Life hasn't been easy and it definitely isn't fair but I know for sure I've been blessed!
This is my BATTLE! I have walked by FAITH and not by sight!
I am a girl who had to grow up fast, I've made some good decisions and some bad. I have made mistakes , I have some stories and I have some tears. I am a product of my environment, but I don't think I did too bad. I was born & raised here in this city, I call it the Angel of death, the land of dreams. So much potential, with no aspirations. Gifted souls connected to wounded hearts. Travel down Genesee St, you'll see old Mom and Pop stores that were once the pillar of the community, that are now run by foreign men who sell everything from cigarettes to weave. The kids can't walk into the store and give them .50 cents for 50 pieces of candy. There are no more "Hey Johnnie, tell your dad I said hi" ..... The bond between business owners and the community has been lost! You travel up Jefferson Ave you'll see murals placed on corners or in the middle of sidewalks with Teddy Bears, Liquor bottles and balloons. These are markers for the souls that died in vain.... The spirits called home! The markers that show someone once stood in that spot but has since been buried! The reality of this world, anger and betrayal. There is no more "Come inside when the streets lights come on". Most kids don't ever make it home!! Now let's be real for a second, when I was growing up the drug game was present, don't get me wrong; But I came up when RESPECT was the name of the game. My friends and I could walk down the street and never worry about a stray bullet hitting us, we could stand in the middle of a group of well known drug dealers and hear how we should stay in school , get a good job and be successful. They would protect us,they'd try to preach to us and they'd buy us candy from the store. They'd see my grandma coming into the house with bags and would stop to help.
I grew up in a ghetto fairytale but I lived a kids dream. Drugs, alcoholism, prison and mental disease plagued my reality. While being a kid was fun, I'm grown now! I realized what was really going on when families became broken back then. I realized what it meant to lose the
glue of your family to cirrhosis , and to watch the remaining members separate, fall apart to never be the same again. To watch Cocaine and Heroin explode onto the scene and destroy your family. To take away your dad or your mother or both! To be left to fend for yourself or by a grandparent. Those drug dealers who were once friends are a cause to your families demise. To watch those familiar places become distant memories. The mom and pop stores close or be bought out. To watch the street lights come on and kids still be outside. To walk past drug dealers who don't even speak. To see girls being jumped and no one trying to help. To see little boys trying to men and dying in the process. Angel of death, land of dreams!!! No more helping grandma with bags instead they rob her as she tries to enter her home. They put a shot gun to grandpa's head and tell him to mind his business. Drive by shootings in broad daylight, babies and kids becoming victims! What ever happened to honor among thieves..... What ever happened to protecting the old and the young.....Whatever happened to respecting the innocent?
Life isn't a fairy tale anymore.... I'm a parent myself now. I fear for my children everyday.... Between the drugs, sexual violations and homicides my children don't stand a chance. But I'm a Woman of God and I'm a praying warrior! I walk by FAITH not by sight! My children will have a fair shot because I live to make that a reality. We won't be statistics, we'll be success stories! Even though times have changed its up to US, the parents of the new generation, to make a better way. Don't allow your children to become "markers", prison inmates or local crack heads. Go grab your son off that street corner, pull up that young man's pants and tell him to find a wife. Tell your daughter to get married before starting a family. Finish school, don't sell your body for money! LOVE YOURSELF!! Nothing will change until we starting raising successful people and stop letting these kids raise themselves! Parents are too concerned with being turned up, who sleeping with who and those new Jordan's! Your kids are watching, and waiting to be "turned up HOES with new J's" too!
