A look any given day at the TV and Printed or Electronic Media News in Toronto or within the courts of Justice reveals the sadden reality of how disobedient children are being dealt a blow… paraphrase words from Rasta’s musical legend CULTURE. On many occasions the blow inflicted becomes the ultimate conqueror to a life that once roamed with fury of another man’s impending doom. The cycle continues the hunter becomes the hunted now by the Lawman as well as the comrades of the decease.
Families are torn apart pregnant with grief and at times hatred, endless pain and depression sets in, and more than often a child or children instantly are fatherless. The police are on the lookout, yellow tapes drawn, a body lies motionless beneath covering, Baby mother’s weep, the community mourns, and the funeral must be paid for, needless to say how. There is no insurance policy; no monies left behind…simply, nothing. Everyone is afraid to talk fearing repercussions and so the nefarious activities reciprocate. No end is in sight.
Those who face the penal system are left no mercies, for many deportation hangs over their heads, to whom will they return, most have yet to set foot on Jamaican soil, no, not ever since their departure as infants. They are products of Canadian Society, schooled, doctrinaire and philosophized here, and the only ties they have save to say are only that of a geographical birth land. On others, the door is slam shut. Twenty five years to life, and no chance of parole. Canadian prisons are not places for rehabilitation; they are designed to punish, hence the recidivism of the youth.
Many of these young men grew up under very rigid Christian upbringings of fellowship and worship, wth great emphasis place upon the respect of elders and the law, honesty, hard work, love and education. We may very well ask ourselves how this came to be of our little ones. No answer can seemingly be sufficient to legitimize their conduct. Is it their environment?
Well the environment is a potent influence affecting every aspect of development and behavior. The language we learn, the culture and moral values of a society often shape our personality traits. Although intelligence may have a genetic compound, intellectual ability clearly is affected by such environmental variables as education and social class. Children often demonstrate a variety of social patterns from being shy and insecure or from being poor or marginalized. “Popular” children typically are self-confident, competent and socially skillful; and so as members of the Black Diaspora it is our duty to help our children through the struggles that they encounter and especially amid their adolescent years.
We must always remind our children never to doubt their abilities, encourage them to meet new challenges as well as the reoccurring ones. Emphasize the need to develop meaningful roles in society, to be creative and productive and never to feel despair over the disappointments of life. Attitudes must be guided and channeled with responsibility and Black Consciousness must be a way of life. Motivation, Emotion and Thinking are all apart of who we are and our traditional bond with the family must never be broken as no man is an island and no man stands alone. We must never cease to emulate the brave and courageous men and women of our past and present who have illuminate the world with the brilliance of their minds with inventions and other accomplishments.
The struggles and hardships are not for us to keep but to master through determination and dedication. The desire for emblems of commercial designs for fashions must be eliminated and our monies must be spent on the education and recreational development of our youths as they are the endangered specie. We must focus on the concept of each one teach one and in that maxim we can amass true wealth and harmony thus eradicating ignorance, illiteracy and ultimately poverty and crimes. We often delight in vanity while to our virtues we affix a price. The time as come where we as a people must take charge, we must create the opportunities for advancement, we must make sacrifices for that in itself is for the betterment of us all, we must stand up for the youths and stand by them and help them from becoming disobedient thus preventing them from getting a blow.
