Cornel West Quotes on the "community" "I had to talk to my dear brother TD Jakes. Yeah, we had a dialogue, y'all. ... Bishop TD Jakes. Bishop TD Jakes Getty. On George Bush … ...http://journals.aol.com/kingbing1/FortiFi/entries/1514
Edmund Fountain, KRT
"Rather than focusing on the father's that left, we need to focus on the one's who stayed." -- Bishop T.D. Jakes
HOUSTON (AP) -- Bishop T.D. Jakes isn’t giving up on the nation’s black youth, and on Saturday he implored members of the black community to adopt the same mind-set.
Jakes, a televangelist, best-selling author and minister of the 30,000 congregation Potter’s House in Dallas, spoke to a crowd of about 5,000 as part of the annual Essence Music Festival.
“I think the older we get and the more we become involved in our community, the more we realize that children are an investment and that we have a responsibility to give something back to the next generation,” Jakes told The Associated Press after his speech. “Even when the stats are not good and we’ve not seen the results we would like to see, I feel like we have a responsibility to become involved and engaged with every age level.”
The three-day Essence Fest, featuring daylong seminars and nights filled with top-name musical acts, began its 12th installment Saturday. This is the first year it’s been held outside New Orleans.
Essence is using this weekend to launch its Essence Cares program, designed to promote involvement in organizations that help children affected by substandard education, poverty, gang violence and natural disasters such as Hurricane Katrina, which swamped New Orleans last year.
Jakes’ almost 45-minute address, delivered in his trademark dynamic manner, often brought the crowd to its feet and had its members chanting cheering and shouting “Amen!”
The father of five encouraged people to nurture their own children, and he also asked them to reach out to unrelated children that are in need of guidance.
“You don’t have to be related to be connected to somebody to make a difference in their life,” he said. “We need to empower the next generation.”
While the focus was on helping children, the message, sent via satellite to 350 prisons across the country, also touched on the importance of families and the problems that absent fathers present.
He called absent fathers black America’s “generational curse” and said they have to figure out a wayto break that curse, starting with teaching boys the importance of fatherhood and about taking responsibility for their actions.
“Fatherhood is not optional,” Jakes said. “Rather than focusing on the father’s that left, we need to focus on the one’s who stayed.”
The Essence Cares campaign is being promoted in a short video featuring celebrities such as Oprah Winfrey, Danny Glover, Mariah Carey and Harry Belafonte. It was played before Jakes’ address. Jakes thinks that this project could affect change.
“One of the mistakes we have made historically is ... to think that there’s only one way to attack an issue,” he said. “But through a multiplicity of ways I think we really can make a difference. I’m an optimist.”
He shared with the group seven steps for helping get the most out of children that included exposing them to many different things, connecting with them and stressing the value of education.
Saturday’s seminars also featured Mary J. Blige, gospel singer Yolanda Adams, Michael Eric Dyson and activist Angela Davis.
Davis spoke on what she calls the over-incarceration of black youth and renewed her call for the abolition of the country’s current prison system. She called for an end to mandatory sentencing and the decriminalization of drug use.
“Over-incarceration plays a major role in preventing young people in our communities from achieving education, jobs or hope for the future,” she said.
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