The Gantt Report
There is an African proverb that people like to use that says, “It takes a village to raise a child.”
Well, in 2014 America, the children don’t seem to give a damn about the village!
Young people in America, both Black and white, are card carrying members of what is known as “The Me Generation.”
They don’t care about their parents, they don’t care about their siblings, they don’t care about their community, they don’t care about their neighborhoods, they don’t care about their schools, they don’t care about their churches and some young people don’t really care about themselves!
But it’s all about “me.” It’s about my money, my car, my chain, my freaks, my dope, my hair, my nails, my clothes and so forth.
If you take a rudimentary look at world history, peace never comes until young people want it to come, justice never comes until young people want it to come and joy never comes until young people want it to come.
Nelson Mandela, Winnie Mandela, Walter Sisulu, Steve Biko, Oliver Tambo and others affiliated with the African National Congress fought South African apartheid for years and years, but apartheid didn’t end until children and teenagers began to protest the study of and use of the racist Afrikaans language in South African schools.
In the United States preachers preached about equal rights and justice but little progress was made until students began to Freedom Ride, sit in, march, riot and disobey!
When I was a college student my classmates and I were eager to get involved in protests and struggles. We would jump into action many times based on comments and actions that never even took place. We would respond, sometimes vigorously, to mere rumors.
Nowadays, you can’t get students to a protest or a demonstration if you gave away free hair weaves and Lil Wayne CDs!
Young people don’t want to listen to community activists, they don’t want to hear militant religious leaders and they would never pick up a book or a newspaper and read the words of modern day freedom fighters.
But they love to follow the devil on Twitter, they “like” and love devilish posts on Facebook and their favorite TV shows must have a Caucasian man treating a Black woman like a whore!
I know you don’t like for me to write like this but can I explain it with scriptures?
In the Biblical book of Acts, the Apostle Paul was catching hell, so to speak. He was in and out of jail and had trouble of many different kinds. After enduring a terrible storm, a fire was started because of the cold.
Acts Chapter 28 says Paul got a bunch of sticks to put on the fire and a slimy, degenerate, venomous beast came out of the fire and attacked Paul on the hand.
The people claimed since the beast attacked Paul, he must be a murderer. But Paul shook the beast off, back into the fire, and when the people saw he did not die and did not get sick or swollen they then changed their minds and said Paul was a God.
Young people need to be like Paul and shake off their beastly desires, attitudes and actions.
Instead of running to support the devils, young people should run to support God, their families, their friends and themselves!
The future is in the hands of today’s youth as it always has been. Young people must step out of the mall and out of the club and step up to the plate.
Don’t strike out trying to hit the devil’s curve balls and by letting the beast tell you what is best for you and your people!
Instead of always saying “me” sometimes you should say we!
