Monday Morning Quarterbacking

Morning folks, and thank you for reading and commenting on chapter two of our race relations series. Please continue reading this post, but don't think you have to just "move on." If you're not finished with chapter two or you haven't read it yet, click the link and take a couple of minutes to read that post too.

In the mean time, I wanted to weigh in on something that happened here in the Miami area last week: the Rev. Jesse Jackson came to town to speak about the economic and structural meltdown in Haiti and to exhort Americans to be compassionate, help lower food prices in Haiti, etc.

Inevitably, when he was done at least one local TV reporter cornered Jackson and asked him about violent crime - murders, robberies, drug dealing, gang activity - in urban communities. There seems to be a lot of all of the above lately, at least here in South Florida.

I didn't have a problem with what Jackson said. What disappointed me was what he didn't say. Granted, he only had enough time to give a soundbite on local TV. But his comments were general in nature and safe, too safe. Things to the effect of we have to find solutions and a better way and what not.

All that's fine and good, but there are small-minded people who have been designated community leaders who will latch onto generalized safe comments about crime, and they will, of their own volition, stretch them and interpret them to mean government solutions. They don't get that back in the day "community solutions" literally meant that - neighbors, and churches, and relatives, and friends, not government.

Governments have never fixed anything. At their best, they've taken tax dollars, your dollars, and offered assistance: work assistance, school assistance, food assistance, etc. At their worst, they have spent your money, and not wisely.

Yes, they should use some property tax dollars to build parks and youth centers to give kids stuff to do. You know, the whole idle mind being the devil's workshop and all.

But once and for all governments can't stop violent crime...unless they establish some sort of Martial Law. And nobody with good sense wants that. The violent crime problem is a complicated issue, but not so complicated that we need bureaucrats mucking it up.

Violent crime is about behavior, soul - in this case the ability to place a value on life on an almost spiritual level, and familial leadership.

I don't know everything by a long shot, but I feel like a broken record player on this issue: If folks want the shootings and robberies and all that nonsense to stop, then a standard has to be set in which every parent teaches his kid that no matter how down on their luck they get and no matter how down on their luck all the folks around them seem to be, nothing - not money, not cars, not attractive members of the opposite sex, not power, not fame - is worth as much as another person's life.

If kids start to believe that other folks' lives are sacred and shouldn't be risked or taken for any reason outside the confines of life-or-death self defense or military combat, then when they're adults and feeling desperate for any one of those items they'll find another way to get it, or they'll exercise reason and logic and resolve to do without.

OK, I'm done. I get dizzy when I stand on soap boxes.

Preach On

I like honest preachers.

It's not that I agree with everything that all of 'em have to say. On the contrary, as a bona fide heathen and having grown up the son of a career old-school military veteran-turned seminarian-turned pastor, I have healthy skepticism of just about everyone who claims "helping others" as an occupation. My pops taught me that doubt doesn't have to be manifest as cynicism. It can also be a tool.

But lately, I've been having a bit of a problem with some preachers in the Miami area.

Now, before anyone cringes, I have no beef with these folk of the cloth over their various brands of religion. My problem is that they seem to be sidestepping the hard parts of their jobs.

Here's the deal: The easy part of a preacher's job is telling people that some higher power, or, according to Homer Simpson, Jebus, loves folks and wants 'em to be happy, and we should all treat our neighbors as ourselves, and so on. Outside their churches, the easy part of social advocacy for preachers is holding press conferences and calling for food for the starving, and medical care for the elderly. The difficult part is, as my grandmother would say, telling people about themselves.

All that peaceful stuff is easy to agree with. Even if you don't believe in any sort of religion, you can "feel" the intended good will with those concepts - be nice and help the needy.

But then there's the hard part of the job. Whether it's behind the pulpit or a microphone on the steps of City Hall, I've never met a preacher who embraces those Sundays when the sermon involves scolding parishioners, or those Mondays when the press conference called for a secular tongue-lashing. It's in their natures to want to uplift. I get it. But when you accept that sort of calling or job, you gotta fire from both barrels, not just the one with a daisy sticking out the end.

So over the past few months - most recently at a vigil last week - I've watched preacher after preacher step in front of the microphones and cameras to address violent crime among young people, particularly young black men in the Miami area. And the toughest thing any of them have been able to eek out is a call for people to pray for a stop to the violence. They've "requested" that young people stop assaulting one another over drugs and gangs and harsh looks and silly grudges. They've called on gainfully-employed men to present themselves as examples, something I'd argue such men already do by virtue of leading stable lives. And they've called on the public to do something about it.

That's all very nice. But it's not enough. And don't anyone leave me messages about not telling other people how to do their jobs. I get emails everyday from readers and sometimes random strangers telling me that if they were journalists they'd do my job this way and not that. So all's fair...

One of my many wishes for '08 is that these religious leaders who insist on being relevant in their communities' secular social fabric, quit dancing around this stuff and start telling young people who've given up hope or never had any that they have to stop the assaults and killings themselves. Not the federal government, not the city, not the Boys & Girls Club, not the YMCA, not the Village People.

These preachers need to call news conferences and tell troubled young folk to not hold their breath waiting for an "official" solution. They need to to grab the microphones and tell the young'ns that the cops can't put an end to the violent streak. Cops can only occasionally prevent violent crimes and most often seek and sometimes catch offenders after the fact. But an end to it requires a change in attitude and objective among the young folk most affected by the violence - perpetrators and victims. They need to stop calling for investigations and studies as to why young folk - particularly - young black men are dying, and grab the microphone and tell young people the issue doesn't need to be studied. The answer, if not all the influences, is obvious. They need to call on young people affected by this violence to proudly and bravely root out the perpetrators and turn them in. And if the young people are afraid to report friends and neighbors and acquaintances to the police, then the preachers need to offer to tell the cops for 'em.

And most important, these preachers need to be consistent with that message. Otherwise, they need to retreat to their churches and leave the social science to people who will "preach" the tough love.

PS., M@? Hey, hey, hey!