#powerfultears

"Silence is Acquiescence"

After reading a article in the St. Louis American newspaper titled "Preaching against the don't snitch mentality." I thought to myself how absurd it is for responsible citizens in a community to ever be considered a snitch. Snitching is a criminal's act, done by criminals to escape punishment, so further victimization of society can continue. The narrative must be changed. Ideas that are detrimental to the health and stability of a community, such as the "don't snitch" mentality must be done away with before it destroys the entire community. The same responsible law abiding citizens who endure the oppressive crimes and criminal activities, inadvertently protect those that cause the death and destruction of the community through their silence. For silence is acquiescence!!!

Labels create sensations and emotions thus bypassing logic, and are often used to ostracize and intimidate the target into compliance. Don't allow those committing criminal acts to diminish the purpose of community. For silence is acquiescence!!!

Muhammad Ali said, "A man that views life at fifty the way he did at twenty has wasted thirty years of his life." As an incarcerated man who has spent my entire adult life involved with crime and violence, I'm uniquely qualified to share with you how silence is acquiescence. I personally know how easy it is to get trapped in the criminal justice system and spend your entire life in a continual cycle of irresponsible choices and criminal thinking patterns. Street life ensnares you with bad habits that make it even harder for you to make positive choices. Undisciplined living and substance abuse cultivates slothful thinking and acting. Your environment can predict, but ultimately it's you who dictates how your life will turn out.

People don't change overnight, nor does ideologies, it takes time to create new neurological pathways in the brain, "imprinting" new habits. And these should be re-enforced and built upon. An imprint is akin to a footprint upon the ground. You can just about tell who, and what they were, even in what direction they are headed (in life) which is why silence is acquiescence!!!

Our communities must aim higher. Until the focus is adjusted and clear, the outcomes will continually be unsatisfactory and our cities in the cesspool of destruction. Community is as a uni-verse i.e. One song. And it should operate freely, in its own interest - as defined by its members with all members in harmony with one another. Can you hear the sound of the bass drum, beating in sync with the sounds of the other instruments in the band? The melodious sound you hear, is those little girls playing with their dolls in the front yard, those young men playing pick up games in the neighborhood park learning how to resolve conflicts without harming one another, its that single mother, that grandmother, that aunt who just drove by to say hello, the father who works the night shift, the mail carrier delivering mail, the crossing guard who walks the neighborhood, every member of the St. Louis community and every other community in America must know, "Silence is Acquiescence."

Thank you J.P.