Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, April 24, 1994 TAG: 9404240027
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: D-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: LESLIE TAYLOR STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Kids with guns. Kids with drugs. Kids with babies.
Young people - and adults - were due for a wake-up call.
Lindsay, a counselor at Virginia Western Community College and project coordinator for the Alliance for Excellence, developed a daylong conference for youth, where education and messages of hope could blend for a good dose of positive reinforcement.
Saturday, she presided over the first Roanoke Valley African American Youth Conference. Held at Virginia Western and sponsored by the alliance - an organization that works to encourage the black community's interest in higher education - the conference touched on a range of topics, from male/female relationships to money management.
"There are so many things that just keep working on young people's minds," Lindsay said. "We had to do something."
Lindsay knew of a motivational speaker who could jump-start a crowd of early-morning risers. In September, she contacted Patricia Russell-McCloud, an Atlanta lawyer and award-winning orator, and asked if she would deliver the conference's keynote address. Russell-McCloud accepted the invitation.
And after the presentation Saturday, Lindsay wondered how she would keep the fires ignited by Russell-McCloud burning inside the more than 200 young people who heard her speak.
Russell-McCloud delivered the wake-up call that Lindsay so wants the valley's black community to answer.
"Bbbbrrrriiiinnnngggg!" Russell-McCloud said. "This is your wake-up call. Are you in tune with what's happening in America and around the globe? Are you convinced that there's going to be a better world? Or no world at all? It's your turn to make a difference."
Education, Russell-McCloud said, is the key.
"You cannot go forward, expecting that a high school diploma is going to be enough," she said. "You'll have to have an associate's degree or a college degree or service in the military. You'll have to know that the workplace will have no welcome mat for those who cannot house a mind that knows more. They'll have a sign that says, `No vacancies.' "
Russell-McCloud called for an attitude check.
"What is it that's causing babies to have babies before they themselves overcome their own diaper rash?" she asked. "Kisses don't mean contracts and presents don't mean promises and love does not mean leaving and even sunshine burns if you get too much.
"Bbbbrrrriiiinnnngggg! It's a wake-up call."
Russell-McCloud's words - or at least their theme - were echoed in youth workshops.
Mary Simpson, a social worker for Connections Foster Care Program, urged high school and college students in a workshop on race relations to look past the stereotypes.
"We've been victimized so much that we've come to believe some of the things that we are told about ourselves," she said. "But racism will only do what you allow it to do. There is no reason today why you cannot succeed in anything you set your mind to."
Deneen Evans, a counselor with Roanoke Adolescent Health Partnership, talked with young women about their relationships with young men.
"What relationships are you involved in?" she asked them. "What happens when your boyfriend disrespects you? Are sex and romance the same thing? How do you establish a relationship?"
Onzlee Ware, a Roanoke lawyer, conducted a workshop on black youth and the justice system.
"The juvenile system was set up to be a corrective system, to handle things like truancy, people skipping school," Ware said. "Occasionally, you'll still see someone who has stolen some candy. But the system was not set up to deal with adult crime - drugs and robberies."
Lindsay poked her head into some of the workshops, to monitor their progress and attendance. She said she was disappointed when she saw only two people attending a session on HIV/AIDS awareness.
"Those are the kinds of things they want to know but are almost afraid to go in and let someone explain to them," she said. "They don't even want people to know that they want to know."
The workshops on relationships - held in female- and male-only sessions - were well attended by the teens.
"It's one of the main issues," said Erika Young, a freshman at William Fleming High School. "Relationships between black men and women can cause a lot of problems."
Workshops for the younger children - kindergartners to eighth-graders - were held in large group sessions.
"It taught me something good," said Cari Kelso, a second-grader at the Roanoke Academy. "It taught me you can be something if you believe in it. I want to be a policeman."
Jacqueline Morton, a Virginia Western student, said she wondered when the wake-up call would finally rouse enough people to make a difference.
"Our past leaders would be very disappointed in us," she said. "We're doing nothing but committing genocide. We need to communicate and believe in and love each other.
"We're all we've got."
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