by REDDEX Washington
Who likes to hear a broken record. Or static when you just can’t get the radio station dialed in just right. No one, just no one, I mean no one likes the repetitiveness of the same thing. Over and over and over and over, just sounds like blah blah blah blah blah. Like the static on the radio.
I had the privilege recently to speak to some dignitaries, and one of them asked a great question. What can we do, if anything, about gun violence among young people?
Light bulb (LED, of course) goes off. My answer: We have to think from their perspective and not our perspective. We have to get out of our comfort zones. If that means sitting in the park talking WITH them and not TO them as they are rolling a blunt, then that’s what has to happen.
Yet, always proceed with caution. Could it be that they have no reason or ambition to be drug-free or to do the simple thing of tightening their belt and wearing their pants properly? Did I mention we have to get out of our comfort zones? So my answer is first let’s find the problem. They aren’t growing up in homes, they are surviving in houses. What’s the difference?
The broken record, the static of getting the radio station dialed into the exact position is this quote: “IT STARTS AT HOME.”
“Wake up, my friends!” is what I said. A home is a place of structure. You have a wake-up time, a go-to-bed time, a get-your-butt-in-the-house time. A go-to-work time, a lunch-break time, a time-off time, and a-vacation time. A house is a simple get in where you fit in, and don’t be last ’cause you might not eat, sleep, bathe, or get a way in. (No function? No structure? at all).
No longer does anyone want to hear the broken record or the static. Let’s listen to that disturbed person that doesn’t know the difference between living and staying. That disturbed person that doesn’t know the difference between living and existing. That disturbed person that doesn’t know the difference between living and surviving.
After you listen to that person you might find out they aren’t disturbed, they are experiencing PTSD; and the way out is by YOU listening, caring, and being a light.
And in the end, by chance, it might just save that young person from pulling the gun … help it stop!
Moral of the story —— Turn off the radio and tune in to the youth!
