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Strong adult guidance can prevent hotheaded children’s violence that may lead to tomorrow’s killings over ridiculousness. Children must learn to resolve their differences without the need of violence.
When I walk through my neighborhood people allow me to sit on their porches if I need to stop. Before my illness, I would walk while chatting with people along the way with my dog Shaka. I got many stories for articles, so it took a few hours to do what could have been done in less than one hour.
Today, Shaka is gone and I cannot walk long distances without using a cane and stopping several times to rest my feet. I stopped in Hanes Park in Wilmington DE to pull off my shoes and rest my feet while sitting on a park bench. I marveled at roughly 75 percent of the children being African American and 25 percent Caucasian playing together while mothers sit quietly reading or on cellphones.
There was an African American couple sitting directly across from me with a baby girl who appeared to be roughly one year old that was not quite ready to run and play with the other kids. This baby girl was being held by the male for she rested in his lap. I was happy seeing this young African American male participating in the baby’s life.
There is a bell in my mind that says it is time to continue my walk for my feet have recuperated. I put my shoes back on and stood up when I noticed the African American couple walking holding on the baby girl’s hands as she attempted to walk.
Then suddenly I heard the African American mother screaming, “Chill it! You all chill it!”
I looked up and saw a couple of African American kids chasing, this guesstimated six years old, African American boy on his bicycle with the intent I guess of starting a fight. There must have been some sort of collision between children that precipitated the potential of a fight. However, this African American young mother defused the situation by making everyone understand what happened was an accident.
I personally think the kids understood that this African American mother was no one to challenge. The kids immediately stopped chasing the kid on the bicycle. Everyone looked in the direction of the African American mother and the situation calmed down. The African American father never had to say one word.
This young African American mother’s action reminded me when I was young when adults could correct children doing foolhardy things. If you challenged the adult’s authority, your parents would severely chastise you. Furthermore, we might fight and an hour later be back playing together as nothing had ever happened.
Hanes Park has all new and first rate play equipment for the children. I think this African American mother’s action helped, in the long run, in preventing this park from turning into a killing field by making it clear that there is park decorum for everyone. This African American young mother demonstrated to these kids, by correcting their bad behavior, that there is a village helping to raise them.
