As a black mother, my heart pains every time I turn on the news. Mortuary and funeral business is raking in at an all-time high. We are losing our children left and right. If it’s not at the hands of this treacherous beast named Cancer then we are losing them at the hands of gun violence. R.I.P. and R.W.G. is becoming a coined phrase among our youth. You are seeing more young people filling funeral parlors than anything and I can truly say that this hurts..

I never in a million years would have imagined growing up that when I became an adult I would see this and live in this type of world. There is no more regard for human life. Gone are the days of throwing the hands in the street and walking away with your pride and your life. Gone are the days of walking around your neighborhood unarmed. Gone are the days………..! This generation is literally fighting for their lives. Fighting to see another day!

I live in constant fear. Not for myself but for the lives of my children. Fear of burying my children. My children are supposed to bury me not the other way around! I fear to ever have to see the day of having to stand over my child’s lifeless body pleading for his or her life. I never thought I would see slavery, but we are living modern-day slavery and not at the immediate hand of just Caucasian people but at the hand of our own. The acronym S.O.S. was an international distress signal that stood for Save Our Souls. But in the year 2015 I see the international distress signal being S.O.S.D.P.- Save Our Sons and Daughters Please.

Saving their lives can start at home! Showing them a stable structure and love within the home is a start. Banishing the ‘no snitching’ street code and help a family bring justice to their slain child. Or reporting gun violence so that you can prevent another child lying lifeless in the street. There is SOMETHING that we can all do. Rise up as a community and let it be known that this is intolerable. Intolerable on all grounds…..cops shooting our unarmed black men, teachers preying on our children, fathers abandoning their seeds, mothers abusing and neglecting their children, 15 year old boys throwing their life away over a street beef, our children being killed just for being a bystander in the street……I can go on and on but I will spare you my verbal wrath cause this is killing me mentally and emotionally.

My prayer……My prayer is for our children and their future. I’m praying to see birthdays, graduations, weddings and more from their life! LIFE…… a word that is taking for granted in this day and time. I can only pray for LIFE.