Are We Ready to Take the First Steps in The Jacksonville Journey.

A couple weeks ago, Nat Glover wrote a letter to the City Council of Jacksonville begging them to approve the budget for the Jacksonville Journey.   I applaud him for taking a stand, and writing a letter that holds our city council accountable for their actions.  I believe if Nat Glover had been elected Mayor in 2003, we’d have a real chance at this kind of legislation getting passed. 

I have always believed that this program was little more than lip service from our current mayor.  I have been involved in meetings with members of the city council, and even the mayor’s staff who don’t really seem too interested in actually getting anything done with this proposed plan to decrease crime in Jacksonville.  It seems like more of a public relations exercise.  After all, its been more than nine months since the initiative was announced, and now the funding is in question.  I doubt it was ever seriously an option. 

Here is the text of his letter:

August 25, 2008

The Honorable Ronnie Fussell
2008-2009 President
Jacksonville City Council
117 West Duval Street, #425
Jacksonville, Florida 32202

Dear Mr. President:

There are very few times in our lives when we have an opportunity to do something that can truly reshape and redirect the lives of others, and in doing so, make a tremendous difference in securing the future of this great city.

I believe, as a member of the City Council, your time is now as you consider Mayor Peyton’s proposed Jacksonville Journey budget. I am writing to implore you to seize this opportunity and take the fate of thousands of young people and the future of Jacksonville into your hands and do what is right.

This should not be difficult. It should not be a dilemma.

Mayor Peyton and Sheriff Rutherford— along with the 140 of us who served for six months as members of the Jacksonville Journey team—have laid out in very clear terms the severe crisis we face. We have made a compelling and irrefutable case for what needs to be done now to save lives and rid Jacksonville of the shameful distinction of being the Murder Capital of Florida.

We have explained this crisis very well.

And now, sitting in front of you is a solid plan of enforcement, education, prevention and intervention to begin the journey that will take back our town.

I see us standing on the edge of a stream that is flowing down from the top of a mountain. As the water runs down the mountainside in front of us, we can clearly see that the stream is polluted with the bodies of murder victims.

For too long we have been content to pull out the bodies from the water and bury them somewhere out of sight and out of mind.

Now, the Mayor, Sheriff and this community have said that is not good enough. Let’s go upstream and up the mountain and see how all of those bodies are getting into the stream in the first place.

Let’s address the causes.

Let’s stop the killing.

Let’s save the children, and let’s save Jacksonville.

That is exactly what the Jacksonville Journey does.

It takes us up stream and up the mountain to address the causes of violent crime.

It lets us use education and proven prevention and intervention programs to rescue these children and give them opportunities to live as contributing citizens. Then we will see children grow as positive members of society instead of criminals, or worse, young corpses.

What is so powerful that it is holding some council members back from doing what is right?

There are those who have suggested the reluctance of some is because of where a great majority of the murders and violence is taking place.

Surely that is not the reason. It could not be the excuse because it implies that some folks place less value on the dying kids on one side of town than they do on the value of kids who live in other parts of Jacksonville.

I have always believed that when a child is killed on the Northside, the mothers on the Southside should weep. And, when a child is killed on the Southside, the mothers on the Northside should weep. These children belong to all of us, and it is up to each of us to act now on their behalf. Race, social and economic status should not be a consideration.

Besides, it is only common sense and proven fact that this is a “pay me now or pay me later” deal. “Pay me later” always means the price is much higher. It is far cheaper for taxpayers, no matter where they live, to pay for proven programs that give children opportunities to succeed, than allow them to parade into the criminal justice system.

Why wouldn’t we do everything in our power to help these young people get an education and become working adults and good citizens who pay taxes and produce revenue rather than troubled people who depend on the government for subsidies like food stamps and public housing?

It is much more cost effective to intervene and assist returning felons with offender rehabilitation rather than ignore and enable them to return to crime. Police, prosecution, court and incarceration costs are gigantic when compared to the costs of education, proven prevention and intervention.

For too long, we have taken a single-minded approach that emphasizes law enforcement. No one questions the importance of a strong police presence. We must make arrests and make the community safe. And, pushing a strong police presence is good political rhetoric. But, if we continually do just the enforcement without the strong partnership of education, prevention and intervention, we are only perpetuating the failing cycle that returns thousands of ex-felons to our criminal justice system.

As a member of the City Council, I am hopeful that you will push through the politics of this grave issue and perform as a statesman by doing what is right.

I implore you to look to the future of Jacksonville.

Be willing to go up stream and climb the mountain so we can all face and fix the causes of this crime.

Sincerely,

Nathaniel Glover
Special Advisor to the President
and Ambassador for Higher Education

cc: Clay Yarborough, District 1
William Bishop, District 2
Richard Clark, District 3
Don Redman, District 4
Art Shad, District 5
Jack Webb, District 6
Dr. Johnny Gaffney, District 7
E. Denise Lee, District 8
Warren A. Jones, District 9
Mia Jones, District 10
Ray Holt, District 11
Daniel Davis, District 12
Art Graham, District 13
Michael Corrigan, District 14
Stephen C. Joost, At-large

It seems as though Jacksonville hasn’t really grown up.  We want to be a big city, but we’re just a bigger Jena, LA.   Sure we have the highest rate of murder in the country, but it’s mainly happening on the north side, and some areas of the west side.  By the way, that’s where we have the highest rates of disease, the lowest levels of education, where jobs are the scarcest, and oh yeah, where 95% of the population is black.

So let’s not spend all this money to improve those areas of town, let’s hire more police, build more jails, and keep the criminals out of those parts of town where the rich, white, taxpayers live.  While we’re at it, lets cut taxes some more so that we can do away with any and all of the social programs serving our needy population.  We don’t care if you’re white, black, hispanic, asian, or anything else, if you come to Jacksonville looking for a helping hand, get back on the bus, and keep moving, we don’t want your kind around here…

All this from one of the major buckles of the bible belt.   WWJD?  He sure as hell wouldn’t agree with what we’re doing as a city.

Time to Get Real and Start Talking

It’s almost football season.  Are you ready?  I certainly am.  I’ve been reading all the scouting reports while trying to figure out where my two favorite teams (Jags and Bills) are going to end up this year.  For what its worth, put your money on the Bills!

In going through all the random articles, I found one from Fox Sports writer Jason Whitlock.  It was written in response to the recent shooting of Jaguars’ player, Richard Collier.  His story was titled “NFL’s Cycle of Violence Keeps Spinning“ and in writing it, he got down to the root of the problem, which isn’t sports, but the culture of violence our black professional athletes grow up in. 

This is an issue which doesn’t get a lot of attention from white politicians.  They are more interested in proving how tough on crime they can be by showing all the scared white voters that they aren’t afraid to hire more police, build more jails, and lock up anyone that scares them.

Here is Jason’s article:

OK, we’ve reached the point where we no longer care. It’s not even really all that newsworthy.

At approximately 3 a.m. Tuesday, Richard Collier, a third-year tackle for the Jacksonville Jaguars, was shot multiple times while seated in the passenger seat of his Cadillac Escalade.

As of this writing, he’s still fighting for his life inside a Florida hospital.

With so much else going on in the sports world — including the kickoff of the NFL regular season tonight when the Redskins face the Giants — my well-meaning boss wondered why I wanted to write about Collier, a little-known lineman playing in a city that doesn’t matter.

I guess I just haven’t reached that point yet, the place where a senseless, violent attack on a 20-something, professional athlete doesn’t cause me to become outraged and want to vent.

There’s just something about murder — even attempted murder — that sickens me.

Being a sportswriter and former mediocre athlete, the line I’ve drawn in the sand as it relates to America’s culture of random violence is where it touches athletes.

If I wrote about education, I’d rail against the plague of school shootings. If I wrote for Rolling Stone, I’d pen columns ridiculing the “rap wars.” If I covered the police beat in a major city, I’d constantly examine the violence within the drug trade. And if I was a war correspondent, I would most likely go insane.

Instead, I’m a sports columnist trying to do everything in my power to make sure all of us feel miserable and angry every time a black athlete has his life or reputation damaged by violence.

I’m sorry if that sort of realness offends you. Yes, we’re talking about black professional athletes. They are the ones caught in this deadly cycle. When you heard the news that a professional athlete was shot after leaving a nightclub at some obscene hour, you didn’t have to waste time wondering if he was black, white, Mexican or Asian. You knew he was black, and it was safe to assume he played football or basketball.

What’s most troubling is the fact that we’re growing to accept this reality. It’s not man-bites-dog news anymore. It’s rap posse-shoots-rap posse news. It’s Biggie and Tupac all over again. We expect some of our best and brightest athletes to get entangled in deadly violence.

From Darrent Williams to Sean Taylor to Jayson Williams to Jamaal Tinsley to Pacman Jones to Rae Carruth to athletes I can’t remember at the moment, it has become almost common place for black professional athletes to become victims, and in some cases perpetrators, of grossly violent crimes.

Nearly every athlete I know — regardless of color — has a stage in his career when he celebrates his youth and wealth by “kicking it” at nightclubs until the wee hours on a regular basis.

Why do hockey and baseball players make it home without getting shot?

I’m not blaming the victims. I’m asking the question that must be asked.

When we (black men) are young, too much of our cultural identity is caught up in how much danger we survive. It’s the curse of all youth. It’s why some kids do amazing flips on a bike or a skateboard. It’s why some people skydive, climb mountains or join the military. It’s why some married people cheat on their spouses. It’s the lure of a rollercoaster.

We, all of us, court danger in our own special way.

Unfortunately, we (black men) have glamorized surviving gang violence, incarceration and America’s immoral drug war. For us, a portion of the thrill of going to a nightclub is proving we’re tough enough and stereotypically black enough to pop bottles with the boys from our ‘hood who veered into and stayed in the wrong lane.

Plus, when we (black people) socialize we don’t segregate along economic or class lines. It’s nearly impossible. Too many of us are the first members of our families to graduate from college or attain a high-profile job. So the athletes are caught in unavoidable class tension. Imagine truck drivers and golfers partying and competing for women at the same nightclub weekend after weekend. Oh, there would be some bottles broken, the occasional stabbing and a shotgun shooting or two.

Whatever the cause, the violence is maddening and damaging. No one wants to talk about this on the record, but there is an inescapable truth hurting black athletes, particularly NFL players.

They are seen as high risk in comparison to white players for a couple of reasons: 1. Black players are likely to have grown up in a single-parent household without a male authority figure; 2. On average, they’ve demonstrated an inability to avoid trouble.

It’s not a coincidence that in a league that is approximately 70 percent black, the top three players in the 2008 draft were white — Jake Long, Chris Long and Matt Ryan. Keep in mind, Darren McFadden and Glenn Dorsey were widely considered the two “most talented” players in the draft.

Signing bonuses for players taken at the very top of the NFL draft have skyrocketed. When an NFL owner forks over $30 million in cash, he wants to feel confident the player won’t be shot or in some other way damage his career while trying to figure out how to keep a foot in two worlds that are constantly feuding.

I wish I had an easy solution. I don’t. The solution is complex and involves all of us examining and rejecting the forces that make America disgustingly violent.

Aside from the obligatory slam on Jacksonville, I really thought the piece was right on the mark.  It will take frank discussions that include prominent leaders of the black community to solve these issues.  It should not be seen as a badge of courage, or a right of passage to spend time in jail.

Both white and black leaders need to work together to solve these problems.  Our communities need to work more on diversion programs for young black males, to teach them a better way.  We need to stop spending so much money on jails, and start spending that money on social programs that reach this population before the cycle starts.

Our government needs to stop the rhetoric about being tough on crime, and work to eliminate the reasons for it.  Desperation causes crime.  No money, no job, no prospects, no health care, no chance…  NO CHOICE! 

We need to provide choices to all citizens, not just those lucky enough to be born into the privilege of choice.