I have never liked statistics. It is an arid barren landscape of a human exercise.

Statistics discourage growth and development. They lump people unfairly and prematurely into neat tidy little boxes. They allow no room for individual expression. They reinforce latent prejudices and confirm what you have always thought about them. They discount the human spirit and devalue the power of a relationship with God.

How many people have we assigned to the garbage heap of failure because a statistical report deemed them worthless?

Thank you, Jesus! God does not pay attention to statistics or we would all be in a world of trouble on the way to hell.

Every human being is an individual miracle capable of wondrous things at any time.

People, not policy or politics, determine their destiny.

The following are excerpts from a commentary by Larry Elder entitled  “The black voter, a chump or traitor?”

Children who grow up without a father are five times more likely to drop out of school and 20 times more likely to end up in prison. In some ways, indeed, the Black middle class was expanding more rapidly before 1970 than after. Democratic policies have contributed to family breakdown, maintained underperforming schools-with no opt-out for parents- and have promoted tax spend and-regulate economic policies that have resulted in a level of unemployment described as “unconscionable” by Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Cal.

 

The unsaid inference in the above statement is if we implement  Republican policies there will be a turnaround in the fortunes of Black people. I do not believe or accept that for an instant. The problems of Black people or any people are at a cellular level. They are more basic and fundamental than government programs or which political party is in power at the moment.

 In a free society, it is shortsighted and disingenuous to blame the other guy for one’s failure.

Mitt Romney was right. We do need to assume some personal responsibility for our own lives.

Choices made internally, not changes made externally, determine the trajectory of our lives.

Every human being has to stand up, preach to and convince himself, then declare to the universe,  “I  am a child of God. I have a right to be here. I do not care what the statistics say. It does not matter what the other people do. This is my life. I have one chance and I am not going to waste it. I am going to fight for it. I am getting there. I am gonna get over.”

There is a distinct parallel between the black condition and that of the Hebrew children detailed in the Bible.

People who have been oppressed, abused and mistreated for a long time, unless there is a paradigm shift in their mindset, will take all their vices out of captivity and leave many of their virtues behind. They will be suspicious and doubtful of their wholeness as human beings . They can never get it all together or fully come into their own. They will have faith in nobody, settle for anything and accept nothing for something. (Think about slurs like nigga, dawg, ho and the phrase “we were like grasshoppers in our own sight.”)

How readily they will forget that the same God who sustained them with a mighty hand through the struggle and took them out is able to take them all the way in! Their interaction with Him becomes mere information and revelation but not transformation. “We shall overcome someday” is more a lyric in a song than a practice of life.

A multitude escaped slavery and bondage in Egypt. Do you know how many of the original group made it in? Two.  Joshua and Caleb, because they had a different spirit who realized and decided that their destiny was to live in the land of milk and honey and not to die in the wilderness.

The following is the text of an e-mail I received recently. It is a story so close to that depicted in the Hollywood movie The Blind Side:

You know Oneil has prospered so much.

He has a job now at the airport making $12 per hour 

And he works here too.[Greyhound bus station at North Miami Beach.]

He bought himself a car.

He has advanced in life, huh?

Praise the Lord. God is good.

Now he needs to prosper spiritually.

                                             - Nancy

At first blush, that would seem unremarkable until you understand the background of that young man.

He is the son of a single mother with emotional stability issues.

His father, with whom he had no relationship or support, asked his mother,  “Why don’t you just get rid of him?”

He does not cut a fine form of a figure. He is big, ungainly and afflicted with flat feet.

At first glance, one would be tempted to dismiss him as inconsequential.

Nevertheless, he could be the poster boy for the slogan, “Don’t let the outside fool you. It’s what’s inside that counts.”

He attended Miami Central High School which the state assessed with consecutive “F” grades and was in danger of closing for being an ineffective secondary school.

He once told me it was a hopeless place with tainted teachers who tolerated children rather than teach them.

He barely made it through high school and, to this day, has difficulty reading.

Nancy Jaramillo, to her eternal credit, who is a Caucasian Cuban American saw, something in him that I did not.

We both worked as co-managers of the Greyhound Miami North bus franchise station. I hired Oneil but relegated him to menial tasks.

She told me one day, “I am going to teach Oneil the computer to sell bus tickets and I know he can do it.”

Reading the above text you can almost detect her sense of motherly pride and accomplishment for the part she played in improving a life.

Miracles really do happen all the time.

Oneil, to his benefit and credit, never got entangled with the judicial system. He never became a baby daddy –a situation that he was ill-afforded to manage. He did not take drugs or engage in risky sexual behavior which could shorten his life and terminate his dream. These are problems that continue to plague and bedevil many Black people. Apparently, he instinctively knew when you find yourself in a hole the smart thing to do is to stop digging.

Often times the difference between winning and losing, success or failure, victory or defeat is such a simple premise.

You need someone to believe in you, not necessarily of your own kind, to give you a shot and point you in the right direction.

You show up every day and continue to press on, come what may.

Indeed the race is not for the swift but for those who endure to the end.  Every statistical category relative to this young man demands that he become a failure, but somebody forgot to mention it to him.

It has been my privilege and blessing to know them both and many others like them.

Their stories have reminded, shown and encouraged me that, despite significant obstacles, hardships and setbacks, life can still be handled.

Call it dumb luck, fate or the hand of God, most people I have met have defied the odds and belied the statistics. In retrospect, I can agree with Maya Angelou , “I wouldn’t give nothing for my journey now.”

In the final analysis, it does not matter who occupies the White house or who controls the halls of Congress but who resides in your house.

If the unseen motto above the threshold of that door says:

With the help of God

I believe I can make it,

I will not quit,

I will persist until I succeed.

 

Therein lies the answer not only for the black race but the entire human race.

V. Knowles is a husband and father with an interest in penning issues that serve to uplift mankind. He melds his love for Classic literature, The Bible and pop culture - as sordid as it may be - into highly relatable columns of truth, faith and justice. Hence the name: Just Thinking. If he's not buried in a book or penning his next column, you may find him pinned to his sectional watching a good old Country and Western flick.