Baltimore Youth Forum on Violence
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
For More Information:
Farajii Muhammad
Office:(410) 494-1588
E-mail:farajii@nllc.org
Youth Empowerment Movement says, “Enough is Enough” to Youth Violence
BALTIMORE, MD—The Youth Empowerment Movement (YEM) is hosting The State of the Youth Forum: Your Life, Your Choices on Saturday, May 31, 2008 from 9:30AM-3:00 PM at the University of Baltimore, to address the issue of the rising youth violence rate.
The State of the Youth Forum: Your Life, Your Choices is designed for middle school students, high school students, college students, and young people that are out of school, between the ages of 14 to 21, to come out and make a difference.
This Forum will be the first step to empowering young people to get a summer job, becoming a peer mediator, learning conflict resolution skills and how to become active contributing members of their communities. The program will include a press conference hosted by young leaders, workshops, guest speakers, information tables, and much more. The YEM is working with local community organizations, businesses and young leaders from around the city to address this pressing issue.
The YEM is a citywide coalition of youth, youth organizations, and community leaders formed to more effectively address the problems of youth including New Light Leadership Coalition, Inc. (NLLC), the Johns Hopkins Center for Adolescent Health, The University of Baltimore Black Student Union, and others. The Youth Empowerment Movement is committed to promoting collaboration between youth, student organizations, and young adults in order to most effectively address the problems of young people.
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June 1st, 2008 at 9:03 am
CHILDREN NEED HEROES NOT ZEROS
by: David W. Johnson, Jr.
We seem unhappy unless, we have a new Cadillac
Or when we are going to clubs ordering top shelf liquor
Let’s not forget Atlantic City Vegas playing blackjack
Wives, children and a girlfriend on the side, real “slicker”
Destroying our own, for our enemies, we are just tools
Men, we know so very little about the society we live in
Monies we waste should be to send our children to schools
On today’s men, women and children can hardly depend
Children are dying and men are doing little to protect them
Everything bad children do we quickly blame the children
For their crimes, males should be the ones society condemn
Women today seem to be the ones children can mostly depend
Big question, where has most of the REAL FATHERS gone
Fighting in Iraq and other places, everywhere but at home
Young women trying to raise children today, seem the norm
Young men, from young women to young women they roam
Instead of trying to discourage such behavior, older men encourage
How in the World can we not see we are helping kill our children?
With unfortunate communities, fortunate communities must immerge
If we do, from negatives to positives our children we could bring
It does not take a blind man to see what is happening but a MAN
Think about what will happen when there are no STRONG MEN
May not want to accept it but I assure you that is part of the plan
With no STRONG BLACK MEN, on who will families depend
Time we go back to working to own instead of just working to buy
For some, violence in Black Communities are like picture shows
If our children are to have a future, starting today, we must all try
Seriously my BROTHERS, “Children Need Heroes Not Zeros?”
Young Men Need REAL Older Men
June 1st, 2008 at 9:05 am
Biography
David W. Johnson, Jr.
I am a father, stepfather; grandfather, brother, uncle, great uncle, nephew, cousin and friend. I am an African American male living in America who has been blessed to see age fifty-eight but not because I grew up in a strong family environment. For ten years, I was fortunate enough to have a set of terrific, grandparents. God chose to call them home when I was ten-years old. From then on, I was more-or-less on my own. Handed off like a football from one family member to the next until I were in my early teens.
There is a humongous difference between living with a family and living with a loving family. After my grandparent’s death, my first understanding of a non-loving family came when I was forced to live with my mother, her boyfriend and four of my siblings. That lasted about three years. My mother’s boyfriend was an abuser. While my brother and three sisters were willing to look the other way, I was not, so I was handed off to my grandmother on my mother’s side.
The story and the madness continued for years to come, until I was old enough to join Job Corps and then the Army. For a longtime after that, life “cut me little or no slack” and the streets raised me. I was able to survive and reach the point I am today, thanks to the love and caring of mostly strangers, along the way. I sincerely believe if I were a teenager today I would not make it to twenty-eight and surely not fifty-eight.
This book is about lifting spirits, changing and saving lives of today and tomorrow’s young people.
When I was growing up neighbors, teachers, the community police officers and the judicial systems were not about just doing a job but they cared about children overall. It is not just a saying that, “It Takes A Community To Raise A Child.” It is the TRUTH and it is more IMPORTANT today than it has ever been. The obstacles standing in young people’s way today is almost insurmountable. We must stop caring about what side of town, skin color, race or nationality, country, county or city and start caring that it is all children that need our help.
Oftentimes even with parents, the road to survival and success is a difficult one for young people. Surviving without parents, or dedicated parents is next to impossible but I am here to tell you, it is not impossible. I would not want any young person to live my young life, if it is at all avoidable.
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Parents, teachers, neighbors, friends, police officers and communities, what I am saying is this, if you have children do what you must to standby them and keep them on the right track. Try to see that they have a better life growing up, than you had. No matter if, your childhood was terrific. Show them love, respect and give them lots of support.
There is nothing sadder or more discouraging for a child than having parents who are nothing more than “figure heads,” or “parents who only give birth.
I can attest to the fact that if parents are not good to and for you, you have the tendency not to be good for and to your children. It took me a while and many trials and tribulations before I came to understand and appreciate what it means to be a father and grandfather. Like any human being, I am still lacking in some areas but I am quickly improving.
What I know for sure, unless all men, but especially African American men do not step-up and give women a much needed hand raising our children we will be facing self-destruction akin to genocide, in the very near future.
Some may think my last statement is perhaps “overstated” but I assure you there is not a lot of “grey area” between “self-destruction” and “genocide.”
June 1st, 2008 at 9:06 am
ABOUT SAVING OUR CHILDREN
by: David W. Johnson, Jr.
We set and eat until we look like elephants or beach whales
Go out drinking until we cannot drive or walk a flight of stairs
Spend hundreds of dollars a month at hair salons and on nails
Let us not talk about what we will put into having illicit affairs
School systems are begging for adults to come out and volunteer
Children are becoming obese from all the fast food they have to eat
Families do not care about their children, why should outsiders care
Children settle for Cokes & Chips, not greens, potatoes and meat
Look around your neighborhoods at the old cars teenagers drive
Hardworking adults can hardly afford to buy gasoline these days
So tell me, what do you think uneducated teens are doing to survive
If adults do not help children educationally, children try illegal ways
What good are citizens who do not have an education or employment
You think those in Power are going to standby while we just rob and kill
Education and leadership are two definitions of America’s Empowerment
Adults, standup and start helping our young people see their dreams fulfilled
Teachers, principals, kids and the elderly are beaten, raped and murdered
Citizens are afraid to wait on corners for cabs or get aboard Mass Transit
What has society come to when in their homes elderly citizens are battered
Fearing gang violence, on their front steps homeowners can no longer sit
Most police would rather see children at recreation centers than in morgues
2008 elections shows certain Races are loosing what little respect they had
If there is another Republican in the White House, we will face tough issues
Adults we are throwing our children’s lives to the enemy and that is beyond bad
Once you have read this try to find an organization, church or school you can help
There are numerous Great Children in America that adults can start to befriend
What is better for a child, a police officers bullet or parents leaving a little whelp
My fellow Americans, you tell me, what is difficult “About Saving Our Children?”
Is This Our Children’s Future… …Or This…