A Social Industrial Complex

It takes a long time for me to put my comments together for this blog. I wish I could just respond to everything without thinking about the impression that I might leave but when I read the comments I feel like I still have to struggle to represent where I'm coming from. I am African American and female. These are all terms that are descriptive and political. When I say that Black youth are organizing I don't mean to suggest that others are excluded. I use Black but some of us are also mixed with white or Latino parents and some of us were born outside of the US but are now citizens. If you look at television you usually see Black youth doing something wrong or how we are failing. It is always negative. I do environmental work, participate in training on non-violence, and advocate for human rights, I have personally registered more than 200 people and I volunteered in my first campaign when I was in elementary school and my candidate won. I donate blood regularly, helped to set up a relief center with NAACP youth immediately after Katrina before FEMA got there, went with SCLC youth to Venezuela, Africa Futures Forum to Senegal, and was the youngest delegate to the UN World Conference on Sustainable Development in South Africa. I raise money for the One Campaign, worked with various organizations like the Sierra Club, Corporate Accountability, and others on issues that I care about. So yes I volunteer and I try to write about my own experiences. As soon as I said anything about organizing I got back this response about violence. Where does that come from? I can tell you it is two words together, black and youth. Put those words together and the next thought in most people's minds is violence. It is the number one cause of death in my age group 18-24.

What is hard to understand is if society is willing to spend $30,000 a year putting somebody in jail why they won't spend more on things that would prevent crime like youth programs and job training. Instead of a prison industrial complex we could have a social industrial complex where we do research and come up with programs that support youth and that help to make families strong. When you do this the youth do well. I know because my mother helped to create an after school program that provided computers, sports, and activities. None of the girls got pregnant, none of the boys went to jail, and the youth that were involved over years went on to college. It makes such a big difference when somebody cares enough to train and educate children. If adults don't step up gangs step in.

I don't know why I take time to write this blog every week. I keep trying to make a connection but it seems like the people that read this blog don't do anything but talk. You don't care about me or young people like me, not really. I look at this website and who gets featured or the thoughts that get attention. When our government fails to take care of wounded soldiers instead focusing on solutions all that we hear about is who to blame.

I have to give credit to the Democrats for trying to change directions on the war but in my opinion they are as much or more to blame for the situation we're in anyway. They were the minority party so it was their role to question anything that this administration put before them. If they had done there job we might still be in Iraq but the plan would have been stronger because they would have challenged bad assumptions. And maybe we wouldn't be there at all.

Now we have a big problem and we are all responsible. I think we need to redefine winning and in order to do that we have to bring America together. We are more divided than the Shites, Sunnis, and Kurds we just don't see it up close when our soldiers die in the streets of Bagdad. Mistakes are made in every war and big mistakes have been made in this one. My grandfather said that it will be 20 years before we get out. We bombed a country and unleashed terrible sectarian hatred now we want to withdraw and put the problem on those we bombed. That is wrong. I don't have the answer but if all these people elected to come up with one would stop playing political ping pong and made the generals come up with a plan at least we would have hope. Nobody has even asked the whole country to sacrifice, only the young. We should not roll along like this war is a minor side activity but we're busy proving to the world that we are not smarter than a 5th grader.

I will get to vote for president for the first time and here are some basic things that I am looking for...First I will look at the candidate's family. That is very important because it tells me the most about what a person really values. I know that people make mistakes and when they do they lie about it. Many candidates have committed adultery or are divorced and for most positions this is not a big deal but not for president, at least not at this time. Most kids I know don't live in a traditional home with a mother and a father. Lots of us have broken, mixed up, incredibly complex families and we know how much energy that takes. We don't need these kinds of distractions in the White House. It would be irresponsible to cast my ballot for someone with a potential problem that might compromise their ability to do the job. I want our next president to be a role model for the nation, somebody that we can feel good about following and I kind of want their spouse to do some good community service work but also take care of their family. That would send a signal to people that families are important and children are important. As for issues, we are under attack from every direction. At the end of all of the rhetoric the outcome is death...guns, prison, AIDS, ignorance, drugs, crime...all of these are plagues that have a young black face. Who really cares or better how do we make America care? I never thought of violence but now that it has been brought up I realize that we (Black youth) really are at war right here at home.