The Hard Truth – What do you want? A safe city! But when will you make it???
3rd January 2012 · 0 Comments
By Min. J. Kojo Livingston
Contributing Columnist
It’s the one that will freeze almost any Black person in their tracks.
I’ve asked the question to countless groups in community meetings, consulting sessions and trainings. It’s almost fun to watch as most folk’s eyes glaze over but it can be annoying when they start to answer…most people can’t…and that is part of our collective problem as a people.
Ask most Black people “What do you want?” and you get a list of things they are tired of, sick of, don’t like and don’t want. Usually you have to repeat the question at least twice before folks are able to change the wiring in their brains enough to give a straight answer.
Meeting Dennis Kimbro in 1991 changed my life, especially my outlook on activism. I had read his book “Think and Grow Rich: A Black Choice” and worked to bring him bring him to New Orleans. I had to use every principle in the book to make the event happen, especially when the religious group ‘sponsoring’ the endeavor reneged on every fiscal promise they made. The techniques worked and we had a successful program, in spite of efforts to the contrary.
The law that penetrated and altered my thinking is called the Law of Substitution of Thought. It says that the mind can only focus on one thought at a time and that it can’t hold an anti-image. For example if I tell you NOT to think about a large red tomato what comes to your mind?
There are other corresponding principles such as the law of attraction, the power of intention and the law correspondence. However, most students of success agree that, like it or not, you give life and energy to that which you think about the most.
Most activists are anti-everything. I refuse to participate in that. My activism is pro-active, even in the face of attacks and injustice. I am not just a chain-breaker, or an opponent of Black oppression/degradation. I am a Nation Builder. I always try to focus on the final outcome that I would like to see in a situation and let that goal guide my actions.
There is balance in everything. Yes there are times when you have to address violence, racism, injustice, poverty, disease, greed and every other bad thing you can imagine. But you are far more powerful when you know what you WANT than when you only know what you don’t want. You can’t visualize anti-violence but you can visualize a safe neighborhood and work to bring that into reality…which brings us to the violence thing.
New Orleans is a city on fire. Shooting babies is a sign that it’s time to clear the bench. All spectators need to get up and get involved and take their communities back. Screw the National Guard, it takes everyday people to make and keep a community safe and decent. And the process is permanent. That responsibility never ends.
Nearly 20 years ago we were able to make a dent in this problem in two neighborhoods using this principle. Our approach was so effective that we impacted the national “violence prevention” movement. Groups across the nation began changing their language from violence prevention to promoting safety and peace. We even had a Safe City Day to highlight the good and effective things that people were doing to re-claim their neighborhoods.
We had ignited a movement. People got active with youth programs, community gardens and neighborhood clean-ups. We boarded up crack houses and shut down a nuisance bar room. And we saw change. For two years running our neighborhoods were Number 1 and Number 2 in reducing violent crime, according to police stats. Both years, the cops in our areas got awards and insisted that we be there to accept with them.
Ultimately this life-saving work was sabotaged by powerful people who wanted their butts kissed. Problem is, folks who unite and realize their power enough to succeed at changing their neighborhoods stop feeling all kissee uppee and things fell apart. Lesson: You must want and achieve self-sufficiency!! Never, ever allow your effort to become totally dependent on grants or outside forces, their goodwill always has strings, usually bad strings, but that’s another column.
The crisis in New Orleans is more than a matter of stopping a single category of human behavior that we call violence. It’s a call, an opportunity for ordinary people to create a vision of a city that works for everyone; a city where safety and prosperity are the norm and then do the work necessary to make it a reality.
It ain’t easy, but it’s been done before and it can be done again…
And That’s the Hard Truth!!!
This article was originally published in the January 2, 2012 edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper
