©2012. Erin’s Echo. All rights reserved.
Regardless of who argues the point, society's norms and the media have a
major influence on how people think...that
influence can be either positive or negative depending on a person’s
personal beliefs. The percentage of that
influence varies, but no one is an exception; including me.
As I sit and box a donation for gift bags for Diamond’s
House 2nd Annual Youth Empowerment Conference, I
think about how important it is for youths and young adults to have a POSITIVE
FORCE in their lives. I wonder, “Am I doing all I can to help those I know and
those I don’t know”? How about you? What are you doing to empower our youth?
Do you offer words
of encouragement or contribute to the decline? Knowingly and unknowingly, a person can say
something to build a person up…or sadly, break a person down. Today, not only
do we stereotype, we judge and criticize.
The media, in the form of TV shows and programs, portrays and presents
some blue-colored jobs as unlucrative and bottomless. Nevermind that the job is
HONORABLE.
Geographical location aside, you will find a young man or young woman who
aspires to be a hip hop artist, an actor/actress, a professional athlete, a
lawyer, doctor, police, educator,etc. These are all honorable jobs…LEGIT jobs,
but so are jobs that the media and some people consider less favorable.
These less favorable, yet HONORABLE jobs, may not give one a 6-figure
income, but if you are sitting at home all day with no income living off of the
system or someone else (Bum)…no health issues (Lazy Bum)… or being a bootleg
pharmacist (Drug Dealer), a broke-down stockbroker (Gambler)...illegal furniture mover (Thief), medical trial
participant (Drug Addict), or pseudo babysitter (having babies as a hobby), an
unfavorable sounding job sounds mighty favorable to me!
I tell you this today; I tell you this tomorrow…young men, IT IS OKAY to
work as a cook at McDonald’s or Burger King…IT IT OKAY to desire to one day own
your own franchise! IT IS OKAY to drive a cab, a truck…IT IS OKAY to want to
own and operate your own cab and/or trucking company! IT IS OKAY to be a Sanitation
Engineer, Barber, and/or factory worker.
IT IS …IT REALLY IS OKAY!
Young women, IT IS OKAY to be a store clerk…IT IS OKAY to be a dishwasher…IT
IS OKAY to aspire to own your own restaurant or clothing or whatnot store…IT IS
OKAY! IT IS OKAY to wash hair at a
beauty salon or sweep the hair up off the floor…IT IS OKAY to admire the
stylist and enroll in Beauty School and dream to have your own salon and spa!
IT IS OKAY to be a telemarketer…IT IS OKAY to be an appointment setter…really,
it is…IT IS OKAY!
There is no HONOR in being a drug dealer, gang banger, pimp, hooker,
7-time baby mama/baby daddy (when you don’t take care of the baby #1) nor a
thief. Careers and jobs are not about salary,they are about HONOR. If you are
in a job or situation where you want more, no one can do that for you, but YOU!
IT IS OKAY to have dreams…IT IS OKAY to aspire what mainstream media and society condemns as a job…IT IS…IT REALLY IS!
You don’t have to be a professional athlete! You don’t have to be an
entertainer. You don’t have to be a model. You don’t! You do NOT!
If I could tell you how many young men and women I have met that said, “If
only”…. “if only”….”if only I had someone to guide me…to lead me…to tell
me…that it was OKAY…to support me…to believe in me…to mentor me…to not put me
down…just to have my back as I TRIED…TRIED to make an honorable living…IF
ONLY!”
When is the
right time to do right and refrain from wrong? Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. answered,
“Never,
never be afraid to do what's right, especially if the well-being of a person or
animal is at stake. Society's punishments are small compared to the wounds we
inflict on our soul when we look the other way... Nothing in the world is more
dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity!”
…IT IS
OKAY...
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