September 2010
Now that I have had a chance to exhale WOW! Regarding this year’s Back2School Bash – School supplies provided to 1000 young people, up to 1600 people in attendance, over 80 volunteers, 25 service providers, a 35 piece youth orchestra, 3 churches (yea ECBF), the cast from Broadway Bound’s God Lives In Glass, spoken word performed by Urban Knights, 600+ hot dogs, 3 Seattle School Board members (yea Betty Patu), Mayor McGinn and of course Charles the Clown – and the community helped make it all happen.

Bravo and thank you! Thank you for your energy, your effort, your commitment and your time.

You have proven to be an important element in instilling hope and belief in community. You have contributed to holding back the tide of despair, of preventing hopelessness from setting in.

I ask from this point forward that each of you bring what your brought to making this event happen, that you bring it on a monthly basis in support of RB Coalition activity – doing this month in and month out will represent a solution to our ills. It will represent a greater possibility for our children.

I have lost many friends to violence growing up in south central LA (Compton to be exact) in the 60’s and 70’s – Bug, Monk, Eric and many, many more went to jail.

Why do I bring my background up? I learned that regardless of your condition regardless of your situation you got a mission.

Bring that along with you won’t you? Combine it with the person next to you or the organizations you are involved with. Do it more than once in this upcoming year. If you don’t we are going to see more of this stuff. We will be back here apologizing next year.

If we do it, when we do it, we are going to see each other rise up, we going to see our children educated, we are going to see our teens productive, we are going to see our young adults being successful in their leadership, we are going to see our elders revered. If we do this we are going to have a better quality of life. Don’t we want that?. Don’t we deserve that?

Are you with me, if your with me say, amen, if your with me say let’s go, if your with me give the person next to a high five (it doesn’t matter whether you know them or not), if your with me give that person a fist bump, if your with me join me at our next Action Team Meeting September 16th. Our topic is public safety. We will share the efforts neighbors are involved in that’s holding back the tide. Join us in lifting every voice to make our neighborhood the best it can be!

Gregory Davis

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