The Southside Redevelopment Area Must
Overcome Redlining
By: Frank Paul Jones - President of the NCNCHINC
Our Problems
Associated with Redlining:
The Southside Redevelopment Area of Avon Park, FL., is a
Redlining District. Because of this the
businesses do not have credit lines and find it hard to conduct business on a
daily basis; people who live here find it hard to get health insurance, they
find it hard to find jobs, there are no supermarkets in our area or grocery
stores for that matter, the police department profiles the resident's, illiteracy
is too high and the area is drug and crime infested.
The Southside Redevelopment Area initiative must address the
problems with redlining. The basis and the
core of a redlining district is racism and what permits it to perpetuate within
our community is the mindset of the community.
We are victimized by repression and the result is the community is in a
oppressed state of being. We are being
suffocated by poverty and as the economy improves throughout the United States of America,
nothing ever changes here in the SRA, we remain in a depressed economic
situation.
This is a tough challenge, because we cannot attract
business from the outside of our community, because people are afraid to come
into our community to spend their money, unless it is for drugs or something
unlawful. And we cannot sustain our
economy from within, because of the high jobless rates and poverty coupled with
to a high rate of illiteracy. To some
degree, our high rate of unemployment is as a result of an unemployable community. This makes us a disabled community of people
in reality. And, therefore to turn this
around, we need to be rehabilitated, but how do you rehabilitate that which was
not habilitated? How can you fix that
which was never right to start with?
What must happen calls for a major change in community. To do this we must first address the mindset
of the people. We must address the
thinking process, which results in negative actions among us. Because to a high degree, what we are doing
is self inflicted. What we are doing to
ourselves is as a result of centuries of brainwashing processes. It is a fact that the actions of parents can
inflict damages to four generations after.
And consistent folly can cause this to multiply. Whereby generations after generations
perpetually perishes. And the result is
a community in a dead state of being.
The Solution to
Redlining:
There is an answer to this equation, which is love and
understand that love and charity are synonyms, they are basically the same
thing. We normally equate charity with
giving something to someone or a community of people. Therefore understand that love is an action
word and not so much of a feeling.
People often tend to believe that they
feel love or is in-love with someone, but love is an act, it is
something you do. Feelings change
overtime, but what you did becomes what you have done.
Hollywood
misguides many people by associating love and sex as synonyms, they say that
people make love, when the origin for the act of sex is most often lust or a
sexual desire. Most people that have sex
with each other do so out of lust and not love.
For this reason, we have so many dysfunctional relationships in America,
because the origin of our relations is not about giving something
selflessly. People tend to get into
sexual relations with a quid pro quo attitude, such as sexual gratification and
even more often financial reasons. How
many times have you heard people say their partners were good in bed so they came
back for more or they are good providers and for that reason they had sex with
their partner, on a regular basis and stayed in the relationship? And how little do you hear people say, I had
sex with my partner, because I wanted to selflessly give to him/her? This is because the relations are not built
on love. Because love is not selfish.
We must develop stronger bonds in our communities based on
the foundation of true love, which is not quid pro quo necessarily, but a
selfless act. If we learn to open our
hands within our communities, with the act of giving selflessly in charity, by
truly being charitable to our neighbors our good deeds may well be returned ten
fold, which is the opposite of the perishing of four generations. But for ten generation we may prosper. We must transform from a worm to a butterfly.
The SRA is a prime example of a dysfunctional relationship
between neighbors. There is distrust
among neighbors, though we all have nothing we compete like crabs to keep each
other down. Our relations claimed to be by the origin of love almost always
ends, with negative consequences.
Because we associated love with possession. We tend to think we have ownership in our
relations whereby we have not even authority over our own lives. How can a slave of passion own someone
else? We fight among ourselves over
misinformed needs for respect, mistaken respect for fear. Therefore we set ourselves up to be
destroyed, because a victim destroys what he fears, this is the law of nature,
with is embedded in self preservation.
Therefore we are self destructive society of people, due to never ending
folly. Not understanding the logic of
not being jealous of our fellow man, being he has nothing like us.
We are a people who believe in self medication. We sedate ourselves to not deal with the
reality we are in. And, we believe it is
alright to sell drugs to our neighbors, we look up to the community drug dealer
as a person enterprising within the neighborhood. We are in perpetual depression, because of
our mindsets of selfish ends. Instead of
giving to our neighbor we are always out to take from someone who has nothing
like ourselves. These are the byproducts
of redlining, which is something inflicted on us by others, but it is up to us
to make a change in what seems to be innate.
But it is not innate, it is something inflicted on us that we
perpetually retransmit against ourselves.
We carryout the injustices that others have planted within our
community. Just because a seed is
planted, does not mean it has to be harvest.
We tend to harvest injustices within our own communities and this is
going on in the SRA. And believe me
there are many SRA communities in America and therefore this is
actually a nationwide issue being addressed.
We as a nation of people must wakeup and learn how to truly love our
neighbors.
Though in traditional terms we are full of illiteracy, we
must understand the nature of our state of not being uneducated. Because though in traditional terms we are
full of illiteracy in our community, which disallows us to integrate in to the
mainstream of American society, to become gainfully employed on the outside, we
are a people of skills. But we tend to
keep our skills to ourselves. But the
key to overcoming depression is the bartering system. The SRA must learn how to barter or exchange
goods and services for goods and services with others. When the United States as a whole was in a
depression, the nation bartered its way out of it. These are acts of charity for charity in return. Though we do not have much money, we have the
same amount of time as the rich folks and those with credit lines. The depressed state we are in is as a result
of not properly using our time.
See we tend to waste our days away sedating ourselves, playing
video games, watching fantasy television all day for entertainment or simply
doing nothing at all. Our depressed
state is a result of inactivity. We have
nothing because as a community of people we do nothing with our time that is
productive. We are constantly playing
out dramas that leads to nothing but death and violence. We call this demanding respect, when in
reality what we request is fear. It was
the fear of us that got Trayvon Martin killed and was the defense that allowed
George Zimmerman to go free after killing our child. In this world whereby just
about everyone has a gun, being feared is a detriment to our survival. Because a person who fears you will kill you
or destroy you or both. Yet as
unorganized as we are, we all tend to think we are Mafia Dom's and we are not
even pawns on the chessboard of life.
If we learn to give to our neighbors selflessly, we can
build an economy that will be self sustaining and autonomous. We
could finance our own banks if we were not so selfish. But we tend to want to steal from our
neighbors in need, by taxing them with enormous interest rates. When the neighborhood streets loan money it
is fifty cents on a dollar if you are lucky and that is due by the end of the
month. This is why we have no credit
within our community, but that same person will put their money in the bank at
almost a zero interest rates. Because we
trust in the same people who do not have trust in us. We give our money to the same banks they
practice redlining on our community. And
we do so voicelessly. We allow these
practices with our money. Because we do
not love our neighbor, we hate them because we actually hate ourselves. We hate ourselves out of ignorance. We think our disposition in innate and God
given, when in fact it is a conspiracy to maintain us as insignificant in the
world's economy.
We tend to make rich those who do not care about us. We give our money to unworthy selfish
fools. We give our money to our favorite
rapper, sports figures, singers and dancers.
People who are in a make believe arena. People who play pretend with the money we pool
to them. When we should be assisting
charities that are out to support an agenda to better our communities as a
whole. With all the black multi
millionaires in America,
why are there still so much redlining within black communities? The
reason is because we are so busy
sedating ourselves and believe it is normal behavior, we condone drug dealers
and chaotic dramas, false pride called street respect, stealing from our brothers,
killing our neighbors and for this reason, we pool our resources for blind
people like ourselves to lead the blind.
We praise people who boast about
how much money they make to do nothing constructive for us as a people. Our
state of depression is self inflicted, they simply planted the seeds, but we
constantly harvest them. This must
change within.
We must learn to pool our resources in a constructive
manner. We must learn to barter with our
neighbors and love our sisters and brothers and not base our relations on lust,
but on selfless given. Love and charity
are synonyms, learn to love by giving selflessly.
Developing a
Following for the NCNCHINC:
We must develop into a movement here in the Southside
Redevelopment Area, that will have nationwide appeal and gain the attention of
the world. It is my belief that the
future and survival of the black community here in Avon Park
depends on us coming up with a solution to redlining within the boundaries of
our communities, because it still exist here. People have to be educated on the
disability that exist in our communities and why we are in eminent
danger of extinction. Redlining
is not new, but something that shouldn't but still exist in places like the
Southside Redevelopment Area of Avon Park, Florida.
The high crime rates and drug infestation here in the SRA
are byproducts of redlining practices.
As long as redlining practices continue, crime and drugs will continue
to be a way of life in the SRA. The lack
of education due to poor performing schools within the community, the high
unemployment rate due to the lack of education, meaning low tax revenue out of
the SRA, zoning regulations not allowing land owners to rebuild, but condemn
business properties, who are without credit lines, are all problems associated
with redlining.
To solve these problems, we must address many circumstances
and it is not an easy assignment. We
have to nip these problems at the buds.
I think the key is education. As
long as we have high illiteracy within the boundaries of the SRA, there is not
much that can be done to mitigate the effects of redlining in the SRA. The thing about this is the learning process
is not as long as many might think. Most
adults can learn the skills necessary to gain a GED or perform in the labor
force in as little as two years, if they fully apply themselves. Children going astray in the educational
system could get on track within one year and continue to gain momentum to
become successful in grade school to become college material in the future. So what we need is a renaissance of a
sort. We need to start this thing all
over again, by developing a new mindset within community. And one shoe will not
fit all.
The fact of the matter is many people in the SRA are in a state
of believed hopelessness. Many of the
people in the SRA believe they a destined to fail regardless. And the temptation of fast money attracts
them from moving in what they see as the slow lane of progress. They must be given an incentive to do the
right thing for themselves and the community they live in. And our children must be given an incentive
to apply themselves in school and not be sidetracked with foolishness like
video games and fantasy television. This
may mean teaching the parents better parenting skills. Because the schools
cannot teach the children, if they do not apply their instruction at home. The education of a child is teamwork, with
both the parents and the instructors.
And the fact that Avon Park High School,
is one of the worst performing high schools in the nation speaks about the
parenting skills in Avon
Park as a whole and not
just the instructors at the schools here.
There are opportunities available to many people many
people, who are sleeping on them, because they are in a state of
vegetation. Most people without
employment within the age bracket of realistic employability are a GED away
from the training needed to excel into a life of prosperity. But too many people are simply lazy or
unaware of their options or both. And
time is of the essence, because after you are 35 years old, it becomes heard to
join the workforce and after 45 years of age, insurance becomes so high that
potential employers do not want to hire you because of the expenses involved
with giving you company benefits.
Some people just need someone to encourage them to take
positive action, while others simply need to be made aware of their options.
And children are simply followers, they follow what they see and are easily
influence by others. If the adult
population is lazy or laidback in a
vegetation state, so will the kids follow that trend. If the parents like the nightlife, so will
the kids stay up without direction into the morning hours. If the adults make
fast money, so will the kids get there hustle on. Children are influenced by the adult
population. So I disagree with the idea
of saving our children first. We must
save the adults, especially the young adults first and they will influence the
children to do the right thing. The do
as I say and not as I do scenario, does not work. We must lead by example, because the children
are watching our every move.
I feel to make a lasting impression on the SRA, we must
target people in our communities between the ages of 18 to 38. Our main focus should be on people between
the ages of 21 to 30. These are the ones
that can make the fastest turn around into a life of productivity, which can
change the community as a whole. And the
key element of our services must be information, because information is power
in the new world of cyberspace technology.
And to be effective we have to think bigger than our headquarters
location. Our headquarters location should be our think tank and we should be
helping people take advantage of the many services available in Highlands County, Florida,
that are outside the SRA. This is
important! To do this we have to be
informed of the services available to our constituents.
We need to learn about every program available at South Florida
State College. We need to know about
every service available at Vocational Rehabilitation and who qualifies for them. We need to know about every service available at the Heartland Workforce, we need
to know about every service available though the Veterans Affairs, we need to know
our school system, its services and faults, we need to know how the money is
being spent at City Hall and assign people to go to every City Council
meeting. We need to know about every
charitable service organization in Highlands County and we need to know about things
we do not even know exist.
Then we need to know about our demographics. We need to know about the census and the
available data about our demographics.
We need know the statistics on the local economy, we need to know every
bank in Highlands County and their lending practices, we need to know, we need
to know, we must be informed in order to serve the SRA with due diligence. We need to know about the court records and
open cases whereby people's right are infringed, we need to work with the NAACP
to enforce and make aware to our constituents all matters of civil rights.
As we learn these things and we need to hold public meetings
with the community, we need to find people in need of these services and make
them aware of their options. By doing
these things we can cause a change to happen in
a relatively short time frame.
And if we take these steps, we can create a following for the NCNCHINC
Frank Paul Jones
President and Chairman of the Board of the NCNCHINC
