We Must Own It!

There is enough blame to go around for everyone, someone dropped the ball, spilled the beans, or left the door wide open.   Anyway... here is the situation and what can we do to clean this mess up and right the ship?  Many urban America neighborhoods need some real help, not just a hand out, but a hand up and hand to hold on to. 

This is not a time to look the other way… some of this has come because of failed policy, a lack of political will, ineffective leadership, limited community support, the flight of neighbors seeking a better quality of life, and some of it belongs to those who continue to live in the reality of the moment and simply don’t care.   Listen, it belongs to someone and… so I nominate “all of the above.”

Many people have found success out of troubled neighborhoods and have never returned.   It is not that they have forgotten where they came from, humble beginnings, nor the pain of poverty, but rather they chose not to go back or remember.  Too often they have not come to terms with the realization that those days in the past are what helped them to seek a better tomorrow and a brighter future.   My grandmother often would say… “That which does not kill you will make you stronger…”

A number of people have made it out, survived and gone on to make a name for themselves in life and society.  Some people do not realize that they are not the first person to make it out of a trouble community or difficult life situation.  It is true that people must find their own way, to believe in themselves and to know that choices have to be made in terms of career, business, education, friends and family.   For it is not how you start, but rather how you finish.   

There is always a job for people who are looking for an opportunity.  And people must help others find their way out of troubled neighborhoods…and those opportunities are available now.   Michael Jordan, one of the all-time great NBA basketball players once stated… “I’ve missed more than 9,000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. 26 times, I’ve been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.”    

Isn’t it our time… to take the next shot?