Giving A Voice to the Voiceless

Ten years ago I was a normal poor woman from the Hood. I worked hard to provide for my family and struggled all the time. I lived through worrying about my sons surviving the violence that was common in my hood and I worried about the temptation my kids would face with selling drugs. I also prayed that someone would save the hood. I knew that no one was listening to us and that we did not have a voice.

best friends Jen and Carol

I love Hillary Clinton and was excited she was running for President. It was the media's unfair treatment that angered me enough to start blogging on Hillary sites. It was on these sites that I realized that I had a voice one rarely heard. I began talking about Poverty and violence in the hood and discovered that not only did these women listen they cared. I met the White, middle Class Republican woman who became my best friend on a Hillary site. I talked freely about being poor and worked hard to dispel the myth that poor women were sad, long suffering victims but strong women who were mostly happy despite poverty. My other mission was to shed light on Community Violence.

Because my friend Jen was a Republican and not the racist boogyman that most people in the hood thought they were I figured she must not be alone so I began befriending Republican women on Facebook and I was right not only were there more Republicians who were not racist the vast majority were not. Like their Liberal sisters I found them to not only care about what I was saying about poverty and the violence in the hood they learned about what life was like living in the hood. They cared about poverty and believed their ideas would help. A lot of their ideas were actually good ideas that the hood liked. Carol was in this group. She is actually a real time friend of Jen. She has become what my granddaughter Aleara says is my second best friend.

I realized also that I was a voice that was rare and not often heard and I started talking about more issues like mass incarceration for non violent drug offenders and the problems of public education and how often times Educators ignore us and how many fall beneath the cracks.  Issues I wanted to see change.

I continue to work hard educating women on what impact things like Prosecutors and Public Defenders pushing Plea Deals on terrified poor people who are innocent. My nephew who is serving time in Prison for a crime he didn't commit, encouraging me to continue to be not only his voice but the voices of the men serving time with him. Its a tremendous responsibility but one I must do because the hood needs not only my voice but others like me.

What the Hood Needs Most Community Activists and Leaders

I've written several blogs about what the Hood needs. We need a lot of things all are very important but one thing is usually over looked and that is Community Activists. I'm not talking about kind hearted Middle Class folks but people who know what the hood is like because they live there. Because, people who live in the hood are all races, the Community needs Activists of all races.  We are here but the media ignores us because we are trying to destroy their bread and butter because we want to murders to stop.

Most Activists are women and most have lost someone important to them due to Community Violence, formally known as Black on Black Crime. Thanks to racists using that to justify white on black murder and Black racists saying it doesn't exist that random white men were coming into the hood. I'm not kidding a member of Black Lives Matter told me this is what is happening. Neither group helps our cause.

We also do not need Very Pro Police that they never admit bad cops exist and those that view the Police as evil, rotten, Racist bastards. The former group would be ignored by the people because we know a lot of cops are abusive. The second group do not want our people cooperating with the police which is also ignored because not all cops are asses. Most of them are decent people who love what they do and they play by the rules. No matter what you think of the police they are on the front lines and Community Violence kills them too. They are also charged with the task of comforting Grieving mothers who lost a son to violence.

Community Activists must be strong enough to stand up to Killers, drug dealers, and addicts. They do not want to lose a lifestyle that is beneficial to them.

Our first mission is to end Community Violence by both changing the way the hood thinks to working with police to build Community Violence and to get justice for the family of the victim. We have to build a relationship with the police. The police have begun to change their ways and realized they need the Community as much as the Community needs the police.

We need to be strong enough to let everyone know that we will not allow drugs to be bought and sold in our neighborhoods. We will no longer tolerate the middle class to purchase their drugs in our community. If they are so proud of their drug use then they can buy them in their own neighborhoods.

We have to be strong enough to get the Criminal Justice to see that we vote and if they are Democrats refuse to solve these crimes we stay home or vote Republician and vice versa. We want crimes solved without the lame excuse about no snitching nonsense. We want Justice for the people in the Community.

We also have to be brave enough to take on our peers about how we are living. We need to be able to tell parents to get their Children and continue to say that to their faces. We have to keep telling them that they would not like it if it was their family.

Yes people there are a lot of people speaking out about the hood but the news won't cover us.  Some of us have histories of selling drugs, using drugs, being in Prison, being Gang Affiliated, and other problems Society can point their fingers at. This may not be good when your a Politician but when you are trying to reach young people who are gang affiliated drug dealers; that actually looks good on your resume.