No. 19 - A Few Words on Patience

I was in a meeting today that was centered on bringing together the men and women of the community to uplift our youth. It was quite interesting. It was both inspiring and scary. It was hopeful and, yet, more business as usual. After the meeting I felt a mix of feelings, from delight to dread. That old sinking feeling that makes the heart want to burst from within had somehow come to visit me today.

Had any of those gathered ever spent a day in the shoes of the at risk youth? How many of these highly educated and civic-minded people had spoken with a youth who now lives in fear, hiding from those who wish to take his/her life? Or how many had ever stopped to feed a youth who would otherwise have to beg in the streets, go dumpster diving, or sell their body for food?

These thoughts coalesced through my mind all day and, in fact, continue to this very moment.

I have spoken to these youth. I have seen their life of fear and confusion. I have come to understand from my first hand interaction with our future that we are facing an urgent and very serious problem in our communities. It is my fervent belief that we can no longer afford to pay lip service to, or be inactive when it comes to overcoming the problems we face.

A few months back I witnessed something that drove home the impact our inactivity and malaise has had to the minds and hearts of our youth. I had gone to meet with a fellow community-minded gentleman on Halloween day. His organization serves youth aged 16-24 who have come to them for help, leadership, and support. Most of the kids there, when I arrived, were between 18 and 21 years old.

They were dressed for Halloween and had just got back from trick-or-treating. Yes, you read that correctly. 18 to 21 year olds out trick-or-treating! What have we become to make things so dysfunctional that youth who ought to have long ago abandoned even wanting to go trick-or-treating would desire it so? Surely, they were out there going door-to-door to reclaim part of their childhood that has been lost or never experienced, and that so many of us have taken for granted. Keep in mind one other very important fact..: not only were these youth in that age range, they were also the very youth we look at in the streets and classify as thugs and hopeless. The hardest of the hardest, the most insensitive and callus youth – our greatest fear manifest in the form of these youth who are killing one another. These were they.

It is a hard thing to look in our mirrors and know we are actively failing this generation by virtue of the fact we rather spend our time rationalizing through the technical aspects of implementing the solution then roll up our sleeves and start the engagement process today.

My Spirit is troubled by our lack of compassion AND action. My heart is full and I find it difficult to understand why, for the last forty years, we have allowed our connection to our community, our future (our youth) to fade into virtual oblivion. And my ire is peaked when I sit in a room full of very intelligent, articulate, caring, and successful folk who have bought into the notion of talking, and then talking more, and then talking some more to figure out what we’re going to do about us.

The question comes to my mind: What is the value of the life of a single youth? Is it $100.00 dollars? It is $100,000.00 dollars? Is it $1,000,000.00 dollars? This is something we could contemplate till the cows come home and would never agree on the final value? So I think we should look at this question another way…

The value if the life of a youth is not measured in dollars and cents. It is measured in time, for that is the unit of measurement their lives are centered around. And it is the very thing we have very little of to waste. Our troubled youth live moment-by-moment in fear of life and in hunger of nurturing. Each day we do not engage them, making it clear they are valued and needed and loved, is a day we risk losing one more brilliant soul to the streets… or to death. Moment-by-moment they live on guard… in defense mode… on edge… not having time to even think about caring for themselves.

Someone told me to have patience because we had to have a solid plan, with all the details worked out and knowing exactly what we were about, before engaging our youth. Excuse me, good Sir, and with all due respect, you need to wake up. You need to understand the gravity of the situation a bit more realistically, and through the eyes and experiences of our youth.

It could be that most folk are inactive because they have gotten comfortable within themselves and with their accomplishments or comforts in life. That might explain why a more immediate and physical approach to fixing this matter does not occur.

I remember what it feels like to be hungry. I remember what it feels like to be shot at. I remember what it feels like to be beat up. In every case I do not ever recall feeling these situations will be better at some time in the future… especially when the prospect on losing my life was immediately before me. I do, however, recall feeling I had very little time left and feeling scared of dying. I do recall the feeling of impending doom that ruined my emotional balance and caused me to act in ways most people couldn’t quite relate to.

Sounds familiar.

A few words on patience…

Let’s not allow the opinion of waiting until we are ready keep us from reaching out to our youth. Let’s understand that us “grown-ups” will indeed figure out what we have to do but we have to first start reaching out to the very subject of our stated concerns today. This is not to bring them into a disorganized and unprepared environment but to let them know today that we are here and coming to rescue them. And so we can have a community of youth who are ripe and ready to respond to the efforts and strategies we will implement tomorrow.