If We Want to Stop the Violence, Stop "Feeding the Dragon" Part 2

(In a previous post, we discussed how poor education, lack of job opportunity, unfair prison sentencing and the need for rural job creation all play a part in creating the “Dragon” that contributes so significantly to our crime rate and systematically destroys black households in Philadelphia and across the country. Today, we’ll introduce the role that handguns, black community apathy and news media play in this disturbing scenario).

The final feature of the “Dragon’s” design is found in the easy availability of handguns in communities where economically desperate and unemployed people reside.

While those of us in Philadelphia continue to be engaged in a running debate with the State General Assembly about the need to have stronger gun laws here in the City, our political leaders at the federal level are making it clear that we can expect absolutely no support or comfort from the U.S. Congress on the issue. In fact, earlier this year, 55 U.S. Senators and 250 U.S. Representatives filed a brief, urging the Supreme Court to overturn Washington D.C.’s handgun ban.

Amazingly, those who sided with the National Rifle Association on this issue included both of Pennsylvania’s U.S. Senators, Robert Casey and Arlen Specter, and 13 out of 19 of the state’s U.S. Representatives (kudos to Representatives Fattah, Schwartz, Brady, and three others who took a principled stand on this matter). Clearly a message is being sent at the highest level of government that the profitability of the firearms industry is more important than the social stability and safety of black men and other City residents.

So that’s “the Dragon”… as you can see, it’s a beast whose diet consists primarily of African-American men, and which requires constant feeding to be truly productive.

The fact that this inhumane system also destroys families and contributes to successive generations of poverty-stricken black households seems not to be an issue, as long as it continues to turn a profit for those invested in prison services, firearms and narcotics.

Regrettably, when we, together with our local elected officials and business leaders don’t absolutely demand higher educational outcomes for our young people, when we condone the proliferation of hand guns and illicit drugs in our communities, when we put up with shamefully unfair arrest and sentencing disparities, and when we deny black men and women the opportunity to finally be gainfully employed, we remorselessly continue to “Feed the Dragon.”

I firmly believe that we will never substantially reduce the rate of crime in our City, or anywhere else in this country, until we recognize the need to increase employability and economic accessibility for those who have been disenfranchised.

As a case in point, I have watched with interest as Philadelphia praises the efforts to put more cops on the City’s streets. While I’m in favor of these “stop-gap” efforts to achieve greater levels of public safety, I also recognize that for every offender arrested by Philadelphia police, “The Dragon,” left unattended, produces many new potential criminals to take his/her place. It’s like trying to drain the Atlantic Ocean with a tea cup.

As black citizens, we must make clear that unless we are finally included in this city’s economy, there can be no economic benefits for anybody else. That will take effort, organization and “heart,” but that appears now to be the only way we can ensure our families’ futures.

Finally, and just as importantly, I hope that our young people can begin to see that, when they emulate the so-called “gangstas” on the hip-hop videos, and when they finally give in to the environment of the “drug and gun economy,” they are not being a “thug,” nor are they “acting out” against the larger society, at all.

In fact, they are doing precisely what Mary Ellen Keith and others in rural America, and in certain corporate boardrooms, want them to do. They are right on schedule and they are following the script, as written.

No, our young people are not really evolving into a generation of “tough guys” or independent thinkers. Rather, they are well on their way to becoming “21st Century slaves” in our prisons, and the “Dragon’s” next meal.

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