An Open Letter To Mr. Frederick Douglas...

Good morning Mr. Douglas,

I hope this message finds you a well-earned rest in eternal peace.  I happened to visit your final resting place  at Mount Hope Cemetery recently and took pause after arriving at your grave.  I read the inscription on the sign leading to your final resting place, which captured  your life's work and struggle with succinct and accurate words.

1815-1895

Escaped Slave, Abolitionist, Suffragist, Journalist and Statesman, Founder Of The Civil Rights Movement In America.

Upon my approach, I recalled a favorite quote, circa 1894: 

"Without education he lives within the narrow, dark and grimy walls of ignorance. Education, on the other hand, means emancipation. It means light and liberty. It means the uplifting of the soul of man into the glorious light of truth, the light by which men can only be made free. To deny education to any people is one of the greatest crimes against human nature. It is easy to deny them the means of freedom and the rightful pursuit of happiness and to defeat the very end of their being." 

Mr. Douglas, if you could witness the tools and resources available to students of this day and age, you would be left nothing short of astounded and amazed. Students have the ability to connect with virtually anyone in the world using a computer or handheld device.   They can embark on virtual field trips and visit locations they could only once could dream of.  Everything from your grades, progress on assignments, and access to a multitude of databases that are capable of storing entire libraries of data and information.  Then there is journalism, Mr. Douglas.  This field has been turned on its head via the introduction of the World Wide Web, or Internet.  The Internet is a global conglomerate of electronic communication networks and platforms that allow anyone the ability to create,edit, and distribute content from anywhere at anytime provided they have Internet "access". In 2016, Mr. Douglas, anyone can be a journalist or publisher.

Despite the foregoing advancements in educational and communicative technology, much work remains to be done, not only here in our City of Rochester but metropolitan areas across the United States.  I am afraid to report that too many students today are struggling, and as you aptly quoted, "if there is no struggle, there is no progress.  Those who profess to favor freedom and depreciate agitation, want crops without plowing up the ground, they want rain without thunder and lightening" No Struggle Without Progress.  

Too many students are immersed in poverty during after school hours.  There are not enough resources to support an entire generation of youth who have no one to supervise them and assist them once they have exited the school bus in the afternoon.  Many have witnessed violence directly, often in the most unsuspecting locations: Seven shot, Three Killed In Rochester Outside Boys and Girls Club. 

If there were ever a time for struggle, it is now.  Struggle to ensure the students who want to learn have the requisite safety, after school support and program options to enrich their lives.  

What I most admire about your legacy Mr. Douglas is your unwavering ability to see things from both a Design Thinker's and Systems Thinker's perspective. 

As a fellow Rochesterian, I am compelled to embrace the efforts to reduce poverty which is permeating the fabric of and hindering progress of families, and communities in this nation.  I'd wager at this point you're nodding and listening, patiently, and politely, but waiting for a plan of action.  

Fair enough.  I would like to humbly submit a concept to you.  My idea, which consists of reinvesting confiscated illegal narcotics funding and reinvesting at least a portion of it back into education, prevention, afterschool programming, and business startup training can be accessed here: Reinvesting Confiscated Illegal $ and Reinvesting It Back Into Communities.  

The struggle to amend Illegal Assets Forfeiture Statures will require shoulder to shoulder cooperation and vision among numerous stakeholders who share and are ready to propel similar ideology.  

Every time when I am told that this idea cannot come to fruition or ever see the light of day, I fear not, for you heard much of the same criticism yourself while creating your legacy.  

Rest well, Mr. Douglas, and until my next visit, Godspeed.