PASTOR COREY BROOKS: Stop making excuses, opportunity is how we end bloodshed
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I have seen what violence does to society.
For over 20 years, I have served on the South Side of Chicago at my New Beginnings Church. I remember the first time I saw a body on the street, Air Jordans sticking out from under a white sheet. I have officiated at funerals for young men and women who should have been decades behind. I have watched mothers bury their children and go back to the same block where the murder happened because they had nowhere else to go. I know the cost of violence, not as a statistical or public policy debate, but as a wound that never fully heals.
Even the name of my block is a tribute to violence, known as O Block after a gangster who was shot.
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So when people ask me what the solution to violence is, I know they’re looking for a quick fix, some kind of easy fix. They are looking for politicians’ lies that something will be done, a temporary solution that relieves the pain of knowing that nothing will actually be done. The honest answer is never easy.
The solution is opportunity.
That’s it. When the opportunity arises, the violence subsides. When there is an opportunity, people are busy improving themselves. When an opportunity arises, people aim for the future instead of living in the past—a graveyard of grievances. When the opportunity arises, people pick up a computer instead of a gun. When the opportunity arises, people invest their hard-earned cash instead of withdrawing government-dependent funds. Above all, when the opportunity arises, people walk with a purpose, a smile on their face instead of sitting in the corner or on the balcony.
All the misery we have experienced since the 1960s is killing us and continues to do so. All those press conferences held by mayors and police chiefs do nothing, absolutely nothing. All government intrusion into our lives has left us dead and disconnected from America’s pipeline of opportunity.
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That is why the solution is only an opportunity.
When the opportunity arises, the violence subsides. When there is an opportunity, people are busy improving themselves. When an opportunity arises, people aim for the future instead of living in the past—a graveyard of grievances.
And that’s why I want to rename O Block as Opportunity Block. There is nothing more self-destructive than the violence of love. It’s a weak man’s game. Anyone can worship the devil, but truly follow God? Like the pursuit of faith, the pursuit of opportunity is one of the most difficult but most rewarding things a person can do.
As Shelby Steele says, “Opportunity follows struggle. It follows effort. It follows hard work. It doesn’t come first.” Opportunity is the acceptance of freedom. It’s an opportunity to believe in yourself. Opportunity is a belief in America and its values. Above all, opportunity is the belief that hard work has its rewards.
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My words here are not just talking. I have been criss-crossing America to raise $25 million to complete our Center for Leadership and Economic Opportunity. Once completed, it will do nothing but provide opportunities for teaching crafts, math and reading, financial literacy, and the Bible. We want to make our youth whole – most of them come from broken homes and violence, but we will not allow them to use these tragedies as an excuse.
The opportunistic approach is often unsympathetic. It takes sacrifice. It requires a leap of faith in the unknown. It takes strength to look past the doubters and keep pushing forward. And above all, the pursuit of opportunity requires a complete acceptance of American principles and values, and it is this acceptance that separates them from a world of violence and dependence on government.
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If they succeed in this path of opportunity, they will probably achieve a standard of living that their family has never known. They will probably get married and stay married. They will have faith in God, because they know where to flee. And they will have children who will continue to pursue opportunity. It will be a tradition.
When opportunity comes into place, violence goes away. When opportunity comes, the strong rise above the weak. When opportunity hits the spot, boards go out of the windows of closed businesses. When opportunity enters the scene, the language changes from bad faith to plans for the future. I’m betting my life on this. I know it’s true, and so do you.
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