It takes a Village.
July 15, 2016 by ThySista
Filed under News, Opinion, Relationship Talk, Weekly Columns
(ThySistas.com) There are many of us that grew up in the community environment. Elders sat on the porch, and kept watch. Children actually played in the streets, and parents knew someone was paying attention. Neighbors knew one another, and could converse about life and living. We learned from each other. When a new family moved in we introduced ourselves, and made them feel welcome. Yes, we could get disciplined by the neighbor, and had to face our parents once they were informed. No life was not perfect, and there was always that person in the community that tended to rub folks the wrong way. There was the off one that would always be going somewhere…but nowhere at all. This was our community…our village.
Today this is a memory for too many. We have moved to isolated locations, or into neighborhoods whereby we are the only ones. 
No one is on the porch watching, and the welcoming committee shows up more to examine us than welcome. We spend more time on our phones, tablets, computers and game consoles than we do engaging with our children and community.
The disconnect from community has caused us to raise our children differently. It seems they are as isolated as we are, and have no respect for anything or anyone outside of themselves. The pressures of life, career and parenting feels so much more overwhelming because many feel as though they are carrying the burden alone. No one is keeping watch, and we can’t be everywhere at one time. The difference is we are outside of our village.
As women we can feel the weight of this change once we get pregnant with our child. The nine month journey can feel overwhelming when we don’t have our elders, and sister community to walk with us. We need to have those women we can call, especially when its baby number one, to lean on when we feel uncertain. Our brothers need to have the men they can trust for council that sit in the drive way, and explain the issues of life. When it is said “It takes a Village”…I often wonder if we forgot how deep that statements runs. None of us can make it out here alone. We must come together if we are to heal, and grow. We must return to the village mentality. There was a time when we would not let each other starve.
This village is one way to combat black on black crime. A lot of young men are killing each other in the streets while our babies, and daughters catch stray bullets. They are not killing the elders and older adult males at the rate they are killing their peer group. Basically, these YOUNG men should have to look a GROWN man in the face, and answer for their behavior. As women, even the alpha dominant type, we can only do so much.
Our young men must look that grown man in the face, and face his own likeness in order to be brought to reason. This encounter cannot happen outside of community. Our young women will not to answer until they are confronted by the Queens they have the potential to become. Our young people must face us…we must go to them, empower them, love them, teach them, and hold them accountable. Yes, it takes a village.
While so many are addressing black on black crime in the face of police brutality, and killing, are those same people willing to re-enter the village to enact the change they speak of? Re-establishing the village is going to take sacrifice. Many of us will have to go back home to reclaim the streets that have been lost to violence. It is pointless to sit in the suburbs, and criticize violence “back home” if one is not willing to be an agent of change. It is time to remember our history. We were our strongest when we were a community…when we were a village.
Staff Writer; Christian Starr
May connect with this sister over at Facebook; https://www.facebook.com/christian.pierre.9809 and also Twitter; http://twitter.com/MrzZeta.
