(ThyBlackMan.com) There’s an African proverb it goes “When you want to measure the wellness of a community you ask: ‘How are the children doing?’” In America, the answer is very clear on how it treats its children. It is the same answer as it treats its middle aged and seniors.
It is best reflected in the endless mass gun shooting in the US. Middle aged and seniors enter a supermarket store to shop; ten year old fourth-grade children enter the sanctuary of an elementary school to explore words and worlds of wonder, joy, imagination, hope and fulfillment. Both groups leave in body bags. This is America.
It cannot, it must not be sugar coated, this is America. Let us not be fooled. The attention and momentary outrage is due to the number of people murdered at the same location, at the same time.
However, each day in the US is just another savage, blood-letting day in the Old Wild West with its shootouts and violence. Blood and bodies line the streets and alleys in America. Each day far exceeded the single day totals of the one day carnage in the headline making mass shooting. “And the only safe place to live is on an Indian reservation. And the band played on.”
It basically has just become a numbers game. We see numbers but not people. Almost similar to being at a casino putting coins in the slot machine. After a while we forget the coins are actually money. They become something else.
Those who died in the mass shootings were not people who danced, raised families; attended church; rooted for sports teams; rode the bus; played the lottery; were high school sport standouts. They are just mere statistics of who America is.
Those who died at the age of ten and 11 year old babies, were not ten and 11 year old innocents who did the latest TiK Tok dances and film videos on Tik Tok; listened to the latest music; played video games and liked anything with wheels. They were not young fans who had favorites athletes and teams. They were not children with favorite songs; celebrated birthdays and making the honor roll; and loved their brothers and sisters, parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles.
They were not ten and 11 year old babes in arms who enjoyed fries and burgers, nuggets and milk shakes; dreamed of playing in the NBA and MLB; becoming doctors, teachers, marine biologists, artists and lawyers, traveling to distant planets; and who could still enjoy Christmas.
No, they were not ten and 11 year old children of God fashion in His/Her/Their image who babysat younger brothers and sisters: loved pets and animals; looked forward to wearing eye black grease when playing baseball and softball; found Halloween exciting; liked soccer, basketball, football, baseball, softball and gymnastics; saved money to go to Disney World, liked to play with Play-Doh: and enjoyed the movie: Encanto.
They too were nothing more than numbers. Nothing more than statistics. The Sunday after a mass murder I wonder how many churches, temples, mosques, whatever throughout the US failed, perhaps even refused to acknowledge those deaths because the individuals who died were not similar enough to the people who made up the congregations of their church, temple, mosque?
Unable, unwilling to see in the faces and the stories of those children, their own children and grandchildren? That too is America. For years, decades, Americans have been fed a steady diet of propaganda about how free and wonderful America was and is. America, the greatest country in the history of civilization. America, the best mental and healthcare system. America, the wealthiest nation on the planet. America, the safest, best living conditions and best schools. Nowhere was there more democracy and freedom than America.
It was the ultimate propaganda and lie that served the American government and allied institutions well. They would point to the then-Soviet Union, Cuba, China, Iran, Iraq and other evil places where people were supposedly not free. Americans swallowed it down and asked for more.
However, how much freedom does one really have when one is afraid to go to a supermarket, sit in a park, a movie theater, a ballpark or even their house of worship for fear of not coming home due to senseless gun violence? How free and how great is America when parents, grandparents and others have to wonder if the goodbye given to their child or children, grandchild or grandchildren will be their last goodbye because America is not safe for children?
A great philosopher once said, “Don’t worry, If there’s a hell below, we’re all gonna go.”
It is called America. It has always been America.
Staff Writer; Al Alatunji
Question? Comment? Regarding the above article. Feel free to send a message to this address: Alatunji@ThyBlackMan.com.
cain killed his brother able with a rock… GOD did not blame the rock ….
you can not legislate the hearts and minds of homicidal lunatics
you would have to be brain dead to believe such
You might as well sing the white man’s dream song that tries to encapsulate his concepts of beauty as long as the words have meaning because in a little while AI will have helped him to lay waste to all of the natural beauty mentioned in his song. The rich and the federal government are trying to find another planet to inhabit once they have laid waste to this one but their plans are fallacious because empirical science( i.e. unified field theories ) are incomplete, and the earth has “many guarded canopies.”
Here is my opinion fellow readers,
Racist America tells black people and Hispanic people to turn their guns and rifles in to the city or the police department and in return they give black people free food, free clothes, free gift cards, free playstations etc.. On the other hands, these same racist white people or officials in the government and police department tell their fellow white friends, neighbors, colleagues, co-workers to purchase as many legal guns and rifels; as well as, ammunitons and boyd armored in order to protect themselves from black people and brown skin Hispanic people because they understand that racist American is hanging by a fine thread and that at anytime America could end up in a Second civil war withing races and or withing political parties.
Racist America understands that when chaos breaks out in America , there will not be enough police officers available to response to many calls, just like the Rodney king, George Floyd and Breonna Taylor riots and civil unrest; therefore, white people are preparing to fight and to killed black people and Hispanic people at any given moment; Likewise, the November election which will be a chaotic event will be the perfect scenario for crazy white people with rifle and body armored to go on a killing spree of black people and Hispanic people, So we as a minority group must prepare for November and we must be ready to stop and destroyed with our legally purchase weapons any racist far right or far left Caucasian from coming to our neighborhood to killed our black Cristian children.
So, it is time for all black men, black women, black LGBT to protect ourselves, love ones , children etc.. by legally purchasing guns, rifles, shotguns, ammunitions, Kevlar helmets, body armored, survival gear, first aid kit from Licdensce black gun dealers in our neighborhoods etc. Remember, there are over 70 Licensed black owned guns stores and shotting ranges nationwide, there are over 21 black owned banks and credit unions nationwide, there are over 100 black HBCU’S nationwide, So lets start using them and supporting oru communnity in the same way that other races support their community and no one else.
Black Strength and Love for all Black People, We are Family until the end of times. Lets, fight these racist Neanderthal Cave dwellers to the death to protect our children and the future of the African American Race in America.
Two generations ago there were no national gun control laws and few local laws, mostly in big cities like New York.
Children could buy guns at their local hardware store, or order WWII surplus firearms through the mail, no questions asked.
High School students carried rifles and shotguns t school, left them in their cars or brought them in to their lockers so they could hunt after school.
The problem is not guns or access to them. the problem is the degradation of the culture. As the government welfare system of the “Great Society” replaced fathers in the home, and TV, movies, and now social media continue to coarsen the culture, we are seeing the results. People, particularly the young, do not respect themselves or each other. Life is no longer sacred, but held cheap.
This all fits with the push for gun control by the Left. Remember, during the 20th century, over 100 million people were killed by their own [Leftist] governments. The operative word in Gun Control is CONTROL.
We must learn to run,stoop,jump,low crawl,duck,dodge,and swim with our loaded guns in our hands while motivated to use them on our attackers in self defense of our lives.America has never been a safe place for African Americans.Do what it takes to stay alive.