Tuesday, March 24, 2015

Men are organizing to stop abuse.....!!


December 16, 2014 Tuesday
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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