Holy Holy is the lord
His Life Was Cut Short by Alberta Parish
November 15, 2008
His Life Was Cut Short by Alberta Parish
This past week, one of my younger cousins died from a severe beating while serving a lengthy prison sentence for a range of crimes he had committed in 1998. A homicide investigation is being conducted at present. Growing up with him, we used to always fight like cats and dogs. Like me, he had a bit of a temper. Only his temper was far worse than mine. In recent years, I came to realize that he had always had emotional problems. This was so very evident even during his childhood years. Of course, I should know because I’ve battled emotional problems. My problems stemmed from early childhood abuse, which was verbal/emotional abuse (but NOT from my mother). I went through this in some form or another from the age of twelve all the way to my mid-twenties. These days, I can talk freely about my experiences, but there was a time when I didn’t understand why I felt the anger and unforgiveness that I felt. I couldn’t understand at one point why I was snapping on people, and sometimes it would be over nonsense. After much self-observance, soul-searching, and just reading books about the emotional, sexual or physical abuse that people experienced as children, that’s when I went back over the span of my young life and then it all became clear to me. I learned about what it was that I went through growing up, which made me the person that I am today.
My cousin had begun serving his prison sentence at the age of eighteen. Even though I understand the circumstances that got him incarcerated ten years ago, I still feel in my heart that he didn’t have to end up going to prison and losing his life in the manner that he did. I still to this very day do not fault him one hundred percent in the way he turned out. With the right counseling from a professional therapist, this boy’s life could’ve been saved period. See, the system doesn’t always want to recognize mental illness in black kids like they will in a white kid. They want to lock black men and black women up and throw away the key and say there’s no hope for them. The system want to make it seem like when a black kid commits certain violent crimes, he/she are just animals and deserve to be locked up forever behind bars. The system doesn’t really care to rehabilitate a young black boy like they will a white boy. They’ll give a black boy more prison time for crimes that did not involve a murder than they will a white boy who has actually killed someone, or even raped and murdered a child. There are convicted child rapists and murderers walking among us who obviously should be in prison still.
The only reason why I didn’t turn out 100% dysfunctional is because I gave my life to Jesus at the age of thirteen. Jesus saved my life! See, I wasn’t supposed to make it! But God had His hands on my life period! It was meant for me to get into the church and give my life to Jesus. You can’t tell from the blogs I write that I was raised in the church, but I was. Just looking at what’s happening around me, I’m blessed because my life really could’ve taken a turn for the worse in my earlier years. But see, Jesus was always there to save me from myself. Why young people have the problems they have with drugs, alcohol, being suicidal and in and out of jail/prison all the time; a lot of it stems from that child’s upbringing and the negative experiences that child had. See, when you have the ability to love a child, care about his/her future, raise a child with a belief system in a Higher Power and teach that child that there are consequences to his actions, nine times out of ten that child won’t go out into the world and harm others unless of course, he or she has a mental problem. These mental problems can range from bipolar disorder to emotional problems or even sociopathic behavior. Know your children, because the system doesn’t give a damn about your black child. They specialize in locking up young black men and black women all over America, throwing away the key, and saying there is no hope for him…there is no hope for her. They don’t care about rehabilitating a young black man in prison. This is why you have to make sure your black child doesn’t go into the criminal justice system period. Save his/her life before the system takes his/her life!
His Life Was Cut Short by Alberta Parish
This past week, one of my younger cousins died from a severe beating while serving a lengthy prison sentence for a range of crimes he had committed in 1998. A homicide investigation is being conducted at present. Growing up with him, we used to always fight like cats and dogs. Like me, he had a bit of a temper. Only his temper was far worse than mine. In recent years, I came to realize that he had always had emotional problems. This was so very evident even during his childhood years. Of course, I should know because I’ve battled emotional problems. My problems stemmed from early childhood abuse, which was verbal/emotional abuse (but NOT from my mother). I went through this in some form or another from the age of twelve all the way to my mid-twenties. These days, I can talk freely about my experiences, but there was a time when I didn’t understand why I felt the anger and unforgiveness that I felt. I couldn’t understand at one point why I was snapping on people, and sometimes it would be over nonsense. After much self-observance, soul-searching, and just reading books about the emotional, sexual or physical abuse that people experienced as children, that’s when I went back over the span of my young life and then it all became clear to me. I learned about what it was that I went through growing up, which made me the person that I am today.
My cousin had begun serving his prison sentence at the age of eighteen. Even though I understand the circumstances that got him incarcerated ten years ago, I still feel in my heart that he didn’t have to end up going to prison and losing his life in the manner that he did. I still to this very day do not fault him one hundred percent in the way he turned out. With the right counseling from a professional therapist, this boy’s life could’ve been saved period. See, the system doesn’t always want to recognize mental illness in black kids like they will in a white kid. They want to lock black men and black women up and throw away the key and say there’s no hope for them. The system want to make it seem like when a black kid commits certain violent crimes, he/she are just animals and deserve to be locked up forever behind bars. The system doesn’t really care to rehabilitate a young black boy like they will a white boy. They’ll give a black boy more prison time for crimes that did not involve a murder than they will a white boy who has actually killed someone, or even raped and murdered a child. There are convicted child rapists and murderers walking among us who obviously should be in prison still.
The only reason why I didn’t turn out 100% dysfunctional is because I gave my life to Jesus at the age of thirteen. Jesus saved my life! See, I wasn’t supposed to make it! But God had His hands on my life period! It was meant for me to get into the church and give my life to Jesus. You can’t tell from the blogs I write that I was raised in the church, but I was. Just looking at what’s happening around me, I’m blessed because my life really could’ve taken a turn for the worse in my earlier years. But see, Jesus was always there to save me from myself. Why young people have the problems they have with drugs, alcohol, being suicidal and in and out of jail/prison all the time; a lot of it stems from that child’s upbringing and the negative experiences that child had. See, when you have the ability to love a child, care about his/her future, raise a child with a belief system in a Higher Power and teach that child that there are consequences to his actions, nine times out of ten that child won’t go out into the world and harm others unless of course, he or she has a mental problem. These mental problems can range from bipolar disorder to emotional problems or even sociopathic behavior. Know your children, because the system doesn’t give a damn about your black child. They specialize in locking up young black men and black women all over America, throwing away the key, and saying there is no hope for him…there is no hope for her. They don’t care about rehabilitating a young black man in prison. This is why you have to make sure your black child doesn’t go into the criminal justice system period. Save his/her life before the system takes his/her life!
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