“Cycle Breaking” w/ Judge Dawson
Just Too Ghetto!
The world is talking about justice, and that is important, but no one is talking about saving your life.
It’s easy to point your finger at the wrongs of the world and refused to look in the mirror. I speak as a person who wants to help you save your life. Saving your life means that I give you the necessary tools to make sure you live to see another day. Saving your life also means that I say the things that people refuse to say. I am a disrupter and that has been my focus as an attorney and it remains my focus today as a Judge. You can count on me to say the hard things and to keep it real! Let’s get our focus together on a couple of points.
Point To Consider #1 Stop Being So Ghetto That You Block Your Blessings: I walked into one of the BP gas stations to get a bottle of water. While I stood at the cooler looking through the options, I heard a woman walking up next to me cursing up a storm. As I looked over at the woman, I noticed that she was the manager of the store. She continued to talk and I realized that she was either speaking to an employee on the other side of the store or just “loud talking.” She said “they be stealing like a M___ F__….” and other choice curse words. She wasn't even bothered that customers where in the store. What she didn’t consider was that her behavior may have caused her to block some blessings. You never know who is around you, watching you, or in a position to bless you. It could be a new job or a new opportunity, but so many people miss these chances because they find it ok to act ghetto in public.
You know exactly what I’m talking about. Either you participate in this activity of public ghettoness or you have witnessed it at your local Walmart, Walgreens or McDonalds.
Point To Consider #2 The music you listen to labels you. I’m just keeping it real when I say that you are labeled by people, professionals and strangers when they hear the music you listen to. If you are driving down the street blasting music about fighting, stealing and robbing, people are going to think you are a thug. If you are listening to music that is disrespectful to women, people, or at least men, are going to think that you are ok with that type of behavior. Recently, while in a local club for a birthday party, I watched with amazement how people reacted to certain songs. At times its a beautiful thing to see people laughing and enjoying music. However, it gets weird when the music turns nasty and disrespectful but still the women are dancing, partying, with their hands in the air and eyes closed like they are hearing the most romantic things.
Right now is a good time to look at ourselves and decide to put our best foot forward. With all the negativity in the world, all the injustice, and all the violence let’s choose to exemplify our greatness. If you don’t want to be great for yourself, be great for your community. Think about all the people marching and protesting and those who died for our rights. Did Martin Luther King Jr. die for our right to, as the song says, “turn up on a Tuesday?” or “Be a Bad Bit_ _?”
If you don’t care about doing it for your community, do it for your family. Your family wants to be proud of the person you are. They want to benefit from your positive legacy. Your family wants the world to speak positively about you when you are gone. To get to that point, the work begins now. Stop being so ghetto that you block your blessings!
Judge William L. Dawson,
East Cleveland Municipal Court
