I always thought a football coach or even announcer who had actually played the game at some level had an advantage over those who hadn’t. It was Jim Mora who said “…you think you know, but you don’t know. And you never will.” I think he’s right, but not just about football.
We all have THEORIES on juvenile crime. We think we know how it starts, and we think we know how to stop it. Most of the time, though, we don’t know; and we never will. That is definitely NOT the case with Roosevelt Muhammad. “Brother Ro” as he’s known has been there and done that.
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Roosevelt Muhammed spent a lot of the 1990s selling drugs and goes so far as to describe himself as a savage during that time. But he learned to read, turned his life around and has founded the “Young Professionals Movement” with the goal of keeping unattended poor, uneducated inner-city youth from going down his path.
For a long time I’ve thought a big problem with kids growing up with poverty is they’ve been taught to view life as all or nothing at all. Because rap stars and athletes are placed on such a pedestal that becomes their goal. If that can’t be obtained then, they rationalize, they may as well sell drugs; and if they die, they die. But rational people know that’s not true.
Rational people, and Roosevelt Muhammed is certainly rational, know that there’s a tremendous amount of happy living to be done between selling drugs on a street corner and owning mansions and cars. Most of the country does it every day. We get up, and we go to work. We earn a living and provide for our families. Knowing how hard money is to earn, we respect how we spend it and save for things that are special. Things like a new car or taking our families on vacation.
Roosevelt Muhammed gets it. He knows that education is the answer to stemming juvenile crime. He knows that some parents don’t care. His own mother was a drug addict who hadn’t figured it out. Through the grace of God and his own hard work, Roosevelt DID finally get it. Now he’s trying to share it with at-risk youth.
Roosevelt will tell you GIVING things to kids is not the answer. Setting them up to EARN things is. He also believes that it's vital for successful people in all walks of life, from plumbers to CEO’s, talk to young people to explain to them how hard-earned money can lead to a long happy life. The narrative has to be changed. Fast, easy, dangerous money selling drugs is not a sustainable lifestyle. It’s a ticket to prison or the cemetery.
You can find out more about Roosevelt’s organization by visiting his Young Professionals Movement Facebook page. See if it’s something you’d want to get involved with. I will definitely have him on again to spread his message. You want to do away with juvenile crime listen to Roosevelt Muhammed. He knows what to do.