Fatherless Men

Well this is my first official blog. I was watching a show on VH1 starring T.I (Storytellers). Tip begins to explain the inspiration behind his multiple hits. So he performs "Dead and Gone" ft. Justin Timberlake, and I can feel his pain, see the regret, and uncertainty in his eyes. Feel the sad energy through the television. He feels responsible for the death of his friend Phil. And I begin to think about what a heavy burden that must be to carry around in your spirit. Im from the hood, I was raised in the inner city in Cleveland, Ohio and every single day I see young men selling dope on the corner. I see single mothers pushing the strollers with their seed inside. I feel sad, sad and angry that this is a major issue of our people. I have 2 younger brothers, and neither of them have relationships with their fathers. They had to figure out on their own what it means to be a man. My youngest brother is in jail to this day and he is only 18 years of age. Everyday he was risking his freedom and life, for what? a 10 dollar rock, a nickle bag of weed. Something isn't adding up. Wake up black people! We are loosing our Kings and Queens. Their being replaced with no-good fathers, womanizers, jail birds, drug dealers, and bums. How many times do I have to walk over the cement that has a new name spray painted of the latest kid shot and killed? How many times do I have to read R.I.P on the side of some abandoned building. Dead beat fathers, how in the hell do you look in the eyes of your flesh and blood and deny them, how do you just walk away? Wtf is wrong with us? Maybe you know, because im at a loss. How do you walk away and leave your responsibilities, and leave people like me to mourn for this tragedy within or community. Im tired of carrying this shit, but I can't walk away even though you make it look so easy. Im scarred for the man that my brother will become, or won't become. All he knows is the ways of the hood, can he even imagine a life outside of it? I know i couldnt, I thought I would fall victim to it just like everyone else I knew. Waiting around for welfare checks, multiple kids by different fathers....this was the life I thought was predestined for me. It was all i saw, all I knew. Did our ancestors fight for our freedom just for us to put ourselves back in the handcuffs? I pray for the day that there is a day or reckoning, a day of change and realization. I pray.