Field Negro Asked a Good Question...

Field won his bet. I never heard of Asia Adams until I read about her in his blog. Truth to tell, I learned about Megan Williams and Dunbar Village via bloggers in The AfroSpear network.

Field gave us a pass on our ignorance about Asia Adams when he wrote:

"Because when she was murdered three years ago in her Germantown home, it didn't make national headlines, and there wasn't a cadre of bloggers focusing on her brutal and tragic death and calling for the equal and proper treatment of Black women. No marches, no wall to wall commentary, and no moral outrage from all the usual suspects."

Field wondered out loud "what it is that makes a story news worthy? Why are some stories worth our outrage and our righteous indignation, and some like Asia Adams....well, we never even hear about?"

In my view, there are three things that we can do now. First, we need to keep one another informed through drumbeats, email listservs or blogs. We can not depend on the mainstream media (MSM) to have the interests of the African American community at heart. We must look out for our own interests by keeping one another informed. We must take advantage of this technology to maintain and increase the flow of information and dialogue.

Second, it is my view that we need to control our own family first. Each of us must ensure that we are spending appropriate time, talent and energy in raising OUR OWN CHILDREN. If you father a child ... you need to step up and be a man .... you need to be involved in raising that child so that they can grow into a productive member of our village (society). Perhaps if each of us simply took responsibility for our child then we would have less young people like Asia or the Haitian mother in Dunbar Village being victimized.

Finally, I accept that there are killers among us that will take another life ... stone-cold, no-remorse killers. However, there are an equal number of young men that will kill tonight who wandered into the killing zone by taking path of least resistance (gangs, drugs, etc). These young people will be forever changed in their soul because of the life that they took. I wonder if there isn't an answer beyond lock 'em up when it comes to rehabilitating these accidental killers?

Field, the marching and blog-writing won't change the mindset that causes a killer to take the life of another human being. Perhaps we can change their mindset before they get in that killing zone? Perhaps we can bring down the number of killings in Philadelphia, Cincinnati and elsewhere. One brother (or sister) at a time.

Villagers, read Field's blog post on Asia Adams ... do you have an answer to his question?