ungrateful, selfish and lazy

Reflecting on the past week, it being the celebration of the birthday of Martin Luther King, Jr., I was wondering what has occurred over the years since his death and the civil rights movement. In many respects, things have changed significantly, but at the same time thing have also stagnated. I just look at us today as a people, as men and women that are supposedly the keepers and protectors of our community.

However, it seems as if we no longer value the virtue and integrity affiliated with family values. We have become silent to the things that we ourselves tend to ignore and turn away from. In a letter from a Birmingham jail, Dr. King wrote, “We will have to repent in this generation not merely for the hateful words and actions of the bad people but for the appalling silence of the good people.” I take it he was saying that when wrong and evil things are being perpetrated for people to see at the group and interpersonal level, there is no different than doing bad or being evil and passing by such evil and doing nothing about it.

Today, this stagnation is more rampant than ever. Just today in my neighborhood, the first two stories on the radio were about two men hiring a landscaper to do lawn work and shooting him 5 times in an attempt to steal his truck and the other was about somebody driving their car through Greenbriar mall and dragging out an ATM machine.

These actions tell me that we have a bigger threat to our community than the traditional white man – us. We are ungrateful, selfish and lazy. We think that all that we have should be bestowed upon us whenever we desire such and that it should not require any work or effort on our behalf. We think of ourselves only and do not have the fortitude in our heart to think and treat others as we do ourselves. In many cases, we are mean without first considering being kind. Nowadays, our families, the ones that do exist, have to deal with obstacles such as these that were never magnified as such before.

Individually, we men no longer accept and love and cherish the responsibility of providing for or families, for loving and raising our kids and/or being faithful to our women. In fact, there are some of us who think that just because they got some loot in they pocket and can sing or rap, that such provides them the right to disrespect women and the unit relationships that stabilize our community. The women now are also in concert with such behavior, allowing these men to sway their fancy and relegating them to objects as opposed to vesicles that should be loved, honored and respected. However, such would require work and commitments of the heart to what are right versus what is wrong.

Dr. King also said, “In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends. This is one reason I will never allow anyone to silence my voice. I will always feel and be free to say what I feel and express to whomever, as long as it is honest and without a mean-spirit. I will also work hard for what I desire for my family. Some folks think that there is an inherent obligation for being provided for. I do not know where this comes from. I mean if you quit your job, can you actually tell them to keep giving you money for your rent and utilities and club money and they agree to such. Where are we and what have we become? I can only speculate but I do know, as the great man that started this rumination stated, “Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter."