Anti-Violence? or Anti-Action?

When I was a sophomore at Morgan Park High School in Chicago I HATED taking the bus home. CTA sucks and that year I found every way home possible except the bus. Lol my friends to this day dunno that I'd wait for them to leave then take my bike I hid at a teacher's house down the block. And walking all the way 111th and Vincennes to 104th and Michigan was nothing to me.I enjoyed it, but, I knew my path would take me clean cross Fenger High School's campus and lemme put it to you this way.They ain't like us too much. I dunno if it was a rival thing or they simply knew Morgan Park was a better HS.It wasn't the best, but better.So when some MP students took that route, fights would sometimes break out just because, lol they smelled a MP Mustang approaching and if the right group was there...jump city. And you know what I did? Ran. Ran like the muhfuckin wind. I caught a few blows and threw a few myself, but I mostly ran lol. I look back at those times and laugh; I can say it was just a few knuckleheads flexing their muscle, using a high school as a gang. But in reality it wasn't funny then, and it aint now.
When Derrion Albert, a 16 year old Fenger High honor student walked home from school he didn't get that experience.As a matter of fact, he'll never be able to tell his experience because he's dead. The nostalgia I know as simple childhood fights has become fatal, and it's fuckin sad. HOWEVER, I also know this isn't the first and won't be the last incident of unnecessary school/gang violence. Everyone's angered at the parents, the school, the police...where are all the people who are mad at themselves?
We deserve it...this is OUR FAULT. Don't sit there and say you're innocent cuz you aint. You probably one of the many who wait until the news and media gets ahold of a case, blows it up, then you jump up yellin anti violence at rallies and shit.I aint goin.
This gon make alot of ppl mad cuz it's gonna seem like I don't care. I care, ALOT. My 16 yr old cousin also attends a high school on the South Side and during the summer I would have to drop him off and pick him up cuz the buses were too occupied with niggas ready to bang. Last year an old friend lost her nephew to school gang related violence on the North Side.Turn off the TV and really ask ppl who they've lost, you'll be surprised. You'll also come to learn they care more about their losses than the ONE being over televised on the news.
1.We ALL know a nigga w/a gun.That's mistake number one.
2.We GLAMORIZE this shit in movies, music, and even fashion!
3.Everyone screaming it's the parents. Some of US are parents, who you blaming now?
4.When have you really sat down and talked to these young ppl? Not in some after school program or presentation, but in real life.
5.Our focus never REMAINS on anti-violence and stopping the crime. If we were CONSTANTLY active the media would have no choice but to report and keep abreast of ALL the problems

But WE don't.There are some who do take that extra mile, but not enough.I look at all the ppl twittering...I saw a good 3 days worth of Derrion Albert tweets then on day 4 it was back to whatever the fuck we twitter about. LMAO Chicago itself is taking more notice to the Olympics than to ANYTHING, including our at risk youth.
I stay in the hood and love it.I'm a loner but I talk to ppl, I meet ppl everyday and I get REAL insight.
Black ppl are afraid of each other, and fear breeds ignorance, ignorance breeds frustration, and that can lead to violence. We talk big shit about needing to unite and save our children, but when I hit the beauty salon I see mothers calling their kids all types of muthafuckers and bitches. WHITE PPL DO IT TOO they be in Target goin ham on little Sarah and Billy.
YES these brothers are being raised w/o fathers,yes the teachers suck, yes the media is a bad influence, yes the church is corrupt, yes yes yes these are things that we know...when will the blame game stop? And we all will gather at police stations, city halls, whatever to scream and shout and cry and the next day don't do shit. When's the last time you talked, REALLY talked, to your alderman? Do you even KNOW your alderman? Parents, how well do you know your children's teachers, elementary, high school, period? When's the last time you saw a young brother on the corner and told him you don't hafta do this? WHEN WHEN WHEN??
New problems need new solutions and No this isn't a new problem but we SURE ACTING LIKE IT. So start gettin it in.
There are TONS of local programs, right in your area, that have taken the initiative to do action, not speak it. Problem is they're already at work, and when they ask for assistance from the COMMUNITY THEY'RE TRYING TO SERVE they come up short. The CeaseFire organization (which is teamed with CAPS, by the way, a policing organization in Chicago) has been needing funding for years in order to help young ppl get assistance for jobs, going to college, and other needs.

I could go on, but I started w/my story to say this: It was never right, just tolerable.And though it doesn't seem like it, we're still making violence tolerable.Cuz hootin and hollering is not going to take the anger out of these young people's heart, is NOT going to show them the way, and is not going to replace that void with love, TRUE love.
Only we can. We don't have the Dr. Kings and Garveys and Malcolms, we only have us. Other than Obama, our Black idols are those of entertainment. Even Reverend Run started out rappin. And Obama got his head so far up Copenhagen's ass he can't really see what's crackin in his own hometown. So who can we really blame? Ourselves.
You won't catch me at any more anti violence rallies. I go to Mexican immigration protests and lectures on corrupt politics. I will continue to spread the TRUTH about the society these teens are forced to live in FIRST, before making them out to be "bad kids." I will continue to talk to young people, keep in touch, find job and college information, and most importantly, I will continue to relate.
It hurts to see our young people get murdered and hurt, but it hurts even more to see the same unsolved problem get attended to in the same way. Talk the talk, then walk the talk, so we can all eventually fly.

And to the family and friends of Derrion Albert, may God Bless you and keep you in peace. R.I.P. Brotha Albert.