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.

Justice or Just Us?

Recently, Ronnie White, a nineteen year old man allegedly struck and killed a Prince George’s County, Maryland Police Officer, Cpl. Richard S. Findley in a stolen truck. Not much more than a day later, White was found dead in his cell from strangulation. The preliminary investigation suggested that White’s death was not a suicide.

This writer was neither a witness to the crime nor condones the dreadful loss of Cpl. Findley’s life. However, I believe county officials are implicated in the taking of the law in the hands of those sworn to uphold the law in White’s death.

When I first heard of the arrest of Ronnie White, being held in custody in a Prince George’s County jail, I knew he would not survive to see his arraignment because he was deemed a “cop killer”. If murdering the accused before a trial is going to prevail, there will be no difference between our so-called modern, civilized justice system and the vigilantism of old. With the advent of recent atrocities all over the world, can one at least hope that the American legal system on these shores still works fairly?

As the economy worsens, there is a good chance that our legal system will be strained by the funneling of more people through it. Therefore, we need to continue to speak out where injustice sticks its ugly head and assure all people that they can get fair and impartial treatment in our system by holding those entrusted with insuring the law, accountable.

My heart-felt sympathy goes out to the families involved.