As I was leaving the Georgia State Capitol last night where I had attended a vigil for Troy Davis, I ran into a group of three young men who seemed to be in their late teens or early twenties, somewhere around college age. They were dressed rather fashionably with their designer jeans and cardigans. I was carrying a sign that read, "I Am Troy Davis". They asked me, "Who is Troy Davis?" It was 10:43pm approximately 25 minutes before Troy Davis was murdered on Georgia's Death Row and they didn't know who he was. Perhaps if he had been a fashion designer they would have known who he was. We can no longer sit back and allow our younger brothers and sisters to be that ignorant and apathetic to what's going on around them. We MUST invoke change!
With Google, Ask.com, Bing, Yahoo, Twitter, Facebook, hell even Myspace and Black Planet, there are an exorbitant amount of ways for people to get information. It's not called the "Information Super Highway" just because it's a catchy moniker.There is absolutely no excuse for those three young men not to have known who Troy Davis was at such a late hour in his life.
While there are no excuses, there are indeed reasons:
- Show and Tell -- As the older generation we should be leading by example, which we are. Unfortunately, that example is one of apapthy and indifference. We all talk a good game and TELL them what needs to be done, but we don't SHOW our youth how to do it. If they see us taking to the streets and lifitng our voices to injustice they will be more apt to do so.
- American Idol -- Not the actual television show, but the idea of an "American Idol". Today's youth (especially young men) idolizes people like Kanye West and Jay-Z. But what do Kanye and Jay-Z tell them other than how to dress and "get that paper"? Do you see them hosting or sponsoring economic empowerment seminars of financial literacy classes? No, you don't! They just say "get that dough", leaving our youth to their own devices as to how to get it. There's more to being an idol than just having people look up to you and aspiring to be you. If you really care, you would show those that idolize you how to get to where you are and be better. I'm not jumping on Kanye and Jay-Z, they are merely examples. The real idol should be at home anyway. That's right, PARENTS, relatives, and family friends should be our youth's idols, not people they don't know or will never meet.
- Dumb and Dumber-er -- Television programming, movies and media coverage of events is paramount in the mis-education of America's youth. In fact, the way the media covers stories today is tantamount to the dumbing down of society. Simply telling a young person to watch the news or read a newspaper is giving them license to be stupid. We have to hold more family discussions and forums with our children about what they see and hear in the news. We have to remind them to believe none of what you hear and only some of what you see. You would be surprised as to how perceptive your children are about things and how receptive they are to the idea of discussing those things with you.
A lot of you will read this and say "Yeah, Derrick is right!" or "Right on D!" Some of you will click "like" and move on. NONE OF THAT IS ENOUGH! To paraphrase OutKast, we have got to get up, get out, and DO something if we want to see a change in how our country does things.
If seeing what happened to Troy Davis isn't enough for you to take action, then what is? If you won't move now, then when?
Well, that's the Green Chimp's take on it. What's yours?
