It Takes a Village

Throughtout my life I have heard this phrase, “It takes a village” over and over again. When it comes to raising children it takes a village, but what happened to the village? When I was growing up on a military base, I belonged to my momma but asnwered to everyone’s momma. I had a village raising me. When my father retired from the military, I realized that the village was much smaller. I had church moms now, but they only saw me on Sundays and Wednesdays. I had some friends who moms treated me like family, but even that was only on occasion. I saw the village get smaller and smaller, and the troubles got bigger and bigger. With the rest of our family hours away from us, we were on our own.

Some cultures in the United States still have this village mentality. You go into a traditional black or hispanic community and you will find that no matter who you belonged to if one of the elders busted you doing something you weren’t supposed to you were in big trouble with everyone. It is also seen that teens in these culture groups do not have as high of suicide rates. These cultures, these people groups have kept their villages together to ensure that every single person was cared for. If you do not have it, then someone lets you borrow it; if you don’t know how to do it, then someone teaches you. A village is needed to bring together a generation of people that have been cast aside, and hopefully restore a great nation back to what it used to be.

Now, what about those who do not have a village? We see that the caucasian cultures have gotten away with their villages, and gave into electronic babysitting. Instead of having that support system in place, people have gone to isolating not only themselves since they can’t be bothered, but to also isolate their children. Caucasian teens have a higher suicide rate than the previously stated groups. The rates keeping growing simply, and never seem to want to end. Maybe it is time for this world to go back to the days of simplicity.

I miss the days where I was told to go outside and play. I miss the days when you could go down a neighborhood not fearing that the kids outside were messing with drugs or sex, but rather playing games and having adventures. I miss the days when it was safe for children to play outside, because no matter where you were there was a momma or daddy watching out for you.

It takes a village, but where did the village go?