We take so much for granted in America. We don't have everything we need such as a healthy and affordable food supply for everyone and some other things, but we do have a degree of freedom unlike these Palestinian children in the video. They literally have to climb mountains and walk through the wilderness to get to school. Their parents understand the importance of education and that their enemy can take everything else from them except their education. This video needs to be shown in many places across America.
The Palestinians are prisoners in their own land. They've been boxed in, banished, walled in, chased off, bombarded, humiliated, and still they encourage their kids to go to school to learn and not to play, socialize bully, and date.
African-Americans parents really need to see this. Yes, we don't live in a post-racial society, but imagine if your children had to get up at 4AM and ride a donkey to a school that is two hours away.
Schools have been renovated and rebuilt in my town almost each year for the last several years. They have added extra centers of learning for high school students, but here the graduation rate is still only 70.1%. For the state where I reside it is only 69%. The school district thinks it's an achievement to be a point higher this year than the state. This is not an achievement. Still 30% of the students are falling through the cracks, and it can't be blamed on all the teachers either. In some areas of the country which are predominately African-American the rate is only 50%.
In some ways we have it worse than the Palestinians. For one I seriously doubt if these children come from homes where the women are single. Illegitimacy is rare in the Muslim world. Depending on the country, you could pay with your life if you had a child out of wedlock. Marriage, family, community, and if existent tribe and clan are still important. The idea of the "strong" individual alone and without support is alien to the mindset of most people in the Middle East, Africa, and many Asian cultures.
So how do we blacks in America rebuild ourselves? It takes a home at a time working on itself and the children. We African-Americans need to start marrying again and teaching the children that education is a foundation and ticket out of ignorance and self-destruction. Being a rapper, singer, actor, preacher, or a ballplayer are not the only options for us. There are so many different careers, and you don't have to be rich and in the spotlight to be happy and fulfilled.
The Palestinians are isolated with no one to look out for them. The Israelis sometimes come in and bulldoze schools making it very difficult for Palestinian children to go to school.
These Palestinians in the video are prisoners in their own land, but still they are attempting to build a future for their kids by encouraging them to get an education no matter what.
They make no excuses.
No one can save African-Americans now. There's few that even care. Obama doesn't care. The "messiahs" and "Moses" of the past failed to get most of us out of bondage because the biggest bondage of all that most of us have is in our own minds. We have to free ourselves one individual at a time.
If I could have convinced more slaves that they were slaves, I could have freed thousands more. ~ Harriet Tubman
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