Can you hear me now?

This morning I had the privilege of hearing Senator Clinton speak in the City of Compton. The beautifully crafted sanctuary offered a warm and welcoming atmosphere to the former First Lady/Democratic hopeful. To be applauded are the clergymen who brought this event together. It's refreshing to know that Compton a.k.a. the "Hub City" is on the radar screen of the national community. Senator Clinton immediately established her understanding of the city's hallmark slogan "Birthing a New Compton" after receiving a gift package from Compton Mayor Eric Perrodin.

"King stood for economic justice" stated Senator Clinton. She spoke about the 95,000 homes in foreclosure in California alone and what she plans to do about it. She addressed the healthcare system, college tuition and the minimum wage. "Every child is precious" stated Senator Clinton and I certainly concur. She spoke about enacting a Comprehensive Youth Opportunity Agenda and universal Pre-k for all children. Once elected Senator Clinton said she would expand mentoring programs and develop private/public corporate relationships so inner city children can establish viable networks because ,according to her, seventy percent of jobs are based on interaction and networking - inner city children generally get little or none of both.

Preparing our youth for global competition and helping ex-offenders transition into sustainable careers are noble causes but what about the simple things? Verizon Wireless has a familiar slogan that they use in their commercials. The slogan is "Can you hear me now?" When the time for open forum came - it was announced that only clergy would be able to ask questions of the Senator. I didn't find anything wrong with that until a young hispanic middle school girl was asked to be seated after she took her place in line with the clergymen. Let me make it clear - Senator Clinton didn't ask the young girl to be seated - one of the ushers/moderators/clergy did. Can you hear me now? In my opinion, his actions were insensitive and untimely especially since the Senator spent a considerable amount of time addressing youth-related issues. Can you hear me now?

Students from Whaley Midle School attended the event and they didn't even get a chance to ask a question. This is preposterous! We say the children are our future but they didn't get a chance to speak today. Can you hear me now? On the brink of one of the most historic moments of the local and national political scene we did it again. We failed to properly acknowlegde our most prized posession "the youth." Can you hear me now? How much longer do we expect them to stay excited about being wall paper at our social-political events while we emasculate and invalidate their voices. Can you hear me now? Something is wrong. It's called perspective. They're the ones dodging bullets on the way home from school, peer pressure in class and stereotypical media portrayals not us. Like one of my colleauges put it - "the return on the investment when it comes to youth is not fast enough for some." Can you hear me now? Senator Clinton said children are precious - this is true.

Children are most precious when they speak. When they have the opportunity to express themselves. Even if they don't make sense - they still need to be heard. Can you hear me now?