The Village Is Dead

 

It used to take a village...

Our children would do what an adult told them to do whether they had your last name or not but somewhere along the way they decided that to discipline your child to keep your seed from dying on the concrete instead of growing into a rose was to abuse your child so we let our children run wild and we cry when mama gotta bury her seed and that rose ends up on top of that baby’s casket.  Where was the village?

The only time our children had any business on the block was to shoot hoops and jump loops, play hopscotch and four square and everybody knew they betta have they ass inside before the street lights came on  - now the kids on the block hold guns and dope instead of balls and rope and the only chalk you find on the sidewalk now is in a never ending line in the shape of a girl who grew up on the block and got shot a week before med school.  Where was the village?

When it became ok to look the other way while our children went astray, where was the village?

When parents decided to let TV, HD, PS3, BET, MTV, VH1, Keesha from up the street, and anything or anyone other than themselves take on the responsibility of raising their seed, where was the village?

Our daughters grew up playing with dolls that looked like babies, now they’re havin’ ‘em while they still are. 

Our sons used to wanna play with toy soldiers, now they pullin’ out different soldiers and the battle becomes life long. 

Our parents used to care about how their children ended up, who their friends were, who their mothers were, what time they went to bed, what they watched on tv, hell even what they ate. 

Our parents used to be concerned about the grades our kids brought home, how they conducted themselves in school cause you better not get up in there and embarrass me! 

Our parents used to come up to the schools and meet our teachers, they used to actually show up for field trips and conferences and hell, they even signed permission slips. 

When our parents stopped helping our kids with their homework and teaching them to read and write because then they’d act white, where was the village?

When our sons and daughters started making babies together, and people stopped parenting their own damn children and started throwing them away to the Crips and the Bloods, where was the village?

What’s wrong father?  Oh right, you weren’t ready to be one, so you just bounced over to the next chick you ain’t ready to have a kid with.  Do you have a son or a daughter?  Do you know?

What happened mother?  Too busy trying to “get yours” that you didn’t notice your daughter was getting hers too?  Congratulations Grannie.  35?  No, that’s not too young to be a grandmother! 

How about you neighbor?  When did you stop caring enough to stop that 17 year old boy from taking that little 14 year old girl behind the building because he wanted to show her how much he LOVED her?  Why don’t you tell her father who planted the seed of his grandchild in her womb since she ain’t sayin?  And don’t worry about calling the police on that teenage boy selling dope right in front of your house.  Don’t look down on him now.  You shouldda done that back in the day when he still looked up to you.  But you decided to sit back and watch his stare turn to dope boys with blue rags and shake your head ‘cause you just don’t understand what’s wrong with kids today.  What difference could you have made…villager?

When we decided to let our seed die, let their dreams die, let their futures die, and let their minds die, therefore letting ourselves die, did we let the village die too? 

Where is the village now?

The village is dead.