5 Good Things

Giving honor to God.  Somewhere, some place a 47-year-old male just took his last breath and therefore, being here with you in this moment is something that I do not take lightly.  Also, I want to thank the Paxon staff for inviting me to be a part of your event.  Although, I am just a fill in I won’t hold that against anyone. 

That being said I was asked to provide a few perils of wisdom to you all and I don’t know about you but anytime anyone ask me to do that I always feel a little old.  I mean I am not much of a Nana’er or Dabber but I got a mean two-step and I do Tweet from time to time.  However, given the request I will do my best and not take too much of your time because I do know you all have things to do. 

So here we go there are about 5 things that I think are relevant for you to know, particularly as young people as you move forward to your next whatever your next may be.  Now I feel it is personally important for you to know that your next is not going to look like anyone in this room.  One of the things that I find particularly fascinating about you all as a generation is your ability to not only do your own thing, but how you all as a generation can make people and in some instances contort society to fit your own model of how things should be.  But know matter if you are doing you or you are doing the masses I feel like these things will work for you.

Therefore, I present to you my 5 things…

1.     True knowledge comes through experience and everything else represents information.  What I mean by that is you have to go through some things in or to have experiences.  This is particularly important as many of you are navigating your late teens and some of you are about to enter college you have this feel that you know everything and your parents and or care givers ain’t up on what are experiencing, but I am here to tell you that ain’t nothing new under the sun.  It’s just repackaged.  Therefore, take advantage of some of the sage wisdom in your life.  It can save you from having to go through so much drama in the long run.  You don’t have to get burned by a fire in order to prove it’s hot when 10 people in your space have already had the experience and can tell you that’s a fire and it will burn you. 

2.     Catastrophe and celebration are like joy and pain they are simultaneous journeys and you cannot have one without the other.  What I mean by this is so many of us get lost in the celebration of success and often times for the toll it took to get there.  Therefore, what I would like to do for you today is encourage each of you to not get to high when things are great and not get to low when things are bad.  Savor the journey through each and appreciate the lessons on each.  I say this knowing it is hard when you are experiencing on of life moments, but I give you this analogy.  No one like to take Pepto Bismol or any other medicine, but man what a relief we feel when it starts its healing action.

3.     Do everything with F.I.R.E

Focus

Intention

Reverence

Energy

Success no matter how you define it cannot happen without it. 

4.     The 4^th point I particularly leave with you all as young people because you all have grown up in an era where service to others is more like an obligation rather than just what you do as a member of the human race.  But, the great Shirley Chilsom said, “Service to others is the rent we pay for living on earth.”  No one should have to prod you or offer you bonus points to serve your neighbor.  It should be just something you do.  Therefore, I challenge you to just commit a random act of kindness and watch the liberation you get when you allow yourself to be a manifestation of a POWER that’s greater than you.

5.      The 5^th and final point I would like to make is that if you are really going to soar you not only have to know your craft, but know yourself.  Ain’t nothing more disturbing to me than a delusional rapper or ballplayer.  But in all seriousness we have to be honest with ourselves more than anyone because I assure you today is already passed and tomorrow is not promised and the graveyard is fill with people who were either not honest with themselves or full of potential.

As I prepare to sit I leave you with a saying my Granddaddy Rob use to say

Walk Slow – What he meant by that was no Holy person whether it was Jesus, Mohammad or Buddha ever was in a hurry to do anything.  Therefore, take your time and enjoy the ride.  I assure you it whatever it is will be there. 

Drink Plenty of Water – The journey of life is long.  Therefore, if you are going to go you must stay hydrated.  There is something to this water thing. 

And keep your nose in front of you – What he meant was mind your own business. 

With that said

I bid you love

I bid you peace 

And most of I bid you understand  

I AM

Dr. Irvin PeDro Cohen

In Light Of

I have often suggested that African American men are by far the best actors on the plant.  Not particularly because of any cinematic skills we posses, but because of the real time, real life character dexterity we must show at all times. I guess one could call it an inherent bi-polarness or innate code switching ability you are born with that lies dormant until the appropriate time and then BAM it appears. However, with the latest round of public executions of African-American men it is making me question if somehow my inherent navigational tool is miscalibrated or have we sped back into a time when the perception of what made America great constituted Strange Fruit (Google Billie Holliday). 

As both a front line solider and a public intellectual even I am at a loss for what is appropriate actions when you see the lives of so many being taken by those who masquerade as public servants under the guise of protecting and serving.  The rules that were passed down to allow me to navigate the inherent system of injustices seem to be out of date without a corresponding upgrade. 

Don’t do crime and you will be ok seems to be the prevailing wisdom from those least impacted, but what is seemingly victimless incidents both legal and questionable are leaving countless African-American men DEAD.  I offer the following for proof:

Alton Sterling selling CD’s

Philando Castile sitting in his car reaching for his registration

Eric Gardner selling lose cigarettes

Samuel Dubois missing a front license plate

Oscar Grant riding a commuter train

These are just a few of the instances that ended in a loss of life not just for them, but for those of us share their ethnicity and gender.  I attest to both my own reality and my even larger humanity that a part of me dies every time I hear about an African-American dying at the hands of the police. 

I immediately find myself asking was not the corresponding code switching apparatus not working for these men?  Did they forget the scene and stayed in a previous character to long, therefore forgetting the consequences were going to be death.  I am not sure and the pain of having to wait for a system of injustice that has proven way more favorable to the other side seems unbearable. 

One of my favorite poets/musician/thinkers of all time Gil Scott Heron said the Revolution Will Not Be Televised, but I beg to differ the revolution is being televised courtesy of Apple and Android and is being beamed into our sub-consciousness via Facebook.  Yet a significant reaction that will equally disrupt the moral consciousness of the masses has yet to be birthed so for now I give what I have to the cause and that’s the breath I breathe into these thoughts, the work of illuminating my larger humanity and the part of my spirit that dies tragically every time an African-American is killed by law enforcement.

This is my truth and it is real heavy right now.

Dr. Irvin PeDro Cohen

#RIPAltonSterling

#RIPPhilandoCastile

No Hash Tag

The rash of violence that has seemed to engulf my beloved city has taken me like many other people throughout my city aback.  However, the recent death of young Aiden McClendon struck a particular cord with me.  Not only because of his youth (22 months old), but the seemly randomness by which his young life was taken. At 22 months he had yet to discover any of the gifts or let alone curses life would even offer him and now we collectively mourn his tragic death.

Over the last 24hrs as I have trolled my social media timeline I have seen the ubiquitous call for prayers and the political response by both the Mayor and the Sheriff.  Personally, I have found little solace in either as none of the aforementioned has brought about a true reconciliation with what I see and hear.  Mentally and spiritually I am conflicted as I try and reject the idea that the very communities that raised me and so many of my peers have evolved into violent hinterlands where not even the youngest of lives is spared. Joy and pain are celebrated equally at the same story line depending on the neighborhood you from.

As I gather my thoughts I find myself asking what is the tipping point for our community? What is the line that everyone understands we cannot cross despite any larger beefs?  Under what circumstances do we say jail is the consequence for this particular action?  Or have we just evolved to a space and place where no one or any place is safe?  Even on the Wire and the Godfather they had rules.  

I also find myself asking what is the solution to such rampant and senseless violence that has seemingly become commonplace for not only my community, but also many others like it across the country.  I have evolved from a place where I simply believe that economic piety is the cure all for what ails many within these troubled neighborhoods and simply blaming the structural racism that exist is far to easy.  Fact of the matter is none of the referenced is valid reasons as to why young Aiden is dead.  He was too young to understand the value of a dollar and far to innocent to be sucked into the vortex of racism. 

Yet as the days go by and the Internet trolls on there will be no shutting down of roads, or calls for justice about his death.  There will be no tears shed beyond his families or any marches with participants shouting “No Justice, No Peace.”  His death won’t represent a watershed moment worthy of a hash tag. It will be just another day, with just another name that died on the mean city streets of our beloved city.   

And for that I am truly ashamed.

This is my truth and I AM sticking to it.

I AM

Dr. Irvin PeDro Cohen

Cocktails and Conversation

In a conversation with a friend regarding Richard Sherman’s comments about the merits of the Blacklivesmatter Movement it amazed me how stark the difference can be depending on your perspective and your belief regarding Power and who has it.  I mentioned to my friend that I found nothing wrong with Richard Sherman’s comments, nor did I see where it took the focus off the issue of police brutality.  However, it did put the issue of Black on Black crime and how we as a community address it or not. 

First and foremost allow me to say that I am well aware of the fact that people kill who they have proximity to therefore, not only do blacks kill blacks more often than anyone else, whites kill whites just as much.  Matter of fact according to the Department of Justice, 84% of whites who are killed in this country are killed by someone who looks just like them.  That being said the backlash Richard Sherman received was indicative of the level of sensitivity we as a community have when someone from within floats commentary that seemingly goes against the collective mindset.

I went on to suggest to him that while I am personally, emotionally and spiritually sensitive to the lives that are lost at the hands of law enforcement I am even more impacted at the lives that are lost on the blocks and in the hoods at the hands of people who look just like me.  I went on to explain that I feel this way because it is on those same blocks and in those same neighborhoods I see the greatest reflection of my own story both good and bad.  Therefore, it is my opinion that there is a greater accountability there because when you see me you should be seeing a reflection of yourself.  Yet daily many young black and brown men die on the corners and streets across this country and no one marches, no one protest and in many cases vows of not to snitch are taken and as I argued to him the pain is just as real. 

A family’s pain is no less painful when their son or daughter dies at the hands of Officer Friendly or at the hands of De Bo.  My friend disagreed in terms of his belief that we have learned to live with one while the other is completely unacceptable.  One is an outcome of structural racism and the other is because of a learned behavior regarding self.

My friend’s position rested in the Power and Responsibility law enforcement has versus everyone else.  While I tend to agree I also know that Power by in large rest in Perception and having Responsibility does not automatically make you Competent to have any of the aforementioned.  I did suggest to him that what the Blacklivesmatter Movement has done through the aid of technology is galvanized people around the ghost in the machine relative to police behavior in communities of color and how that behavior can and has led to death for many people of color at the slightest provocation or lack thereof. 

I further suggested to him that police behavior or lack thereof in communities of color is about Power and the ability to enforce that Power simply because of who and what they represent, sorta like the Overseer on a plantation. Matter of opinion I think we give away our God given Power way to often to our very own detriment and that act of surrender leaves communities of color vulnerable to many things including the bullet, the Bible and the ballot.  However, I personally refuse to acquiesce my own personal Power to the Power of anyone simple because they have a badge, Bible or anything else so I guess I will simply die with my Chuck Taylor's on and a clean consciousness. 

That’s my truth and I AM sticking to it…

I AM 

Dr. Irvin PeDro Cohen