This Is Our Wake-Up Call!

These young men getting killed this month is a wake-up call. We as a community and city need to come together and have some type of programs or community center for them to be part of. As a community we give up on these young men. We kick them out of school. Employers won’t give them a chance because of their records, so they turn to the streets for money. Some try to help these young men, but too often we give up when we can’t get them to do what we want them to do—so we stop trying to help them.

When we give up on these young men it is as if they are already dead to us.

Think about the loved ones in your family today. Think about the people
who love you. Nobody ever wants to see or hear bad news about the one
you love.

The right thing would be for the older men of Asheville to step up. When
a young man asks you about drugs or asks you for a gun, elders need to
say that there are more important things to think about—better things
than trying to make a few dollars or [buy] a gun that makes you think
you’re “hard.”

For a young boy having someone to look up to can really have a positive
effect; for a man, having someone look up to you and knowing you can
change a life is always a blessing. If a young man is good at a sport,
encourage him to volunteer at a youth sport league. This can make the
young men of today feel like the streets aren’t where it’s at.

It’s hard for these young men to have a place to go or to have somebody
to talk to about their problems, if we all just give up and continue not
to help or care. So let’s make sure that these young people do have a
place to go and do have somebody to talk to.

So young men of today: Step up and step out of the drug life. Those
people don’t really care about you; your involvement in the drug life
just makes them have more money, not you. It seems as though the police
don’t really care about you either, because the more drugs and guns you
bring into the community the more money the law-enforcement departments
get to “fight crime.” Show up and show out and show those people who
gave up on you that you can be somebody or something in life, show that
we as young people can be the role models that we need to be.

Let’s get more programs going and more jobs open for these young men.
Let’s get a school going that gives young people who’ve been kicked out
of the school system a place full of role models who care about
developing these young people’s minds and their character. Let’s forget
what happened in their past. Because if we keep looking at what was done
in their past this will never stop. Why not treat these young men the
way God treated us when he forgave us and gave us another chance!

This is our wake-up call. Let’s come together as a city to make sure
that there is a place for these young men in our community. My prayer is
that God keep a hedge of protection around our young people because
they are our future.

~ Dekalia Simpson, Asheville, NC