subpoenas known as national security letters (NSLs), which allow the bureau to obtain phone, credit and other personal records, and which the Justice Department inspector general has said are subject to "serious misuse."

Co-sponsored by Judiciary Chairman Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.) and Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), a member of the panel who is also the chairman of the intelligence committee, the bill would require the FBI to provide "specific facts" showing that the records requested are relevant to a terrorism investigation. Leahy arranged for a classified briefing Wednesday in which senior administration officials addressed the proposed provisions' impact on counterterrorism investigations, including the ongoing probe of terrorism suspect Najibullah Zazi. The chairman said Thursday that he is "confident" the bill balances national security concerns with key privacy and civil liberties concerns.

Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) won approval for a package of amendments, intended to meet the concerns of intelligence officials and the administration, that would limit the scope of newly crafted privacy protections for library records, preserve the government's ability to maintain secrecy concerning NSLs in sensitive investigations, and keep current law in place by not imposing unprecedented minimization requirements on information. Sen. Russell Feingold (D-Wis.) said the bill "is heading in the wrong direction." He won an amendment to require the FBI to minimize information it gets through NSLs. Sessions said the types of records that agents are seeking are no different than the financial records sought by other government investigators.

Sen. Richard J. Durbin (D-Ill.) tried unsuccessfully to require that before issuing an NSL, the FBI must show that the records sought bear some connection to a suspected terrorist or spy and are relevant to a terrorism or spying probe. Civil liberties advocates expressed dismay. "The administration deliberately took a wrong turn on civil liberties here," said Leslie Harris, president of the Center for Democracy & Technology. Nonetheless it is clear that the Obama administration and some Democrats are more talk than action when it comes to protecting Americans civil liberties.

However this should not come as surprise considering that than Senator Obama voted to reauthorize FISA along with several Democrats and Republicans last summer after Obama clinched the Democratic nomination. Therefore the latest developments should not come as a surprise to anyone especially considering the history of how Democrats campaign against civil liberties being infringed upon but initially vote to continue to violate many Americans civil liberties. Therefore it is clear that if we as Americans are going to get our civil liberties back than we have to first start holding our politicians accountable. These quote unquote allegations that violating civil liberties is necessary to fight terrorism is just false and are in clear violation of many laws on the books that are suppose to protect us as Americans from harassment and secret illegal wiretaps.

That is why the temporary passage of the continuous of the Patriot Act is just another blow to us as Americans as we try to get our civil liberties back once and for all. It should be clear that the original Patriot Act and FISA was passed by both Democrats and Republicans with the support of President Bush and now both Democrats and Republicans are continuing to pass the Patriot Act and FISA with the support of then Presidential candidate Obama and now President Obama. Therefore hope for repealing both acts seems to get a lot tougher when the very politicians who screamed that both acts were in violation of our civil liberties now seem to cave in to the pressure of intelligence agencies particularly the FBI who have used these acts to continuously spy on Americans with no regard for the laws that are meant to protect us as Americans.

So violating civil liberties seems to continue in this nation and the question is do we as Americans even care because it is clear many of our politicians do not care as long as they are not the ones being spied on. What does this really mean for American laws and the justice system which is suppose to protect Americans from civil violations and invasions of privacy without a warrant? It was already bad enough that many of our intelligence agencies operated in this nation illegally with warrantless wiretaps on Americans but the Patriot Act and FISA Act only made it legal for them to do it without us as Americans to challenge them in the courtroom. Remember nearly 200 plus cases were pending in American court rooms against phone companies who turned over phone records of hundreds of thousands of customers to the Federal government but the renewal of the FISA Act in the summer of 2008, made it illegal for those phone companies to be sued those resulting in all those court cases to be thrown out in hopes that phone companies would continue to work with the federal government by turning over such records.

Thus, with evidence like that it is clear that if we as a nation is going to get our civil liberties back than we as a people must begin to take notice of just how our federal government and many of the politicians we elected to protect those liberties continue to strap us as a people of rights while empowering intelligence agencies and our federal government to spy on us anytime they want without any real just cause which most law enforcements must have in order to obtain a warrant from a judge to wiretap phone lines or search property of many suspects. However our federal government doesn’t have to go through those steps of legal action, in fact the temporary renewal of the Patriot Act only suggests that a small group of members of Congress and the White House have to give the okay for such warrantless taps which some civil liberties groups and Congressional leaders is better than what we previously had. Still I ask why should I trust our Congress to do what’s right when many of them are the very ones who originally passed the Patriot Act and FISA and now are the very ones who have reauthorized FISA last year and perhaps will reauthorize this temporary version of the Patriot Act.

With all that said, I say, I trust myself and this nation’s legal system with making the determination of whether a warrant should be issued to spy on me as an American rather than members of Congress who depend on votes to stay in office and there very vote could compromised with the idea of money being throwing into their campaign coffer or votes thrown their way to stay in office. Nonetheless, this is the decision that we as Americans are faced with and I ask who do you trust if you had the option to trust someone or any group to make a decision regarding rather a wiretap or invasion of privacy is warranted. This is the issue that rests before us as Americans as our civil liberties continue to be violated.

My Perspective: The War On Our Youth: The T.H.U.G. L.I.F.E. Address

Good (Morning, Afternoon or Evening)!

I want to thank everyone for listening to what I am about to say because it is clear we all know that there are many problems plaguing our communities today. However one of the main issues I continue to battle in all communities throughout America is how do we deal with the war on our youth.

Now this war on our youth is about many issues our youth have to tackle but the most prevalent issues that need addressing are violence and criminal activity. It seems as if youth violence and criminal activity amongst our youth has seen a sharp spike since the beginning of this century.

This shouldn’t surprise any of us considering what our youth are facing each and every day from a single parent home due to the fact many fathers are not taking care of their kids. However the reality is that much of the violence and criminal activity that has been going up is a result of many youth today wanting to be thugs but not respecting the code of ‘Thug Life’.

Now I don’t condone ‘Thug Life’ but the truth of the matter is that there is a part of our society particularly our youth who believe in ‘Thug Life’ and this notion has been passed down from the 80’s babies to the 90’s babies to now this 21st century generation.

That is why I need to take the time out to speak this issue of ‘Thug Life’ in order to address it head on in hopes of creating a new generation of ‘Thug Life’ believers that aren’t as violent and unproductive to our communities as they are now.

Now the word ‘Thug Life’ is a word that “Evolved” by the late American rapper and activist Tupac Shakur or simply 2Pac which was his stage name. It is commonly mistaken for a ‘Criminal’ but ‘Thug Life’ is the opposite of someone having all he needs to succeed. ‘Thug Life’ is when you have nothing, and succeed, when you have overcome all obstacles to reach your aim. Tupac was famous for saying, "When my heart beats, it screams THUG LIFE."

In fact ‘THUG LIFE’ has an acronym which means, "The Hate U Give Little Infants F***s Everyone". Now if many of us think about it, this is what we are facing in today’s youth and why the violence and criminal activity that we see amongst our youth is getting higher and higher. A lot of our youth today don’t have love in their life and too many adults are doing nothing but spewing hate toward them that results in what we see whenever some of us encounter youth who have this hard knock life persona.

Still ‘Thug Life’ today has lost its way and has reverted back to violent ways of the 1980s and early 1990s in which violence amongst gangs didn’t just hurt gang members but hurt communities due to the fact innocent bystanders were being gunned down rapidly. These issues were more prevalent in California particularly the urban areas where the Bloods and Crips were warring with each other each and every day.

Now as we fast forward today, it seems as if gangs are on the raise in nearly every urban community and throughout every urban city. However the violence and spike in youth crimes doesn’t just happen in urban areas now days but it has spilled over to suburban communities where many youth see opportunities to score big in the game by robbing from those who they perceive have some money or are living better than them.

That’s why many of us have to understand that our youth today never got the codes of ethics for Thug Life that were created by Tupac and Mutulu Shakur in 1992 at the ‘Truc Picnic in California, which was a peace treaty picnic and this code was signed by the heads from the Bloods and Crips. Now these codes where designed to give order to the rise of gang violence and drug dealing. In fact the codes made certain actions immoral actions, against the code which, would become a code of the street for thugs to use with consideration when on the streets. Simply put these codes were created to help the innocent stay safe within their community.

However as we can see today, many of our youth who want to be thugs and claim to be living ‘Thug Life’ aren’t living by these 26 codes or no one never taught them these codes because many quote unquote thugs don’t abide by them anymore.

So it is time to revive many of the codes that were created 17 years ago in order to teach our youth how to respect their communities as well as understand that their actions have consequences and repercussions like no other.

These are the codes that thugs shall live by according to Tupac:
1. All new Jacks to the game must know: a) He’s going to get rich. b) He’s going to jail. c) He’s going to die. Many of our youth probably don’t understand that being a part of the streets will only lead to three things and those that do don’t acknowledge the latter 2 options because all of them think they will get rich.

2. Crew Leaders: You are responsible for legal/financial payment commitments to crew members; your word must be your bond. Now as we know, our youth today usually don’t have crew leaders and if they do, it’s usually no loyalty amongst most gang members now days when it comes to taking care of their members legal/financial payments which is why you see a lot of youth/gang members having public defendants while the quote unquote leaders get the high prices lawyers. This is not holding to one’s bond and why those who claim to be thugs need to understand code 2 and what it really means.

3. One crew’s rat is every crew’s rat. Rats are now like a disease; sooner or later we all get it; and they should too. I have no commit on this matter, well actually I hope all quote unquote thugs understand that eventually someone who is gang banging with you gets a conscience eventually either to save their own life from a long jail sentence or because they just saw someone they dearly loved die because of nothing.

4. Crew leader and posse should select a diplomat, and should work ways to settle disputes. In unity, there is strength! All disputes should be solved peacefully instead of in the streets like what was caught on camera that lead to the death of a Chicago honor student two weeks ago. That image was truly horrendous but is just one of a few occurrences that get caught on tape where innocent bystanders are attacked by gangs and eventually killed because gangs don’t resolve their issues peacefully or behind closed doors but instead allow it to spill over into the streets resulting in the melee video seen all across America.

5. Carjacking in our Hood is against the Code. I’m against all carjacking and criminal activity but it is clear that none of our youth or current gang bangers today respect this code by the way they are constantly robbing from their own communities and those that do respect it only do so because they know the people of their communities don’t have nothing so why rob from those with nothing when you can rob from others with something.

6. Slinging to children is against the Code. This is a code that needs to be abided by but it is clear that so many of our youth today are sold drugs young and younger each year. If you don’t believe me, ask how many of our youth smoke weed and I guarantee that nearly 70% of them say they have tried it once or are still smoking weed. Therefore it is clear that our youth children are being sold drugs.

7. Having children slinging is against the Code. This is yet another code that isn’t really respected as we can see by the amount of youth who are selling drugs today or are consuming drugs. Youth are selling to youth or are helping youth find the drugs they need because that’s all many of them know.

8. No slinging in schools. I guarantee you people that drugs are being sold in our nation’s schools at least the drug deals are being discussed and the transactions take place either immediately after school on school grounds or they take place near schools. I think we can all agree on this to a degree and sadly many of our urban school districts don’t conduct searches on a frequent basis so it is no telling what is in our students’ lockers when I hear reports from some youth that they smell weed smoke when walking through their hallways.

9. Since the rat Nicky Barnes opened his mouth; ratting has become accepted by some. We’re not having it. Simply put a rat is a snitch and a snitch is not what our youth think it is today but a snitch is someone who participated in a criminal activity and when they get caught they start spelling the dimes on other people in order to lessen their sentence or charges by working with the authorities.

10. Snitches is outta here. Well I feel that authorities should give the same sentence and charges to all parties involved in the crime no matter who cooperates because they all committed it. The only reason a person is snitching is because all the information points toward them and they are trying to get off.

11. The Boys in Blue don’t run nothing; we do. Control the Hood, and make it safe for squares. Well I believe neither gangs nor police run our community but we the people do so we have to take care of our streets. We must work with the police and the gangs to make sure certain standards for our communities are adhered to. Therefore we let’s take our communities back and make them safe for our all residents. However if gangs respect these codes and are willing to help in the protection of our communities than let’s be willing to work with those that do.

12. No slinging to pregnant Sisters. That’s baby killing; that’s genocide! We as a people are already seeing genocide in many other areas so we should not add to it by killing off future children.

13. Know your target, who’s the real enemy. I don’t believe in violence but the reality is that most of the killings that are taking place in our communities involve too many innocent bystanders and that is something we can’t have.

14. Civilians are not a target and should be spared. Well if only the gangs of Chicago knew that than perhaps 16-year-old honor student Derrion Albert would still be alive. This code is perhaps one of the most important codes for thugs to adhere to.

15. Harm to children will not be forgiven. This is a code that all quote unquote thugs should adhere to but the problem is that many of them are children themselves so they usually do harm to other children. Nonetheless our young thugs need to understand that they don’t harm each other or anyone unless they are trying to do harm to them first. Like I said, I am against violence but if our youth are being harmed by others and it seems that the harm against them is not stopping than our youth have a right to protect themselves to a degree. I’m not calling for our youth to murder or kill those who do harm to them but I am calling for our youth to protect themselves by not allowing adults to sexually abuse them and not allowing other youth to put their hands on them without fighting back. Still the latter should not happen if our youth adhere to this code.

16. Attacking someone’s home where their family is known to reside, must be altered or checked. This is so true because the senseless violence that leads to houses being bombed or shot up is not good for anyone.

17. Senseless brutality and rape must stop. When will it stop, when will people in our communities and quote unquote gangs realize that they need to stop the senseless violence as well as the rape that takes place in many of our communities. Rape and sexual abuse should be things that our gangs today should not tolerate and should be trying to prevent in order to protect our communities. Also the senseless brutality like the melee that occurred in Chicago two weeks ago is just another reason why this gang warfare must end and must stand for something greater than what it stands for now. I can see if the gangs in our communities today were going door to door to capture a rapist and once they captured the rapist they beat the rapist down, although I don’t encourage that but for gangs to be warring with each other and killing innocent bystanders in the midst of their violence is just shameless. Gangs today and quote unquote thugs need to stand for more than they stand for today especially when they are a part of the problem in our communities rather than a part of the solution.

18. Our old folks must not be abused. If only the 19 year old who killed Clarence (Sonny) Jones, a beloved 86-year-old southwest Detroit man known for helping others, had of adhered to this code than one of our senior citizens would have been saved from the abuse and ultimate death of him. This is why this code is yet another code that needs reviving now more than ever before. Our senior citizens should not be victims of gangs attacks, well no one should be especially not our elderly who have fought for years to give us as a people some of the opportunities and chances that we today.

19. Respect our Sisters. Respect our Brothers. This code is important because it is clear that today’s ‘Thug Life’ member doesn’t have any respect for anyone when in fact they should always have respect for others especially if people are showing them respect.

20. Sisters in the Life must be respected if they respect themselves. Simply put those sisters who want to be in gangs must still represent themselves as ladies and sisters not like males and brothers. At the end of the day, have respect for yourself and others will have respect for you.

21. Military disputes concerning business areas within the community must be handled professionally and not on the block. An important code considering that too often disputes are resolved in the streets instead of behind closed doors.

22. No shooting at parties. Parties are places for people to enjoy themselves and that is why no one should have to feel afraid at a party. Also if disputes break out at a party than they need to be resolved outside peacefully in fist to fist combat if it comes to that but ultimately both sides should just squash it and avoid each other for the rest of the night at the party. This is what this code should tell our youth.

23. Concerts and parties are neutral territories; no shooting! The same rules that apply to Code 22 applies here which is people are trying to enjoy themselves and should not be have to look over their back in fear.

24. Know the Code; it’s for everyone. It’s clear that our youth today don’t know the code and why they need to be taught the code now more than ever before this violence gets way too out of control.

25. Be a real ruff neck. Be down with the code of the Thug Life. All those who claim to be thugs should adhere to the code and be down with it but as we know, they don’t adhere to it like it should be adhered to it.

26. Protect yourself at all times. The best way for one to protect their self is to leave this quote unquote ‘Thug Life’ mentality alone once and for all.

Nonetheless, these are the 26 codes of ‘Thug Life’ that Watts, Compton, and many other cities' gangs agreed to use the Code of Thug Life to help keep those, who are innocent, safer. But from what we see today, our youth and quote unquote gangs are not adhering to these codes today.

So it is clear as I address this ‘Thug Life’ issue, that not only do our youth today need to know these codes and live by them in order to make our communities better but we as a community need step up our efforts to prevent this war on our youth from getting too far out of control.

In Detroit when we have well over 40 teenagers and a 12-year-old sitting in local jail cells on murder charges or attempted murder, the tendencies are two: Wring our hands over the sorry state of society or pass even tougher laws to get these young thugs under control.

Neither has proved particularly effective. We know that as society what does work: strong, skilled parenting; early intervention for troubled kids; the right kind of peer pressure; instilling a system of values. The best way to deal with ‘Thug Life’ is to have a "community authority" that is clear so that enforced lines of acceptable behavior are known throughout the community for everyone to adhere to but particularly our youth.

While none of these steps are as easy as just reacting to the worst offenders, but any or all of them can prevent a lot of damage.

It's interesting and telling that the recent wave of heinous local crimes in which children are suspect comes at a time when violent crime overall is dropping. Yet four Warren kids are accused of beating a man to death over a trifling marijuana debt; a 16-year-old Detroit girl is alleged to have ordered the execution of a carjacking victim who saw her face; a 12-year-old faces a murder charge in the shooting of a woman in a robbery after midnight. And nine young people assembled for a battle royal in Wixom that ended with an 18-year-old dead from being bludgeoned with a golf club.

Somehow, the message isn't getting through to enough kids that settling disputes with violence only spawns more trouble; that civilized people protect the vulnerable rather than prey on them; that lawless behavior can have drastic, long-term consequences, not just for victims and their survivors but for the criminals and their families, too.

Meanwhile, competing messages come from the make-believe violence of movies and video games -- stuff that never has real consequences. There's plenty of evidence about which kids are at risk of putting themselves or others in danger. They tend to be male, often from poor or broken-down families, and many have either low IQs to match their self-esteem or such a sense of entitlement that they lack empathy for other people.

They've had little or no good direction from the adults in their lives, and many have been neglected and abused. Chances are pretty good they had some contact with authorities before facing charges that would land them in an adult jail or prison, where their chances of salvaging a normal life drop precipitously.

Unless we as a society are willing to invest in intercepting them early and working through their families to set them on a better course, there will be a bill coming due somewhere down the road.

When troubled kids turn bad, everyone pays the cost -- in public safety, prisons and lost potential. The chances of a return on that investment are pretty slim.

The better investment starts much sooner, in homes and schools and communities. Identify, intercept, correct. Or watch out.

We have to pray for our youth, lobby to them and work with them if we are to prevent these violent acts from continuing to prolong and fester throughout our communities. Or wise we are simply adding to “The Hate U Give Little Infants F***s Everyone.” We must stop the hate and give our youth love so they can have a better future than the present life they currently have.

SAVE OUR YOUTH!

The War On Our Youth—The Young and Jobless

America,

How can we expect our youth to succeed in life when it seems as if our youth can’t even find a good paying job in today’s economy?

I don’t if any of you have being hearing the latest economic unemployment numbers but they are abysmal especially for our youth. In fact many newspapers are writing articles about what they call, “The Young and the Jobless.”

Simply put America, this adds up to young people being unemployed in a time when the minimum wage hike has driven the wages of teen employees down to $0.00 according to some economists.

Nonetheless when is it okay to be jobless in America especially for our youth who the first Latina Labor Secretary, Hilda Solis says, “25 percent of our youth are unemployment in this.

In fact the current unemployment figure, based on official August 2009 data produced by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, is 18.2 percent. However the percent of youth, who are not employed, is currently 53.4 percent and I am among those youth.

The unemployment rate is the percent of jobless youth among youth who are working or actively looking for work. To assume that all youth without jobs are interested in working is a mistake.

However many 16- to 24-year- olds are engaged in other activities, including finishing school or volunteering. Nonetheless the percent of youth working or looking for work has been trending down since the early 1990s.

This could be a positive trend if more youth are taking steps to complete their studies. An educated, high-skilled young adult will be better equipped to receive a higher paying job in the future.

Still the number of young Americans without a job has exploded to 53.4 percent — a post-World War II high, according to the Labor Dept. — meaning millions of Americans are staring at the likelihood that their lifetime earning potential will be diminished and, combined with the predicted slow economic recovery, their transition into productive members of society could be put on hold for an extended period of time.

The number represents the flip-side to the Labor Dept.'s report that the employment rate of 16-to-24 year olds has eroded to 46.6 percent -- the lowest ratio of working young Americans in that age group, including all but those in the military, since WWII.

And worse, without a clear economic recovery plan aimed at creating entry-level jobs, the odds of many of these young adults -- aged 16 to 24, excluding students -- getting a job and moving out of their parents' houses are long. Young workers have been among the hardest hit during the current recession -- in which a total of 6.9 million jobs have been lost.

Heidi Shierholz, an economist with the Washington-based Economic Policy Institute said, "It's an extremely dire situation in the short run. This group won't do as well as their parents unless the jobs situation changes."

Then Al Angrisani, the former assistant Labor Department secretary under President Reagan, doesn't see a turnaround in the jobs picture for entry-level workers and places the blame squarely on the Obama administration and the construction of its stimulus bill.

"There is no assistance provided for the development of job growth through small businesses, which create 70 percent of the jobs in the country," Angrisani said in an interview last week. "All those [unemployed young people] should be getting hired by small businesses."

So there are six million small businesses in this country, those that employ less than 100 people, and a jobs stimulus bill should include tax credits to give incentives to those businesses to hire people, the former Labor official said.

However, "If each of the businesses hired just one person, we would go a long way in growing ourselves back to where we were before the recession," Angrisani noted.

During previous recessions, in the early '80s, early '90s and after Sept. 11, 2001, unemployment among 16-to-24 year olds never went above 50 percent. Except after 9/11, jobs growth followed within two years.

A much slower recovery is forecast today. Shierholz believes it could take four or five years to ramp up jobs again.

A study from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, a government database, said the damage to a new career by a recession can last 15 years. And if young Americans are not working and becoming productive members of society, they are less likely to make major purchases -- from cars to homes -- thus putting the US economy further behind the eight ball.

Angrisani said he believes that Obama's economic team, led by Larry Summers, has a blind spot for small business because no senior member of the team -- dominated by academics and veterans of big business -- has ever started and grown a business. "The Reagan administration had people who knew of small business," he said.

"They should carve out $100 billion right now and create something like $5,000 to $6,000 job credits that would drive the hiring of young, idled workers by small business." Angrisani said the stimulus money going to extending unemployment benefits is like a narcotic that is keeping the unemployed content -- but doing little to get them jobs.

Still, Labor Dept. statistics also show that the number of chronically unemployed -- those without a job for 27 weeks or more -- has also hit a post-WWII high.

In fact September’s labor market report was lousy by any measure, with 263,000 lost jobs and the jobless rate climbing to 9.8%. But for one group of Americans it was especially awful: the least skilled, especially young workers. In fact some in Washington will deny the reality, and the media won't make the connection, but one reason for these job losses according to some is the rising minimum wage.

Earlier this year, economist David Neumark of the University of California, Irvine, wrote on the pages of the Wall Street Journal that the 70-cent-an-hour increase in the minimum wage would cost some 300,000 jobs. Sure enough, the mandated increase to $7.25 took effect in July, and right on cue the August and September jobless numbers confirm the rapid disappearance of jobs for teenagers.

The September teen unemployment rate hit 25.9%, the highest rate since World War II and up from 23.8% in July. Some 330,000 teen jobs have vanished in two months. Hardest hit of all: black male teens, whose unemployment rate shot up to a catastrophic 50.4%. It was merely a terrible 39.2% in July.

The biggest explanation is of course the bad economy. But it's precisely when the economy is down and businesses are slashing costs that raising the minimum wage is so destructive to job creation some economists say. Congress began raising the minimum wage from $5.15 an hour in July 2007, and there are now 691,000 fewer teens working.

As the minimum wage has risen, the gap between the overall unemployment rate and the teen rate has widened, as it did again last month. (See nearby chart.) The current Congress has spent billions of dollars—including $1.5 billion in the stimulus bill—on summer youth employment programs and job training. Yet the jobless numbers suggest that the minimum wage destroyed far more jobs than the government programs helped to create according to some data and economists.

Still Congress and the Obama Administration simply ignore the economic consensus that has long linked higher minimum wages with higher unemployment. Two years ago Mr. Neumark and William Wascher, a Federal Reserve economist, reviewed more than 100 academic studies on the impact of the minimum wage. They found "overwhelming" evidence that the least skilled and the young suffer a loss of employment when the minimum wage is increased. Whatever happened to President Obama's pledge to follow the science? Some politicians prefer to cite a few outlier studies known to be methodologically flawed.

Nonetheless, state lawmakers are also at fault some economists might say. At least 10 states have raised their minimum wages above the federal level in the last decade, largely in response to union lobbying and in the name of helping the working poor. Four states with among the highest wage rates are California, Massachusetts, Michigan and New York. Studies have shown in each case that their wage policies killed jobs for teens. The Massachusetts teen employment rate sank by one-third when the minimum wage rose by 88% between 1995 and 2008.

According to new numbers from the Labor Department, in 2008 only 1.1% of Americans who work 40 hours a week or more even earned the minimum wage. In other words, 98.9% of 40-hour-a-week workers earn more than the minimum. The data also show that teenagers are five times more likely to earn the minimum wage than adults. Minimum wage jobs are nearly all first-time or part-time jobs, and an estimated two of every three minimum wage workers get a pay raise within a year on the job.

Study after study reveals that there are long-term career benefits to working as a teenager and that these benefits go well beyond the pay that these youths receive. A study by researchers at Stanford found that those who do not work as teenagers have lower long-term wages and employability even after 10 years. A high-wage society can only come by making workers more productive, and by destroying starter jobs the minimum wage may reduce long-term earnings.

Another recent study across 17 OECD nations, also by Messrs. Neumark and Wascher, found a highly negative association between higher minimum wages and youth employment rates. But it also concluded that having a starter wage, well below the minimum, counteracts much of this negative jobs impact. If Congress won't suspend its recent minimum wage hike, it should at least create a teenage wage of $4 or $5 an hour to help put hundreds of thousands of teens back to work according to some economists. In fact, White House chief economic adviser Larry Summers has endorsed this in the past. Without this change, expect the teen unemployment to remain very high for a long time some economists say.

Still the reality is that America has a huge problem when it comes to the high unemployment rate amongst our nation’s youth. While a part of the problem could be the minimum wage but in this nation with everything costing so much, how can anyone expect our teens and youth to simply work for $4 or $5 when that won’t even buy a decent meal now deals even at a fast food restaurant.

Therefore those economists who advocate for such a notion need to use their college educated degrees to come up with a better way to improve the outlook of our nation’s youth job options.

Now more than ever, our youth in America needs just as much as the unemployed auto worker and countless other Americans. Many of us have graduated with our Bachelor’s and are working on post-bachelor degrees but at the same time, we are looking for jobs that offer us a steady pay at the least but at the most a steady paying job with benefits such as healthcare.

The unemployment rate among our nation’s youth needs to be dealt with properly and the Labor Department knows it and politicians all across this nation know it. We need to find jobs for youth like myself who have been looking for a permanent paying job for nearly a year since graduating from undergrad.

The truth of the matter is that the government is constantly hiring but our youth including myself have to compete with countless others for these jobs and the process of getting hiring by the government for some positions is a daunting task.

Nonetheless the fact is that in today’s economic recession, no longer can our youth suffer and the unemployment for youth and America continue to rise without our nation doing something about it.

So there should be no doubt, our youth need jobs, I need a job and America’s economists, and politicians need to find a way to provide jobs for us to do more to help this nation succeed.

The numbers show that our nation’s youth are suffering worst than all other age groups especially with older workers working past their Social Security age.

Therefore, now more than ever, we need solutions for our youth to live and prosper. We need solutions America.

Now let’s get to work to put our nation’s future to work on building a greater nation than the one they inherited not now but right now.

The time is now to put our youth to work!

No longer can these numbers continue and if we are going to win this war on our youth than we must put our youth to work right here, right now!

Give our youth jobs and opportunities to grow! So let’s employ our youth today!

SAVE OUR YOUTH!

My Perspective: The War on Our Youth—the Violence in Detroit must stop

As I continue to speak about this war on our youth, I have to speak to the problem of the violence that is taking place in my hometown of Detroit. While it is not as bad as Chicago’s youth violence but what city is right now, I still pray that Detroit doesn’t get that too far problematic before us the citizens of Detroit and realize how much violence is out of control. Therefore I still have to recognize the fact that youth violence in my home city must end. I am tired of politicians speaking about the violence in Detroit without really doing something about it. In a city with nearly 800,000 people and nearly a homicide every week taking place, it is clear that Detroit’s violence is not going to go away over night but real solutions are needed now more than ever.

In fact Detroit’s violence will take more than just a mayor criticizing the people for caring more about bus routes than the violence because the truth of the matter is that community leaders, activists, parents, students, and religious leaders all speak out against the violence plaguing our youth and our city, however it seems like these pleas to cease the violence go ignored. Youth today in the city of Detroit die for absolutely nothing and when I say nothing, I mean nothing. I recently read a blog written by my friend George Hall Jr. where he writes about the death of a young man by the name of Matthew Antonio Soto. My friend George says, “The sobering truth is that 90 “something percent” of all the men killed in Detroit are Black Males. The sobering truth is that 90 “something percent” of all the men who kill Black Males in Detroit are Black Males. The sobering truth is that 90 “something percent” of all the Black Males that are killed in Detroit are under the age of 30. The sobering truth is that 90 “something percent” of all the Black males that kill Black Males in Detroit are under the age of 30. Matthew Antonio Soto was a Black Male, 22 years old.”

Nonetheless what my friend George describes is something that should make the citizens of Detroit outraged that our youth particularly our young black men are dying at such an alarming rate in a predominately black city lead by black leaders. However the fact that black males are dying is not the reason I am calling for Detroit to end the violence or for other people to care but the truth of the matter is, it is time to get serious about ending youth violence in Detroit and violence in Detroit period no matter what race of people are dying daily or weekly. Our youth need saving more now than ever so that our youth can have an opportunity to have a better future than the present that they inherited from us. Currently Detroit is in need of a savior, however the only savior for my home city is us the people to step up and take our communities back from the violence. We, the people of Detroit can be the savior of our city by taking our youth back from the streets that stems the violence that makes our youth want to act out because of despair and hopelessness.

Detroit, our youth today need guidance and more than anything else they need a good tongue lashing than only their parents can give them with the support of the community. We all know that it takes a village to raise a child but the truth of the matter is our youth have heard why they shouldn’t kill another human being and why they shouldn’t harm another human but for some of our youth, they have no choice when they are presented with the reality that they live in a city that has an unemployment rate of nearly 30%, a dropout rate above 10%, and an adult illiteracy rate that is at best estimate 50% or more. Also you can’t blame our youth for acting the way they act when many of them come from single parent homes with mothers or fathers that don’t have no more than a high school diploma if that and to add misery to that, the city of Detroit constantly ranks high among major cities when it comes to violent crimes. Therefore, it is understandable why many of Detroit’s youth feel hopeless when they live in a city where the third of its population is living in poverty.

With numbers like that, no one can blame our youth today in the city of Detroit who look toward violence to solve the problems that plague them when they are not even given a fair chance to live decent normal lives. Many of our youth in the city of Detroit, only know violence, only know despair and only know how to fend for themselves because some of them don’t have people who care for them or don’t know the meaning of love yet alone being safe. No longer can we as a city ignore the fact that youth violence is problematic and every time we hear about youth robbing or shooting someone, we need to understand exactly what our youth are facing before we simply act as if it is normal.

Today more than ever, Detroit doesn’t need any more youth task forces or violence task forces that will only get federal grant dollars to put on one or two programs that will not solve the problems facing our youth in the city. Problems such as a 12 year-old boy shooting a 24 year old woman to death during a robbery in the wee hours of the early morning or a 19-year-old killing Clarence (Sonny) Jones, a beloved 86-year-old southwest Detroit man known for helping others. These images are not nothing new to us as city and can’t be solved simply with programs but can be solved with constant action and social activism.

Our youth today need us to stand up for them and to help them find opportunities to keep them off the streets and out of safe harms. It is not hard to understand why youth violence in Detroit is out of control when we have failing schools (public, charter and private) in the city of Detroit that have become more like baby-sitting services rather than educational factories that provide food for thought and opportunities for our youth to have a better future than their present. So I can understand why two teens with shotguns held up a Hollywood film crew working on the movie “Little Murder” on Detroit's west side in the middle of the afternoon because they saw the opportunity to get ahead a little. I can also understand why two teens would want to rob a mother and child while they were standing at a bus stop on Friday.

Now while I understand why our youth act out, I am not condoning it or giving them a past but we as citizens of Detroit must understand that what our youth are facing in the city is a lack of opportunities and a chance to see a better future. Some of youth truly want to succeed but many of them don’t know the meaning of delayed gratification. In our youth today want and need instant gratification because that’s all they know. When they cut on the television or look on the internet, all they see is bling and people balling out of control not understanding that some of the athletes and entertainers they see don’t really own half they stuff they wear most of the time.

Nonetheless, what our youth in the City of Detroit see every day when they walk outside their homes only makes them want more hunger to get out of the despair and hopelessness they see on a daily basis. Our youth want instant success and results because many of them feel if they don’t make something happen now than it will never happen. That’s the life they see every day when they hear stories of the young athlete who could ball out of control back in his heyday but is now back at home in the hood roaming the streets as other youth attempt to go to school every morning. Detroit’s problems are not new and many of us know these are the problems facing our youth but for some of us, we tend to ignore them.

So there should be no doubt that no one in our city wants to see any little murders in Detroit. However all the crimes I have mentioned are part of a rising wave of armed violence this year: From January until August, Detroit police received reports of 1,166 shootings, 215 of them fatal. That compares with 1,037 for the same time period last year, 179 of them fatal. The violence in Detroit must end and our youth need real solutions to the problems plaguing them.

We need to stop the violence in Detroit and all of us must play a role in stopping it. We need to reach our youth in order to prevent any further violence. With more than 1,100 people being shot in this city and 215 of them being died that's 215 faces families won't see. That's, most likely, 215 funerals. Enough is enough people; we must change our fate of the constant violence in our city before it becomes worse.

Chicago is already as bad or worse than Iraq and Afghanistan so that is why Detroit can’t get to the point where we are compared to two wars. In fact some people might say Detroit’s violence is kind of third world country like but if that’s the case than what is Chicago like. Yes Detroiters we muster up some righteous indignation about the crime that's sweeping the city however Detroit, we can’t do it if our politicians, our pastors, our community groups, parents and students are not on the same page to fight this violence with the Detroit Police Department.

So make no doubt about it, the violence in Detroit must end and the only way it will end is by all of us working together to end it. No one is going to deny the fact that all of us have failed to deter the violence but the truth of the matter is, no amount of money will fix the problem if we the people of Detroit don’t stand up and get up to fight against the violence as well as many other issues plaguing our city. Now the war on our youth in the City of Detroit and the violence that is taking place is not only Detroit’s problem but it is everyone in the state’s problem who claims that they care if Detroit succeeds and prosper. Well now is the time to show it. Detroiters and the suburbanites need to work together to end the violence in Detroit and to protect our youth.

We all need to be involved in doing this because this is the only way to save a generation of youth from killing people off over simply nonsense and chump change. Our youth need saving and everyone needs to work to make sure we provide our youth with opportunities to succeed in life by giving them and showing them a better life than the one they currently see every day. This is how we need to approach if we are to change Detroit’s fate forever.

SAVE OUR YOUTH!