what follows is a response (with slight adjustments) I made on Facebook today on a Birmingham news feed from a discussion by some members of the black community in reaction to another young black man losing his life in this continuing youth violence epidemic:

“Such a complex issue requiring to be dealt with in its complexity. Knives don’t jump up and kill people- people kill people. Very sad crisis situation in our communities,  which has been a long time in the making. We must keep the hope and faith alive nonetheless, and contain our outrage, as such emotion running rampant making rash decisions and  passing judgement is inadvertently more destructive than constructive.

Also, each death tells its own particular story so we must resist the temptation to  use the “knife crime” label from painting its brush totally across the board. And remember the media operates on the  sensational tip, first and foremost. It’s  not interested in solving problems, just selling lots of papers.

I was thinking months back that, general, in regards to all/certain crimes it would be good to have a programme maybe called “After the News” that writes and reports on the beginning middle and end of a story we so are better informed and get to better understand the issues at hand and out of that understanding come up with solutions/responses that clean the root of the problem and bring to it more lasting & impacting change. For example, domestic violence homicides is ALWAYS in the news- up to two women ‘s bodies being found in the freezer recently, but it is not reported as domestic violence, so easily gets swept under the “too close to home, sweep that under the carpet” rug.

The world and its systems and institutions are broken,  much of what goes on today is a product of that. We live in a world that wants change without changing anything about itself. There is something malignant in the world that works against real & lasting change because that may mean being put ‘out of pocket’ and ‘privilege.’ ….Didn’t intend to share all this here but we must keep in mind a much bigger picture when coming at big issues. Peace and love you all💜”

Peace & Love,

Light..