She is passionate, informed, beautiful, and brilliant, and
she wants to end mass incarceration of people of color. She wants to end the pipeline from school to
prison. No, she doesn’t want to reform
the systems that incarcerate people of color at a disproportionate rate she
wants to dismantle the systems! And, I
agree with her. Her name is Rev. Dr.
Madeline McClennely-Sadler, founder of the Exodus Foundation, Inc. Dr. Sadler recently was a guest of Messiah
College, in Pennsylvania, where she spoke on the issue of Mass Incarceration of
people of color. She also requested to
meet with local clergy from the Greater Harrisburg Community, especially those
from the African American Community.
She left us with a great sense of urgency to do something, anything to
end this flawed, unjust system of modern-day-slavery. She stated what most of us know, but don’t
seem to think it is an epidemic. She
said that one out of every three black boys living today will spend time in the
prison system. Their lives will be
greatly impacted by the system. The
damage that the system will do to their families for generations to come cannot
be measured. Their quality of life will
often be impacted by the types of employment they will be limited to. Their self-esteem will often lead to poor
decisions. The system of mass
incarceration is devastating communities of color! The epidemic is not being televised!
There are many things that can be done to change this
downward spiral of destruction for people of color. We have to vote! If we want people in office that understand
the issues that matter to us, then we have to get rid of all excuses about “The
Man” and march to the polls in record numbers.
Once we elect the persons that we think should represent us, we must
support them and hold them accountable.
Tavis Smiley put together the “Blueprint” years before President Obama
was elected. Once Smiley began to ask
the tough questions of President Obama, Black folks turned against him. They said that Smiley was jealous of the
President. In the meantime, the African
American community continued to suffer from high unemployment, poor educational
systems, poverty and mass incarceration.
President Obama was pulled in many different directions and he had a
tough job to say the least. I truly
believe that if the African American Community had pulled and pushed a little
harder on the Presidents coat-tail, I think we could have gotten more out of
his leadership to benefit our community.
The other thing we can do is support our Black
Churches. Attend church and contribute
your time, talent and resources to the Gospel that commands us to feed the
hungry, cloth the naked, heal the sick and visit the incarcerated. If we as a community do the work of the
Church we would have fewer people going into the system. Instead of tearing down the Church and the
people of the Church, get off your pride and join the fight! We need more “Doer’s” in the African
American Community and fewer “Jack-leg Social Commentators” who get nothing
done! If we had more “Doer’s” we would
have more mentors, intact families, better schools, engaged churches, more
black businesses and less incarceration.
The more we do for ourselves on the front end, the less we have to undo
on the back end. It seems to me that
the back end is getting more and more like the system of Slavery for people of
color. We have to stop the madness
before we transition to a time that we thought was long forgotten, a time
called “Dixie!”
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