Re-Edited on March 24th, 2015 Tuesday
Dear Progressive Women’s Organization [not the official name of an
organization I know of] :
I don’t want to
conjure up images of the Lone Ranger, or a White Knight on a Black Stallion --
but I think women could use some help in fighting against this rape thing and I
think you could use a special Brother – Sister organization called Men Organized
Against Rape, Bullying and Abuse to foot the bill. The reasoning is, men, and there are still a
few decent ones still in existence among us, men need to work against bullying,
rape, abuse and hatred in greater numbers for our own healing as well as the
healing of women, children, other men. Our Nation and our World is waiting for
men to take positive and direct action to curb their own behavior that is improper,
indecent and / or abusive... We have
sometimes, too often, abused People in our world and it is time to find decent
peaceful solutions to stop the abuse and the violence.
I am an abuse
survivor on two fronts. First my Father, GOD rest His soul, was verbally
abusive. I have long since forgiven Him as much as I can, and that is still not
totally, even though He has been dead over two years. [I am still working on this through therapy.
You know How it is when you were taught by your savior, Mom, to hold grudges.
It ain’t easy. Not to blame Mom, mind
you. BOTH parents did the best they
could do!! It took me a long time to accept that and live with it!!!] On the
other front, I was molested as a child by a Black store owner I worked for as a
youth. It was not brutal, just rather sneaky since I didn’t know what was going
on at the time and wasn’t even sure what had happened after it did happen. [Physical
child sexual abuse is especially cruel when the so-called victim doesn’t even
know He or She has been abused because they are too young to know, comprehend
or understand exactly what has happened to them. I have carried around this abuse for 45
years and spent thousands of dollars to alleviate the pain through medicine
[Doctor prescribed only], therapy and working it out through a support group for
Gay Black men I helped establish in the
1980’s.
I also had help
several years ago from a women’s group in Philadelphia . You had a men’s group
that helped me almost physically conjure up the images of the abuse in my mind
as your trained therapist helped me relive the pain to help me grow and break
the chain of hurt and abuse. I made a
successful breakthrough because of these therapies and that is why I’m writing
you today about the proposal for the new organization—Men Organized Against
Rape, Bullying and Abuse.
I know the world, especially
the male world, is ready for this. I see
video of men’s groups that want to deal with the new sensitivity of men and
re-defining what masculinity should be. [We know manhood can’t be defined only
by what sports games we watch and get obsessed about, nor can it be only
defined by how many women we go to bed with, or how many time we strike our
wives or girlfriends.] Such barometers of masculinity are totally inappropriate,
wrong-headed, outmoded—and useless. We
have to, and I think it will work very well through the organization I’m
proposing, I think building bridges to find out what masculinity can be and
redefining masculinity is vitally important in end running much of the
violence. Look at today’s headlines.
There are men killing men in foreign countries and right here near the
Philadelphia area there was another mass shooting. And still another in
Australia. It won’t end by the waving of
a magic wand it will take work and it will take dedication and real effort.
** Our police forces
need sensitivity training as to how to deal with Black and Latin communities—especially
Black & Latin young men.
** Our Police Unions
should NOT only be dominated by right wing ideologues, and policemen and
policewomen of all colors must have an option to be represented in a second or
third union that is less politically motivated like some police unions here in
Philadelphia can be.
** There needs to be
civilian review boards to help ALL communities grapple with the issues of
abuse, bullying, police brutality and child molestation in open and honest Ways.
When children are involved any treatment MUST be handled by true qualified
professionals who know how to treat children properly.
** The media –
especially movies and advertising -- needs to be contacted and better images
need to be advocated for to help define and give character to women and men who
are ``different’’ and women need to stop being victimized so much in
movies. Police are NOT, by any means,
the heroes they are so often portrayed as in the media, but they are, by no
means always criminal and corrupted either.
** New products like
Tee Shirts, buttons, posters, greeting cards—and advertising--need to better
reflect this new Way of thinking that allows for differences and tears the mask
off of the abusers while making social amends for obvious injustice. We can all
advocate for bringing social responsibility to the efforts to treat men AND
women as human beings and do this in a humane manner.
** New and innovative
Ways need to be devised to deal with education systems to help them come to
grips with these new realities as men become more aware of how Caucasian
Supremacy, racism and male domination have deeply slanted the course of history
while not allowing for the true story of men and women to get out of the
bag. [Everybody should be reading Howard
Zinn’s The People History of the United States, a must read for allowing the
truth to begin to come out and it should be required reading in High School, colleges and universities. Getting all our text books filtered through
the most conservative region of the country – Texas – is also a Big Problem
that needs to be systematically rectified. It is obvious that several other states
desperately need to be brought into the process of writing and approving text
books for our Nation’s schools.
All of the above are
just a few of the things the new organization could be given to do as tasks.
The above letter is
being sent to independent funding sources including Barbra Streisand’s Foundation and Jerry Seinfeld’s Foundation.
The Above was
produced by Mr. Tracy Charles Gibson of Brother Tracy Gibson & Associates,
Inc. a growing Research, education,
public relations & Black advocacy firm. Reach us at Post Office Box 42878;
Philadelphia, Commonwealth of Pennsylvania 19101-2878. E-Mail: BlackExecutive46@GMail.Com
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