In response to the recent post about action, AND to complete my response to your 3 amendments, I would like to add this comment about the 3rd Reconstruction Amendment.

Third Reconstruction Amendment: The right to have a voice and a vote in the conditions of black America. This right comes with inherent responsibilities towards community service, activism and setting proper examples for our children. This right also contains the responsibility to reflect marriages and families that are unified, full of love and consistent in communication.

Only a slight modification is necessary to turn this into an action step. It embodies two factors — execising the voice that we have, and modeling the behavior we desire to see in our children.

Third Reconstruction Amendment: Exercise the voice you have to be an active participant in the decisions that shape your community and nation. Don’t stop at the ballot box. Call and wite your representatives on all levels. If you don’t vote, don’t complain. Get actively involved in at least one community initiative that you feel passionately about. If you are not involved, don’t complain about what “they are not doing.” Finally, be the model of family love commitment that you want your children to emulate. Communicate with your children. The older they get, the more you have to listen, and avoid preaching at them. They are real people too.

I like this dialog, and this forum that we can share to offer real solutions, not just slogans and rants.

May your days be blessed with prosperity and joy.

You are a blessing to all of us reading this. You are correct about having a “forgiving spirit” to initiate the healing the process. Someone must lead the way out of the conflict, and a stubborn quid pro quo won’t do anything but sustain the civil war.

Your Second Reconstruction Amendment: The right to seek and build up the purpose and destiny of ourselves and our children, which will create a generational shift away from negativity and towards the rebuilding of our communities. I strongly believe that when you teach a person about their purpose and identity, all that negativity can be completely obliterated.

This is a good point to emphasize. However, the reality is that we are already free. The old anecdote about Harriet Tubman applies, “I could have freed a lot more if they knoew they were slaves.”

My fear is that there is a downward spiral at work in our Black communities that threatens to destroy families and children at an even more alarming pace. In the early stages of life, a child is full of wonder and discovery — learning about the joys and some of the pain of this world. Sadly, the environment for so many just snuffs out that wonder and joy, and they arrive at the age of accelerated learning without any desire to seek a purpose that includes joy and peace and love any more. Their self-identity is distorted, their self-esteem in tatters,and their world view clouded with anger and a lack of purpose.

I would rewrite the amendment to read:
* SEEK YOUR PURPOSE WITH ALL YOUR HEART AND SOUL AND BEING. As the Proverbs writer says: “Get wisdom, get understanding . . . though it cost all you have, get understanding.” Pr. 4:5-8
Your purpose and identity will emerge from this relentless pursuit of understanding.

You’re so right…all of us could do just a little bit more.

@ Dr. Shane,

I certainly appreciate you being the genesis of this discussion! Revolution IS change!

@ Roderick,

Our history doesn’t have to be our future…I think that’s where the disconnect has taken place in the minds of so many these days. That’s why it’s so important for all of us to start at home…building up our spouses and our children is absolutely imperative.

I really appreciate the discussion this has garnered! Keep it coming!

The Battle is in the Mind….

I feel we should Reconstruct our Minds.. I think as an amendment to your excellent Amendments is to heal the negative psychological effects that history and ourselves have placed upon us..

There are so many of us still searching for freedom(mental) that the free among us need to reach back and guide those still lost mentally…

Please continue the conversation…

Dr. Shane

Although I agree that forgiveness requires repentence, an offender does not necessarily have to repent in order for the wronged person to forgive. In fact, what if the offender shows absolutely NO remorse for wrong done? What then? Do we continue to build and rebuild the walls that have torn us as a people apart over the years?

I’m not saying forgiveness absolves a person of guilt at all. I’m saying that we ALL have need of forgiveness, but unless we’re willing to give it, no matter what the attitude of our offender, we surely won’t receive it from an Almighty God.

It’s a condition of the heart…which is why so many who hold grudges end up with heart problems or autoimmune diseases like arthritis…because eventually we become just like the people we haven’t forgiven if we hold onto the offense. Perhaps not in practice, but most certainly in motivation. Hurt people HURT PEOPLE over and over and over again. It’s a vicious cycle.

And if cart blanche repentance were required, surely Jesus would not have died on that cross. He’s omniscient, so He knew there would be those who would repent and those who wouldn’t…yet He still died anyway to at least give us the opportunity to get it right.

Forgiveness to me doesn’t mean I’m settling for abusive behavior…but it effectively removes the power I’ve given another person over a space in my heart and mind because I’ve let it go and allowed God to deal with it.

Your approach to your children is about as good as it can get, as you submit your spritual lives to the guidance you get from the Word of God in the Bible.

There is one thing I observed recently with our preacher about “forgiveness” that is important. If you are a Bible student, perhaps you can look into this as well. Except for the forgiveness that Jesus “requests” on the cross, forgiveness is a conditional response that requires “repentance.” See Luke 17:3, and 2 Cor. 7:10.

Often we suggest “forgiveness” as the model behavior in healing relationships. Only God has the power to wash away sins. The rest of us must work our way through repentance (Godly repentance, according to the Corinthian letter) to obtain the fogiveness that heals. Where there is no repentance, unforgiveness is the result. To forgive without repentance is to accept the behavior that requires forgiveness in the first place. When this acceptance is accumulated over time, the result is constant pain.

Relationships can be healed. But the steps must be put in the proper order.