H appy Blessed New Year! I pray this is your greatest year yet! In January, we look forward to making New Year Resolutions, we also honor and celebrate the birth of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. What comes to my mind as we celebrate his birthday this year is how would Dr. King lead if he was still alive today? What would he think regarding our growth and progress as African Americans today? One difficult topic I believe he would address is: Black on Black crime. Dr. King would address this issue as a lot of Black-on-Black crime stems from a lack of fatherhood, a lack of education, goals, and poverty, this can lead to a higher disproportion of imprisonment for young Black men. Our New Year Resolutions should include bettering ourselves and our communities. If we want to keep Dr. King’s dream alive, we must get out of our comfort zone and make a difference. Growing up without a father was very difficult, even though I attended a church with prominent men of color. Our church never had mentor programs for young boys growing up, so temptations were easy to fall into. (Titus 2:6-7) tells us “To encourage the young men to be self-controlled in everything, set an example by doing what is good”. In our teaching show integrity and seriousness”. If the young men aren’t seeing these examples, many will follow bad examples. For instance, young men who wear their pants below their waste, it’s not that they are trying to be cool but a lack of identity. Contrary to most beliefs, our fathers are the ones to give us identity by how they lead and set an example for us. We know the stats on single parenthood; however, the lack of an earthly role model can still be learned as we have the best example of how to be a father from our Heavenly Father God. Dr. King’s dream is still alive. We see it unfolding: Blacks can attend schools of their choice, live where they want, date & marry who they want, we have better laws against discrimination based on one’s skin color, religious beliefs and more. Dr. King wanted us to have these rights and be a better people. Better how? Dr. King and great leaders fought so our children could have access to equal education, he knew education was key. Today our youth graduate from high school straight to prison, this was not part of his dream. We know Dr. King fought against racism, but ask yourself, how did we get to the point of Black-onBlack crime, from the streets of Des Moines to Chicago, we know it exists, the question is how to stop it? (Mark 12:31) God’s 2nd commandmentlove your neighbor as yourself. Part of the problem is self-hate, if I have self-hate then it’s going to be easier to hate my neighbor which in turn makes it easy to kill my neighbor. We must teach self-love at home. As parents we need to tell our children how smart they are, who they can become and how beautiful our Black sons and daughters are. Life and death are in the power of the tongue (Prov 18:21). As a parent I have learned that children need to stay active, and involved, teach them early, life is not just about themselves. They can serve in the church, or volunteer for the elderly in the community to learn how to show kindness. Help them understand the importance of education, be an advocate for education and teachers, remember our children are gifted and have many hidden talents. Volunteer to help our youth, it can help change the trajectory of their future. I believe Dr. King would say we can do better. Ask yourself what dream do you have for your children? I don’t know any parent who has dreams for their child to join a gang, become a drug dealer, a thief, or a high school drop-out. This year 2022, let’s share Dr. Kings’ dream with our children the whole year. We can all help, we’ve heard the saying “it takes a village to raise a child”. Let’s work together to see our Black youth go to college not prison, teach self-love, and eliminate Black on Black crime. So, be a role model, a mentor, get involved or volunteer for our schools. If Dr. King was still alive, this is the work he would be doing to ensure his dream becomes a reality. Caleb Thomas M.A. LMHC 319 206-0651 thomasacc.com Thomas & Associates Counseling & Consulting Counseling with a God given purpose! 31
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