The above title should have a question mark at the end of it, not so much because I doubt the power of prayer to change things — it’s just that I seriously doubt that the power of prayer alone can change things. Even the Christian bible says that prayers without works and deeds are essentially meaningless.
Indeed, if simply praying over situations or tragedies alone would solve or even ameliorate them, we black Americans would be the most successful group on the planet, since we are by far and away the most prayerful people in the history of mankind. When something goes wrong — to us individually or as a group — the immediate response by most black folk is to “pray over it.”
On reflection, I think this is a natural response of a powerless people: We blacks are usually unable to effectuate real change in a society controlled by the white majority, but still, wanting to do something positive, we are relegated to simply “praying over it.”
While all of this praying might provide temporary succor, it doesn’t provide solutions in either the short or long term since the same bad things keep happening to us from outside and inside our race over and over again — such as the recent spate of deaths due to gun violence.
A couple of photos recently were prominently featured in the Plain Dealer showing high school girls marching and praying over the deaths of innocent children in our community. Curiously, in one of the photos they were smiling — seemingly laughing — and have a grand ’ol time; but alas, the only concrete benefit that will come out their efforts is that they — due to all the walking — got some exercise.
But with that said, prayer certainly does work — but usually only for religiously inclined individuals. However, the problem is, the thugs pulling the triggers rarely were brought up in religious families. The only thing they are praying for is to kill their enemies before they get killed.
No, solving the problem of deaths due to gun violence is going to require a willingness on our part to adopt other strategies to go along with praying. And admittedly, one of them I’m going put forth is going to sound counterintuitive to many folks.
But similar to those with strong religious beliefs, I’ve long held a number of strong beliefs of my own.
One belief is that we’re never going to be able to reduce the violence by reducing the number of guns available on our streets. There quite simply are too many guns in America for that strategy to work, and the gun lobby in America is far too strong. We have to face it that guns are here to stay, period.
Flawed thinking that gun buy-back programs and police sweeps through neighborhoods are going to solve the problem is similar to the nonsensical thinking that we were going to win the “War on Drugs” by reducing — choking off — the supply. We’ve been engaging in that wrongheaded interdiction approach for going on 50 years, and now there are more powerful and cheaper drugs available than ever on the streets of America.
My second belief is that no amount of threatening, pleading or cajoling is going to deter a certain percentage of young people in our community from somehow acquiring a gun. Our national fascination with firearms is simply too strong, and it is reinforced by popular culture via movies and TV. A gun immediately transforms the “powerless” into the “powerful,” providing them with the power of death over life. Playing with guns is simply irresistible for many in today’s environment.
Which brings me to my third belief: Familiarity with firearms — along with a strong component of education and training — can have a positive effect in terms of reducing the number of deaths we are currently witnessing due to guns violence. Yes, I’m talking about providing firearms training to young inner-city residents.
Now, before your mind shuts down and you completely dismiss this idea out of hand, come to the Hilton Garden Inn at the Cleveland Airport on Sat 10/17 @ 9am and listen to some experts that have reduced gun violence in other communities by providing firearms training to young people.
The situation in Cleveland is past critical, it’s time we try something else, something that has a chance of working. And at this point we have nothing else to lose.
From Cool Cleveland correspondent Mansfield B. Frazier mansfieldfATgmail.com. Frazier’s From Behind The Wall: Commentary on Crime, Punishment, Race and the Underclass by a Prison Inmate is available again in hardback. Snag your copy and have it signed by the author by visiting http://NeighborhoodSolutionsInc.com.