When I was younger, my grandmother use to talk about our neighborhood in North Philly. Since moving there sometime in the late 60s, she told me how our block had gone down. She used to reminisce on how nice it used to be and how the residents would take pride in their homes/neighborhood!
Well since then, that same block has continued its same downward spiral into one big statistic!
My grandmother would clean her porch (patio), steps (stoop) as well as sidewalk every week…or have me do it! After getting done, there would be debris blowing by on the ground yet again. I would ask her, why bother to clean if it’ll only get dirty again! Her reply, was wise yet simple! She would say, “If you don’t take pride in where you live and what you work hard to get, no one will!”
It got me to thinking and I never questioned it again… She would also say, “If everyone cleaned in front of only their own door, then the entire block would be clean!”
BOOM!!!!!!
Man, I still use that mantra to this day. I think it’s the pivotal solution to the issue that is the state of black Americans today!
If each and every individual would take the time to clean up their own act, family and home…well then then the entire race would be so well off! We can’t help everyone but we should and could do better with our own selves everyday…and if that act would spread…WHOA!!! What a difference we could make…
Drunken Insomniac Writer 