RETHINK! REBUILD! RENEW!

Close your eyes. Tap into your imagination. What do you see? Do you
see your street, your neighborhood, or your city? Vacant lots once
filled with unhealthy and unsightly debris have been transformed into
gardens that yield colorful and fragrant flowers and an astounding
variety of edible vegetables. During the week –- on school days – the
doors of every church, synagogue, mosque, and temple are open at seven
o’clock in the morning. Members of the congregation are busy preparing
and serving a healthy breakfast to children who would otherwise go to
school on an empty stomach. No longer are the children on your street,
your neighborhood, and in your city going to school hungry and unable
to concentrate on their studies. And members of the congregations
escort the children to school to make sure that they arrive there
safely and on time. Weekly community council meetings bring together
neighbors, concerned citizens, health care professionals and
providers, social services professionals and providers, Fatherhood
Practitioners and Advocates, ward leaders, block captains,
legislators, legal professionals, law enforcement professionals,
educators, school administrators, grassroots community organizations,
business and religious leaders, and social entrepreneurs to discuss
and resolve issues of public safety, economics, education, Fatherhood,
positive male role models, and physical and mental health. What do you
hear? Listen closely. Men and Women on your street, in your
neighborhood and in your city are talking about how the rehabilitation
of boarded-up and abandoned houses and storefronts have helped to
eradicate blight, reduced crime, attracted jobs and businesses, and
created a nurturing and safe environment that is conducive to
positively shaping the minds and souls of our children – the future –
our bridge to the future. Do you hear the songs of happiness that the
children on your street, in your neighborhood, and in your city are
singing – songs that replace the nightmarish sounds of deadly gunfire?
And what do you feel? Hope? Love? Compassion? Tranquility?


Is this a dream? It should be a new reality for you, your children,
your neighborhood, and your city. While it is true that communities
and cities throughout our global village are beset with a plethora of
challenges, these challenges are actually opportunities in disguise.
The Universe is tapping each of us on the shoulder and whispering:
“Rethink! Rebuild! Renew!”


We must rethink how we are preparing our children – the Emerging
Keepers of the Planet – for their future. Are we programming our
children for success or for failure? Are we teaching them, through our
words and deeds, how to channel negative energy into positive energy;
peacefully resolve conflicts; and constructively deal with anger,
pain, fear, disappointment, and rejection? Do we teach them simple
arithmetic and how to read and write before they are enrolled in
pre-school education classes and regular school? Are we introducing
them to foreign languages, music, and art? What life lessons are we
teaching our children about compassion, decision making,
collaboration, loyalty, and integrity?


Contrary to popular opinion, our children – our future – our bridge to
the future – listen to everything we say. But they are also watching
us to see if we are “walking the talk”, particularly when it comes to
what we say our expectations are for them. For example, we expect our
children to go to school and learn and to excel academically. That’s
what we tell them. We also tell them why they need to do this: If they
go to school, learn and excel academically, don’t drop out of school,
and graduate from high school, they will have a future – they can get
a job or go to college. But are we attending the PTA meetings, going
over our children’s homework every evening, making sure they are
studying for tests, arranging for tutoring of our children in subjects
they are struggling with, motivating them and engaging them in daily
conversations about what is going on in school, and making sure that
the School Board and our children’s principals and teachers understand
that we are holding them accountable for providing our children with a
quality education and a learning environment that is free from
bullying and violence? If we are not doing any of these things, what
message are we really sending to our children about how much we care
about their education? More importantly, are we giving our children
something to aspire to? When they travel to and from home and school,
do they have to worry about being the victim of random and deadly
gunfire? As they look around the streets and the neighborhood business
corridors, what do they see? Do they see thriving communities and an
economic oasis that will supply them with careers and jobs? Can they
say to themselves, “Okay, if I continue to get good grades, learn as
much as I can in school, and stay in school and graduate, I can work
in one of the neighborhood businesses – I can work in and be
successful in my own neighborhood. Or I can start my own business
right here where I grew up and provide jobs for people in the
neighborhood! I have a future here. I can see it. I can even raise a
family of my own in the neighborhood where I grew up – where people
mentored me, nurtured me, and loved me. I don’t have to leave to be
successful.”

Now isn’t that what we really want? Isn’t that what the
village really needs? Doesn’t the village need its children – whom it
nurtured, mentored, and loved – to return or remain in the village to
care for and protect its most vulnerable members – our babies and our
Elders?


We must rebuild the village. Let’s create Community Councils that
bring together key stakeholders – you, your neighbors, health care
professionals and providers, social services professionals and
providers, Fatherhood Practitioners and Advocates, ward leaders, block
captains, legislators, legal professionals, law enforcement
professionals, educators, school administrators, grassroots community
organizations, business and religious leaders, social entrepreneurs,
and our youth. Community Councils can identify and work to resolve the
key challenges that exist in the village – blight, housing, education,
economics, health – physical and mental, crime, violence, Fatherhood,
and positive male role models. They would create and implement action
plans and partnerships that would set in motion, for example, the
rehabilitation of abandoned houses and vacant storefronts; attraction
and retention of responsible homeowners and business owners to the
neighborhoods; mandatory academic enrichment programs and anger
management and conflicts resolution training for all children; equal
access to preventive health care and medical and parenting resources
and support services; and the monitoring and enhancement of the
quality of education provided by educators and school administrators
in neighborhood schools and the academic performance of children
attending these schools.

We must renew our faith in each other; our ability to make the
impossible possible; and our commitment to our children – our future –
our bridge to the future.