When it All Comes Together...

I've spoken about gun violence and I've spoken about education but I haven't spoken about how the two are intertwined, nor have I talked about how those two are parts of  much bigger and complex problems. So, I'm going to tell you about my friend, M. I met M two summers ago while working at the Pittsburgh Project. We would chat daily and the more we chatted the more he told me about his life. 

This is what he told me:

 He revealed early on that his "parents" were actually his grandparents that had adopted him (they did that with a lot of their sons' children). I knew his biological mom was in and out of the picture but he never once mentioned his dad. He told me that at least one of his brothers was murdered and at least 2 of his brothers were serving life sentences. He showed me the scar from the time he got shot. He told me that he got suspended from high school and then later dropped out, after other alternative school attempts, because he threw a rock through a window. He told me that he was taking GED classes that summer (he was 19 at the time). 

What he didn't tell me but what I saw was that after his friend was murdered 2 streets over, which happened to be a couple of weeks before his GED program was done, he quit. That was it. And I was heartbroken.

But the thing is around here, where there is much sadness there is also much joy. And here, there is an astounding amount of resilience in a place that should suck the life out of someone. The reality is that my community is both of these realities. 

That was two summers ago. Where’s M now, you might ask? He is currently in a job-corp program where he works on hands-on skills and gets his GED simultaneously. He’s going to get his GED, I repeat; he is going to get his GED and plans to join the army afterwards. This story isn’t for you to feel bad for M. It’s for you to see that sometimes (most times) education is effected by your environment and actually I’d argue vice versa as well, and that you can’t "cure" one thing without the other. There's a lot more to community development and reform than writing on a document or a quick fix. M is not the only person with this story. There are lots of M's. So, what?

There is a poem called Youth Voices by Yusef Campbell that I really feel encompasses my sentiments. It reads as follows:

What are the youth to accomplish when they don’t have a voice?

And what do they acquire when they don’t have a choice?

Who asks the children, the youth what they need?

Who gives them the chance, to say what they mean?

Who takes the time out to answer their questions?

Who looks deep inside their anger and aggression?

Who gives them their love, support, and their trust?

Who gives them the courage, to keep going when stuck?

Who gives them the voice when the voice is too weak to be heard?

Who picks up the voice and not kick it to the curb?

What, you don’t see violence and you don’t see rage?

That’s all the voices yelling, cuz they’ve yet to see change

And when the yellin gets loud, y’all cover your ears

Instead of hearing the words in the eyes behind the tears

They beggin for quality, not quantity hear

But instead of getting books, they get cases and years.

How do we give our youth the voice they deserve? How do we create this abundant community/recognize the abundance in our communities when this is the reality of what’s going on? We know that it’s not a quick fix, yes. But who is going to stick around to see vision become reality? Is an abundant community reality? Can it exist? How do we tackle one problem, knowing that there are 10 problems that go hand-in-hand with the original problem? Who cares?