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An-Janette Albert is right. We've become a bunch of onlookers and rubberneckers, watching while an entire generation destroys itself.
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."I believe 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 time, my wife and I 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 my 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 I'm not saying that we should run to the corner and wrestle the gun from a drug dealer's hands, but adults need to get themselves together and take control. 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."
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 is sending U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder to Chicago Wednesday to talk about the violence there.
I hope this is the message he delivers: "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.
2008 Deaths
Odetta Holmes
"The Voice of the Civil Rights Movement" was a singer, actress, guitarist, songwriter and activist.
December 31 1930 - December 2 2008.
Ray Tamarra , Getty
Bernie Mac
Comedian, Actor
Oct. 5, 1957 - Aug. 9, 2008.
AP
Isaac Hayes
Singer, songwriter, record producer, composer and actor.
August 20, 1942 - August 10, 2008
Reuters
Miriam Makeba, "Mama Africa"
South African folk singer and anti-apartheid activist.
March 4, 1932 - November 10, 2008.
Reuters
Jennifer Hudson's 57-year-old mother, Darnell Donerson, brother, Jason, and 7-year-old nephew, Julian King, were killed in 2008.
AP
Shakir Stewart
The Island Def Jam executive who became head of the legendary rap label following Jay-Z's departure, killed himself on Nov. 1. He was 34 years old.
Getty
George Carlin
Stand-up comedian, actor and author.
May 12, 1937 - June 22, 2008
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Madelyn Dunham
Barack Obama's grandmother
October 26, 1922 - Nov 3, 2008.
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Levi Stubbs
Oct. 17: The iconic lead singer, second from left, who gave voice to Four Tops classics like "Reach Out I'll Be There" and "Baby I Need Your Loving" died at 72 from complications of cancer and a stroke. Abdul Fakir, far left, is now the sole living member of the original quartet.
Corbis
Dee Dee Warwick
Oct. 18: The soul songstress died after months of declining health. Warwick, the sister of soul legend Dionne, also achieved a great deal of success, both as a solo artist as well as with her sister.
Corbis
Comments: (396)
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By: Daniel on 10/07/2009 1:34PM
You're right, it's not the white man's fault. Why should the guard be sent in to clean up your mess? How many schools in black neighborhoods have been remodeled and outfitted with the newest computers, books, etc. and then vandalized by the monsters in your communities? Now I know that there are a lot of good men and women in those very same communities. It's time to step up to the plate. It's wrong to ask others to risk their lives and come in and clean things out. Do it yourselves.
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By: xultar on 10/07/2009 2:25PM
Daniel,
There are black men and women fighting and dying in Iraq cleaning up Bush's mess.
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By: Connie on 10/07/2009 2:29PM
XULTAR TRY AND STAY ON THE SUBJECT AT HAND. IF THAT IS HOW YOU WANT TO PLAY IT, LETS GET BUSH IN YOUR NEIGHBORHOODS TO HELP YOU OUT. NO ONE IS TALKING ABOUT BUSH AND HIS MESS.
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By: Mrs.P on 10/07/2009 6:52PM
I think most of these children live with their parents. One way to stop the gun violence is for parents to search their childrens rooms. Take their guns and turn them in for cash. I myself have a problem with their pants hanging down, and I do ask them as nice as I can to pull them up. Some do and some don't. It's a start. My heart goes out to the families, and my God Bless everyone.
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By: debnran on 10/08/2009 10:37PM
Mary,
What is Daily going to do? He sends in more cops and then there are reports that the kids are being profiled and targeted. He puts together a task force on Black on Black crime, and then someone says Prejudice! What has to happen is that the communities where this is happening has to stand up and say STOP! ENOUGH! Then ask for specific help, and then back the city. Get on parents to police their kids. IMHO, if a parent won't police their own kids, then they need to have them taken away.
I know of one kid who was put in an alternative school in September, and his mother didn't sign the papers to allow him to go until November - and he was already kicked out of the regular school system. This kid told me he wanted to be just like his dad - in jail. He needed help and his mother didn't care. This school even went to the kid's house. Same school had a really nice kid, in trouble for selling drugs - his own father made him sell them and then abused the kid. It broke my heart to see this. Wasn't anything I could do about the second kid except to tell him that if he wanted to talk, I would listen without judging him and back him up whenever he needed it.
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By: g on 10/09/2009 7:31AM
African American have come from such a long history of violence. I believe it stems from Slavery. It starts in the home. African American are far more likely to use corporal punishment as a form of discipline. What those "whoopings" do is strip away the childs self respect. Without self respect how is it possible to respect someone else?!! My own mom was a single parent who would beat me. Had the child protective laws been enforced then as they are now, I would have been removed from the home. My mom used straps, switchs, electrical cords and her fists as her way of keeping me in line. The enviorment she created for my sister and I was one of anxiety and violence. Luckily for me, I had the common sense to know that something was very wrong. But not every child is equiped with the common sense that I had. There are too many children who grow up beleiving violence is the way to solve problems unfortuniatly as a result of being subjected to violence themselves at home.
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By: Shirley Hicks on 10/07/2009 8:49AM
I'm SORRY!
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By: Faithy on 10/07/2009 9:01AM
This is a tragedy, but one tha happens to often in our community. Everyday my daughter comes home from school there has been some sort of fight or words that will within the week lead to a fight. I am personally tired of other people having to come into our community and do what we as a people should be able to do by ourselves. Every parent is accountable for his or her child. Some of these parents hear conversations in their home between their own children talking about what they are going to do to another student and nothing is said. I say this because I have witnessed it at least twice. Some of this behavior comes from the parents attituce on violence. It's all about environment, community and owning personal responsibilty for your actions. We need to have truant officers back on the case, and more officers on the street talking with the kids and patrolling the neighborhood, curfew, and parents who are not working on the street working in conjunction with the police. Until we can get this thing under control. Also there needs to be more structured program with a mandatory participation for children who have been in one or more fights in school or had trouble with the law. Something has to give, what I am purposing may sound crazy but something has to happen or 40 more children will die by the hands of another child.
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By: TLoft on 10/07/2009 9:18AM
All I have to say is that if these young thugs have nothing better to do than terrorize, fight, kill, and destroy neighborhoods, in which they live in, I say send them oversee's to fight and see how tough they are then! My prayers go out to the victim's family.
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By: Maxine Gaines-Williams on 10/07/2009 9:38AM
Well said Faithy. We are in a State of Emergency!
California, Chicago, New York, Detroit, Philadelphia; should all be declared a State of Emergency! Black on Black crime is epidemic and a crime! Lord, where do we go from here? We have to stay prayed up!
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