Personal

When I arrived home last night, my wife informed me that a family member, only twenty-one years young, was shot-dead.

Because of the fresh wound of the family loss, I will not divulge any details other than to say he was shot by another young black man.

I doubt if there will be any international coverage of our loss or even a local demonstrations of outrage demanding the immediate and thorough investigation of this crime. Perhaps, this type of incident is an all too familiar condition in our community to merit any special attention.  As you may know, I am advocate for the fair and just resolution of the Trayvon Martin case. I signed petitions, blogged, tweeted, demonstrated here in D.C. and discussed the case with all who wanted to share their thoughts, not knowing that my family will be mourning the violent loss of one of our own, almost three months to the date of Trayvon’s murder.

You may remember me stating that I was troubled by Trayvon’s death, but I was more concerned about the senseless carnage being created in the black community; black-on-black murders. I said that I hoped that the Martin family’s loss will bring attention to the thousands of kids being lost in the streets every year with little more than an up-tick in the homicide crime statistics. More blacks are killed by other blacks than by racist white people. So, where should my concern be when my family members step outside the door? Who should I be more concern about? Some red-state yahoo, openly strapping a nine-millimeter pistol and spouting racist’s venom or should I be more concerned about a young black boy with baggy pants, tattoos and a reluctance to look me in the eyes?

I cannot bring my family member back. Writing this blog is cathartic and therapeutic because I do not know what else to do immediately. The loss of a young person strikes at the core of your being. It is like no other pain that one can experience!

As a card-carrying NAACP member, I am imploring this great organization to help me mitigate the loss of our future, our young people that we are losing every day. My single voice in the wilderness represents family members all over the country who don’t have a bully pulpit like Rev. Al or access to the national media or to the best attorneys that our judicial system has to offer. Our organizing should not start at the death of a young person, but at the point of counseling for unwanted pregnancies, signs of ignorance, chronic poverty and broken educational systems.

If something cannot be done now, when? If we don’t do something, who will? We must take responsibility for our children’s educational and moral development. These children are supposed to survive us and our survival is our responsibility and no one else!

…..a bleeding black man.

What is the value of a colored boy's life?

If you put a dollar value to the material components of the human body, you may come up with $4.50? The average life-time earnings of a person in America is $1.6 million. If you consider the untold grief that love ones must endure after a young person’s death and the undetermined potential of the deceased, this could be priceless.

Like most Americans and, especially, those of color, I was deeply hurt by the knowledge of the death of young Trayvon Martin. And like most in the black community, I discussed this issue with friends and family. I talked to coworkers and strangers via social media. I even participated in the DC Trayvon Rally a week ago.

Of late, I read of death threats against the life of George Zimmerman, the accused shooter of Trayvon. The New Black Panther Party has placed a bounty on Zimmerman’s head. The social media is abuzz about the case and the President of the United States was compelled to comment about the unfortunate incident in Sandford, Florida. He went on to say that if he had a son that he would look like young Trayvon.

Mainstream media has stated that Trayvon Martin is this generation’s Emmitt Till. Fourteen year old Till was a victim of a heinous murder by whites in Mississippi in 1955.

However, after all the pain that I felt from another young black male losing his life, I found myself, oddly, feeling perplexed by the amount of attention this case has gotten. I was struck by the fact that I live in Washington, DC, a city that was once known, not only as the nation’s capital and of the free world, but as the “murder capital”. According to the Federal Bureau of Investigation Uniform Crime Reports of 2010 (FBI), there were 132 murders committed. I remember in 1993, how concerned I was that I could be one of the 454 folks that were killed
in my hometown. Yet, I can’t remember this city getting the amount of attention for the hundreds that were killed compared to the amount of coverage that the Martin’s case is receiving.

The FBI report delineated the sections of town were most of the murders took place and not too surprising to many, most of the murders took place in the heavily African-American populated East of the Anacostia River, where historically, the income per capita and educational levels are the lowest in the city.

Politicians delight gleefully in the opportunity to take advantage of a catastrophic situation to advance their standing in the polls. Not being a politician, I want to take advantage of Trayvon’s death too, but for a different reason. I want to highlight the thousands of youth of color that are killed every year in the streets of urban America. Youth who are killed, not by the George Zimmermans of the world, but by other youth of color.

I hope that Rev. Al, the NAACP, the New Black Panther Party, MSNBC, the black and Latino communities who decry the senseless killing of young Trayvon will seize the international awareness that this case has garnered and begin a national movement to address the gang and drug-related killings among our own. All too often, we are ready to act-up when we are offended by the white/anglo community, but are dormant when it comes to offenses in our own community by its members. Funny, I’m reminded as a kid of being ready to fight any other kid who dared put a finger on my brother, yet I felt no compunction about smacking him around
myself.

Communities of color in America must take a strong and united position on offenses against our communities by friend or foe, black or white to protect the security of our future, thereby protecting the security of this nation. We must be the first to assure our communities are properly educated for the new economic reality and our streets are safe to walk. No one
else has that responsibility first, but us!

So, I ask again, what is the value of a colored boy's life?

The Road We’ve Traveled

As a campaign volunteer for U.S. Senator Obama when he threw his hat into the ring as a candidate for President of the United States in 2008, I felt a lot of bumps in that road to the White House.

Although the up and coming young politician gave a rousing keynote speech at the ’06 Democratic Convention, my friends thought that the senator did not have a snow ball’s chance in hell in becoming president. Well…..

Last night, I shared the experience of viewing the 16min+ promotional documentary, “The Road We’ve Traveled”, highlighting the president’s tumultuous accomplishments in the last four years, with my youthful and bright-eyed fellow campaign workers and supporters at the Democratic National Committee Headquarters, just south of the U.S. Capital.

Before the airing, I mixed it up with the audience who looked like America. I saw black folks, whites, Hispanics, Asians, many young people and old. I spoke to a young Columbian in a wheelchair. I thought about all of the footage I see of Republican gatherings, I never see an honest representation of this country.

Our local coordinator, Kouri Marshall, introduced a leader of the Woman’s National Democratic Club who spoke passionately of the need to not allowing the Republicans to set this country back another 100 years. I am convinced that the GOP set its fate with its assault on women. Women will assure the world that the American Taliban, the GOP’s efforts, will be hermetically
sealed and given a final burial.

I wish I had a heads-up about the quality and strength of this vignette because, had I known, I would have stayed home just like I did for the inauguration. You see, I’m a big softy. I get teary-eyed when I witness the culmination in victory of all the struggles that we’ve shared. I was consoled by knowing that I was surrounded by people who are just as passionate and committed as I am to the success of this campaign.

So, check-out the link below of “The Road We’ve Traveled” and be inspired too….we’re fired up and ready to go….Obama-2012!

http://www.barackobama.com/Road-Traveled

Attack on Women

Folks,

For those who may not be aware, the conservative windbag talk show host, Rush Limbaugh, called a young lady a slut and a prostitute on the air because of her outspoken position on birth control.

I'm sure that you were all disturbed by Limbaugh's misogynistic slander against this law student and women in general who want control of their own health and family planning.

As a protest against his statement, along with many others, I asked my credit card company, Capital One, to cease support of Limbaugh's show and they did!

Please read the following link and do as I did to support the women we love.

http://thinkprogress.org/media/2012/03/12/442673/141-companies-advertisng-rush-limbaugh/

Thanks,
micro