I received a telemarketing solicitation this evening from a non-profit that was trying to get donations for children. I quickly retorted that I was soliciting funds for the parents of the at-risk children they are trying to raise money for. The telemarketer calling said, “but this is for the kids, don’t you want to donate”? I then asked, “then who will support and train their parents?” He then replied, “the kids come first.” I then replied, “but children do not pay rent, they do not raise themselves and you cannot fix a sore on the surface if you have not applied the ointment to the deep wound that is already present. Those children have parents that cannot be overlooked.”
His next reply took me back and I questioned what is really wrong with our community? He replied…“but for their parents…it is too late.”
Who makes such a drastic and dangerous decision? Apparently this telemarketer has no children. Children take after and imitate their parents, so therefore, if it is too late for the parents then it is already too late for the child.
The United States media has played up crime and down played victories of overcomers. Media has insigted fear and hatered and we obey their demands of their formulating our mindset to think as they want us to think. The media gives a constant barage of repetative reports that are repeated every 20 minutes of the same “bad news” without going into the entire community seeking out pockets – and there are pockets – of success. Within 30 minutes bad news gets reported every 6-8 minutes but a good news report, a grassroots organizaton that is doing well and having an impact in the community, gets only one 30 second to a minute blurb within an hour. And let’s be real, if it is a Northside Non-profit, it will not even get that.
What is “too late”? Does a mistake place you and keep you for life in the “too late” community? What age determines that is “too late”? Is there a crime designation that determines whether it is “too late”? What if your only crime is that you did not finish high school…”too late”?
What if you are a good parent that happens to have a child that goes astray and commits a crime…is it too late for that parent? You still want to help the child but the parent has done no wrong. The child that pulled the trigger is 12 years old or younger…is it “too late” for the family?
Who said, that we must take as “gospel” that for adults, it is too late. If that telemarketer takes the mindset of “you can’t teach an old dog new tricks” then I feel sorry for him because I am nearing 50 years of age and I still learn and my behavior is easily changed from any negative thought or situation to something positive. I am still responsive to any new laws and regulations that may be inacted today and can change my behavior to match whatever the new law dictates.
Who determines the age of “too late”? Does a child look upon his mother or father and simply because they have a few strands of grey hair that for that parent it is “too late”?
Who has the authority to place labels upon citizens that may have a felony that could be 20 years old but still have a hard time breaking the minimum wage ceiling – “too late”?
Who has the authority to look a child in their face and determine that I will help you but your mother, your father, for them it is too late? That child, in their mind, are thinking “but I want my mother and father to make it too. I hear my parents late night conversations that they wish they could do better, they wished they could go back to school, they wish they could buy my clothes from a store rather that a thrift shop or a free clothing closet?” “Why are you throwing away my parents”?
These children hear their parents talk…”the only reason they want to help my child is because they have a grant to do so. They are getting paid and if and when the grant runs out…so will they”. Some parents have the last hope that since I cannot get a job making past mimimum wage and the help is there, let them help…my child will never get to know what it feels like to have mom or dad pay for their tutoring. My child will never get to see or know that I’d have a good feeling and satisfaction of having gone to the store and purchased a home computer for them to do homework on with my hard earned money.
Because I made a mistake and paid the price for it, does my child need to look upon me, as this telemarketer does, as…it is too late.
Where is the village? The parents in the village were once children themselves. Even in cultures where men and women live in huts…the village leader is rarely a child. So therefore, if a culture does not live like we live, look and dress like we dress…for them, is it “too late”?
Even head-hunters stopped hunting heads. Too late???
What type of society are we that we can very easily take human beings and kick them to the curb along with the trash and yard waste?
Anyone and everyone can be helped somehow or someway. It is not too late. Even if a person re-offends they learned something positive that will help them in later life. And you know something else…many of us, as we grew up, had a lable placed upon us that read, “they will never be anything nor amount to squash”.
Am I ever glad that they were wrong and that for me…it is not “too late”.
Hug someone, love someone and encourage someone before it is too late because if you miss that opportunity – you were “too late”.
