Inheriting a mess: Our responsibility to the next generation
We’re grateful to Real Change News for their partnership on quarterly op-eds! The latest op-ed, Inheriting a Mess, was written by Durell Green, Teaching and Advancement Manager here at CHOOSE 180.
Read Durell’s article below, and check out our previous Real Change op-eds at the end.
Inheriting A Mess
Our collective community consciousness is suffering from an undiagnosed disorder due to the unprocessed and untreated trauma of gun violence. The impact is felt by all, regardless of ethnicity, gender, political party or any other identifier by which we divide ourselves. In these times, I’m sickened by the normalization of parents burying their children whose lives have tragically ended. My personal convictions have me feeling most compassionate toward our children, who inherited a mess. They are growing up in the shackles and restraints of this mental prison that the volatile concoction of poverty, loss, grief and fear has created.
You can’t escape the violence, inside or outside, when there are prisons everywhere.
My work takes me into the literal jails and prisons many of our children are housed in. I’ve spent countless hours with those who’ve felt the pain of hot lead penetrating their own bodies. Many nights I’ve tried to be a comforting presence to them while tears fall down their faces as they try to describe what it’s like to be left alive and mourning for their loved ones who have been gunned down. Often these are the same young people who society has decided are beyond reach because they have taken up arms and are willing to fight, whether in the name of self-defense or retaliation. As we go over reentry plans, I sound illogical to them as I suggest they shouldn’t get out and possess firearms to protect themselves.
Simple questions wind up being overly complex and confusing.
What’s the difference between victim and perpetrator when only a few variables separate what side of that line they each landed on? What is justice? Is true restoration even possible? How can young people feel safe and protected without a gun? Are the efforts of myself and others futile or making a difference? Why is it that society’s prescribed remedy for mental illness and gun violence is the same: incarceration? Is prison the answer? Wrestling with these thoughts, the grip I have on my own mental wellness can feel loose and in jeopardy. I know I am not alone.
As a Black male born in the ’80s who navigated his way through the school-to-prison pipeline and has seen every level of custody the Washington State Department of Corrections has to offer, I can admit today what I couldn’t back then: I needed help to address my mental health. As a man whose younger brother was diagnosed with severe mental illness as a young teen and is currently serving time in prison for gun violence that was probably committed in a state of psychosis, I can say that this topic is much more personal to me than I would like it to be. I am thankful we can openly bring up this topic in our communities now in the year 2025, but the stigma attached to asking for help, therapeutic services and medications is far from removed.
What are the tools for change and where can we find them?
Each new generation inherits not the tools equipping them to clean up but those to make it messier.
I am not qualified to medically diagnose the young people I interact with, but I know what kinds of mental illness I commonly see. Brains that are operating in fight-or-flight survival mode, with decisions heavily influenced by fear, are not healthy. Numbing yourself to emotion and getting accustomed to burying your feelings — along with your murdered peers — is not healthy. Self-medicating these unhealthy states of mind with weed, alcohol and other drugs only exacerbates the issues. Substance abuse is its own mental health issue aside from the epidemic of gun violence, and it can often be the catalyst to trigger more severe mental health problems.
Hearing gunshots and sirens constantly as you are trying to rest in the illusion of safety and peace in your home is not healthy for the mind. The culture and music is often filled with glorified messages of homicide and revenge, and again, this is not healthy for the mind. Sentencing these same minds to develop within the conditions of our institutions of mass incarceration most often leads to further mental deterioration, not rehabilitation. Older generations are impacted, too, as we imagine this same young, impressionable mind going to school with our children — bringing a gun. Thinking about this scenario leads to our own mental illness; we fear our own children.
In the interest of being solutions-oriented, I say we need to start here. We can’t help our children if we are afraid of them. It’s our fault that they don’t feel safe to begin with. If we don’t empower them to feel safe at home, at school or outside, young people have proven they will take protection into their own hands. We need to really listen to our young people and to start early and support them emotionally. The partnerships among families, schools, cultural groups, therapeutic services, government, community organizations and other social supports must be better no matter the cost, because right now it’s costing lives.
I encourage you to get involved. Volunteer your time. Donate your dollars. Educate yourself on the issues. Get your own mental health in order. Take care of and love your own children and households. Come to the realization that you are somewhere in proximity to this battlefield in our communities. Even the young people who haven’t been shot can visualize a potential person who would shoot them. Young people should just as easily be able to visualize a person who is there to support their growth and mental wellness. Your face should come to someone’s mind. The community should be the strong face of what stands in between our children and harm.
Read our previous op-eds!
Our Chief Executive Officer, Nneka Payne, wrote a moving op-ed titled: Our Youth Deserve Better. One of our incredible Advocacy program participants, Morning Large, wrote an op-ed titled: Youth Programs Matter.