Handcuffed

Handcuffed by this system and it isn’t right,

They didn’t stand a chance at this thing called life.

No hopes, no dreams, no vision their paralyzed,

Which ultimately leads to their demise.

Wouldn’t you hope they’d make,

A decision that’s more wise?

Graduate high school, go to college, and get a career that’ll make their family proud.

It’s the community, which is almost inhumanly impossible to ignore.

Many of these boys don’t commit crimes because their life is a bore.

What about the teen with 8 other siblings trying to help his mother survive?

It’s sad to think on the fact that he is no longer alive.

Kam was his name and he could have had a chance.

If he had only knew there was another way,

Programs that could help them get their lives in order,

So that he could be a kid and follow his own dreams.

Rap was his way out,

He just needed a better team.

However, it’s not as easy as it may seem.

I’ll share with you now about another teen named Kadeem.

He was born into a gang,

And expected to follow them the same.

It’s not what he wanted for his future,

But how could he choose and go against his own blood?

He gave up a passion in which he had so much love.

Writing was his outlet,

He could have been the next big thing.

These cells kept him safe,

Made him feel that he could believe.

He was released,

It wasn’t short after he went back to the streets.

His baby sister needed diapers,

His family had to eat.

One week later his family was planning a funeral that didn’t have to be.

He was handcuffed by this system and it wasn’t right.

Did you hear about the story of Malik White?

At a young age he was a good boy,

Played sports and obeyed his parents.

He had so much potential,

Natural born talent.

He dreamed of becoming an engineer and a football player on the side,

Too bad his dreams just couldn’t survive.

His innocence was taken from him,

not long after mom died.

After that his dad no longer wanted him around.

Forced to become a part of the system.

It wasn’t his fault,

But you couldn’t tell that to his mental.

His only outlet was to turn to drugs,

An addiction that he grew to love.

It made him feel exactly what he wanted,

Numb---

One day he felt like he didn’t have enough,

Messed up and took a little bit too much.

It’s tough.

If only he had someone to talk too,

He was in a real big slump.

But there was no turning back.

His life over,

Just like that.

Malik was handcuffed by this system,

And there is no way this could even be right.

When I hear these stories, I feel uneasy inside.

I wonder what more I can do to keep these boys alive?

But this system is just not made for them to survive.

To succeed, to be better than what society expects them to be.

It’s set up for failure,

Not enough people in position who cares.

This fight is much bigger than me and you,

If we band together there is no way we can use.

Kam, Kadeem, and Mailk didn’t do all things right.

And in no way am I justifying anything they did,

They just needed a chance to be a normal kid.

I charge you to think on this real hard,

Could they still be alive if there was something that we did?

We may have our own kids and are raising them to be great.

But could this have been easily one of yours?

Could you force your heart and mind to relate?

This is not just their parents or next of kin responsibility,

The whole community needs to respond to this.

Life is too short,

Even shorter for a teen to die.

We can’t keep burying these kids and watch their mother’s cry.

There is so much that we can do together.

The real question is, are we willing to try?

…. Handcuffed.