#Fail
I apologize to every Woman in the world. My heart Cries! We have left you a world with far too little Warriors, and even fewer Men. #sorry – @NeticRebel
courtesy of Cespedes Studios
The realm of social networking is quite interesting at times. At times. Most of the time its filled with people’s thoughts and ideas about all sorts of random things: what you were eating for lunch, vacation pictures, interpersonal conversations that have evolved from passing notes in school – to the telephone at home after school – to cell phones outside of home – to texting – and now passing notes on either twitter or Face Book. Again, at times, you come across something quite interesting.
So amidst the clutter I saw this message from my brother Netic via Twitter:
I apologize to every Woman in the world. My heart Cries! We have left you a world with far too little Warriors, and even fewer Men. #sorry – @NeticRebel
Seems like a very random thing to announce to the world (or at least the world that follows Netic), but then he followed it up with a twit explaining the reason for his disdain. But by then I had already seen several people post a link to the source of his troubles: http://www.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/10/27/california.gang.rape.investigation/index.html
If you’ve read the article or heard about this atrocity then you can empathize with Netic’s feelings. I’ve always seen rape as an act of forcing a person to live with a murdered corpse that they will possibly psychologically carry around with them for the rest of their lives. A piece of the victim dies. Sexual assault is crime against humanity. I don’t think you’ll find too many people who will disagree with this.
What struck a cord within me was the line, “We have left you a world with far too little Warriors, and even fewer Men.” I’ve had several conversations in the last few months about manhood. Usually it’s a complaint about the action of some male doing something childish or selfish or in this case, savage. And it usually ends with, “…I don’t understand that man.” To which my response is always, “That’s not a man.”
And to me, that’s a very important statement, because as someone who sees himself as a man, it’s necessary to draw a line in the sand and call things for what they are, or in this case, what they are not. Men (and Women) take responsibility for their actions, hold themselves and those who they surround themselves with in high regard, value their name and value their word. They admit mistakes, make amends, and refine their thinking. They work through their issues. They defend their families. They understand that one of the best ways to defend your family is to see your community as your extended family and become a positive influence within it. Men do not play games. Men are not irresponsible people. Men do not commit atrocities.
Besides the fact there were 3 or 4 “boys” committing this crime, there were allegedly 15 “children” or so watching it all happen. WATCHING. This leads me to ask: who failed these children? How in the world did that many people see this happen and were either too afraid or too callous to take action? Any action. I have an idea who failed these kids. Their parents. I cannot judge any of these kids individually, because I do not know their circumstances or their story, but on a whole, I can say without issue that somewhere down the line a lack of parenting and mentoring had led to a point where a teenage girl could be raped for over two hours and not a person attempted to stop it.
How does this happen?
I have a seven-year-old son and am a co-chair of the Parent Diversity Forum at his school. One of the understandings that our group attempts to convey to parents is the idea that even though we consider ourselves cultured and worldly and non-discriminating people, if we do not speak to our children about these issues they will not learn them. They do not learn through osmosis. We have to become comfortable talking about things that are uncomfortable. We have to be willing to reflect on our own challenging life experiences and understand where we need to make adjustments in order to Teach The Babies.
So I appeal to all the Men and Women out there: please educate your children or the children on your block. Talk to them. Listen to them. Become a part of your community. If not you, then who? Who better to teach these kids how to become Men and Women if not Men and Women? My closest friends and family do this. Netic always has the youth around him.
On a positive note, as I said earlier, at times you come across something inspiring or thought provoking on the social network wires. My man GB (@electusunus), who coaches young kids, posted this earlier this week. Take note.
“Against all of these intellectually dismissive critics, I would argue for the necessity of continuing to search for the ‘common good’ of a city if only because, without such a conception, there can be neither a sense of local identity nor a political community. This society must strive for more in an effort to be great because without this vision, society would really be bleak…the city is ultimately ‘the people’, and the cliché notwithstanding, it is the people who must find a way among themselves to define, time after time, in what specific action agendas the ‘common good’ of the city may be found.”—Friedman
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Here are some of those that I’ve come across during my travels on the social networks that share insight and information and live to change something. Follow them: @cdtbk @daoudabeid @dahkillah @neticrebel @electusunus @game_rebellion @lifecoachdavis @stillwriting @dreamhampton @getinhershoes @ahlot
Live To Change Something, Teach The Babies, Word from The Creators | Dahkillah October 28, 2009 | 
Comments (5)
Yikes!
Join author De´Lana R.A. Dameron tonight for a reading from her recently released book of poetry, “How God Ends Us,” tonight from 6-9pm at the Bowery Poetry Club (308 Bowery New York, NY 10012.)
