Just to say Hi !

I was reading about one of my town's, (Chicago), good times and it's sad to say the good times are going to change dramatically. When I was younger I couldn't wait until it was time for the "Bud Biliken Parade", going down South Parkway9Martin Luther King Drive) from 24Th St. to Washington Park. Only sadly this is about to change. Not the route of the parade will change, but the spirit of the parade will change.
At parade time I used to hate that it was the beginning of the end of my summer, because this parade told the tale of back to school, but I new there was somewhere I could go alone and I was safe and had plenty of fun. Adults looked out for me and other kids like me. No one tried to take advantage of us or kidnap us, although other parents would get that butt if you were caught doing something other than what was right. Oh ,and they didn't have to know you. They would ask for your parents phone number, (and you better give it to them correctly), and they would call your parents or grandparents and let them know what you've done, and sometimes they'd be told to deal with you right then, and when you got home, Oh boy ! Your sit down privileges were put on definite hold.
Well, those days are long gone. The days I rode the bus at 7 years old alone and paid .10 for my ride to see the "Bud Biliken Parade. 2010 the police department plans to implement a new plan of security which is going to eliminate the musical bandstand and make it a children's area, which saddens me, in a way, because this parade is not only for the children but for us who grew up with this parade and the bands are our party time. So to have to change security measures speaks volumes of how far we've let our children and our communities get away.
It's not an event that took place overnight and it's not an event we, the Black community, didn't see coming. We gripe and moan for help to protect us from our own when our own should need protection from our wrath when they've done wrong. Society tells our young, "come tell me if your parent spanks you and we'll lock them up". "Come and tell us what it is your parents do at home, and we'll lock them up". Come and tell us when you get ticked off at your parents, and we'll lock them up". But society never tells the child they will not protect this child when the parent is no longer there to show them the way to being a good citizen, learning to read and write, learning how to keep their pants pulled up on their butts, learning how to be respectful to their elders and other people. No society conveniently forgets to tell our young ones that, "We are the ones to incarcerate you and take your life from you if you are not behaving". We are the ones who will chastise you in the most severe manner man can devise and we've taken away your parental protection, because we are now your captor". "We have separated you from home, (the village who raised and protected you), we've given you entitlement to being disrespectful and on your own, and shown you that if you are spanked you are not loved. But the most troublesome part in all of this is we, (the Black Community) say there is nothing we can do about it. We've become afraid to tell our children to stay on the block. We're afraid to ask our children who their friends are. We're afraid to tell our children be in the house by nightfall or there will be consequences, and show them the consequences.
Do you realize what my parents or grandparents, uncles and aunts would have done to me if I had my parents arrested or even questioned concerning my discipline? Man, this article would never be written. In my life I was afraid of 2 entities; God and my mother and not necessarily in that order. Let me ignore my mom and she's talking to me about a serious matter. Let me blow her off with, "yea ok, if you say so", cook county hospital here I come or I would wish I'd been there. Many a time I wish the neighbor would come and save my little behind, but it didn't make me violent because I was spanked. It didn't make me hate society or disciplinarians. It made me stronger. It made me able to deal with people, white, black, asian whoever. It made me respect people and property. It made me understand there are consequences for every action, good or bad.
Our jails are full of consequences and challenges and a general disrespect of society and it's laws. I don't see an end in site, do you? If you don't this tells me we've let or priorities erode and we've failed the ones we promised to protect. My spankings hurt and the thing that hurt the most was; the speech as I was getting the spanking. Let me rephrase that. My mother never spanked us she whopped the devil out of us until we prayed to God to intervene. I think God had jokes, because He never came.
But I look back on my life and my parents weren't afraid of me. They may have been afraid they would kill me if I raised my hand their way, but no way would they be on television saying, "my child threw me across the room". It would have been them heading for the room with the sparky chair.
I can't see us letting our children kill other children and maim grownups. Curse the police and just be all around civilly disobedient.
The Bud Biliken Parade is suppose to be a time of joy, a time to relax and show our children and grandchildren that it's time to knuckle down this is the last joy of the summer and we are doing it together as a family. Bud Biliken means you have arrived as a kid to the ultimate pleasure of being a kid.
The police should not be a part of the procedure unless they re in the parade on motorcycles, showing the new squad cars or waving to the crowd.
Come on people be afraid not to take back your home. Don't be afraid to take your neighborhood and your children back. Do you know my children are raising they're children in the same manner as I was raised and their children are respectful and full of love. But they know we love them, too, and we do things with them that they want to do. We let our children be children, because they have the rest of their lives to be adults.
I guess again I've gone to far, but I don't give a oops, because we have gone to far in letting the rotten kids kill, maim and destroy the good God put on this earth. We as a society are responsible for the ills we shake our heads against. Stop shaking your head and shake some child protection booty and Let's give these kids their lives back. Let them look back and say they enjoyed being a kid, just as we look back and see more good times than bad.
It's closing time, but I'll say this to anyone who wants to challenge the effects of disciplining a child, including Dr. Phil and his cronies. The structure of our neighborhoods has deteriorated so much that we the Black Nation should hang our heads for letting our kids down. Now pick your head up and pick your child up and say you love them, protect them and then, do what a real parent does when love is on the line. Give more love than you have to give, and give it to your child.
As a child my mother's vacation was my time. We wnt everywhere together. Saturday at Walgreens soda counter, Marshall Fields, Rothcilds clothing, Riveview, Brookfield Zoo and movies amongst many places. Even when she'd be so tired after work she'd just take a walk her and I. Do your kid. Get out there and say I'm here for you and maybe they'll be there for you and later for their own.
I love you all and I want to see every child grow up and not buried under.
Thank-you