I grew up everywhere but nowhere. I can divide my youth into thirds. The first third of my school years were spent in University City, a middle class suburb of St. Louis, where Mr. Rice who lived on the corner taught every kid on the block how to ride a bike and led weekly neighborhood rides in the summer. The second third of my life was spent touring East St. Louis and making friend on my bike and the third division was spent ironically back in University City three blocks away from where I lived before. Before graduating from High School I lived in eight different houses and attended seven schools. In reflecting on this experience, I am sure that not only did I suffer socially and academically from this nomadic lifestyle but the communities themselves were cheated as a result of our transience. Living everywhere but nowhere creates a type of Citizenship Homelessness. I belonged to no place and no place belonged to be.
Communities are living ecosystems. For every community resource that is consumed, it has to be replaced to maintain a balanced system. It’s like the first rule of living in the wilderness “take only what you need and live only footprints. However, in the healthiest communities, the members moderately take what is needed and give back generously. Unlike nature, communities need its members to regenerate that which was consumed. In my family’s coming and going we took from several communities and never really gave back to those communities.
Apparently, we were not the only family practicing this irresponsible behavior. Often my brother and I will drive though the old neighborhoods where we lived. Sadly, they are desolate places with scarce populations, barely surviving off a bankrupt community. In the worst case, most the businesses have closed. Where there were once houses, there are now trailer homes scattered about; and where there are houses, it’s hard to tell which ones are inhabited and which one are condemned. Under these conditions, it is no surprise that schools would be underfunded and jobs would be in short supply. Thus there is a perpetuation of poverty and neglect. This is a common place in black urban America.
It is clear that few young people in urban areas feel connected or responsible for the places where they live. Even dogs understand that you don’t poop where you sleep. Yet our kids deface trash, destroy, and yes sometimes piss right on streets the rights where they live. These are clear signs that there is no ownership or value for the black community.
In my mind, we must reinvest in the value of our communities, if they are to survive. To create this value, the very people who have benefited from it must reinvest in it. I am a proponent of volunteering and mentoring. However, I would not consider what Mr. Rice did for us volunteering. We need to be a part of the black community to benefit it. It depends on us on a daily basis to be there; to been seen, to be heard, to be present role models and to be examples of staying back to build up. Communities need the people who have benefited from it, to give back to it in a real way.
