For as long as I can the need for school and maintaining a positive attitude, said from the tops of the hills were, but unfortunately only a few in the trenches doing their own appeal in focus.
Today is "cool" or "fashionable". The idea is to present the right "image" on the possibility of girls or impress his peers. And 'the team, to be the coolest player on the basketball court or football, the guy with the haircut or brightBraids, or gangster-style tattoos or clothing Fubu or Nike trainers and expensive gold chains or rings or pants sagging, or sports cars.
Obviously the girls are not immune, are also enticed with "corruption" of the good times and pregnancy! But it is above all our children - the next generation of men, blacks - who are in real time and in some cases of mortal danger. It might be an exaggeration to say that sport must be seen as a new form of mental and physical slavery. But is it? It is probably true thatbecause it's interesting and connected with the glory, the exercises, that sport is insidious influence on our young people a strong and in some ways his influence.
Ok you say, it is best to keep in perspective. Do not scare mongering the right place? Finally, it's just a game. It can really relieve the sport, what the media moguls, tycoons and fashion houses in the sport? Assuming you have the power and influence, it is not true, but those who like to buy their products,their services and allow us to use?
As powerful as the media, as seductive as the temptation of immediate success Nike sneakers or a NBA or NFL contract to appear, the reality is that most parents and children are not taken by the hype or be fooled by the lies. In other words, the choice is ours. And many of us have to recognize the appeal of the sport, not Michael Jordan or Venus or Serena Williams or Tiger Woods to an entireGeneration do.
The vast majority of young black men who have the reputation of the sport and fashion-media-rally has drawn basketball or football. Almost without a doubt the sport is more "cool" and the black presence is evident. The few players that can either because of their performance or the result (the two together usually) so that they are superstars in the league, the new emblems of success and have become role models for all young black man, his fantasiesOpportunities and sees sport as a ticket-only escape from the ghetto, dictated the room or the boring life of those of his parents 'generation'.
What I find most troubling is the way in which educational opportunities of many young blacks seem to be kidnapped. Of course, knowing the people who do it in the professional world, ranks the importance of a scholarship and a college education. But the stories of cooked notes and stars that can barely read and write, are too real, as publishedImagination.
But perhaps more important than this is the "easy to believe in" the paralyzing can become infected or not our community through our children. Hey, they say and think, do not work too. Just play a little basketball. Do not worry about the school. There is nothing wrong with that jump shot in practice all day in the park homework? What is it?
Forget it, those who need to type anyway? Easy to work on skills Harlem Globetrotter, slam, dunk, dribble, do not exist,drink your milk and Oreo cookies and think of Michael Jordan for success. No problem. Can you do it!
And my prayers are with you. But the reality is that you probably have more chances to do with ratings in the White House and the appointment of an all-black cabinet, like you, the next Michael Jordan, Shaquille O'Neal, Allen Iverson or any other current top basketball stars .
Get Real.
And this is the problem, the cloud of unreality that has colored ourThe thought and blind our vision. And if you do not wake up and soon, our children, our collective blindness to the items without a ghetto of vocational training, limited opportunities for a train that goes nowhere. And there is no need to think too hard, the path from here to the usual drugs and the criminal justice system.
Most of us recognize and accept that the last two pieces in many communities and we regularly hear people against cancer of the crackCocaine or the number of men unjustified blacks behind bars. We are law recognizes these "truths" as evidence that perhaps all is not right in our society. But the possibility that slipping standards of education and the promotion of a simple path to success may be the real curse of our children today are still from the hills of our politicians, community leaders and media personalities are conscientious trumpeted.
When he speaks, then they have to whisper.Either that or I'm deaf slow! Of course, not all athletic and sports stars would be a terrible disservice to her talent in the situation, and try to speak with them, as some people might find that most athletes do not take more children with too much money and too little sense of their own good. While the stereotype remains popular, again largely because of media concentration and deception, is largely false.
There are many articulate young, bright, polite, confident young maleboth men and women who serve as positive role models for the next generation. However, it is unfortunate that interviews with these people or real-time media representations of their lives outside the court or field are few and far between. There is so much easier to concentrate on their sporting talent and promote their star quality. After all, what sells tickets and increases the value of the individual network developer, owner, manager, coach or television.
For allpositive qualities that shine a Michael Jordan can and will catapult to the speed with which all of the people selected for the world stage and becomes at times during the night in American icons, like many of your sons or daughters do you really think she will ever have the 'opportunity to reach the same level of success?
If the answer is one in a million, then you understand the harsh reality. The reality is that the media can get relatively few of the players. As in the case ofHollywood is much easier to work with a single hero. The same formula is followed to some extent in the world of sport.
Written the screenplay, the actors together and only one athlete at a time, play a leading role or Superstar.
Is it any wonder that sports "stars" look almost routine in Hollywood, the music industry or product approvals for the further development of their careers? But give credit where credit is due.
There are some real success storiesthere. In most cases, the quiet and calm, to avoid media attention, and their families, their careers and their future in this order is not usually the stuff of which legends are made of. You will not find these people touted by the media. And there are other stars who have achieved a certain fame, living up to the stereotype, are no longer visible to the success of their lives and their business performance.
Magic Johnson is perhaps an example. It wasNovember 7, 1991, was that the sports world by announcing that the magic had the HIV virus, shaken. The news was shocking. This was a time when HIV was for many synonymous with certain death. Now, a decade later, the magic is a significant force in the field with a reported $ 500 million portfolio of assets.
Many communities are rich in these efforts to take, and no one from these public importance or the success of these entrepreneurial magic acts. However, I always findI wonder if these stories of success and material wealth, the more our leaders and celebrities might be sponsoring scholarship programs, or by exposing them to make their names, their talents and wealth of charter schools, colleges and universities, after school care programs, mentoring programs, summer camps, fields of space, systems of foreign language learning, cultural exchange programs, initiatives computers in schools, science and technology, hospitals, clinics, public housing fairDevelopment activities, libraries, urban regeneration initiatives. The list is almost endless and the benefits far beyond the black community would expand.
But how do I know you are not investing in these things? Just because you hear anything, does not mean that it is not true? Right? Pardon the grammar, but the point is well made. Maybe they're doing all this, but nobody speaks. Finally, it is what excites the Bible when it speaks of humility, and do not let your left hand to rightHand not knowing what he is doing? Well, how come it feels so much the alleged wealth of the individual stars and so little works of "good".?
Certainly, said these good works is a powerful way to be a model.
I mean, let's be realistic, if no one knows what these people do, how can you say, "Hey, brother or sister is to focus on something positive, or invest their time and money in building the communities we expect in our future in our schools,Learning? How can they serve as a powerful example, when you roll into the SEE?
How?
The way I see it, until they are the most visible examples of these investments in people and communities that we are wasting all our time to begin to see. When we see these institutions and build buildings that speak of our communities from the ashes of decaying until it consciously, the song and repeated statements of support for the construction of durable institutions that are alignedImproving the minds of our children and keep them healthy at school and then the success of a Magic Johnson or Michael Jordan might be nothing more than the generosity of a wealthy person who can easily be taken to cast their excess liquidity, in imitation of other rich people are blind.
While not a media star or athlete is required to support public works, and you might as well invest their hard earned money to live elsewhere or rich, we all know that many are still some supportinitiatives that I described above, and are so by foundations or private management investment channels.
The likes of Oprah Winfrey, Bill Cosby, Michael Jackson, Michael Jordan, Spike Lee, Whoopi Goldberg and others have long been positive, though not always the public acts of kindness brought together. Well, now is the time to be out of the closet.
The point I make is that the risks so great that we have to do now is to launch a public campaign, arelead to a public war against the apathy of our children and their acceptance of secondary quality. As an athlete stars and we need to tell and show them the way we walk, talk and spend our money, that education is important. We must tell them that there is more to life than basketball or football coach or too expensive, or MTV, or gangsta rap or Hollywood or video games, or convertible sports car at full load, or the last hand-prison -is-me fashion, condoms or coasts, orGold chains, or reefers, or heroin, or crack or alcohol or cigarettes or beat the band, or get pregnant at fifteen, or a father old enough before driving, or suspended, multiple piercings or tattoos or prison, or even " Fresh to go. "
Whoa!
Is there something I like and want to get rid of?
Or am I to say that there are some natural connection between this litany of alleged negative and professional sports? The answeris of course not. The fact that some sectors of the media to make this association is tragic and dangerous.
The fact that many young people make the connection is dangerous. The only point I make is that the balance of life, it seems that education and sustainable career development through the litany of emotional and material goods of which some have noted above, are still being questioned.
But do not misunderstand. This is not to go back to the wayThings were when George Washington was president (in reality were not so good). Or back in the fifties, when men were men and women, women (yeah right) have been, or a period before it was the drugs were not yet invented the street and television. It is not unrealistic to go back to a time in which each child received a perfect score, there was no fun, no sports, no soda, and all wore gray uniforms.
Rather it is to get together and decide what we want for ourChildren. This is a long, hard look at the reality of the world in which we live. The point is that many of our children are left behind. It is accepted that many of our young men and women - our children - are the losers on the American dream. Their minds and their bodies are exhausted from all energy. Commitment and efforts will be facilitated by the desire to return, usually replaced with little power.
The dangers of a continued focus on life as a journey into theEasy Street are close at hand, have pulled even if not as obvious as the attention of every politician in the country. All parents and citizens with a concern that goes for the future should demand that something be done. More importantly, if one of us is the perception of children in care for children in our block, in our schools, our churches, mosques and synagogues, in our boys and girls clubs, the local Y, hanging off the corners roads.
We should alsoLook for all the others out there. Sports has its place in our society. Basketball, football and baseball, catch, along with many other sports, our collective attention. We are a nation of sports fans. And that's all right. The combination of skill, art, rivalry, strategy, tactics, technique, personality, and the drama is interesting, sometimes exciting.
Sport can also help us during the week and tell us pin our hopes on which (the fate of "our"Team) or, increasingly, the hopes of our children. For many, the charm is harmless to what can be harmful Little League baseball or a friendly competition, or my son to play basketball for a few hours several nights a week, or the fate of his favorite team or player from the TV or fanzine?
The answer is no, as long as the charm is measured and balanced against the need to invest time in other creative occupations, and in particularEducation. Learning to count for something today. Check the efforts of other communities. Recent immigrants from India, Korea and other parts of Southeast Asia have joined their future success in the classroom. Other communities would do well to take note.
If education is important today will be even more important tomorrow.
So we must give our children every opportunity. Join them on the game, applaud their successes, they tend to occasionalbroken spirits and bodies, and for them every possible support to the sport can help them as individuals.
However, we also encourage them to keep everything in perspective and the tendency for some of us, threw us in the role of aspiring coaches, referees and prospective parents of a superstar.
Digest the fact that nine out of ten cases, neither you nor your son do it. I said, in nine out of ten? Add a couple of zeros at nine andcloser to the real relationship between dream and reality.
But even for the minority who are particularly gifted or blessed, and who are determined, determined to water in order to challenge the statistics and make the first step in the ranks of professional sports, the point must be made:
Maximum effort and achievement are not negotiable.
