We were full of tears when Ms. Lauren walked across the stage at the Doris Johnson graduation. The youth with brain injuries was recuperating and could not attend. Another tear jerker was the award of David's diploma posthumously.
 
As tragic as David's death was, it helped shine light on the issue of violence that is plaguing our young people. Two of our students took their pain and concern for the youth in Baltimore and spoke eloquently at Taxpayer Night before Baltimore City Council. One student had a complete breakdown and could not utter a word but, tears flowed from a deep place inside of him. "This madness has got to stop. This is the third son David's mother has lost to violence in Baltimore City."
 
On the contrast there was the hunger strike conducted by peer to peer youth advocates. When I heard about the hunger strike I felt it was too drastic of a measure to get a point across, until I heard a radio show with our councilwoman Mary Pat Clarke and Chris Goodwin from our partner the Algebra Project. When Chris  addressed the same concern with Mary Pat on the air he said, "We're already hungry". Chills went through my body and I felt I needed to learn more. I met with the youth who became hunger strikers to get some questions answered for myself.
 They told me that so many adults think that someone is making them or telling them what to do. They emphatically told me that they have their own mind and are trying to share just how serious a crisis it is for youth who are trying to do something positive. They had organized themselves into various teams and made an outstanding presentation to me dealing with the facts.  Another chill went through my body as I realized that this was much deeper than a 3 million dollar request to the Mayor. The youth were actually taking their plight to a much higher level; they were ready to start a fast. It hit me, "this is the Gandhi move and it is being led by children". The ramifications of this is going to reach much further than Baltimore City.  Who are these powerful youth willing to make such a stand and sacrifice for the youth of Baltimore? With all the press youth get for killing and having deviant behavior, here are some youth willing to make a sacrifice for themselves and others. While their tactics were met with much distain from a lot of the political heads in Baltimore City, something else was happening for those who looked at this objectively and began to see youth and their plight from a different light.
 
The civil rights movement made great strides once Martin Luther King called on the youth. The horrendous system of apartheid got fueled and the battle for freedom in South Africa got a successful boost when the youth took to the streets. When Obama did his awesome outreach, youth made a difference in the largest turnout in history of voting for the United States. The move that the youth made was really inward even though they had an outward purpose. My spirit led me to inform them of what they could expect while on a fast. In quiet support, I started a fast with them and continued for 30 days just completing the 29th of June.
 
The plight of our youth is critical. Our city officials have made historic contributions to the youth of Baltimore, providing more funding than ever before through the operations budget of the city and not through supplemental one time funding sources. I personally applaud each and every one of them. However, I urge us all to seriously take a look at the suffering our children are experiencing and do all that we can to eliminate the problem. Peer to peer enterprises is a very viable way.
 
During the aftermath of the murder of David on our campus one of our Street Soldier youth facilitators was working with me to diffuse a situation. It was her young eyes that realized a student had a weapon and she was very gentle in getting it from the student. Working with youth facilitators as part of our successful Street Soldiers team has been invaluable to our violence prevention efforts and we are working to develop more. They speak the language and are able to catch things that we adults just miss. They also provide life experience of how to overcome this horrible disease of violence.
 
This summer we started teaching a group of 11-14 year olds the Street Soldier Model. When asked how many had family members murdered, 14 out of the 16 youth raised their hands.

We just don't seem to connect the effect that violence in our city is having on our youth. In the words of our champion Mary Pat Clarke, "We have made major strides, but we simply have to do more".

A special congratulations to all of our seniors from both schools, many were students in the ETU. An extra special congrats goes to Tiego Murray who received the most improved award from Doris Johnson. As he stepped off the stage he paused to hug me tightly and with much strength, he said, "this was all because of the ETU. Thank you Mama Nzinga". There went the tears again; this is what it is all about. Happy Summer to All.