Parenting is the most important job in the world and too many people do not take it seriously.

But blaming women only doesn’t cut it. What about all de man dem spreadin’ dem seed with any woman who’ll say “yes”, and all too often those who won’t?

Shortsightedness is the disease. Having children is expensive. Financially and emotionally. They are not just little decorations that we leave to themselves when they aren’t cute anymore. It’s an 18 plus year commitment.

I have seen women at the supermarkets with little ones in the cart. When I used to bring my little one anywhere, I’d bring a few little toys to keep her occupied (and I’d talk to her and play with her) while we shopped. I am always appalled to see tiny ones getting smacked for wanting to touch things in stores. Kids learn by touching things and being conversed with. If a child reaches for something inappropriate in a store or wherever, s/he should be distracted, in a loving way, by something more appropriate.

It’s called being a responsible parent. I had one child. That’s all I had the emotional energy for, because I took my job as a parent more seriously than any other job I have ever had.

I spoke with some local officers on my last visit home and they mentioned that when parents and those who are sworn in to protect and serve the community aren’t doing their jobs it just makes for a bad environment.

Solution! While it’s clear as day to see we’ve lost a generation or two, we’re going to have to start with the very young and have them understand that we are Kings and Queens and not shottas (gangsters) and dancehall divas. Instill morals and values, love and respect for your fellow man/woman. We need a community based grassroots movement based on and I stress Love and Respect in order to unite our beautiful Caribbean People and restore the quality of life we so deserve.

And as for those who are hustling for titles, positions and pensions be it Government, CEO of a private company (Blah! Blah! Blah!) or any one of influence we have to get up in their face as a community and inform them that we will not tolerate no BS!

How many of us in the community will reach out to that teen mother struggling to raise boys into men. Do we say any longer, I would like to take your child with me to church on Sunday, or Is it OK if I took your son to little league with my son. Or do we look down our noses and say nothing good wiil come out of that family. Most adults who were able to overcome at-risk homes or troubled teen years would tell you that it was a concerned family member or someone in the community who gave the time to show them that there were opportunities and better years ahead for them.

And it doesn’t take any federal grant to touch one child at a time. Maybe you will not be financially compensated or recognized at phony luncheon, but the child you turn around may be one less juvenille in our community. Maybe we need to start thinking as a village. God knows we are small enough.

I challange you, the reader, to look around you and touch that child who may be at-risk, help a child with homework, sell the message of the importance of education, offer spiritual food to spiritually deprived home, or teach a child to read or to love reading. And I challenge the federal grant program managers to do what you intended to do – save our youths.

And while we salvaging our troubled youths, tell the men in our community that little girls and boys are not placed here for their sexual gratification- a profound and ignored cause of many single, jobless mothers and angry young men.

Love thyself, love thy brother and sister.