Have We Squash MLK Dream?

HAVE WE SQUASH M.L.K. DREAM?

I never realized how many grandmothers were incarcerated for various crimes until I attended the Social Service Fair at the Riverside Prison last month. In an era where children are lost and misguided, young black men are going to prison at an alarming rate, others are losing their lives from senseless violence and criminal acts and single moms are not focus on marriage, we now have the matriarch of black families showing generations after them the example of what NOT to be like.

I often wonder how we became so lost. When our ancestors had a plan, a vision of equality and a better life for future generations did we squash Martin Luther King Dream. In his dream did he ever consider that children and grandchildren would be incarcerated with their parents and grandparents? And is it too late for us to get back on track?

Can we blame it on the Jim Crow laws from old to new? Can we blame it on the lack of family values and education? Or do we blame it on lack of cultural inheritance and ignorance?

In talking to these women who are grandmothers they clearly know right from wrong. But while behind the walls they show embarrassment and guilt. Only for those feelings to fad once they are released.

Think about it for a moment. We have individuals in their 50’s who are not due retirement benefits because they choose retail theft instead of a retail job. Senior Citizens who are not eligible for social security because many lack lifetime earnings?  And let’s not forget about the grandparents who now say yes, to drug and alcohol abuse and even a life of crime.

How do we lead the younger generations to meaningful futures; a life of hope when they clearly see societal ills all around them every day? How do we teach them not to become victims of circumstances when incarceration, death, crime and violence have become part of the norm in their everyday life?

Like so many other organizations that attended the fair at Riverside, we offered our services and a helping hand to those women who truly want to change but feel stuck in the present. After visiting our table they now know that there is help available at no cost to them. 

Now all we can do is wait for them to walk through our door.