George Clooney Arrested!! OK so for the people I call my Brothers and Sisters talking about being arrested isn’t a big deal but I must admit that I am impressed by his pressure on Sudan. I usually get annoyed that people focus on issues abroad rather than issues here at home but this is different. Mr. Clooney is actually very articulate when he speaks about what is going on in Sudan unlike many other movie stars that just read a script. He has traveled there and has really invested a lot of his time to stop the madness in Sudan. Being arrested is the badge that most activists wear with pride because they feel that they made the “system” respond to their protest. Others think that if you haven’t been arrested then you haven’t made a point and if that’s the case then my Brothers and Sisters on the street have made a HUGE point a long time ago.
Mr. Clooney is obviously fighting for Peace in Sudan and trying to save lives the best way he can, with his celebrity status. He really doesn’t have to because he can join hundreds of his peers and just live it up and drop a check into someone’s bucket and hope it makes a difference. What I see him doing is taking responsibility for being who he is and using it to help others. We all have that responsibility in our lives whether we have the money Mr. Clooney has or not. Some might say that not only can they not travel to Sudan but they don’t have money to donate to the cause to help. We all have a role to play in life and we just have to be willing to find out what that role is. What keeps amazing me is the lack of people willing to take an activist role to reduce violence in our youth REGARDLESS if that youth is gang involved or not. See when you are ONLY willing to deal with certain people you’ll always leave someone else with the feeling of dismissal. That person you might be dismissing might have the answer to many problems but we won’t talk to them unless they meet our terms first. Many people say that the youth violence is a social service problem or even a police problem and that’s where the real problem begins.
Would it be OK if I said to someone “I’m sorry, I cannot help you unless you believe in Jesus Christ.” Or “I’m sorry I would help you but I only help Latino and African American Men I don’t deal with Women or White men.” It sounds horrible doesn’t it? We are under 100 years of not only giving the right for Women to vote but also having the Civil rights Bill that took away ( in theory) the “whites only” signs so why do we still put conditions on helping others?
Dealing with violence in our own land is very difficult because old feelings about the Civil Rights movement are still fresh in people’s minds mostly because we still have people alive today that marched with Martin Luther King. We don’t need a history book we can just simply ask people like Jesse Jackson about it or Andrew Young among many others that are still alive. Many of these Brothers were no one of special background in terms of celebrity back then. There was support from Artist like Harry Belafonte and others that helped the Civil Rights movement but today we almost expect Hollywood to move the dial of morality for us as a society.
I may not be a movie star, recording artist, painter, poet, or politician but I am a Brother that spent some time with the Brothers and Sisters in the streets of Chicago. I am aware of my role and accept my role willingly because I know others won’t.
All I am looking for is to be your Brother.
Peace/AMOR
Gerardo
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