Holler! The following is a Post I wrote on Facebook (and expanded on here that bit further) following this weeks’s-and year-spate in black on back knife and gun crime. At the time of writing this (07/04/2018) there have been 55 causalities:

An analogy: So, say you have a disease like cancer and the doctors’ try to heal it by keep giving you operations on your arm, where there is absolutely no cancer…Or the doctors’ tries to treat it by giving you lots of pain killers and sending you away, free of charge, on the most lovely of holidays. Will the person recover from the cancer? A cancer that is already at a life threatening stage? Would they? You will agree with me that for the cancer to stand a good chance of being cured the doctor’s would have to go to the root of the cancer and work on it from there, and then they can give the pain killers and holidays etc as other aspects of the treatment; you may call these measures preventative-i.e. working toward keeping the cancer in remission. Other preventive and recovery measures may include life style changes. You still with me? Ok, THE SAME THING APPLIES TO THE INCREASE IN KNIFE AND GUN CRIMES AND THE YOUTHS DYING WAY BEFORE THEIR TIME. It is hardly rocket science!

Measures to resolve this ongoing crisis have to come from all different angles as well as be about working to identify, clearly name, and get at the root causes of this issue first becoming epidemic. This problem of neglecting to start from there- from the root cause- is a thing that is generally missing and extremely wide spread in this broken world. The world and its people find it hard to look directly at root causes, take them seriously, and ACT. Politicians for example are experts at evading the issues and playing ‘point the finger and cast aspersions’ game. EXPERT. And somehow we expect the youths, who looks to us from the very moment they come out of the womb into this ready made world, to behave differently! Madness!

As the following quote says: ” It is not when mankind will learn, but WHEN mankind will ACT on what it already knows. ”

History repeats, personally, collectively, across generations and globally because we have not learned what we need to learn. To me that should be the point of History lessons in schools- to learn from the past mistakes of the previous generations. When it comes to what the root causes are all those pieces of research have already been done and sits gathering dust not being picked up enough, especially at the level of government. This world is crying out for change; for change in the old ways of seeing and dealing with things/issues. This world is screaming out for a paradigm shift that righteously overthrows the old order that never truly worked for every-man, just a privileged few, who historically have worked feverishly hard and fought tirelessly to keep its ‘one dimensional, shortsighted, greed-infested systems and structures’ wheels turning and very much in place. Makes me wanna holler and throw up both my hands…as Marvin Gaye sang in his very poignant-and still currently relevant, ‘What’s Going On’ album.

The word Government has GOVERN in it, and as Daniel Goleman points out in his book Emotional Intelligence,

” Leadership is not domination. It’s the art of persuading people to work toward a common goal.”

This is the paradigm shift needed; this is the new mindset needed, one that ensures, wherever possible, everyone wins. There cannot be peace and true prosperity on earth until this new order reigns supreme – as supreme as this outdated and worn out current world dis-order does.

And the word Discipline comes from the word Disciple…meaning TO TEACH, not solely to beat. So going back to beating children and causing them to fear us as parents is not the answer either, and indeed people who solely relay on this kind of discipline and pedagogy, is very much part of the problem of inner city violence. Young people need firm and fair discipline, boundaries and displays of kindness; they need the adults in their charge to model the behaviour they expect the children to pick up. Children learn mostly from what adults do, not from what they say. We need to walk the talk as people in charge and in governance of the young. We need to model to them what authentic leadership looks like. Expecting children to embody qualities that we ourselves lack as caregivers, teachers, politicians and the like, is absolutely ludicrous. That is like expecting a child, and/or an adult for that matter, to know how to do algebra without ever being taught and/or shown how. Madness!!

Just had to shout out my way of looking at and understanding this crisis; just very simple food for much needed thought.

And let us remember to keep the faith and lift hope up high, as we need that Light to fight the dark in these very troubled and dis-eased times, as well as keep hope and faith alive when universal law forcibly carries us, kicking and screaming, into a new and more humane social order. As Malcolm X said, as he himself was opening to this new shift in perspective and therefore consciousness within himself, which I believe was the thing that brought about his demise:

“No man truly understands until he wishes for his brother what he wishes for himself.”

So as I sign off, I leave you with the link to Marvin Gaye’s Inner City Blues, that has been playing in my mind since I begun to ponder on this subject and write this piece-

Marvin Gaye – Inner City Blues (Make Me Wanna Holler) – YouTube 

Peace & Love,

Light..