BAILEY'S AFROCENTRIC CHILDREN'S GOOD CHARACTER BUILDING Volume 163

Here are some sayings by Black People about their children. “It is easier to build strong children than repair broken men” (Frederick Douglass). “A white child might need a role model but a Black child needs more than that in this society. He needs hope” (Hank Aaron). Children have never been good at listening to their elders, but they have never failed to imitate them” (James Baldwin). “No child is ever spoiled by too much attention. It is the lack of attention that spoils” (Bessie Blake). The vast number of Black and Latino youths in the inner cities are trying desperately to make some sense of their lives. But they are caught in a crossfire between a small group of sociopaths in their midst and the larger society that ignores their potential and has written them out of the future” (Greg Donaldson). “For Black folk who have too often been dismissed, stigmatized, or silenced without a hearing, we should be wary of repeating such rituals of repression on our own kids” (Michael Dyson). “If we really believe that our children are our future, we must develop an agenda to improve their lives and health. While it may take a village to raise a child, it takes responsible and caring adults to make a nurturing village” (Kenneth Edelin). “It’s a spiritually impoverished nation that permits infants and children to be the poorest Americans” (Marian Edelman). “Throughout the social history of Black women, children are more important than marriage in determining the woman’s domestic role” (Paula Giddings). “Children respond to the expectations of their environment” (William Grier). “Children don’t stop being children when they commit a crime” (William Hibbler, judge). “I never had a chance to paly with dolls like other kids. I started working when I was six years old” (Billie Holiday). “If you choose to have that baby, then choose to take care of it. Kids are our future. “Any Black who strives to achieve in this country should think in terms of not only himself but also how he can reach down and grab another Black child and pull him to the top of the mountain where he is” (Jesse Owens). Something like this was told to me almost daily when I was a boy. That is why I have trying for years to establish a Farm for homeless Black youth—and at my expense—but I have found no one around the USA—including HBCUs--or Africa willing to help set it up and run it, as by teaching Right Life Thinking/Living. I spotlight how to do Profound Thinking which they—on purpose--are never taught. “Millions of our children are doing the right thing every day. They deserve our full support so that they stay the course. Their story goes so unreported in the media that the broader society is losing sight of our children being an asset, not a liability, to society” (Hugh Price). “If I can inspire one of these youngsters to develop the Talent I know they possess, then my monument will be in their work” (Augusta Savage). “If we love a child, and the child senses that we love him, he will get a concept of Love that all subsequent hatred in the world will never be able to destroy” (Howard Thurman). The key to Character building in children is to realize it is largely the result of the quality of thoughts held in ones mind. Make those thoughts Spiritual Ultimate Paragons!!!