It’s been said that we can not live only for ourselves. A thousand fibers connect us with our fellow men; and among those fibers, as sympathetic threads, our actions run as causes, and they come back to us as effects.
I’ve learned that lesson well through all the years that I worked with problematic young people, convincing young people that their lives were important and had purpose and value. That always proved to be a difficult task, and as a result, I will continue in my efforts to persuade local radio media to be more inclusive in their programming.
What most people fail to see and understand is that a loud screaming message is sent out on a daily basis telling people of color, through that programming, that they do not count, or that people of color are valueless and as a result, it defeats the purpose of individualized importance for some, not many but the few that migrate to the acceptance of being less valued by society.
Most young people grow from being in a stable environment during their development years. Those young people will never believe that their life has value no matter what you do, but it is those young people that don’t have the benefit of growing in a positive environment that live on the edge that will be more prone to accept the message that they don’t count, the message that you scream out everyday in local radio media.
When that young person looks in a mirror and sees a face with no purpose staring back at him, the incubation of a problem begins. The problem becomes full blown when he sees someone that looks just like him, and he assumes that this person has no value as well, and the main ingredients of conflict meet on the same plateau. No one wins when you strip a person of their dignity because you have taken away someone’s purpose in life while at the same time, you have stripped yourself of all integrity you may have had.
Indigenous peoples of America didn’t wake up one day and decide to be alcoholics. They lost something so much more than the land they lived on; they were stripped of their dignity by people that only had a view of the world from the chair that they were sitting in, much like the occupied chairs at local iheartmedia and Woof Boom Radio today.
The status quo leaves people of color at a political and social disadvantage, and that says to me that you don’t have to put a knee on someone’s neck to hold them down, you can do that without lifting a muscle. The purpose of all humanity should be to lighten the burden of our fellow man, not to add to those burdens.
Life’s greatest thrill is to be able to laugh, smile and dance, but all those things are difficult if you are destined to watch others enjoy what you are deprived of.
Many people were attacked because they held a sign proclaiming that their life mattered, only to be met with people countering that with “all lives matter.” If all lives truly mattered, would we find ourselves staring at this situation that I have written about so many times?
In 2015, Wall Street 24/7 wrote an article about Lima, Ohio, being one of the worst cities in America for people of color. Many people were outraged about printing such “nonsense,” but I wonder how many were just as outraged as to the reasons why?
Our actions run as causes and they come back to us as effects because no act of fairness or kindness is ever wasted. I once read a statement that said, “Let us train our minds to desire what the situation demands.”
Charles Thomas lives in Lima. His column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of The Lima News editorial board or AIM Media, owner of The Lima News.
