Responsibility: I am my brother's keeper

                                            "What I dream of is an art of balance."

                                                           --Henri Matisse--

                                                "Virtue is a product of habit."

                                                              --Unknown--

         Last Friday I read an article that was written by Michael E. Dyson that once again criticized Bill Cosby for "his infamous remarks on the 50Th anniversary of Brown v. Board of Education."  On the 50Th anniversary of Brown v. Board of Education Bill Cosby issued a stinging criticism of some of the bad habits that people in our community engage in that put us at a disadvantage.  Mr. Dyson as well as a bunch of African-American liberals quickly jumped on Bill Cosby for his remarks.  Mr. Dyson wrote a book and recently an article that was printed last Friday where he once again criticized Bill Cosby.  In the article Mr. Dyson asserted that Bill Cosby exhibits a convenient blind eye to the societal causes of poverty while instead choosing to only focus on the individual actions of poor folks.  According to Dyson Bill Cosby's message is that it is poor people's fault that they are poor and no one else.  The fundamental disagreement between Bill Cosby and Michael Dyson is an example of two extreme views in our community.  The problem with those extreme views is that both conveniently ignore truths about our community.  The first truth is that the majority of our community is not poor.  The other truth is that poverty in our community is about responsibility. 

         What am I talking about?  Both sides of the "how can we help lift up the poor in our community debate" ignore responsibility.  On one side there are the traditional liberals who seem to repeat the old tired mantra that it is not poor people's fault that they are poor and on the other side there is the newer convenient conservatives that espouse that poor people need to quit playing the victim role and accept responsibility for their own stupid decisions.  Well, I hate to sound like a flip flopper but both sides have some merit.

         Both sides assert that someone needs to take responsibility for the consequences of bad decisions that result in hundreds of thousands of African-Americans living in poverty.  The difference between the two sides is who they believe should shoulder the responsibility.  Liberals think that American society is to blame and must therefore find the silver bullet to free the African-Americans that are trapped in the cycle of poverty in this country.  Conservatives believe that poor folks are to blame for their own bad decisions and therefore must individually resolve to become more discipline, harder working, and better educated.  Well the truth is that they are both correct.  Our priorities are reflected in our decisions regardless whether it is on an individual or collective level. 

         The truth is that any society that puts more resources in building weapons or in building prisons or in building armies or in crafting punishments for crimes instead of building schools that educate as oppose to segregate the good standardize test takers from the bad will have to deal with the consequences of those decisions.  The truth is that any society that is content to pay in excess of over thirty thousand dollars a year to keep someone in prison for years, decades, and even in some cases a lifetime, instead of investing half of that money in education, entrepreneurial, and job training programs will have to deal with the consequences of their decisions.  And those consequences tend to be reflected in the unemployment rate, which are also reflected in the crime rate.

         The same is true on the individual level.  The truth is that any one that chooses to blow off an education that was freely given to them will have to face the consequences of their decision.  Anyone that chooses to become sexually active while still in high school without properly protecting their bodies and their futures will have to face the consequences.  Parents that say they value education but do not create and maintain a home environment that is conducive for academic success will have to face the consequences.  The truth is that anyone that did not try to get their education and therefore was trapped in low paying jobs and then chose to sell drugs or break the law in order to make more money must deal with the consequences of their actions.  Those consequences are reflected in the miserable existence of poverty where people must face shorter life expectancies due to lack of nutrition, health care, and an abundance of stress and violence.

         No one wants to talk about the reality that certain habits put people in position to be successful and certain habits put people in position to fail.  There are very few habits that will guarantee failure or success, but there are a great many that will greatly weigh the odds for or against a person's success.  These are the habits that build the pathologies to either success or failure.  In the case of people that are trapped in the cycle of poverty there is usually a common pathology that leads to bad decisions that lead to bad results that lead right back to poverty.

         This leads to some harsh "truths" that must be confronted in order for the people in our community that are living in poverty to move beyond their circumstances.  First, tackling poverty in our community is going to be a long and difficult journey.  And like any journey regardless of how long or how short, it always begins with a first step.  Well, the first step in this battle is absolutely the most difficult.  That step is confronting head on the pathology that keeps too many of "us" in poverty.  None of us regardless of our socio-economic backgrounds can move beyond our socio-economic reality without first reexamining our mentality.   You are some place in your head well before you are some place in society.

          Bill Cosby was right about a few things.  First we can no longer accept certain mentalities that lead to certain behavior in our community regardless of our socio-economic status.  We can not accept the pathology that leads to the bad decisions that leads to the bad results that trap people in the depressing, suffocating, deadly reality of poverty and all the drama that comes with that reality.  (I agree with some of the spirit of his criticisms, but not with how he conveyed his message.)

           The second harsh reality is that regardless what our "leaders" promise, the entitlements that our government have given out for decades will not continue forever, therefore everyone of "us" that can be self sufficient must become self sufficient.  The third harsh reality that must be faced is that life is not fair.  What do I mean by that?  What I mean is that if a person is born poor and is therefore disadvantaged then they must be taught to be ready to work twice or three times as hard as the next person if that is what it takes to get ahead.  No one in this world will ever give you anything.  This includes your congressman, your mayor, your alderman, your governor, your president, and even your preacher!  It may not be fair.  It may not be right, but it is what it is.  Success breeds success.  There is no substitute.  And if someone is not willing to give the effort necessary to be successful then they should be content with whatever life style that their efforts have afforded them. 

          The last harsh reality that anyone of "us" that are poor must face is regardless of how many debates that are waged by people who are not poor, by people who were never poor, by people that have never known poverty, at the end of the day the only people that must deal with the harsh realities of poverty are the poor.  Poor people don't debate about the causes of poverty.  They are interested in solutions.  It is not an academic topic for intellectual discussion for them.  It is a reality; a reality that many would like to change.  Therefore, regardless of who is at fault for their being poor what matters the most is that they are poor and something must be done about it. 

          The first step of any journey begins with that person's resolve to go the distance.  Let's all take that first step by first challenging the individual pathologies that maintain the cycle of poverty.  Maybe while all of us examine ourselves, we can also take that step to tackle our societal priorities.

Comments

[Heather]

Hey Bart, your discussion of pathologies was brilliant! You have challenged us and given us a lot to think about here. Have you considered writing a book? Heather